What do you think of this bull?

elkhunterUT

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I have quite a few trail cam pics of this bull-he has one of the largest bodies (huge gut and butt) that I have ever seen on an elk and I think it may skew the size of his antlers. What do you all think? Just for fun, what do you think he scores? He has a 2-3” cheater off of his left side G4 so he is a 7x7.
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345? I don't think he will even break the 330 mark. Good mass but his points looks way to short. The 3rd , 4th, 5th all look to be under 10 inches. Kill him then let ys know. ?
 
345? I don't think he will even break the 330 mark. Good mass but his points looks way to short. The 3rd , 4th, 5th all look to be under 10 inches. Kill him then let ys know. ?

I agree his points "look" short, but his mass is off the charts, so it could be a little deceptive. I think he is closer to 345 than 330, but that is a pure guess, as is yours so can't fault anybody for that :)

I've got some bigger bulls found, but they have to make it through the archery and early rifle hunts so I am crossing fingers, but this bull is a contender for the hit list. Can't wait for September 21st!!
 
I am sticking with my 345 estimate. He is a big heavy bull with great mass. I am guessing that his typcial frame put him in the high 330's and the extras push him to 345. But I have certainly been wrong before!

Hawkeye
 
I would be very surprised if that bull broke 335.
I'm guessing 315-325 gross. Not even close to 350. Short beam, short points everywhere, 36 inside spread.
Big body just didn't have the genetics IMO.
13,13,9,14,10,3,47=109x2= 218
Mass 52
Inside spread 36
Total 306 Might even be closer.
Great archery bull.
 
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Just about any tag anywhere, I'm slinging an arrow opening day !!!

Scores be damned, he's a cool looking bull and after all, it's about the hunt and not the score. When you can find a cool one, then hunt him and pile him up, there's nothing like it. The score just ruins the amazing that all that can be. Just hate it when the score is how we end up judging a hunt whether we like it or not. If you never put a tape to him, you're only value is in what really counted in the first place. Tape measures are an evil thing if you ask me when it comes to elk :)

Just my $0.02

Cheers,
Pete
 
I would be very surprised if that bull broke 335.
I'm guessing 315-325 gross. Not even close to 350. Short beam, short points everywhere, 36 inside spread.
Big body just didn't have the genetics IMO.
13,13,9,14,10,3,47=109x2= 218
Mass 52
Inside spread 36
Total 306 Might even be closer.
Great archery bull.
You’re way off. 306? You’ve gotta be kidding! 340ish and counting!
 
I will agree with huntin50. Great bull but he really lacks length in his tines. Great mass weak fronts his fourths are smaller than his thirds.

Compare it to the bull posted by Ortega, great fronts giant thirds, his fourths are good but small compared to his thirds. He'll his right side 5th is longer than any time on the original bull posted.

If it gets you jazzed up my friend, I would be trying to out my tag on him.
 
Nice looking bull and he’s sturdy for sure. Decent mass (not as heavy as the velvet makes it appear) average beams but short tine length. I don’t think he’ll break 320 by much if at all but maybe, with that extra on the right.
 
I am with horsecreek on this one. Its about 13 inches from eye to nose tip, about 15 from burr to nose tip.....most of those times are 13-15 inches, beams look to b about 45".....if that is CO, I would drop him!
 
801
I'm not an official scorer. I have help officially score some elk. Look at the above info from elk101. It's a nice bull. Not as heavy as he looks when he is rubbed. He is a fine archery bull. I agree with many, score doesn't mean much, it is the hunt experience and memories. I would bet money this bull will score closer to 310 than 340. I wish elkhunter Ut success..
 
He looks bigger.

I forgot about this thread-I actually ended up killing this bull on my hunt. Cracks me up to see some of the guesses on here and how low some guys were. I knew the bull had a HUGE body and his mass made his tines look smaller than they actually were. Trail cam pics can be deceiving and bulls almost always look smaller in trail cam pics than they actually are.

Any new guesses on score now with these pictures below from different angles?

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Ha, what a toad !!!

Did you actually measure him? Hate to admit it, I measured one against my own words of wisdom recently too :)

Congrats again, he's one hey of a trophy regardless

Cheers, Pete
 
It’s so fun to look back at the 300”-ish score-guesses and chuckle.
Now tell us what he roughs and thrill us.
Huge congrats to you on a toad of a trophy bull.
Zeke
 
Guesses are much closer now with the harvest pics. The bull scored 354 2/8".

A good lesson to take forward for scoring on the hoof and especially from trail camera pictures (especially for the guys scoring this bull under 320 :ROFLMAO:) - mass and body size can definitely make antlers look smaller than they are. This bull had the biggest head and body I have personally ever seen on a bull. In fact, when I walked up to him his antlers did not seem all that big. Once I had the antlers away from his body, the actual size set in a bit more.
 
Congrats! I was way low. I had no idea he carried 60 inches of mass. The velvet pictures made him look to have short tines. The kill pictures look like he is a different bull for sure. Glad you were able to get him.
 
Completely agree Stu on the water displacement approach to give credit for all the antler grown by the animal! On the mass measurements for my bull, he had circumference measurements over 10" at one point between the 3rd and 4th tines, but you have to take the smallest circumference so he only gets a 7" credit.

I fully support giving the animal credit for everything he grew!

Your bull is awesome as well - beautiful, big bull!!
 
Such a sweet bull. I have to put my hands on a bull and stare at them for like 10 min and then I can usually guess pretty close. I haven't found a bull yet that will let me do that before shooting them ?
 
Such a sweet bull. I have to put my hands on a bull and stare at them for like 10 min and then I can usually guess pretty close. I haven't found a bull yet that will let me do that before shooting them ?
Ha ha - I haven't had one hold still enough yet either before shooting them. Score doesn't really matter any way. Enjoy the hunt and the bull for what it is-that's what really matters!
 
Underscoring makes you look just as incompetent as over scoring. 320 haha.

Scoring, especially from trail cam pics can be really hard. It never ceases to amaze me on these “guess the score” threads exactly how indignant people get about people guessing higher scores than they do. It wasn’t too bad on this thread, but you can sense the sentiment here still. The score police who are so firm in their low scores are usually wrong too, I find. Ironic, for sure, based upon how strongly they come at people.

I mean, people missed on this bull by over fifth inches. FIFTY! I don’t know that I’ve ever seen people over-guessing by 50 inches on these threads. But maybe?

He’s a fantastic bull, no matter what the final number reads. Unique character too. Congrats on an awesome bull.
 
That's a great bull. But even with the extra photos I think it's a deceiver. Possibly the heavy tine mass makes them look shorter than they are. Just difficult to judge from a photo.
 
Nice bull! Archery hunt? Any details about the moments leading up to laying hands on him? I like to live through others successes...
 
Nice bull! Archery hunt? Any details about the moments leading up to laying hands on him? I like to live through others successes...

Muzzleloader bull-I did a full semi-live thread here during my hunt at this link if you want to check it out:
 
Scoring, especially from trail cam pics can be really hard. It never ceases to amaze me on these “guess the score” threads exactly how indignant people get about people guessing higher scores than they do. It wasn’t too bad on this thread, but you can sense the sentiment here still. The score police who are so firm in their low scores are usually wrong too, I find. Ironic, for sure, based upon how strongly they come at people.

I mean, people missed on this bull by over fifth inches. FIFTY! I don’t know that I’ve ever seen people over-guessing by 50 inches on these threads. But maybe?

He’s a fantastic bull, no matter what the final number reads. Unique character too. Congrats on an awesome bull.
On those posts usually you want to be right in the middle, to slightly above the middle of what the highest and lowest score guesses are. There will always be more guys calling it way low so you don't want to do an average, just take the lowest and the highest (within reason) guess and go right in the middle. LOL

Its funny, a buddy posted up his buck on one of the Muledeer FB pages and just stated what it scored, didn't ask for anyone to guess and you would have thought he was the most awful person around, so many guys telling him there was no way it was as big as he said. The buck scored 204 and there was guys dead serious saying it was maybe a 160 buck LOL
 
JakeH, it’s kind of disgraceful. This website is the worst place for it I’ve seen. I’m around in various places and there is a segment here on MM that I’d worse with this than any other place.

And it’s not just that they guess WAY too low, they are really jerks about it a lot of times. They come hard at those that are actually way closer to the real score than they are. I mean, it’s just a forum and it’s just a guessing game. There is really nothing on the line in these threads, so not sure why the backlash. When you overtly mock people for their guesses, and then end up being wrong, you don’t carry much credibility. I just don’t know why this forum breeds this behavior more than other places?

Oh well. Merry Christmas everyone.
 
People seem to guess low so they will be taken more Seriously when they say they saw a "BIG BULL". I mean if this is a 300 bull in some guys eyes, when they say 370 then we all know its a 420 incher, and in some weird way they feel like a more serious hunter. When I say Big Bull I mean it...
 
I forgot about this thread-I actually ended up killing this bull on my hunt. Cracks me up to see some of the guesses on here and how low some guys were. I knew the bull had a HUGE body and his mass made his tines look smaller than they actually were. Trail cam pics can be deceiving and bulls almost always look smaller in trail cam pics than they actually are.

Any new guesses on score now with these pictures below from different angles?

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Holy hell that’s a great bull palmated on the rear he has it all! Looks huge too, how much meat did you pull off him?
 
Holy hell that’s a great bull palmated on the rear he has it all! Looks huge too, how much meat did you pull off him?
Thanks! He had an huge head and body and he ended up being 13 years old (officially tooth aged). I did a euro mount of the bull and I still can’t believe how big his skull is next to other elk.

I don’t remember how many pounds of meat I ended up with, but I still have a little bit left in my freezer?

This was one of my all time favorite hunts. Scouted over 25 days leading up to my hunt and looked over hundreds of bulls. I found this bull in late July and he was high on my hit list. I found him again the Saturday and Sunday before my hunt opened with 35+ cows and killed him Monday morning at first light very close to where I saw him last the day before. They don’t always turn out that well, but this one certainly did!
 

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