LAST EDITED ON Nov-18-07 AT 05:57PM (MST)[p]I shot a cow elk that was ear tagged and had a radio collar around it's neck. This was on a winter hunt in the Gallatin Canyon, near Big Sky, back in the 80's. This cow was HUGE, her body was the size of a mature bull, and she really stood out among the cows she was travelling with. We had to check her at the Gallatin Gateway check station and we learned quite a bit about her from Montana Game and Fish's records. She'd been ear-tagged 14 years earlier, as a calf, and was an elk that lived in Yellowstone much of her life, but migrated out during the winters. She's been radio collared at 4 years old, and the collar had quit working many years before I shot her, so Montana was glad to get their radio collar back, for sure. With her legs taken off at the knees and gutted, she weighed 462 poiunds, which is what we were told is about the average 6 pt. bull weighs that they've checked at the G.G. station over the years.
Here's the amazing part....the cow was pregnant. She had a bull fetus in her when we field dressed her. When we told the fish and game guys about that, they wanted the exact location of the gut pile and were hooking up the trailer with the snow machine to go get the fetus for study. They were amazed that a cow that old was able to conceive and carry a fetus.
She ate awful! It was like even her burger was tough and chewy.