Thought some might be interested. My neighbor was out blue grouse hunting and came across this elk kill, from last year, we'd guess. No idea if this was a archer/hunter failure to recover, or wolf or lion kill, or just old age death. It was at a high elevation that wouldn't be winter kill (not on wintering range), unless the bull just didn't have enough strength to make it out after rut.

It's bleached quite a bit, and some calcium-seeking varmints got a few nibbles in, but the rack is just massive, and the #1's are really impressive.





Wish I could see one of these when I hold a bull tag!

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Nice set of horns Shawn, sure wish I could see more like that running around up in this part of the state.

One of the folks that lives nearby got an elk tag for the early hunt that lets you shoot a cow within a mile of tilled ground on private property in August. They shot a nice cow one evening and instead of going over and making sure it was down left and came back the next day. They were pretty sure it was hit, but didn't take the trouble to check it and mark it.

The next day they couldn't find it. Sure hate to see meat wasted simply because they didn't take the trouble to locate it before they left. These are folks that moved in from out of state and from what I can see simply don't understand hunting ethics.

As hot as it was it should have at least been gutted and opened up to air out. Heck I suspect that even leaving it overnight in the temps we had then would let it spoil.

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Bob from Idaho

Bob,
I got involved in a similar effort just recently, although with a happier ending. A spike-only hunt (one week long season) was the setting, and the shooter made a bad hit at 350 yards and tracked the elk to dark, and the hunter had the wisdom to mark the last spot the elk was seen with his orange hat. Next morning, we took up the track and found the dead elk about 1/2 mile farther from the hat.

We parted that elk from the outside - no gutting. That would have involved some retching if we'd gutted it. The tenderloins were given up as lost inside the body heat. There was a creek nearby, so the shoulders and hind quarters were placed in the creek to cool. Back at home base, the meat was removed from the bones and it appears it was all still good with the shooter being the 'tester' and cooking some steaks from it. He didn't die, but he somewhat felt like it before that.

I've never lost any meat - other than some pieces from an overnight black bear visit ripping into quarter bag sacks - and I hope to never have to experience that, but sometimes bad things happen. Some people, however, don't respect the animal and the hunting experience enough to do all they can to recover the animal when things go bad. I hope those people get flushed out of the hunting community.

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WOW, how did I miss this post?
I must have been hunting!!
What a find, did you have it scored?

Beautiful Rack!!!! I personally have never seen anything like that, I live in N.C.. I could see why people make bad shots on thos things. Just the site of one would make your knees knock together,, WOW...
I don't let deer meat lay over nite,,, I find the animal.. But I guess those things are a different story....

Shawn, you need to have that one scored. I don't much about Elk but I'm thinking 375.
Have a contest and the closest guess wins $500 paid by you!

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Throw another log on the fire

That is impressive Shawn. Well worth keeping as a garage hanger yto asay the least.

By the way! Where's the snow piles??!?

RJ

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My neighbor hasn't scored it, and likely won't. I may take a B&C sheet over to him to see if he wants to do it, as I am curious, but I'd guess - agreeing with tpv - at 375-ish. He's going to clean the skull up a bit, and hang it in his house.

We got plenty of snow RJ, but it's melted/settled back quite a bit. Maybe 2 ft settled on the level. We're in the 80-90% of 'normal' category, so we need more.

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Great find Shawn. You mentioned B&C sheets in your post. Do you know how to measure and arrive at the score for a Sindh Ibex? I have been trying to find out. The only thing I knew was to measure the lenth of the horns. Please do provide some guidance in measuring.

Naveed

Naveed, check out pages 49-53 of this guide

http://www.cic-wildlife.org/uploads/media/red_book.pdf

Thx 12k. I looked at both B&C and SCI and couldn't locate the measuring method. Let us know what you get Naveed.

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