Contributors to this thread:
This thread is geared to the guys who passed on the other 5x5 bull.
Our cameras got this pic last August in an OTC unit.
Is he big enough???
I'm picking my spot right now, just looking at the photo
If I can hold it together and make the shot...his antlers are coming back to England!!
I would of course be donating any and all venison to local charity etc
If you don't you're crazy. Or R. Hale.
I will pass again!! only because I'll be in the Elk woods about 12 weeks this year. :-)
Shoot in a heartbeat!! This will be my first year in the elk woods though lol
I'd pass. I will only shoot a bull that I would mount and that is a bull that his rack would go in the garage with other small racks. I would shoot a cow with him or hope that I was hunting with a friend or one of my kids and they would shoot him.
That bull may be right around the P&Y min of 260.
Dang, some of you guys must have some really good OTC units!
He looks about like all the other bulls I've shot in mine!
Best of Luck, Jeff
That bull's gonna net just under 260 IMO.
Same answer as the last thread. First tag of the season, shoot. Second tag of the season, pass.
This one would be very hard for me to pass. In an OTC unit I would shoot. In Wyoming where I'll be hunting this year I would pass, or try to but it might be too much temptation.
If I had 2 tags or if my buddy had already filled his tag and was waiting for me to fill my tag so we could move on to the next state/hunt I would shoot.
I agree that this one is very close to P&Y minimums. I don't care about entering them in the book but I already have a 285" and a 360" on the wall with no room for any more so not sure where I will put the next one... :^)
Based on one photo, not sure I can buy 260" on that bull?
i.e. If my minimum was 260" on that particulat hunt...pass.
I would shoot, but my biggest so far is a raghorn.
Agree with Matthewsman, I've been blessed with nice bulls and don't have room for another "garage bull"... PASS... I try to wade through bulls this size to get something in the 350 range... If he's not big enough to go in the house I'm passing. No disrespect though.
I'm not seeing 260 but in OR on an OTC unit he'd be getting killed. Last part of the hunt in NM or WY he'd also be getting shot.
depends on ones desired goal entering the season...If I am meat hunting which I usually am then its time to shoot. If and a big IF I was trophy hunting then I would pass. But I sure do like the taste of elk burger :)
I shoot., Horns will make a couple of antler risers and a lot of overlays and knife handles ect. That plus lots of great meat and I have learned that to pass on a bull like that usually means no elk that season.
God bless, Steve
Here is the way I look at it. There is 2 ways to answer this and they are both right in my eyes.
Now if I was on this bull I would shoot for sure because it would be my first bull and it would be a big accomplishment for me to get a bull like that for my first.
Now to all you guys that are saying that you would pass I can totally see where you are coming from also. For example lets say that was a picture of a whitetail deer of the same caliber here in the Midwest. I would be passing on him for sure. Reason is I've been hunting whitetails here in the Midwest for 20 plus years and have shot many deer and am at the point in my career that I like to shoot deer in 140" or better class. Meat wise I can shoot does. The pressure in my area is also very high and the chance of eating tag soup is always there but its a chance you take.
So those guys that are saying you'd pass on that bull I know exactly where you are coming from!
That's what makes the sport of bow hunting big game so awesome is that just when you get good at hunting one species you can go hunt another and feel like a rookie all over again.
Pass with a compound, maybe with a recurve? Im swinging for the fences this year!!!!!
I would shoot. And grin each time I smelled him cooking in my kitchen ! But I would shoot his old lady just as quick.
Annnnnnd......... he's dead! Grip n grin!
Barty, I'd be glad to be your local charity for the meat.
I'd shoot him, or the raghorn that came in ahead of him.
I have two big elk mounts, but can never have enough elk meat. Since bulls are bigger than cows, they have more meat.
No need in trying to make me guilty or small, guys, it's not going to work. My permit, my choice, my elk.
Pass I'm hoping for 330 or better this year.
Thanks Writer ;-)
I'm sure we all appreciate the need for bio-security, and whilst countless tons of meat is frozen and imported in to the UK, I would take the view 'better safe than sorry'; I'd certainly want to have eaten as much of his backstraps before I headed home, tho'...
Good luck and good hunting to all those hunting elk this season
For me I would be passing. I will not shoot another bull elk unless i am fairly sure he will go better than 350" and at minimum 340"
That's about a 220-230 bull. Not on the hit list for me in my normal hunting areas. However, that wasn't the question. If I spent the dough to go hunt Colorado in an OTC unit, you bet I'd take him home and enjoy every bit if it!
Kill him! He'll taste mighty fine.
I hope that someday I will have had enough elk hunting success to think about not shooting that bull. But I'm not there yet so I'm shooting.
Oregon, OTC, I gotta take him. Preferably my son is standing next to me and he takes him!
Well, I guess I could be off on my estimate of his score but it's hard to imagine a 6x6 that only scores 220... I'm talking gross.
I based my estimate partly on this CO OTC bull I killed that grosses 285"
And partly on this CO bull that a buddy killed that I believe he said grosses right around 260"
