Field Judging Elk

[KBF]

I have been fortunate enough this year to draw a late season tag in WMU 300 and am looking forward to it. I do not know a whole lot about judging beam length on a bull. Just as a guess what would the distance be from base of horn to even with the middle of the front shoulder on a bull? I've never taken an elk before, Im not holding out for a giant because they are hard to come by and it looks like the early season guys are getting that done from the pics Ive seen. Just looking for a good respectable bull. All help appreciated.Whats that length?

[Rackmastr]

I've never made my 'field guesses' by knowing a reference measurement, length of ear, measurement of face, measurement to shoulder, etc.

I usually look at the entire animal, look at every aspect of an animal, and judge them overall. I'd say I can usually judge an elk with in 10-15" which is good enough for me.

In WMU 300, most elk have very short '3rd' points and this will hurt overall score. This is one spot I look at usually on elk, and then look at the 5th point (right after the sword). Usually another area that a bull can be weak. After that, look at the distance between the 4th point and the end of the main beam and you want that to be a nice stretched out length.

The 'small details' usually include width, mass, and fronts.

I'm all for shooting an elk based on scores if thats what a person wants, but usually what it comes down to me is how the elk looks overall. I looked at my bull for about 15 seconds before I shot him and he had everything I wanted. Two hours previous I spent 20-40 minutes behind a spotting scope analyzing a bull that would have been in the 330-340 range. I figured if I had to analyze that long that he wasnt quite what I wanted....

Good luck out there!!!