Quote:
Originally Posted by sharpstick
Congrats on the elk Norm, looks like you will have some good eating this winter.
But I did find this comment a little contradicting in that you wish that the elk around you would LIVE long enough to get bigger but yet you shot a young elk. Nothing wrong with shooting a young elk and its perfectly legal but they will only get bigger and reach their full potential if you let them go, let them grow... I'm sure you realize that, just more of a practice what you preach comment.
At any rate, congrats to all successful hunters this fall and best of luck to everyone else.
Cheers,
SS
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Like gmx says, habitat destruction is a primary cause of low elk numbers. We just dont get the numbers that the southern heards have had a chance to get. I have hunted 350 class bulls around here, one was harvested, the other died of old age and i killed a 321" 7x7 a few years back. It is quite likely that there are a few more 300 class bulls locally but they are scarce.
They get hammered hard in the gun season, since we are so close to the city, and once rifle season opens there are guys everywhere, shooting everything that moves. This along with a strong native harvest, the numbers simply just dont seem to grow. Every now and then a big one show up though. Not like the prairie bulls though, or the bulls around the bases.
Recently i have been lucky enough to find, hunt and harvest boone and crockett class bull moose during archery season, so i now treat my elk tag as a freezer tag, and then hunt for a big bull moose. This is why i am willing to kill a raghorn bull or cow elk, just for freezer meat. So, "pracitice what you preach" - i guess its just a concious decision to fill the freezer because i can. The one small bull i kill is just one less that the weekend warriors or the natives will kill. This zone will never have big elk numbers ever again because of habitat loss and other factors. If i happen to find a big bull elk, i may decide to focus on that, but when there are 200 class bull moose to kill its hard to not go after them.
Norm