Hunting & Fishing "Amazon Girl"

[DetroitRearView]

This is a few years old, but we just had her for dinner again tonight - it reminded me of HOW BIG this old sentinel cow Elk was compared to others I have harvested over the years. As you know, if hunters want to make their critter look bigger than life, they pose a good distance behind the animal. I am in front of her and at 6'5" 240, she makes me look like a kid. She was huge, but eats great...

 

[OH58DViper]

Usually only hunt whitetail, how many lbs of meat does a big girl like that usually yield?

 

[DetroitRearView]

I don't recall her boned out weight, but Elk yield about 35% of the gross animal weight. So, somewhere between 150-300 pounds for Rocky Mountain Elk. Some big Roosevelt bulls will go 800 plus on the hoof.

I have harvested 12-15 cows and she is by far the biggest, bulls are normally quite a bit bigger. I am sure this gal gave us over 200 pounds in the freezer.

 

[bogeybrown]

Dayyyum!!! At first glance I'd have thought that was a moose. Did you have a sense of how big she was before you took her?

 

[DetroitRearView]

She was the nearest sentinel in a herd of about 400. We first spotted them 2 miles out just south of where I live in a wide open area. We closed the distance to a 1000 yards without being seen, however as my buddy and I were belly crawling to get closer we spooked a calf that had wandered in our direction that we missed. The herd alerted and began to move off. This girl was standing alone on the outside of the herd and was the closest cow @ 709 yards, so poked her with the AXMC 338 in the neck.

I knew she was mature but really had no idea just how big she was until we walked up to her. It was BLM, so my buddy retrieved his 4 wheeler from the ranch and we took her in whole. Folks came in from all over to look at her before I cut her up, everyone said that it was the largest cow elk that they have ever seen.

They guys and I had a little fun later on...

 

[bogeybrown]

Thanks for that. I was just trying to wrap my head around seeing an animal of that size from a ways off and wondering if I'd even be able to gauge how huge it really was. Without other animals nearby to give reference I imagined it being a pretty badass surprise walking up on her.
Magnificent animal. Did FWS or anyone get in touch to document her or whatever?

 

[DetroitRearView]

Yes, we were quite surprised when we walked up to her, she was bigger than some young bulls I have taken. I cut her up that evening, so G&F never saw her, except for pictures.

A local outfitter did come by to look at her before I carved her up and said she was the was the biggest cow he had ever seen. There were a lot of photos taken, then we called it a day.