Age this Bull

txhunter58

txhunter58

Long Time Member
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So I drew a mid season Utah elk tag last fall. Opened October 7 and the bulls were still rutting/ bugling. Great hunt that ended opening morning. Saw 2 shooters and decided I liked this one best. Mine is a 5x6 and the other was a 6x6 that prob would have scored better but I love mass. His first 2 mass scores on both sides were 7.5” and 6.5”. And he carried his mass out well. Didn’t have long enough growing season for the back end to match so he finished out right at 308”. I am 100% satisfied

He is by far the biggest bodied bull I have ever taken. Wish I had better pics of his body but he was lodged on a steep hillside and we had to quarter/bone him there. What you see is what I have.

How old is this bull?
 
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As he lay

IMG_0293.jpeg
 
Guys!?! Did I mention how big this bulls body was? Sorry I don’t have better pictures. But you can see his massive body. I am not standing far behind him. Just enough to clear the antlers. he is at least 75-100 lbs bigger than any bull I have killed. And his teeth showed some wear. And lastly, his rack weighs 32 lbs with just a skull plate.
 
It's nearly impossible to guess the age of an animal with the info you provided. Unless we had pictures of the bull's teeth it is a complete guess. Teeth aren't always accurate either, but they are typically a good indicator of age. He could be an old bull with smaller antlers, or he could be a young bull with a giant body.... who knows. But you're talking about a 4-5 year span that he could be in based on what you gave us.

We killed three deer one day a few years back. All 4 points. The smallest bodied buck was a fully mature 5-6 year old deer and he was about 75 pounds smaller than the 3 year old deer that was also killed. The biggest bodied buck was a 10+ year old deer, but he had a smaller rack then the 3 year old deer did.

So any guess on this bull between 4 and 8 years old could probably be correct.
 
Need to see the bottom jaw and teeth! otherwise its just a WAG. Somwhere between 4 and 10?

Its a great elk, just no way to answer your question without the lower jaw. YOUR guess, is literally as good as mine, and looks like youve probably seen a few more than me in your days;)
 
I couldn’t say his age, maybe 5 or so but he does have a big old horse head on him. Elk are no different than people. Some are just big.
 
txhunter58 said:
Going the wrong way

Last clue. Even the ranges people have given are not correct
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My guess is 12. First glance at the antlers seems young. But could be old and going down hill.

I found a rag bull years ago. But after looking at his teeth well he had none. All worn down to the gums. One front tooth had a hole it. My guess is that bull was near 18 or so years old
 
I guess I thought they would be declining in body size by that age. He acted like the “Bull the woods” and had 8 cows with him. Watched him follow them and bugle for about 5 min before he got into range. A memory that is forever etched in my mind.
 
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11 isn't really that old. Makes sense he'd have a huge body at that age. We had a bull come into the taxidermy shop I worked at in high school that was officially aged at 22 years old. by that time his body and antlers had gone way downhill, but at 11 years old a bull could be very healthy.

I killed a cow in wyoming in 2021 and she was 20 years old and had a calf. Her body condition was pretty rough and her calf was very small (neither would have made it through winter I don't think) but she was still kicking and doing her best.

The fall of 2012 a buddy of mine killed a giant bodied 383" bull and he was officially aged at 13.5 years old.

Most bulls probably don't live to be 11 years old with all the pressure these days, but he probably still had a few years before his body size started to go the opposite direction.
 
Not trying to hi jack your thread but is fun to guess. I just wanted to share the bull I was talking about. I had to dig for the old 4x6 photo from many years ago. But it was a wolf will. All back teeth were worn to the gums, pretty much useless for the bull. Front teeth some were missing and what crappy front teeth he had some had holes clean through

As you can see just a rag bull. Lot of regress. Makes ya wonder was he ever a 400 inch bull or maxed out much smaller. Would be neat to know what he looked like before he turned old.

20240314_201144.jpg
 
nfh said:
Not trying to hi jack your thread but is fun to guess. I just wanted to share the bull I was talking about. I had to dig for the old 4x6 photo from many years ago. But it was a wolf will. All back teeth were worn to the gums, pretty much useless for the bull. Front teeth some were missing and what crappy front teeth he had some had holes clean through

As you can see just a rag bull. Lot of regress. Makes ya wonder was he ever a 400 inch bull or maxed out much smaller. Would be neat to know what he looked like before he turned old.

View attachment 139970
Click to expand...
Makes you realize he found a great place to hide all those years.
 
He doesn’t look 11. Who aged him? Judg g just by looks if he were a nm bull I would call him 5 ish but no way to tell BT body size. Just like some people are bigger bodied than others regardless of age so are elk
 
nfh said:
Not trying to hi jack your thread but is fun to guess. I just wanted to share the bull I was talking about. I had to dig for the old 4x6 photo from many years ago. But it was a wolf will. All back teeth were worn to the gums, pretty much useless for the bull. Front teeth some were missing and what crappy front teeth he had some had holes clean through

As you can see just a rag bull. Lot of regress. Makes ya wonder was he ever a 400 inch bull or maxed out much smaller. Would be neat to know what he looked like before he turned old.

View attachment 139970
Click to expand...
I found this bull still alive a few years ago, but just barely he couldn't even lift his head. I called the dwr to see if they would let me end his misery but they wouldn't. Said they would send an officer to take care of it. I came back a few hours later and he was dead. The officer didn't make it until later that evening. He told me the bull was really old and barely had any teeth left. Figured that is what killed him.
Screenshot_20240316_002529_Facebook.jpg

Took some nagging but the officer did finally let me keep the horns a few months later. He's a 5 on one side with a 40" spike on the other. Sadly he skull capped it, I was really wanting to do a euro mount with it.
 
txhunter58 said:
I guess I thought they would be declining in body size by that age. He acted like the “Bull the woods” and had 8 cows with him. Watched him follow them and bugle for about 5 min before he got into range. A memory that is forever etched in my mind.
Click to expand...
Elk don’t peak until 11-12+ years old. They just don’t live long enough in most places to get there. He acted like the “bull of the woods” because he was. They won’t start declining until 13-15 years old.
 
LIK2HNT said:
Makes you realize he found a great place to hide all those years.
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If he was 11, (I won’t go there though) this is exactly the type of bull the mid season and increased tag numbers is designed to kill. They were finding that a lot of 5x’s and other bulls were getting passed by the traditional LE season structure so their age class was way up and the bulls that were getting killed were the 6-8 yr olds with the killer genetics. Now they’ll just kill them all when they’re 4-6 yrs old. More egalitarian that way I guess
 
Muleman said:
He doesn’t look 11. Who aged him? Judg g just by looks if he were a nm bull I would call him 5 ish but no way to tell BT body size. Just like some people are bigger bodied than others regardless of age so are elk
Click to expand...

He surprised me too! But I sent 2 incisor teeth in the Utah fish and game. They provided an envelope to mail them in.

The teeth were not worn to the gums but def showed considerable wear. I knew he was a mature+ bull from his teeth. The next older bull I kill, I will know to include a pic of his teeth.
 
JakeH said:
I found this bull still alive a few years ago, but just barely he couldn't even lift his head. I called the dwr to see if they would let me end his misery but they wouldn't. Said they would send an officer to take care of it. I came back a few hours later and he was dead. The officer didn't make it until later that evening. He told me the bull was really old and barely had any teeth left. Figured that is what killed him.
View attachment 140100
Took some nagging but the officer did finally let me keep the horns a few months later. He's a 5 on one side with a 40" spike on the other. Sadly he skull capped it, I was really wanting to do a euro mount with it.
Click to expand...
I would think a euro with a bullet hole would be pretty cool. One of about 3 things I remember from the Smithsonian is a human skull with a bullet hole.
 
Same unit as slam, last year mid season. My daughters bull on day three of her hunt and she was very happy with her first elk hunt and first bull. The hunt was exactly with we thought it would be as an opportunity hunt. Age data had her bull at a four year old and that is where I had it for my guess before the age data was posted. It was an amazing day on the mountain with my daughter. She made a great shot and packed out three loaded of meat along side of me. I have seen pictures of guys with 380” bulls smiling less in pictures than my daughter is in her pictures. Inches are not everything. Have fun.

044B6347-2D00-4851-82ED-734840BC531C.jpeg
 
Tikka said:
We really need to see the “bases” to actually see if this bull was old or not
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Yep wish the wife took a pic of it:/ but she was jonce she got her ivory out with help of the taxi she was like I’m done and heading to the jeweler. And this was the only pic she sent me skinned. I only know it’s 5 because we watched it for 5 years and it decreased down to what it was. It never was a true great bull for the area but it was always a fun to see when out visiting friends on his property.
 

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