Passed up 2 bulls today, my bow wants something bigger than a 4x4 and a 3x3...Who else has passed up an opportunity like this? Am I an idiot for doing it?
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Passed up 2 bulls today, my bow wants something bigger than a 4x4 and a 3x3...Who else has passed up an opportunity like this? Am I an idiot for doing it?
I salute you for passing up the shot, I have been elk hunting for most of my life and still have yet to harvest one, I think at this point I would be happy for a 4x4.
Let's see, which would I rather have, elk meat in the freezer and on the grill for the next year or the glory of saying I passed on a 4x4 bull? Hmmm, tough choice.
Best of luck in your quest!
This year I'm all about filling a freezer so I don't care if its a bull or cow its falling to my arrow. I can't wait until tomorrow so I can finally get out and start my stalks.
Elk hunting isn't my thing. I used to hunt deer.
I've passed on nice bucks hoping for something better to come along and then didn't see anything else that season and wished maybe I would have taken the shot when I had it.
But, I've also waited and then taken a much nicer animal.
I have passed on deer before, but not elk!
My personal experience-
Simple dilemma.... meat hunters hunt females and don't worry about such silly things as how big it was. The meat is better quality and more abundant.
If you are hunting for a trophy, many of those folks don't even want the meat. They are just interested in something to hang on the wall.
This is from over 40 years of bug game hunting and guiding.
I also have a Pope and Young white tail buck out of New York State. Awesome rack...but nobody wanted to eat him....nasty!
I'm more in it for the meat, so with a bull tag I take the first I can get. 3x3 would be preferable, still young enough for the meat to be good but enough age to have a good amount. I prefer to grab doe or cow tags. Though I have yet to get an elk, the couple of does from around Meeker I harvested were good eats.
It's simple for me, I've got an either sex tag, so if either sex, as long as it's legal bull, and it gets in range, I'm shooting. My taste buds have a hard time telling what it was before I cut it up and cook it, so I'm not picky.