Congratulations! I took a smallish 4x3 bull opening day of the 1st rifle season in Colorado, my first elk ever. What brand rifle is your .338 Winchester Magnum? I am attracted to this cartridge and muse about buying one of these someday. My .30-06 shooting 180 grain bullets dispatched my bull pretty handily, but then the range was less than 100 yards maybe less than 70 yards.
There was snow on the ground where we were hunting, but not much. We had significant snow on Tuesday -- about 6" to 8" -- at our camp at 11,300' elevation. The snow started about 2 AM.
I cooked a tenderloin from my elk last Sunday evening. Everyone in my family and a friend of my 13 year old youngest daughter liked it very much. It was as tender as the best restaurant fillet mignon I have ever eaten, and the flavor was very good also. Tonight I am braising an elk roast. I'll be interested to see how that turns out. I field dressed, skinned, quartered, and butchered all of my elk meat myself. The meat was well cared for and was cooled reasonably quickly.