The best elk to kill is a spike. The meat is tender and tasty. The animal is 1 1/2 year old, and has some size for to fill the freezer. I can write this opinion with confidence, because at one time when hunting with pardners we ate 3 or 4 different elk every year for several. In the years since we have eaten every type of elk imaginable. Those years when we had a butcher party after an elk kill, and split the meat evenly, between us, allowed our families to eat every elk killed that year including calf, through big old 6 point bull with 370 antler. Spike elk is good eating. The only thing that makes him better than the same age cow, is his size.

These days, i no longer am resident of Montana hunting elk. What i bring to the freezer is doe deer. Wife comments nearly every meal how good they taste, and how tender they chew. She used to bring home some rib eye beef steak she bought on sale for to eat. It has been years now since she has; she likes the doe rounds, and chops, and that says a lot.

Thinking about eating the goat meat makes me hungry. Now, i understand how/why Chet hunts them stinky old bucks. The family fall back on the good eating goat. My guess is they jerk the bucks, or make them into sausage.