First Elk! :)
 

Hey....I just shot this elk cow last weekend. She's a big girl. About 400lbs. How much meat do you think I'll get from her? This was an exciting hunt. I won't forget this one!

I would think 150-200. Where did you get her?

That's some good eating there enjoy!

What season is open now?

Judging from his other posts and the background of the pictures he's posting, it looks like he's hunting a high-fenced Texas ranch that specializes in exotics!!! PS: Elk are considered exotics down there, just like Blackbucks, Aoudad, etc.

I have always hear aprox 50% of live weight. Here is what a butcher link says:

With an average market (live or on hoof) weight of 1,150 lbs and the average yield of 62.2%, the typical steer will produce a 715 lb. (dressed weight) carcass.

The dressed beef (or carcass) will yield approximately 569 lbs. (further details below) of red meat and trim (take home meat - which includes the average weight of 27 lbs of variety meat: liver, heart, tongue, tripe, sweetbreads and brains) and 146 lbs of fat, bone and loss. This is roughly a yield of 80% from the dressed or hanging weight - this is for a VERY LEAN Beef. A High Quality, USDA Choice Beef will yield approximately 70% of the Hanging or Dressed Weight. The yield on the take home meat weight from the live weight of the (VERY LEAN) steer is approximately 50%.

However, that is for grain fed beef. On deer/elk on native range that may not be quite as fat, you can probably figure slightly less than that.

400lbs is not big............just sayin....looks more like a yearling!!!!

Everything I want to post right now, would get me banned. You must be a REAL PROUD HUNTER! WTF!

Posting about high fences will get you banned or your choice of language is what you are worried about?

One can only assume there is a legal season right now somewhere for elk hunting. If not there will be plenty of meat to feed everyone in the cell with you.

I always figure about half of what the thing weighed while it was alive. Looks like a pretty small elk...so maybe 150-180 lb. of packaged meat.

Canned hunting is not looked favorably upon by probably 95% of the HNI members. To some, especially inexperienced outdoorsmen, it may seem like an easy way to bag an animal. Often times those views change when the person finds out for himself that true hunting is fair chase. A little pressure and education by the hunting community can help speed along that thought through forums like this one. Let's hope everyone comes to that conclusion sooner than later.

Well said Islander. I am against it. I will never be in a fenced or canned hunt. I have no idea what the legality of hunting Elk in an exotic fenced area is. I am sure they got to be "legal" or they would be shut down pretty quickly. So the guy may be legal but maybe not what some may call ethical. But lets not jump to conclusion. As far as most of us know there is no legal season open at this time. However I found out this spring in Oklahoma some farmers can get deprovation permits to kill nuisence Elk and Deer on their land. They can also allow other people to help. It is Feb 1 to June 1 and you can take a cows and does only. So maybe he knows a farmer that let him take one. So in the court of public opinion we should wait to see what he says.

The San Luis Valley in Colorado has a summer season for elk along the Rio Grande River. Units 791 and 682 are a no tolerance units for elk. Which I think is crap but you got all the farmers and ranchers complaining about elk eating their food therefore they get to slaughter elk for the better part of the year. I have been personally against this since the beginning. If they want the elk to stop inhabiting private ranches maybe they should stop hunting them so long in the mountains and take some of the pressure off them. Just my 2 cents.

400 pounds...so is that 380 for the cow and 20 for the calf? Must have been a two for one sale. It never ceases to amaze me the stuff that some people will brag about.

Well AK jeff most cows that are hunted in the fall are pregnant.....as the most hunts are after the rut!!! does this mean you look down yer nose at all hunters that take cows????

There's a word of difference between shooting a cow that has been impregnated for a couple of weeks and shooting one in June that likely has a calf hiding in the grass that's sure to starve to death now. Do I look down my nose at the latter situation...you bet your ass I do.

Cow hunters have no balls!!!!! LMAO LOL HAHA

In Kerr County Texas.

I'm in Texas, so there's no season on non-indigenous animals.

That's right. They're exotics here. No closed season. This ranch was 3000 acres and they have all the species you mentioned. I usually go home empty handed since it's a large area to stalk. but this time it was a win. I'm recently unemployed and I'm going to focus on school now and not get another job, so this will give me meat for a while.

haha. 400lbs is big enough for me. I'm only shooting for meat right now. Need to fill the freezer because I'm about to run out of money. ;)

Geez....Why do people get so angry? Yes it's legal. I'm not a poacher! In Texas, there is no "season" for elk. It is all year every year if they are available! My friend lets them breed on his 3000 acre ranch. They are not as good as up north, but it's elk!

Everything I want to say to YOU right now would get me banned! WTF!!! Did you bother to ask any questions before you came to your uninformed conclusion?????? Idiot! Perhaps I don't have the restrictions you have in Colorado BECAUSE I'M NOT IN COLORADO! Think before you speak! PLEASE!!!!! I have no animosity toward you, but you can't just spout out like that without knowing the details. I can hunt elk year round where I'm at. You might not like it, but it's the way it is. I apologize if that response angered anyone. That's not my intent.

Good luck with school! Hope the elk meat is good!

You have to understand that most people on here don't like high fenced hunts no matter how big the place. I think the words "it was an exciting hunt" together with the high fence will bring the pruists out every time. Had you been up front that you harvested a "captive" animal for meat you would not have had near as much resistance. Certainly on 3000 acres, the animal has some advantages, but they are not free ranging. That is why Boone and Crockett (Pope and Young) won't recognize animals taken behind a high fence.

I live in Kerr County, Texas too, so I know this type of "hunt" is common in this area, but you have to realize that most of the people on big game forums are for lack of a better term "real elk hunters". I don't hunt on a high fenced ranch, but take exotics (axis, blackbuck, feral hogs, etc) quite often for meat from our family's ranch. Not much real hunting, but they are fun and produce excellent food! So, you can either learn the lingo and be upfront with taking a meat animal, or get the wrath of hunters on forums like this.

I do wonder though about the point brought up about the possibility of a young calf being orphaned this time of year. Many elk would have dropped their calves by now. Are you sure this was not the case? I hunt axis and it is extemely frustrating because they breed year round like a cow. It is rare that I ever kill one that is not pregnant. And I killed one in mid December one year and was gutting her as her fawn jumped up and ran off. He was probably 2 weeks old! Talk about feeling bad! However, if you hunt axis does, there is nothing else you can do because they drop fawns every month of the year.

Hope some of my ramblings make sense. Good luck in school and job "hunting"!

Yummy! Good Job.