Your Idea of the perfect bull elk

[boneaddict]

[Dark2Dark]

I love good symmetry on a bull.

For Rockies, I'm hoping to one day shoot a nice typical 7x7.

For Roosevelts, my perfect bull elk has black horns and ivory tips and it would be great if he was a 5x5 or 6x6. I am probably hunting in the wrong areas. I have seen two in my days- one where it was two dark to count three points (and his dark horns didn't help) and so I shot a smaller, light colored antlered bull in the same herd. Then the dark one hung around to rub it in that he was legal and my dream bull. And another bull that should have been on my wall but my muzzleloader failed to go off not once, but twice.

I shot a Rocky Mountain this year that would have been darn near perfection, but his main beam was snapped off after his fourth on one side.

[Fletch]

Im non-discriminatory  whichever one is in my line of site is good enough! Something about a heavy long tined 6 though that makes the heart beat.

[vandeman17]

My answer depends on unit and season. Catch me in central wa in September with a general tag and that spike sure looks amazing.

In an any bull unit, I like a clean 6 with nice long fronts, good whale tales and ivory tips

[boneaddict]

I’m getting old and fat. I should have put one that’s in the freezer, not six miles still in. 

[pianoman9701]

A mature 5 with a nice big spread is my dream bull.

[Buckjunkie]

If you ever visit Cabelas in Lehi Utah, go look at the spider bull. It’s impressive, BUT, turn 180 and look at the giant 402” 6x6. Way more impressive IMO. 60” beams and long points.

My preference is for symmetrical typicals, but I will shoot anything if it’s big on a good tag and anything on a general tag.

[Kingofthemountain83]

2008 I drew a muzzy quality any bull in Cowichie... Scouting 3 days before the season We got to our lookout and spot a bull that looked huge... Thousands of yards away... As he and his herd of 38 cow got closer with the sun glinting off his antlers coming out of the aspens it was just perfect... He was easily over 400", clean six... Every tine was incredibly long, mass was unreal, widest bull I've ever seen, main beams took his rack to his rear when he lifted his head... Perfect Six is what we named him... Kept an eye on him for those 3 days... He stayed in a drainage on two sides of a creek... They never got closer than 1 1/2 miles to a green dot road from what I saw... No am or pm pattern that I noticed in short time frame... I stalked in on the herd opening day out of pure luck... They were spread out on a steep sage hill feeding late into the overcast morning at 8:34am... It was cooler but you couldn't see your breath... Steady light breeze in my face... I got to the edge of the timber... There were cows spread out from 25 yards to 500+ with Perfect Six being 303 yards, in the midst of the herd... Looked like he picked up more cows... Had about 50 now... Head down but unmistable rack sticking up... No shot... We watched and listened to the cows talk and him bugle and breed a couple cows until 10:23am when the wind swirled and the herd cleared out to never be seen by us again... While they're stampeding away my dad turns to me and says, "this is the best hunt I've ever been on"... I said, "me too"... Think they ran to the res... He would respond to bugles by bugling on top of me and I'd challenge him by doing the same... I'd rake a tree with a branch, kick rocks down the hill, bugle up a ruckus... He's just lift his head and stare... Waiting for the challenger to show himself... He knew he was king... Wouldn't even respond to our cow calls, there was so much of that going on you couldn't tell which one was doing it... Sounded like an orchestra of mews and chirps! Closest he got was 234 yards... Staring at me shot... I was rock solid but uncomfortable with the range... I had practice out to 200 which was a very long shot for me... I don't replay this through my mind as often as I did years ago... But still do from occasionally... Will never forget the Perfect Six!

[b23]

For me the perfect bull would be symmetrical, wide, heavy horned with long curved main beam and long tines.  Something 5x5 - 7x7 but with the right proportions.  One that has the right ratio of all of those things would be the "perfect" bull to me.

[mr.ktm95]

Dark horns, ivory tips. Mature and body like a horse

[Mtnwalker]

Dark horns, ivory tips. Mature and body like a horse

  thats what gets me. Dark antlers, ivory tips and mass. Obviously mass with tine length is the ultimate. One of my weird quirks with elk is I don't like "swoopy" main beams where they sag or swoop up and down between each tine. This would never stop me from killing a given bull but if we're designing perfection here it'd be on my list 

[Pathfinder101]

The perfect bull elk... is one just a little bigger than the biggest one I've ever shot...

That one you pictured will do just fine...

[Falcon]

I like dark reddish Roosevelt horns with mass and ivory tips.   I’ll pick mass over length any day 

[JakeLand]

Trashy Roosevelt Bull gets me

[link]

There was a big bull on the refuge at Jackson hole a few years ago. They called him Brutus. To me, that was the perfect bull. Huge frame.

[SkookumHntr]

-My favorite are the Royal 7x7, I have 2 on my wall, I hope one day to get a third! 

[huntnnw]

thats a tough one...Im equally torn over a huge clean typical or a heavy trashy non typical

[deerlick]

1x6 all day, until a 1x7 shows itself

[kentrek]

A clean rocky 6x6 north of 400
A trashy rossie north of 320

Idk if il ever have a tag with the potential for a clean 6 of the caliber but a guy can try

[carpsniperg2]

Lots of clean typical bulls. Give me a trashy heavy horned bull any day of the year!

[link]

Brutus. Giant framed typical, I'll give him a pass for being a 6x7. 62" wide. Pics are different years.

[Okanagan]

In my eyes, a huge symmetrical 5x5 makes the most perfect elk rack of all.  My grandson has a massive 5x5 Roosevelt well up in Pope & Young.  I watched a huge 5x5 in north western B.C. one time, one that got bigger with every tine on the way up till the 4/5 fork was astounding in how wide it was from tip to tip.  What a bull!  Much more impressive than 6x6 etc. bulls nearby.

I've seen some huge bulls in the parks of the Canadian Rockies, 6x6, 7x7 etc., and my family has 7 book bulls, but the single most dramatic rack I've seen in my life was a 5x6 near Banff.  It was enormous, and webbed in the upper forks to make a striated blade on both sides. It had a wave curve on both sides where the 5th tine should emerge but it was absent on one side, to make the long top tine the fifth.  What a bull!

Elk are magnificent, beautiful colors and dramatic antlers.

[EnglishSetter]

I'm gonna say a freshly dead one hanging.

[Bullkllr]

I'm gonna say a freshly dead one hanging.

And previously uphill from the truck.

[chukarchaser]

AWESOME responses by everyone.  Sure makes a guy sit and think.  Merry Christmas everyone

[crabcreekhunter]

I like long mains, mass and symmetrical.  Seen a couple huge 5x5s that have looked really amazing to my eyes.  Idk why but consistent tine length is attractive to me.  It’s hard for me to get excited over a bull with really short tops and huge fronts or short fronts huge tops.  I guess that isn’t 100% true but on an ideal bull it would be pretty consistent through out. 

[Tinmaniac]

High on the shoulder and close to the road.

[Skyvalhunter]

I might add to my 6 x 6 it be taken on a Wyoming wilderness hunt 20 plus miles back and have the outfitter pack it out on horses.

[teanawayslayer]

I’ve put my hands on quite a few bulls from 370 to well over 400. Once you start getting to that age class of bull the mass and tine length does it for me every time. If it’s a typical fine if it has trash everywhere that fine too. It’s really to bad tags don’t come around very often any more and only getting worse in this state.