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