well i went out yesterday to track down my first elk...i put on about 5 miles of hiking through swamps, alder bottoms, deep timber to not see an elk till my way out we ran across a group with a 4pt bull...one cow had to take 2 steps to give me a perfect broadside shot but the damn bull had to push her our of the way and they ran off...i could have shot the bull but it would have been a spine shot and i was not comfortable doing that..as bad as i want my first elk i couldnt risk taking that shot and wounding him....well before that on the search for the elk me and my cuz were walking up a alder bottom and came up to a creek and right across was a ridge straight up and he caught movement ahead and as soon as he said somthing i caught it also...huge antlers moving...we both though elk...we were wrong...it took a couple steps forward and it was the biggest damn blacktail i have ever seen

...20-22" wide 4x5

...we watched him for about 2min before he realized we were there...if it was only a week earlier he would be in my freezer...and he was at only 40 yds!

i have never wanted a archery deer tag so bad in my life!!!

i did an estimate of what i thought his measurements would be and i came up with about a 140-150" deer!!!