Taking a cow elk on an either sex tag

[kmott]

it all comes down to what is your priority . meat or trophy.
I have eaten many tags on the quest for trophy. I do not regret passing on a single one of them because it is what I decided to do before I even set foot on ground hunting. and in right unit ,I would do it again.

when you really think about it ,what is there to regret?????????

how much do you fork out for your hunt? what does a beef cost? most could get a beef cheaper and lets face it , no matter how much we try to delude ourselves , beef is the best meat there is .

don't get me wrong , I love the wild game .just saying if you can afford to hunt ,you probably won't starve eating tag soup.

 

[jzeck2]

I finally drew my South Dakota any elk tag after 18 years and will be hunting for up to two full weeks and will have no problem pulling the trigger on a cow or rag horn during week 2.

 

[TheJason]

most could get a beef cheaper and lets face it , no matter how much we try to delude ourselves , beef is the best meat there is .

Highly debatable.

 

[brockel]

how much do you fork out for your hunt? what does a beef cost? most could get a beef cheaper and lets face it , no matter how much we try to delude ourselves , beef is the best meat there is .

My wife and I will take elk over beef any day. And antelope over anything

 

[Mazenblu3]

Shoot for the freezer first and the wall second. I drew an any elk tag in Oregon. First legal animal minus a calf is hopefully in trouble.

 

[belshawelk]

Shoot for the freezer first and the wall second. I drew an any elk tag in Oregon. First legal animal minus a calf is hopefully in trouble.

Good Luck in Oregon. Do you have your plans on where to go? Long way to come for an elk

 

[brockel]

Shoot for the freezer first and the wall second. I drew an any elk tag in Oregon. First legal animal minus a calf is hopefully in trouble.

Calf makes damn fine steaks if that’s all you end up finding

 

[Mazenblu3]

I'm in the service and was last stationed in Oregon, so it's kinda what I know and comfortable with so far. I drew a tag for the snake river unit hells canyon area between Oregon and Idaho. I'd love to hunt another state but with only 3 years experience trying to draw for another state is daunting.

 

[kmott]

Highly debatable.

everything is.

 

[TheJason]

everything is.

Especially when you speak an opinion as collective fact.

 

[kmott]

Especially when you speak an opinion as collective fact.

it is a fact . beef , it's what's for dinner!

 

[ImBillT]

I’d only eat the tag if I had another elk hunt that season. Opening day of just about any hunt, I’d only want a bull that was big enough to get me pretty excited. That standard would drop off every day. How steep that drop off is would depend on the tag and how much time I had. I doubt I’d shoot a cow on the first day of the hunt, but I doubt I’d pass on a cow much past the 3/4 point unless I had eyes on a bull I was pretty sure I could get. Late in the hunt I’d shoot any legal bull that weighed more than the elk he was standing beside. Same goes for the cow. The heaviest elk I could see would be the one I shot.

 

[ImBillT]

I’ve shot a cow on either sex tag on day 6 of a 9 day hunt. I was more than happy with it. Ended up encountering a good bull in bow range while packing her out though so I did second guess myself a bit. Sure did taste good though.

Six days in I don’t think I’d hesitate on a cow. Elk meat is too hard to come by.

 

[Flatbrimmer]

I'm in the service and was last stationed in Oregon, so it's kinda what I know and comfortable with so far. I drew a tag for the snake river unit hells canyon area between Oregon and Idaho. I'd love to hunt another state but with only 3 years experience trying to draw for another state is daunting.

Thank you for your service

 

[buffybr]

...most could get a beef cheaper and lets face it , no matter how much we try to delude ourselves , beef is the best meat there is...

Of all of the meat that I've eaten, including beef, my favorite is wild sheep. I'll agree that it is hard to beat a rare beef tenderloin steak hot off the BBQ, but I would put an elk burger ahead of a beef burger any day.

I'm lucky that I live in elk country so that I don't spend a fortune hunting them. A few years ago I joked about my $13 elk. I shot a 5x5 bull on the hill above my house that cost me $12 for the Montana Geezer tag and $1 for my bullet.

I've hunted elk long enough that I've got my 2 best 6x6 bulls mounted in my Trophy Room (which doesn't have enough room for another elk), my garage rafters are full of other elk racks that are just collecting dust, so I really don't care if the next elk that I shoot has horns or not.

This year I have an either sex General elk tag, and a B cow tag. My vote is for the first legal elk, that is the easiest to get out.

 

[BrokenChicken]

i like this thread, lots of good ideas and is relevant to me.
CO - resident
2021 will be my 1st year of trying Archery via OTC tag

so far what i have told myself going into my 1st Archery hunt:
1st Cow gets a free pass (it must be a legit shooting range distance situation to count), any legal bull or 2nd cow in my shooting range and i'm going for it.

or should i hold out and try for a Bull only my first time around?
**i do have plenty of Elk meat in the freezer and also have a Cow tag for a later rifle season as well.

 

[BirdManMike]

My biggest elk hunting regret is passing on a calf that responded to a cow call to come running 200 yards out of the herd then hop a fence trotting up to within 20 yards of where I was sitting.

It was the first weekend of rifle. I only had the one general tag, and I told myself in that moment I wasnt ready to be done hunting just yet.

The regret started the moment I walked out of there. I couldve been finished meat hunting right then and there to focus all my efforts on bird stuff. I put in maybe 5 more days elk hunting that season and saw nothing, tho I did get a single deer which was neither as much (by far) or as good tasting meat as that calf would have yielded.

Brown its down. Unless the freezer is full, I guess.

 

[Flatbrimmer]

Of all of the meat that I've eaten, including beef, my favorite is wild sheep. I'll agree that it is hard to beat a rare beef tenderloin steak hot off the BBQ, but I would put an elk burger ahead of a beef burger any day.

I'm lucky that I live in elk country so that I don't spend a fortune hunting them. A few years ago I joked about my $13 elk. I shot a 5x5 bull on the hill above my house that cost me $12 for the Montana Geezer tag and $1 for my bullet.

I've hunted elk long enough that I've got my 2 best 6x6 bulls mounted in my Trophy Room (which doesn't have enough room for another elk), my garage rafters are full of other elk racks that are just collecting dust, so I really don't care if the next elk that I shoot has horns or not.

This year I have an either sex General elk tag, and a B cow tag. My vote is for the first legal elk, that is the easiest to get out.

What you want for the ones collecting dust? I’ll hang a set in my trophy room lol

 

[hunterdoug]

It just depends on the situation
If you have never killed an elk, you should probably shoot the first legal elk you see
If you don’t mind coming home with nothing then I would pass up some cows early on in the hunt
Or if its a hard to draw unit I wouldn’t waste the tag on a cow elk.

 

[Muley_Stalker]

it all comes down to what is your priority . meat or trophy.
I have eaten many tags on the quest for trophy. I do not regret passing on a single one of them because it is what I decided to do before I even set foot on ground hunting. and in right unit ,I would do it again.

when you really think about it ,what is there to regret?????????

how much do you fork out for your hunt? what does a beef cost? most could get a beef cheaper and lets face it , no matter how much we try to delude ourselves , beef is the best meat there is .

don't get me wrong , I love the wild game .just saying if you can afford to hunt ,you probably won't starve eating tag soup.

Nope! I consider elk meat the best meat on earth.

It cost me $100 to hunt for elk including the price of the tag. Break that down and see if beef is cheaper.