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what is the earliest?

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what is the earliest?

Postby Roosiebull » 07 16, 2018 •  [Post 1]

...you have seen a hard horn bull? my buddy and I drove late Friday night (got up on the mountain at midnight, slept a couple hours in the pickup bed, and scouted until 7:30pm, back home just after 2AM, long but really fun day, I was blown away by the beauty of that place, it was all lush and green, flowers still everywhere, and elk sign everywhere, and some wolf/lion/bear sign, whitetails, mulies, etc...really fun day.


what we saw first thing surprised the heck out of me, I tried to prove my eyes were playing tricks, but they just weren't. we glassed up a small bull pretty quick, as well as a huge mulie buck, moved on, jumped some mulies along the trail, then got to our last lookout and found 3 bulls feeding up a draw, then my buddy gets excited and explains where to look, when my glass settles on a jaw dropper!

these other 3 bulls were studs, 2 over 300", and the other close, or maybe slightly over, all really big, but this bedded bull was that caliber of bull that this area is famous for, at least a clean 7X7, pretty sure that is what it was, but his tops were insanely huge, he truly had everything, and he was already hard horned which blew me away.

I tried to prove my eyes were playing tricks, but he had no velvet, his big white antlers shining in the sun, the other 3 bulls look nearly fully developed, already long points, big whale tails, etc.


what is the earliest you have seen a hard horned bull? I don't think I have seen one for another 2-3 weeks, this seems crazy EARLY
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Re: what is the earliest?

Postby Swede » 07 16, 2018 •  [Post 2]

You are three weeks earlier than I have seen bulls with hard antlers. Did you have a good view of the antlers? If it was an inexperienced hunter, I would politely, (as a Swede can be) suggest they needed to look more carefully. This is very early.
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Re: what is the earliest?

Postby Elkhunttoo » 07 16, 2018 •  [Post 3]

I would have to look back through all of my trail cam pictures but if memory serves me right I'm thinking 10-12 of August for me
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Re: what is the earliest?

Postby Roosiebull » 07 16, 2018 •  [Post 4]

Swede wrote:You are three weeks earlier than I have seen bulls with hard antlers. Did you have a good view of the antlers? If it was an inexperienced hunter, I would politely, (as a Swede can be) suggest they needed to look more carefully. This is very early.

very clear, there were 4 bull there, the big one was laying in the sun with the sun shining off his big white antlers, other 3 in velvet. we watched them for about an hour, i was looking through my 10x swaros. i was doubting what we were looking at the whole time, it seems WAY early.

the ends of his tines were sharp, antlers were white vs the other bulls with light brown velvet. i would not bet much money on it, just because it's so early, but our eyes told us he was hard horned without doubt through some very good glass, just curious if anyone had ever witnessed that.

i hope it was still in velvet, and growing, he is already a very special bull, but i'm sure he was hard horned. hope we will have him on cam the next couple days, that will answer all doubt.
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Re: what is the earliest?

Postby Swede » 07 16, 2018 •  [Post 5]

Groucho Marx posed the question, "are you going to believe me, or your stupid lying eyes?" Believe the eyes. It is just earlier than I have seen elk antlers hard and clean. Antlers are white when they are freshly rubbed. That sounds like what you describe. I will just note that bulls can have hard clean antlers in mid July. Thanks for the information.
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Re: what is the earliest?

Postby Elkhunttoo » 07 16, 2018 •  [Post 6]

I do a lot of horn hunting and you will see older mature bulls starting regrowth when lots of six points are still carrying some years. I would guess that this ol bull dropped early and is just a few weeks early in the process
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Re: what is the earliest?

Postby Roosiebull » 07 16, 2018 •  [Post 7]

Elkhunttoo wrote:I do a lot of horn hunting and you will see older mature bulls starting regrowth when lots of six points are still carrying some years. I would guess that this ol bull dropped early and is just a few weeks early in the process

I think you are right, I just wondered if anyone had ever seen it, because it's way early from what I have seen.

on the other hand, my buddy had a cow hunt a few years ago, and he showed me a set of blacky sheds with bloody pedicles from the last day or 2, very end of Dec.
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