IDFG: Head north for antlered bull elk

SANDPOINT - Go north for big antlered bull elk.

Panhandle hunters looking for trophy bull elk this fall should look in the northern one-third of the Panhandle, according to data collected over a 15-year period by the Idaho Fish and Game.

In a sample that included almost 17,000 elk harvested in the Panhandle between 1982 and 1997, elk killed in the area that includes Bonner County north to the Canada border had the largest antlers, according to Fish and Game.

"As you go north to south, the antler length and spread diminishes," Jim Hayden, regional wildlife manager for IDFG, said. "That could be a function of habitat, and it could be a function of genetics and forage. Most likely forage."

The differences in antler size are not phenomenal, but they are apparent, he said.

"We're talking about small differences, but there is a tendency there," he said.

The data collected throughout the Panhandle when the department still had mandatory check stations, which it discontinued in the last decade, documents antler size and age structure.

Of elk harvested in the 15-year period, the majority (30 percent) were five-point bulls, or bull elk with at least five tines on one side of their racks.

Spike bulls were the second-most harvested elk (27 percent) and six-point bulls made up 21 percent of the harvest data - the third largest group.

But don't be fooled into thinking a six-point bull means an old, mature elk.

The data shows that 11 percent of 2-year-olds and 30 percent of 3-year-old bulls had racks with at least six points on a side.

"I remember a one-by-six that had six weird little things coming off one side like a little crown," Hayden said. "The rack was 14-inches high."

In contrast, he said, the data included a mature bull with spike antlers.

"He had four-foot long spikes," he said. "He was an old, old bull. If you check enough elk, you get that sort of thing."

The regional phenomenon of larger antler bulls coming from the northern one-third of the Panhandle, does not carry through the rest of the state.

Big bulls are uniformly harvested from central Idaho to the southeast corner, he said.

"It's just within the region, not over the broad scale," he said.

The data collected before the heavy winter of 1996 that took a deep bite into North Idaho's elk herd, included bull elk in the 15-year-old class.

Many of the old bulls had big, heavy antlers, indicating that old animals do not lose much antler mass.

"They don't regress in the number of points, they regress in length," Hayden said.

The vast majority of bull elk in the 4 to 11-year-old range had six points, with seven-point bulls showing up more frequently in ages from 7 to 15 years. The majority (55 percent) of 12-year-old bulls had at least seven points on one of their racks, according to the data.

The harvest data collected by Panhandle IDFG biologists over the 15-year span might be the most complete ever recorded, Hayden said.

"It's likely the largest data base of aged bulls in the world," he said.

It includes one elk harvested in the Panhandle that was confirmed to be 19 years old, he said.