COW TAG

Well after at least 10 years AZGFD finally let me draw a MUZZLE-LOADER Cow Elk tag in a pretty decent area, unit 8. AND....it's 09-28 thru 10-4 so I can follow the herd by the bugling!!

I'm pretty stoked. My boy didn't draw again so will be splitting at least in half and maybe 1/3's if my newly married daughter wants any (we all split the processing fee). Then when he or the son on law gets drawn I can get me some pay back!

Now the hiking and dieting :cursing: and shooting is for real! I will use either the .54 or .58 hawkin with 70 or 80 gr under prb. I would love to finally get a flint lock cow but my only ones a .50 and I have never shot conicals outta it. I'll be getting them Dutchized this spring. Maybe by the hunt I will be able to post pics or may have to send to one of you guys with a teenager handy LOL

So any one else get lucky?

i would go with 90 to 100 grains

Congratulations AZ :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

A lot of the fun of a hunt is the "getting ready" part. Still, I can smell those steaks already!

Best regards, Skychief.

Good news :hatsoff:
Looking forward to the field report and photos :thumbsup:

B.

rj morrison said:

i would go with 90 to 100 grains

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Been using 70 in .54 & 80 in .58 for decades and all pass throughs. Best groups at these charges so no need! Now if twas bull........

Now that's something to get excited over.

When the cutting is done, how much meat would you get from an average size cow? I only had it once and loved it.

Four milk crates full of boneless meat is average (a "average cow" at the butcher will be 275 lb hanging weight). My wifes first and only black powder cow was a huge lead cow, remarkably larger body than the herd bull she stood next to. For the heck of it we weighed the 6 crates of boneless meat and she gave us 333 lbs! The biggest we ever got (including bulls).

Yes it is very good eating. Burgers are used as burgers, tacos, lasagna, meat loaf and we also get some chorizo, hot/mild Italian sausage and is we have the $$ we like to get 6-8 logs of summer sausage (jalapeno and cheese). No better Christmas gift!

:shocked2: after deer season this year (first/only episode of buck fever) I better stop planning the menu until I.m field dressing :rotf:

Congrats on the draw!

Up here we are over run with elk, and get herds od 200 or more and they can mess feed piles up in no time. They should give us a general season so we could thin them a bit!

I used a .54 Great Plains for a few years, and used 60 grs 2F for target and 120 for hunting. Shot V nice groups with both. Not saying you need that much, but it surely worked for me. (PRB) and I don't think anything ever got away.

PS, When on your hunt, take Lots of pictures for us!

Pukka B.

azmntman said:

My boy didn't draw again so will be splitting at least in half and maybe 1/3's if my newly married daughter wants any (we all split the processing fee). Then when he or the son on law gets drawn I can get me some pay back!

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You're not superstitious, talking about meat before the animal is down I breaks my Irish hart.


That many people, you might think about cutting it up yourselves. Bone saw, electric meat grinder and a knife or two runs about as much as the butcher will charge you. If the weather is cool- cold you can hang the meat (I like my elk to hang 10 days to two weeks) Some butchers will also if you ask. The Butchers here are just too busy to trim careful. If you ask an honest one will tell you from the torso you get back strap & tenderloin, the rest gets trashed.

If nothing else, give them the four quarters and trim all the torso meat yourself. You will have about 15 pounds extra grind meat just by doing that.

As Sean says above.

I always cut mine up myself. No electric meat saws, so no time wasted scraping all the sawdust off.
We all enjoy joints, (roasts for you blokes over here) and slices and steaks. Nothing better. I don't like it "salamid" or "pepperonied".
I'm sure you could make pepporoni out of moccasins and would be no wiser. Kill it well, clean it well and hang it right,....don't let the dog sleep on it, and it'll be fit for a King.

I have seen what comes back from meat cutters, and think the name is very deserving. No sense of how a roast Should or could look. Just whack it up into squares...no matter what obstacles are in the way. LOL!

azmntman said:

Four milk crates full of boneless meat is average (a "average cow" at the butcher will be 275 lb hanging weight). My wifes first and only black powder cow was a huge lead cow, remarkably larger body than the herd bull she stood next to. For the heck of it we weighed the 6 crates of boneless meat and she gave us 333 lbs! The biggest we ever got (including bulls).

Yes it is very good eating. Burgers are used as burgers, tacos, lasagna, meat loaf and we also get some chorizo, hot/mild Italian sausage and is we have the $$ we like to get 6-8 logs of summer sausage (jalapeno and cheese). No better Christmas gift!

:shocked2: after deer season this year (first/only episode of buck fever) I better stop planning the menu until I.m field dressing :rotf:

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My first elk was a big old cow like that. She had a metal tag in it's ear that identified her as one that had been trapped and released 17 years earlier in a AGFD elk study in a different unit. She still tasted good, and I cut her up myself by boning the meat and cutting the hams and backstraps into steaks. All the smaller and tougher cuts I ground into hamburger with about 10% beef tallow to make it stick together. I didn't weigh it all, but it was a good bunch of meat.

Congrats on that draw. Getting an early tag does make for an easier hunt, but you sometimes get some awful hot weather that doesn't give you much time to mess around with the meat. That's the only drawback, but a minor one in my book. You also don't generally have to mess with snow or closed roads due to winter conditions.

I have never butchered myself yet, need a mentor then I would never pay again. I have a butcher up here thats clean enough to operate in his shop. Now of course I have been to a few over the years that you are NOT getting your animal back but someones else's. I am meticulous about keeping mine clean from hoof to table and once got some that had pine needles and oak leaves in the package (I harvested her in cedars :cursing: ) so I believe I got some of at least 2 different elk. Then there are the butchers that smoke and scratch there butts while the work. I Go to a local guy and they actually clean all tools and the shop and tables in between each elk. He charges about .15 more a pound than the other guys and I am happy to pay it. But again, once I learn I do it myself in most things in life.

Congrats on that draw. Getting an early tag does make for an easier hunt, but you sometimes get some awful hot weather that doesn't give you much time to mess around with the meat. That's the only drawback, but a minor one in my book. You also don't generally have to mess with snow or closed roads due to winter conditions.

Yes its an easier hunt with bugling etc. YES it can get hot quick, like up to 80 by 10:00 AM. I try to kill, clean and have quartered up and in game bags within the hour. Usually can be done. But if ya gotta pack out ya gotta hang in a tree in the shade and not alot of resting between trips!

I have had the late tags when there was sooo much snow ya couldn't get into the woods w/o snow shoes (I am tough but not that tough) and when ya did the critters, being smarter than us, have moved off the mnt into a canyon or another unit entirely, (packing out of a canyon is hard, its harder in the SNOW ):shocked2: .

Also I like to camp and in the later hunts again, SNOW and with wind well below zero temps likely. I'm Older now :redface: I have to have a air mattress as I dont have a trailer, still a tent camper.

azmntman said:

I have never butchered myself yet, need a mentor then I would never pay again.

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I have a book on butchering both livestock and game. The chapter on deer would work on elk as well.
If you would like it, p.m. me. You can have it for the cost of postage. Never pay the butcher again. :hatsoff:

azmntman said:

I have never butchered myself yet, need a mentor then I would never pay again. I have a butcher up here thats clean enough to operate in his shop. Now of course I have been to a few over the years that you are NOT getting your animal back but someones else's. I am meticulous about keeping mine clean from hoof to table and once got some that had pine needles and oak leaves in the package (I harvested her in cedars :cursing: ) so I believe I got some of at least 2 different elk. Then there are the butchers that smoke and scratch there butts while the work. I Go to a local guy and they actually clean all tools and the shop and tables in between each elk. He charges about .15 more a pound than the other guys and I am happy to pay it. But again, once I learn I do it myself in most things in life.

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This is the way I learned. This vary guy. He has other videos, a pig, a beef, but this is the one that made me think I could tackle it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhp2wcWtR0s

Ames said:

azmntman said:

I have never butchered myself yet, need a mentor then I would never pay again.

Click to expand...

I have a book on butchering both livestock and game. The chapter on deer would work on elk as well.
If you would like it, p.m. me. You can have it for the cost of postage. Never pay the butcher again. :hatsoff:

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PM sent (I hope, had to try twice )

Thanks Sean, will watch when I get time this week.

This is a picture of the cow my nephew shot last year with his 50 cal using a patched ball and 80 grians of FFg! Not a flintlock but a 50!

Quartering towards him at 40ish yards!

No need for conicals! The proof is in the victuals!



Up to you but shooting an elk or anything else with a flintlock is AWESOME!!!!!
He found the ball against the hide after it went through the brisket, through the heart and busting a rib on the far side. (next to a new ball for comparison) It only lost like 3 grains expending all its energy inside the cow! Perfect bullet performance in my book!

Awesome! Congrats to your nephew!