How to score a bull elk
A bull elk is scored with the same steps as a deer: inside spread, both main beams, every typical point, and four circumferences per side, then subtract the differences between sides. The numbers are just bigger: the bull below carries main beams of 44 4/8 and 45 6/8.
Tape and rules
- Use a flexible steel tape and write every measurement to the nearest eighth of an inch. Eighths keep the adding simple: 4 3/8, not 4.375.
- A projection counts as a point only if it is at least one inch long and longer than it is wide at one inch or more of its length.
- The beam tip counts as a point but is not measured as one.
- Tip-to-tip spread and greatest spread go on the score chart, but neither counts in the score.
Rules quoted from Boone and Crockett's measuring instructions, reprinted with the Club's permission on New Jersey's trophy form.
The points on a 6x6
A typical mature bull carries six points per side. Five are measured; the beam tip is the sixth.
- G1: the brow tine, nearest the skull.
- G2: the bez tine, just above it.
- G3: the trez tine.
- G4: the royal, often the longest point on the rack.
- G5: the fifth point, near the end of the beam.
A seven-point side adds G6, and the beam tip is still counted but not measured. Points outside the normal pattern are abnormal.
Circumferences
On an elk, none is taken between the burr and the brow tine. All four sit higher up the beam, each at the smallest place between two points: H1 between G1 and G2, H2 between G2 and G3, H3 between G3 and G4, H4 between G4 and G5.
A real 6x6
B&C entry 751236, a typical American elk with G1 to G5 on each side: inside spread 39 4/8, gross 300 2/8. The sides differ by 11 4/8 in total, so it nets 288 6/8 typical. Most of that is one point: the right G5 is 4 inches and the left 11 5/8, a 7 5/8 deduction on its own. Its royals, 17 inches each, cost nothing.
Add it up for you
Open the free score calculator
Score from a trail-camera photo instead: Tinewise, an iPhone app, traces the beams, points and circumferences on the picture, every line drawn where you can check it. Coming soon to the App Store.
More scoring guides
Unofficial. Not affiliated with the Boone and Crockett Club or any record book. Only an official measurer, at least sixty days after the kill, can score a rack for entry.