Pat, I had a couple of calf elk hides tanned with hair on and they sure are pretty, blends of coffee and cream shaded to edges in blacks and reds. My sister had one I gave her on her wall for years. Like deer hair, an elk hide with hair on does not wear well if used much rather than just looked at.
Pitw, we'd hunt elk in easier places if we could be as successful. Bravo to you. I am envious, and might manage to kill a few in my dotage years, if in your area. My son started hunting our canyons over 20 years ago and it is a mixed adventure to this day. He knows the terrain and general animal patterns well for many square miles. OTOH it is the worst place to hunt elk that I know of, though there are probably worse. Very few elk in very steep, thick and wet terrain. A good side is that it is so thick and steep with so few animals that almost nobody else hunts it, even in a populous state like Washington.
I think I posted before about a spike bull elk I killed that had spent the summer and Fall in a barley field. Amazingly tasty and tender, like your elk up there in the grain fields.
