I shot it in Washington with a West Side tag.

Here is the story behind this elk. I only had 3 full days at this location as I used one day hunting with my son for his one and only day of hunting. I had to go back to work on Wednesday so there was some pressure on delivering the goods. I was in the woods very early and heard bugling. I chased elk and had a blast all day. It was getting into the evening and I made about seven plus soft cow calls to mimic a small herd milling around. This bull went off and was coming in. I saw his antlers through the jack firs and ranged some trees for reference points. Now when I saw the tips of his antlers he looked real good as he looked tall and I knocked an arrow. Then the bull was coming to one of my shooting lanes. I drew back he stepped out and I did not look at his antlers I just put the 50 yard pin a little high and sent the arrow. I put the arrow where I aimed on him and he went crashing through the thick brush. I then heard him crash/tip over. I went down to where he was standing when I shot him and found his exit tracks and within five yards there was blood every where. I found my arrow and started the ribbing exercise. Well, as I was following the blood trail I noticed I went up about three feet. I was on a 100 acre shelf and it sure looked flat… Well, that is why I thought I had a bigger bull when he was coming in. I found the bull and talk about antler shrinkage LOL. I took the pictures and started boning out the animal. I had four meat bags equally distributed and took my cable saw and cut of the skull plate and started packing. By now it is dark. I packed the meat out in about four and a half hours and headed home. I got home at 12:30 in the morning and put the meat in rubber bins and slipped them in the refrigerator. Took a shower and went to bed. The next morning I cleaned the truck out and washed it. I was amazed at the amount of blood that was rubbed on the side of the truck from my cloths while putting the meat bags into the back of the truck. The neighbors thanked me for washing it. LOL.
Then when my son got up he looked at the rack and laughed at me then got a 3x3 elk rack I shot last year and said this 3x3 is bigger then this 4x4. So I got some ribbing from my son and my buddies. I got tricked by the landscape by making an assumption and did not take my time got a little excited and short circuited some internal questions. But anyway it is a tender little fella and should be a good eating animal.