I had to face the reality that I don't have a high enough ceiling to put a full shoulder mounted elk on the wall at my house so I opted for the euro mount and had my taxi freeze the wet-tanned hide in the event I convince my wife that we need to pop the top on my man cave and make room. Pretty happy how we turned out.

Nice euro mount with a kicker. This one was even bigger than I thought.
Congratulations on a huge Texas bull.

Nice bull! High ceilings are a must especially with bulls that size!

That's a heck of an Elk, what did he score? He looks to be in the 350-360 range to me. Story, where did you get him?

When I built my house I made sure to have tall ceilings.

For those who don't know, we actually have quite a large herd(s) of free range elk here in Texas, specifically west and southwest. Having only hunted elk in Montana, I was unsure how the terrain around Ft. Stockton would be and, I have to say, it was beautiful country and a fantastic hunt. We spent the first afternoon glassing several of the draws and canyons trying to spot any that were bedded but no luck. We decided to watch a creek bed near a water trough at dusk to see if any cows would come to water with bulls in tow. 20 minutes before shooting light disappeared, a rag horn showed up alone. 5 minutes later, a narrow 6x came out at 400 yards with a cow but still had another couple animals hung up in the brush and never saw them. Although we talked about the narrow bull for a bit, we decided to pass and go to the back side of the ranch in the morning to try to catch any bugling bulls in the meadows.

The next morning happened just as I've always dreamed but never had happen. We hiked a mile in and heard a few cows mewing and a couple of bugles. We felt like we had 3 that were within 1000 yards that were vocal. After blowing a satellite bull call, it happened. A full bugle, complete with the belly grunts and MAN WAS IT THROATY!! We hit a cow call and he immediately responded and I could tell he was making a hardline to our location.

Unfortunately I was a little stuck with few options to set up a hidden ambush spot and had to use a combination of yucca and juniper to put some cover between me and the bull. After hitting the cow call again, he bugled, snorted and we knew he was just below the rim we were stuck on. I set up where I thought he was going to pop up, dialed my scope down and was ready. I knew this was the real deal when my guide, who had seen the bull around he juniper, had nervous breathing over my shoulder.

Without warning, the bull's head appeared about 45 yards away and about 15 yards downwind of where I was set up (they always try and circle downwind, ugh) and I had to quickly swing a make the shot. He was everything I hoped he would be.

I need to have him scored by someone who knows what they're doing but I've measured him twice and came up with 358 1/8 and 359 2/8.

Good story and great Texas Elk, congrats

Yep, congrats and thanks for posting the story!!

Man id have to shoulder mount that 1 and just build a bigger house.lol.... My house now has short ceilings and we put our elk on a corner pedastal so he would fit. Its actually made as a.shoulder mount in the semi-sneak position so hes not quite so tall and drilled to a metal plate then attached the plate to the floor pedastal so when we do build our bigger house it can be taken off and put on the wall.

I'd have to shoulder mount that stud, heck of an elk.

Bruiser, great bull

West Texas elk Hell yes well done sir!