Old photo of lever hunter with great elk!

[rangerider7]

Nice elk! What do you think?

[jkbrea]

What an elk! The 300 Win Mag that took it must be hidden behind the tree.

[Leverluver]

Looks like the studio took a mounted elk off the wall so this dude could have his picture taken with it. I suppose that before portable cameras, one might wait until after their animal's head was mounted to have their picture taken but it still looks fishy to me.

[Booger Bill]

Well, someone must have shot the elk at one time or another. Of course the 1860 colt army stuffed in the belt sans holster is for the picture but so is the entire deal for a nice portrait. Give em a break, no one but a studio had cameras in those days.

[Old Ironsights]

What, that tiny thing? Obviously a newbie to have taken something that small...

[Mike D.]

It is a very nice bull, but I wonder how many "hunters" had their boots on that critter's rack. A photographer's studio often had several prop rifles and revolvers, as well as various backgrounds to ensure "correct" poses.

[71fan]

The buckskins actually fit, which seems to be a good indicator in these old pics. Rifle looks like an 1886, which would have been rich for a studio gun, and also a fine elk rifle, of course. I'd guess he is the real deal and that's his rifle, although I question whether that is his elk.

The elk: great fronts and 3s, average 4s, weak 5s and a broken 6. I give him 340" +/- (I'd sure as heck shoot him!)

[Booger Bill]

I think he has a fake beard too!

[gundownunder]

A quick Google turned up this page, which suggests that Fox and Symons' studio worked up until 1890. So even if everything else is fake, the age of the picture is not.
http://digitalcollections.lmu.edu/cdm4/ ... OX=1&REC=1

[86er]

The elk's ear is too rigid, full and fixed and the lips have not budged in spite of it's face being on the ground and the weight of the hunter's leg on it. The eye is dialated some and the lids are expanded. Mounted elk, - as far as the man, I don't know.

[dkmlever]

Very nice elk and great picture, thanks for sharing.
As far as the elk being mounted....HECK yes ONLY cause we all know that puny rifle and caliber couldn't possibly kill an elk that big, you would need a super mag wisper jet in 345!

[FWiedner]

Nice elk mount. There's still lots of fine critters in the mountains up around Salt Lake.

As to the man, he don't strike me as no daisy.

I would not have difficulty believing that the man is the hunter and took his trophy into town for a memory, heck he was prolly picking it up from the taxidermist.

My bet is that he's the real deal.

[jnyork]

This is before the era when everyone had a Kodak to take pictures any time they wanted. If the guy was proud enough of his elk to get it mounted, might he not have taken it, along with his rifle and hunting clothes, to the local photo studio to get his portrait taken?

Great old pic, at any rate.

[hfcable]

pretty sure the elk is a mount...think the hide stops just before the edge of the photo.

still a great photo,.... and i would have my picture taken like that any day....

[kimwcook]

He looks like the real deal. Whether or not the elk is his, I can't say.

[Pathfinder09]

Poser!

[RIHMFIRE]

props.....

[RIHMFIRE]

studio photo with wannabe hunter

[claybob86]

Elk looks like a mount, dunno what to say about the man. Great picture, as usual! Thanks for posting!

[bsaride]

My eyes are gettin old, didn't see the beard on the elk.

Can anyone post a closeup?