Well, it was 24 years ago and I was a lot younger and a very wide eyed 2LT. No scales in the woods. I remember one of our hunting companions, a First Sergeant from the Ranger Battalion said that. All I know is that there was waaaaay too much meat for me to store in my deep freeze so we had a pretty big BBQ for my rifle platoon back at the company area. This was after we had a butcher process the carcass.
From a Wyoming Univ. website, the range of adult male elk is 550-1300 pounds live weight. Using their formulas, 1100 lbs dressed would be 1454 lbs live - out of the range.
They calculate that commercial butchers get 43% of dressed weight as lean boneless meat.
Again, using their formulas, if you had 1100 lbs cookable (boneless) meat: Yield of 1100 lbs boneless meat requires dressed weight of 2,560 lbs. 2,560 x 1.3 = 3,328 + 24 = calculated live weight 3,352 pounds.
Not to throw asparagas at a First Sgt, but that's a lotta bull.