Two new world records

Posted on: January 11, 2017 | Bob Frye | Comments

Record elkSteve Felix with the rack from his giant public land elk. Image from Boone and Crockett Club.

Two new world records, that’s what this hunting season has apparently brought.

One involves a Montana elk, the other a Tennessee whitetail.

The Boone and Crockett Club and Pope and Young Club announced the elk – killed on public land – will likely be the new world’s typical archery bull. After the mandatory 60-day drying period, it scored 430 inches.

The current archery record scores 412-1/8 and was taken in 2005 from Arizona.

This larger bull – the biggest scored in 48 years — ranks it not only as the biggest elk ever taken with a bow, but the fourth biggest taken ever, with any weapon.

According to Justin Spring, director of big game records for Boone and Crockett, the all-time largest bull scored 442-5/8. It was taken with a rifle. The number two and three bulls, meanwhile, were killed prior to 1900.

All that, he said, shows how special this bull killed by Montanan Steve Felix is.

“It’s a milestone in the success of our commitment to this iconic species,” Spring continued. “Animals of this size do not happen by chance. It takes the combined commitment of wildlife managers and biologists, landowners, sportsmen and, above all else, it takes the best habitats we can set aside for elk in elk country.”

Felix killed the bull on his own, while on a solo hunt.

One step remains in having his elk certified as a record. That’s having it scored one last time just prior to Pope and Young Club’s Biennial Convention and Big Game Awards Ceremony April 5-8 in St. Louis.

That’s considered a formality at this point, though.

Meanwhile, the 47-point whitetail killed by Stephen Tucker in Tennessee in November was recently scored after undergoing its mandatory 60-day drying period. It tallied 312 3/8 inches.

That beats the current world record non-typical. Taken in 2003 in Iowa, it scored 307 5/8 inches killed in 2003. That deer had 38 points.

According to a story in The Tennessean, Tucker’s buck will officially be certified as the record at the Boone and Crockett Club’s next big game awards ceremony, set for 2019.

That, too, though, appears to be a formality.

His buck has already been scored over four hours by official measurers. But their work will be verified one last time at the ceremony.

Amazingly given the size of its rack, the deer weighed 150 pounds – nice, but not exceptional — and was thought to be just 3.5 years old. Tucker shot it on a farm his family leases.

Tucker buckStephen Tucker with his monster whitetail. Image from Facebook.

Bob Frye is the everybodyadventures.com editor. Reach him at 412-838-5148 or bfrye@535mediallc.com. See other stories, blogs, videos and more at everybodyadventures.com.

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