Back in September 2023, a California hunter shot a Roosevelt elk that’s now poised to break the Boone & Crockett Club’s 9-year-old world record for the species. According to a B&C press release issued today Timothy Carpenter’s bull sports a preliminary score of 439 7/8 inches. If certified by a panel of judges, it’ll beat the previous world record Rosie—set by Rick Bailey in 2015—by a whopping 20 inches.
An avid elk hunter with multiple Roosevelt records to his name, Carpenter, 39, works as an elk guide in the fall and a wildlife biologist in the springtime. He killed the now-pending record on Sept. 21 is northern California’s Humboldt County while hunting with a rifle, a B&C official tells Field & Stream. “It is very rewarding to be part of any successful Roosevelt’s elk hunt,” Carpenter said. “It is that much more rewarding when we are able to take animals that are mature—or even past their prime—and are Boone and Crockett animals.”
He believes the bull was 11 or 12 years old, but its body wasn’t as big as you might expect—given the massive size of its trophy rack. “You’d think that packing antlers around like that, it would be beefier,” Carpenter told Boone & Crockett. “The elk’s body was the average size of a mature Roosevelt’s bull, and his antlers still dwarfed his body. It was probably from a combination of great genetics, perfect environmental conditions, and lots of late rain providing great forage for finishing out antler growth.”
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Roosevelts are the largest of the three elk subspecies for which B&C maintains records. Named by C Hart Merriam in honor of Theodore Roosevelt, Rosies are the largest elk subspecies on the North American continent. They can weigh up to 1,100 pounds and are found exclusively in the Pacific Northwest—from northern California up through British Columbia’s mainland and into Alaska. Carpenter’s record won’t be official until after his elk is analyzed by either an Awards Program Judges Panel or a Special Judges Panel, B&C said.
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