A bull moose taken by a hunter in 2013 in Yukon Territory was verified today by the Boone and Crockett Club as a new World’s Record.
With a final score of 263-5/8 Boone and Crockett points, the bull has the largest antlers ever recorded for the Alaska-Yukon moose subspecies. The previous record, taken in Alaska in 1994, scores 261-5/8. These are the only two specimens on record to score over 260. The third-largest bull scores 256-6/8.
Since 1906, Boone and Crockett’s trophy data has been used to measure the success of conservation programs across North America. The Club’s scoring system rewards antler and horn size and symmetry—classic symbols of outstanding habitat, strong recruitment of animals into older age classes, sustainable harvest objectives and other elements of sound wildlife management and fair-chase hunting.
“Congratulations to Yukon Territory’s wildlife conservation agency, Environment Yukon, on succeeding in the many factors that go into ensuring healthy populations of moose,” said Eldon L. “Buck” Buckner, VP of Boone and Crockett Club’s Records of North American Big Game Division.
Buckner was a member of a Boone and Crockett Club Special Judges Panel that convened at the Wild Sheep Foundation convention, January 24th, in Reno, Nev., to verify the World’s Record status of this moose.
The new World’s Record moose was taken on a self-guided hunt by Heinz E. Naef of Dawson City, Yukon. He was hunting along the Yukon River near Stewart Island on September 22, 2013. Naef carried a .303 British with open sights and 180-grain Winchester ammunition. The hunter stalked to within 35 yards of the big moose before taking the shot.
Naef was hunting for winter meat, not a trophy. He removed the antlers off the skull with a chainsaw, nicking them in the process, and did not keep the cape for a shoulder mount.
The antlers measure 75-5/8 inches at the greatest spread. The left side has 17 points and a palm measuring 17-5/8 inches wide by 51 inches long. The right antler has 19 points and a palm measuring 23-6/8 inches wide by 50-7/8 inches long. The antler circumferences are 8-4/8 and 8-7/8 inches for the right and left sides, respectively.