B&C World's Record - Roosevelt's Elk

Bailey with his World's Record Roosevelt's elk taken on the second day of British Columbia's 2015 season. It was Bailey's first bull elk hunt.

First thing—I am not a trophy hunter. When I hunt, I typically take the first legal deer, moose, or elk that presents itself to me—big or small. No calves, though. This was my first bull elk hunt. We scouted the valley in our hunting area near Pitt Lake, British Columbia, northeast of Vancouver. The first day, we heard six elk bugling and managed to get eyes on them. Unfortunately, none of them hung around to give me a good shot.

At daybreak on the second morning, we were hunting about a quarter-mile from camp, and there, a bull stood, approximately 200 yards away. I took my shot and he dropped. When we got up to where he lay, we spooked him and he got up and took off. We decided to leave the area so we would not cause him to run any farther.

We came back later and found the bull approximately 100 yards from where we last spotted him. My first bull elk, and it turned out to be a record-book trophy—a new World’s Record nonetheless!

I wasn’t able to get the bull into the U.S. for the 30th Big Game Awards Judges Panel because of red-tape issues at the border. B&C was able to convene a Special Judges Panel on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in May 2019 to verify the score, officially declaring it a new World’s Record with a score of 419-6/8 points. That’s 15 points larger than the previous record that was taken in Oregon in 2002.