The Stories Behind the World’s Biggest “Pick ups”

Spend enough time outdoors, and you are bound to find something interesting. For some, those interesting things happen to be world record heads, horns, and antlers. Here are the stories behind the biggest “pick ups” ever found.

Not every animal in the Boone and Crockett records was taken by a hunter. Some animals in the records succumbed to old age, vehicle collisions, predators, disease, poachers. These entries are typically found by hunters and listed as "picked up" in the Boone and Crockett records to distinguish them from hunter-taken entries. Some of those head, horns and antlers happen to be world’s records. These are their stories. 

To read the complete Boone and Crockett policy on found trophies, click here. 

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The Biggest Whitetail Ever

Grizzly in the attic

Category: Grizzly bear 
Owner: Gordon Scott
Location: Alaska  
Score: 27 13/16

McGrath, Alaska, has around 300 residents. The area around the tiny town likely harbors just as many grizzlies—and they’re big, too. In April 1974, Gordon Scott and a friend flew into the area in a Piper Super Cub and hunted grizzlies for three weeks. They saw many very large bears and each killed one. 

Gordon went back to the area in 1976 after black bear. On a hike through the tundra bog, he found the bones of a bear partially frozen in the moss. It was a grizzly, a very old and big one. He cleaned up the skull a bit, put it in his attic, and subsequently forgot about it. Three decades later during a home remodel project, he found it hidden away and had it scored. How’s that for an attic find?

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The Flathead Lake Monster

Category: Bighorn Sheep
Owner: Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks 
Location: Montana  
Score: 216 3/8 

The place is called Wild Horse Island State Park, which is surrounded by the waters of western Montana’s Flathead Lake. It should be called Did You See the Horns on That Ram State Park. Rams here are allowed to grow old and die of natural causes because hunting isn’t allowed. Found in 2016, the nine-year-old ram that became the new world’s record was well-photographed and known to many. And the conservation success story of this island is just as interesting as that ram’s massive curls. 

Over the past century, ownership of the island changed numerous times. Over the years, various owners tried to get a bighorn sheep herd to take root. The first sheep introductions took place in 1917 without success. In 1939, more sheep were introduced, and they survived. More sheep were unloaded by landowners in 1947. By 1954, the herd was up to ninety. At a time when sheep populations around the West were declining, the island’s sheep population was doing so well that fifty-four sheep were relocated off the island to supplement fledgling populations. Today, the island is a state park and managed as a primitive recreation area. To read more about this special place, check out this article. 

Even though these rams aren’t hunted, they are still eligible for the records.“Regarding the trophies being ineligible due to the lack of hunting pressure, the records were never intended to serve as a competition among hunters or to list only hunter-taken game,” wrote Justin Spring, director of Big Game Records, in Great Rams IV.  “The idea that somehow these sheep are any less valuable or deserving than a hunter-taken ram is simply not true.” 

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Big Grey Blobs at Low Tide

Category: Pacific Walrus 
Owner: Ralph Young 
Location: Alaska  
Score: 147 4/8 

Pilots in Alaska see a lot of crazy things, especially at low tide. When the weather turns nasty, that’s when the spoils of the sea really start to come alive. Piles of driftwood, Japanese glass ball floats, and dead animals litter the shoreline. For pilot Ralph Young of Bristol Bay, Alaska, he had developed a keen eye for walrus caracasses. 

In the summer of 1997, he was flying the low tide line when he spotted “a gray, oblong form washed up on the sand.” He investigated. It was a walrus carcass with a modest pair of tusks. He landed, salvaged the skull and took off. A short time later, he “spotted another giant monarch up ahead.” He landed on the hard pack and took off with his spoils. 

The second pair of tusks seemed to stand out from all the others. When a friend from California arrived, they decided to have an old-fashioned walrus boil to measure the true length of the tusks. After four hours of simmering walrus brains, the men removed the thirteen-pound tusks. With ten-inch diameter bases and lengths exceeding three feet, they thought they had something special. In fact, they had the biggest Pacific walrus tusks known to exist. 

We should note that, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “Alaska Native peoples who reside in Alaska and dwell on the coast may harvest Pacific walruses for subsistence and handicraft purposes. Because the harvest must be accomplished in a non-wasteful manner, taking walrus only for their ivory is not allowed.” It’s likely because of this that five of the top ten entries are all pick-ups. 

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Backyard Bull

Category: Tule Elk 
Owner: Jeff & Julie Lopeteguy 
Location: California 
Score: 379

Jeff and Julie Lopeteguy were used to having tule elk wander through their ranch, sometimes stopping within a few yards from the backdoor. “For years, we have enjoyed watching these ‘giant fellas’ rest, graze, and roam freely on our property,” Jeff wrote. Their ranch sits in Northern California, nestled between the tiny towns of Elk Creek and Stonyford. 

In October 2005, a large bull was found dead near their home. California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists could not determine a cause of death and returned the skull and massive rack to the family. The bull was likely around seven years old, and it was quite possibly some sort of record, a game officer told the family. It was, in fact, a record as it eclipsed the previous world record by fourteen points, according to Big Game Records LIVE. 

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A Case of Mistaken Identity 

Category: Black Bear 
Owner: Cabela’s 
Location: UT  
Score: 23 10/16 

Found in Utah in 1976, the skull on this bear was so big that it needed to be verified that it wasn’t actually a grizzly bear. According to Boone and Crockett records, the “old carcass was found on Buck Ridge” by Alma Kund and Merrill Daniels in Sanpete County. There was no indication regarding the cause of death. A tooth from the skull was aged by Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, which found the old bear to be fourteen years old. 

To ensure the beast was in fact a black bear, the skull was taken to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. by Jack Reneau, who was then the director of Big Game Records. Museum staff compared skulls from grizzlies and black bears that they had on file from Utah, apparently. The matter was settled when the third molar on the soon-to-be trophy clearly identified it as a black bear. That molar was much smaller than that of a grizzly of comparable size. From the records: “This latter feature, according to the Smithsonian personnel, is an infallible character, which can be used to separate black bear skulls from grizzly bear skulls.” Decades later, Cabela’s purchased the skull from Merrill Daniels for an unknown sum. 

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