It’s official: New world record Roosevelt’s elk smashes old mark

The records department of the Boone and Crockett Club recently convened a Special Judges Panel to verify the entry score of a Roosevelt’s elk received earlier this year. 

Two separate teams of judges remeasured the entry and adjusted the score from 439 7/8 points to 455 2/8 points.

“The main objective of any panel, whether it be a Special Judges Panel or Awards Judges Panel, is to confirm the accepted entry score,” said Kyle Lehr, the Club’s director of big game records. “Sometimes differences in measurements are discovered through this process, and corrections need to be made. In the case of Mr. Carpenter's Roosevelt's elk, those differences resulted in an increase in score.” 

Timothy Carpenter killed the bull on September 21, 2023, in Humboldt County, California. Carpenter’s elk smashes the previous world record of 419-6/8 points taken by Rick Bailey in British Columbia in 2015. No stranger to big elk, Carpenter has multiple Roosevelt’s elk in the records, including a 2011 bull that scored 398-1/8, which is the current archery world’s record.

The Boone and Crockett Club has been measuring North American big game since 1895. As a way to evaluate the success of conservation efforts the Club began keeping records in the 1920s and released the first record book in 1932.

Before Carpernter’s entry could be made official, Boone and Crockett Club procedures require that the final score of a potential world record be verified by either an Awards Program Judges Panel or a Special Judges Panel. In this case, the Club held a Special Judges Panel in Verdi, Nevada. The measurers included the panel chairman and veteran measurer Victor Clark, Tim Humes, John Capurro, Slade Sanborn, and Jeff Simmons.

Carpenter, 39, splits his work between guiding elk hunters in the fall and working as a wildlife biologist in the spring. He rarely gets a day to hunt for himself, but he is able to get out in the field often. “It is very rewarding to be part of any successful Roosevelt’s elk hunt,” Carpenter says. “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.”

Roosevelt’s elk are one of three subspecies of North American elk for which the Boone and Crockett Club keeps records. Named after Club founder Theodore Roosevelt, Roosevelt’s elk are found exclusively in the Pacific Northwest, ranging from northern California up through British Columbia’s mainland and into Alaska.

They are the biggest elk subspecies, with bulls weighing as much as 1,100 pounds. Carpenter estimates the bull was 11 or 12 years old. “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.” 

“Every animal is a trophy,” says Tony A. Schoonen, chief executive officer of the Boone and Crockett Club. “Sometimes, truly magnificent animals are taken that represent North America's conservation success story. That’s really what we’re celebrating.”