World Record Moose Bagged

[Lee Borgersen]

               Possible World Record Moose Bagged in Yukon
 October 23, 2013 
 
Heinz Naef (right) helps to hold up what may be the largest Yukon-Alaska moose rack in the world.

Heinz Naef of Dawson City, Canada may just be able to lay claim to a world record after a successful moose hunt last month. According to the Whitehorse Daily Star, Naef bagged the trophy bull on a stretch of land where the Stewart and Yukon rivers met on September 25. Naef is a veteran hunter and has been walking through the woods of Yukon for more than 20 years, but he said that the massive, silent bull he saw that day was a sight to behold.

“It would be kind of neat for a Yukoner to have the largest moose ever taken,” he said.

Naef was in a hunting party of eight, including his son Brian, when the bull responded to his calls. Naef said the bull sounded like a “empty fuel drum,” and he estimated it to be upwards of 10 years old. The hunters had an easy time finding the moose, which had been using its antlers on nearby trees to warn away rivals. Naef crouched down and dispatched the animal with shots from an old rifle chambered in .303 British. The bull weighed about 1,250 pounds before field-dressing, which Naef did with the help of his son and friends. The animal itself was not extraordinarily large compared to the size of its rack, which has a chance of replacing the current world record for Alaska-Yukon moose. According to Boone & Crockett Club, the Yukon moose is reported at an unofficial 262 inches or above. The score it will have to beat is 261 and 5/8 inches.

“The current world record was killed in 2004 by John Crouse near the Fortymile River, Alaska,” Boone & Crockett’s Justin Spring told OutdoorHub.

Spring is the Club’s assistant director of big game records and says that they have been getting a lot of feedback regarding Naef’s contender. Spring explained that the Yukon bull is currently estimated to score between 262 and 275, although it will get smaller after the 60-day drying period. The rack will likely be officially scored sometime in early December, just in time for the holidays.

If confirmed, it might be the first Yukon moose to hold the world record. Since the Boone & Crockett Club began its current record-keeping system in the 1950s, Alaskan harvests have overwhelmingly held onto the record moose category.

Image courtesy Boone & Crockett Club

[glenn57]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that's what I call a nice rack!!!!!!!!!!

[Lee Borgersen]

                      New Update: 

New World Record Alaska-Yukon Moose Scored at 263-1/8
  December 10, 2013   
 
Heinz Naef took this enormous moose on September 25.

A new world record for Alaska-Yukon moose has been recorded by the Boone and Crockett Club, one of the official record-keeping organizations for big game in North America. On September 25, Heinz Naef of Dawson City, Canada bagged a moose that has been scored at 263-1/8 net at the meeting of the Stewart and Yukon rivers that can be only described as enormous. Even after a lifetime of hunting moose, Naef said that the animal gave him a shock that day.

“He was a big boy and I could see him maybe 60 yards away in the bush. He was trying to weave his enormous antlers through bush,” the hunter recalled in an interview with the CBC.

Naef dispatched the animal at 35 yards with an old rifle chambered in .303 and netted about 1,250 pounds of moose meat. It was the meat that Naef was after, and he paid little attention to the animal’s massive antlers. The moose was dressed and headed to his freezer while its headgear were lopped off with a chainsaw. It was not until later that Naef thought about submitting the antlers for a record.

As a subsistence hunter, Naef summarizes the local attitude neatly when he says, “we’re not trophy hunters out here, we’re meat hunters.”

That does not mean that he is not proud of his achievement. Naef was present when Boone and Crockett measurer Clint Walker and his team judged the rack. Walker wrote about the measuring process below:

I approached the hunter, Heinz Naef, and in a quiet tone that could still be heard by everyone in the nearly silent room I said, “Well Heinz, no matter what the measurements are, you have yourself a really great trophy right there” as I pointed to the rack on the table. He humbly hung his head a little, clasped his giant hands together and replied, “Thank you, I know, I know…”

I looked at him for a couple seconds and followed with, “Unfortunately……..(- insert long pause here- and at which point the room let out a collective groan), you are going to have to get it measured by the panel because I have it officially measured at an inch and a half…….. (- insert another pause here-) ……… larger than the current world record!”

The room then erupted deafeningly with cheers of congratulations for the hunter while pictures and backslaps were certainly aplenty following that moment.

The previous record was harvested by John Crouse near Alaska’s Fortymile River in 1994. That moose scored 261-5/8.

However, the path to a world record for this moose is not complete yet. Naef will have to bring the antlers for a panel scoring in Reno, Nevada for verification, although at this point many can agree that it is only a formality. As for what happened to the rest of moose, Naef tells CBC that the harvest should last him until next fall, at the very least.

“It is the best meat you can get in the world,” Naef said.

Image courtesy Boone and Crockett Club

[Goosepond Monster]

That's a heck of a moose.