Possible World Record Moose Bagged in Yukon
OutdoorHub Reporters 10.23.13
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 1994 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.
