Jim Schwalbe, 61, has been hunting hard for a lot of years and all those miles and frozen fingers and sore muscles paid off in a very big way on Nov. 30 when the Big Sky hunter shot a record bull elk with just 15 minutes left in the season.

“I hunted really hard the last week once it started snowing,” Schwalbe, 61, said Monday. “I had been out 15 different times looking for a big elk. I had gotten one that was six-by-seven and I told myself I wasn’t going to shoot anything smaller. … I was chewing the corners off my tag. I figured I was eating it.”

With just a few minutes left in the season, Schwalbe spotted a six-point bull elk, but as soon as he caught sight of the bull it spotted him. The animal fled down the mountainside into a draw. Schwalbe took off running after it.

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When Schwalbe reached the draw, he saw his six-point bull – and three others. One looked bigger than the rest. Schwalbe shot four times, hitting the bull twice.

“It was the biggest bull I have ever seen,” Schwalbe said. “I didn’t want to see him get into the timber, but I didn’t really know what I had until I came up on him.”

What Schwalbe came up on was not only the biggest elk he’d ever shot, but one for the record books – an eight-by-eight bull of staggering proportions.

In the coming days, word of Schwalbe’s elk quickly spread across the Internet. Forum posts and social media lit up. The hashtag #montanagiant was born. The few cellphone images captured of the bull fueled the frenzy. The elk’s rumored score ballooned to an astonishing 444 and beyond.

“I knew when I saw the photos that it was just going to explode out across Montana and the nation,” said Fred King, the Boone and Crockett Club official measurer who scored the elk. “When that happened, I knew I would start getting calls.”

The first call came from Schwalbe’s friend, Bob Milligan, who contacted King early last week to request an official scoring. When King arrived at Milligan’s garage in Big Sky last Wednesday, there were around 20 hunters gathered.

King said his first impression of the bull was that it was not just big, but a beautiful trophy elk.

“One certainly to be proud of as a hunter,” King said. “The elk had all the qualities you would want to see as a hunter – the mass of the beam, length of the points, length of the main beam. The old bull grew a couple of non-typical points that added to the personality and the beauty of the rack.

“What Jim’s bull represents is what all wild animals need to survive – food, shelter, water and especially space,” King said. “For that bull to survive as long as he did, Jim’s opportunity to harvest that animal is just an expression of the success of the North American Model of wildlife conservation.”

King green scored the bull at 423 7/8. After deductions, Schwalbe’s bull scored 396 3/8. That would rank the elk in the top 25 taken in Montana.

“If that score holds, Jim would be tied right around 163th in the world. That is magnificent,” King said. “From my experience in scoring trophies since 1984, what I have found is any time you get a trophy even approaching book minimum it is an amazing animal.”

After the rack dries for 60 days, King will measure the bull again for the official Boone and Crockett Club “Records of North American Big Game.”

Schwalbe, whose camera froze up in the cold, took just a single photograph of the elk. Cellphone pictures taken by friends have now been seen by hunters across the country. The response to the elk took Schwalbe by surprise.

“I usually just shoot them, take them home, butcher them and eat them,” he said. “This is the first picture of any of my animals. And it is funny, because I don’t do social media. I sent that photo to my two brothers and my two kids. I didn’t expect this to happen at all.”

Part of the bull’s appeal was the fact that Schwalbe took the elk on public land. Internet forums were full of speculation with hunters clamoring over the bull’s location. While he wouldn’t reveal the hunting district, Schwalbe said the animal was taken on public ground in southwest Montana.

“Doing canned hunts on private property, it seems like cheating to me,” Schwalbe said. “They are managing those bulls on private ranches for people that can afford to pay the money.”

For his part, Schwalbe said he’ll keep hunting his old haunts.

And he’ll keep the secrets to himself.

“I have had some pretty good seasons, but this was the best one,” Schwalbe said. “At 61 years old, I ain’t no spring chicken, but I think it helps. I have slowed down. I’m a little more patient. I will keep hunting.”