But the likelihood that the antlers would shrink so much that they don’t beat the Arizona bull are fairly slim.

“The green score of this bull is 4-3/8 higher than the current No. 4 typical bull in Boone and Crockett’s All-time Records,” Boone and Crockett reported on its website. According to Spring, “This bull may well be the largest typical American elk taken in the last 48 years.”

In comparison, the highest scoring typical elk ever taken by a rifle hunter in Montana scored 419-4/8 and was shot by Fred Mercer. The largest elk shot by an archer in Montana scored 409-2/8 and was taken by Chuck Adams on a private ranch in Eastern Montana. A “typical” elk has symmetrical antlers whereas a “nontypical” elk has antlers that are oddly shaped.

This new elk was shot by a Montana hunter who asked Boone and Crockett to keep his name and where he hunted secret until his buddy can get to the same spot and fill his tag before other ambitious hunters overrun the countryside, Spring said.