Pope & Young Club Announces 4 New World’s Records, in Hunting

CHATFIELD, MN — Four new World’s Records were officially recognized during the Pope and Young Club’s 26th Biennial Convention and Awards Banquet in Denver, Colorado, this spring.

Species: Polar bear
Score: 26 10/16
Location: Cape Brown, Northwest Territories
Bowhunter: Jimmie Ryan
Year: 2008

This bear bested a World’s Record that had stood since Richard McIntire’s Alaska polar bear shot in 1958 (which was tied by a 2002 bear from Nunavut).

Species: Roosevelt’s elk
Score: 378 6/8
Location: Columbia County, Oregon
Bowhunter: Clifford M. Hayden
Year: 1991

The gigantic coastal rainforest elk exceeded the previous world’s record by over 11 inches (367 3/8, Tillamook County, Oregon, Dale Baumgartner, 1985).

Species: Tule elk
Score: 312 5/8
Location: Solano County, California
Bowhunter: Audrey Goodnight
Year: 1990

Audrey’s bull is the first declared world’s record for a new record book category that was formally introduced last year. Found in central California, Tule elk are an elk subspecies that exhibit the similar crowning point structure as do Roosevelt’s elk, found on the west coast further to the north. Since establishing the category July 1, 2008, the Pope and Young Club has accepted 22 Tule elk entries into the Records.

Species: Desert Bighorn sheep
Score: 178 6/8
Location: Hidalgo County, New Mexico
Bowhunter: Jim Hens
Year: 2007

New York state bowhunter Jim Hens traveled to New Mexico on a lengthy hunt that resulted in a ram that narrowly surpassed the previous world’s record (178 2/8, Tiburon Island, Mexico, George Harms, 2000).

Just over 100 of the biggest and best animals taken in the last two years were requested and received for verification by the 26th Biennium Panel Judging Session prior to the Denver Convention. These outstanding specimen represented all 34 categories of North American big game and were displayed in an unforgettable public exhibit during the three-day convention in Denver.

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Established in 1961, the Pope and Young Club is a non-profit North American conservation and bowhunting organization dedicated to the promotion and protection of our bowhunting heritage, hunting ethics and wildlife conservation. The Club also maintains the universally recognized repository for the records and statistics on North American big game animals harvested with the bow and arrow.

For information on joining the Pope and Young Club, please contact: Pope and Young Club, Box 548, Chatfield, MN 55923, 507-867-4144, www.pope-young.org