Utah elk sets record

By The Montana Standard Staff - 01/06/2009

In this Sept. 30, 2008, photo released Monday by the Boone and Crockett Club, Denny Austad of Ammon, Idaho, poses with his prize elk in southcentral Utah. The bull elk shot in Utah set a Boone and Crockett Club record. AP photo

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A bull elk shot in Utah has set a Boone and Crockett Club record.

The club's measurement system considers antler size, symmetry and configuration. A panel of judges awarded 478 5/8 Boone and Crockett points for the elk.

The elk was shot by Denny Austad of Ammon, Idaho, on Sept. 30 in south-central Utah.

The club says Austad hunted for 13 days before getting the animal, which has been dubbed "spider bull" for its antler configuration.

Eldon Buckner, chairman of the club's Records of North American Big Game committee, says club officials talked with the hunter, his guides and state and federal officials to make sure the elk was wild and the hunt adhered to fair chase standards.

The previous record for a hunter-killed elk was 450 6/8 Boone and Crockett points for one taken in 1998 in Arizona.

Founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887, the Boone and Crockett Club is headquartered in Missoula. The group advocates for fair chase hunts and habitat conservation for big game in North America.