Whitetail hunter Ryan Muirhead had set out to fill his buck tag on December 12, the final day of Minnesota ’s muzzleloader season, but little did he know he would bump into a huge 9 x 10 bull elk with antlers that may rewrite the record books. The manner in which he found the bull was even more extraordinary…it was pinned flat on its back with its antlers stuck in the mud.

The bull’s antlers green-scored 475 5/8 gross, with a net of 456 4/8 on the Boone and Crockett scale. Based on the green score alone, the elk ranks as the third largest nontypical in the world and the largest ever bull elk in Minnesota. The Boone and Crockett nontypical world record elk, a 9 x 14 taken in 2008 on public land in Utah, scored an amazing 478 5/8 with a gross of 499 3/8.

“The big bull elk was on his back, chest heaving, steam pouring from his nose,” he recalls.“He’d been kicking for quite a while and he was worn out.” On closer examination they saw that the animal’s antlers appeared to be embedded in the muddy ground, pinning its head to the snow. “He’d stuck himself like turtle upside down. No way he was moving. We just sat there for a while trying to think what to do,” Muirhead says. “We were in awe.”

The guys sought help from a local rancher, who supplied a two-by-four, which they used as a lever to pry the rack from the ground. “It took a few minutes, but we finally got him three-quarters of the way turned and he flopped over and staggered off. You could see by the holes in the ground how his antlers had been dug down in the mud 8 to 10 inches.”

The bull didn’t go far. “His legs were like Jello. He kind of staggered to the fence and fell down. We all backed off and let him be. After resting a few minutes, the bull stood and began walking toward the woods. “I just had to go back; I knew he wasn’t going to make it far.” On Tuesday, December 14, Muirhead returned to the site with his wife, Josie. They found the bull 600 yards back in the woods.

Since the elk was on state land, Muirhead called the Minnesota DNR so that he could have a chance of legally possessing the antlers. Interestingly, the record bull elk was found in an area where elk hunting is prohibited in Minnesota. Finding this big bruiser dead was the only way a hunter could have legally bagged this monster elk. Now the head, giant antlers included, hang in his house. Heck of a deer hunt!

Population management is often a key part of wildlife management when it comes to large ungulates such as elk, which can negatively impact areas where they are found in large numbers. Elk overpopulation is a non-issue for the most part, but there are areas in North America where elk numbers, at least for short periods of time, can cause potential problems. One of the places that experiences healthy elk numbers in addition large numbers of humans in Estes National Park, Colorado.

The video above documents some of the problems elk pose when humans create urban developments in the elk’s native range. Male elk are referred to as bulls, females as cows. Bull elk are large animals that often fight for dominance with other bull elk. Often times, elevated testosterone levels can create agitated animals that do not tolerate the invasion of their space. The above video even shows a few close calls with eager tourist ready to document there close encounters with Colorado’s free-ranging elk.

The important think to keep in mind is that the elk were there first. Yes, elk can cause problems, but much of the “problem” seems to stem not from the elk, but because of the tourist destination the elk themselves become. If you head up to Estes National Park, Colorado, just be careful!

“The city is located inside Estes National Park and are therefore a protected species and no elk hunting is allowed in that area. The residents are used to them out there, and accept them as part of the National Park the city is there to support. The city is in? a tourist area, and without the Elk and the National Park, it wouldn’t exist. There’s no public hunting in a National Park, so we don’t lose that herd, an important National Resource. We protect them so future generations will be able to enjoy them!”

The big elk was shot in Idaho and after looking at these photos I must say this animal is very, very impressive. I myself have never been elk hunting, but have been wanting to get up into Colorado or Wyoming sometime soon. Looks like Idaho is a pretty good option, too! Here is what I got in an email:

“When officially measured by SCI in 60 days, this will be the new world record for a typical elk. The current score done on this potential World Record Elk by an SCI Master Measurer is 525 typical and 546 non-typical. This animal will be the number 1 typical and number 4 non-typical. Forget it’s score and look at the mass of each point and you will realize how unique this bull really is.

The guy in the photo harvested this big elk at the Broadmouth Canyon Ranch in Idaho on August 18. It was a challenging elk hunt on horse back and by foot in the middle of the Black Foot Mountains of Idaho. The result — a world record elk! Priceless!!”

Habitat managment is the cornerstone of willdife restoration, but an important component of managing habitat can be simply preserving it. This has never been more true when it comes to managing Texas’s bighorn sheep herd. Recently, Texas Bighorn Society members David and Theresa Wetzel of Irving have received the Wild Sheep Foundation’s prestigious Gordon Eastman Grass Roots Award.

The late Gordon Eastman of Eastman’s Outdoor World created the award to be presented at the Wild Sheep Foundation’s (WSF) national annual convention, held this year in Reno, Nev. Eastman’s intention was to honor the hard-working members of the various WSF chapters and affiliates who get almost no recognition for their unending efforts to further the existence of North American bighorn sheep.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Deparment’s Wildlife Division Region 2 Director Clay Brewer of Brownwood, who was on hand when the award was presented, says the Wetzels, who have been instrumental in raising more than $1 million for desert bighorn sheep restoration, had no idea they had even been nominated for the award.

As far as Brewer knows, the only other Texan to receive this award is Tommy Caruthers, founding father of the both the national and state organizations. This is a great honor for the Wetzel family, but more importantly all the important work they’ve done for wildlife habitat preservation. This has undoubted helped with habitat restoration and now record bighorn sheep population in Texas.

Elk range throughout mountainous parts of Colorado, foraging in meadows and alpine tundra on grasses, forbs, and browse. They are herd animals, sometimes moving in herds of 200 to 300 individuals. Colorado is the elk capital of the world with more than 280,000 elk! And since the state of Colorado has more elk than anyone else, who better than to teach even more about this majestical creatures?

The newest video in the “a.m. Colorado” series takes you to a mountain meadow in Arapaho National Forest where you will spend an autumn morning in the company of a herd of Rocky Mountain elk. In this video, you can watch from your front-row seat as magnificent bulls tend their harems of elegant cows and sleek calves. Hear the mighty bugling of the bulls, and listen to the seldom-heard vocalizations of the cows as they communicate with the herd.

Watch the Video!