The Brooks bull, an enormous Rocky Mountain elk tagged in Washington state in December, is officially the new nontypical archery world-record, the Pope and Young Club announced Tuesday.
A joint panel of official scorers determined a final score of 478 ⅜ inches on Monday. As expected, this easily puts bowhunter Casey Brooks’ bull at the top of the Pope and Young record books. The previous archery world-record nontypical measured 449 4/8 inches, and was killed by Alberta farmer Shawn O’Shea in 2020.
The Brooks bull was also in contention to unseat the Spider Bull, the reigning nontypical world-record in the Boone and Crockett record books, which accepts big game killed by any legal method. The Spider Bull measures 478 5/8 — just 2/8 inch more than the panel score for Brooks’ bull. In March, multiple P&Y scorers had determined that the Brooks bull measured 482 4/8 inches; because potential world-record animals must be panel scored, however, that score was unofficial.
The loss of 4 1/8 inches in the bull’s final score was due to one of the bull’s G-4 tines, according to P&Y CEO Justin Spring.
“Once the panel looked at it, there was a G-4 question. ‘Is it a single point or two points?’ That’s the only thing that changed from the initial scoring. Everything else was confirmed,” says Spring. “[The G-4 question] was just a difficult point designation that was clarified by the panel, which concluded that it did not meet the definition of a common base and therefore needed to be scored as a single projection of a point off of a point.”
Brooks wasn’t present for the panel scoring, nor was he put out by taking the No. 2 all-time spot after the Spider Bull. Instead, he says he was grateful for achieving his years-long goal of trying to shoot a world-record elk with his bow.
“I appreciate Boone and Crockett. They’re the professionals [on elk]. I just hunt elk and eat them, I’m not too sure on all that scoring,” jokes Brooks, who has arrowed dozens of trophy bulls over the years. “I got what I was after, and it’s going to be very hard to beat [this record].”
This panel score represents the first time a potential world-record animal was scored by a joint panel of measurers from both record-keeping organizations, according to Spring, who was formerly the director of big game records for B&C.
“It’s a beautiful elk, and I just feel so blessed and so fortunate that God made such a beautiful animal and gave me the opportunity to hunt him,” Brooks told OL on Monday. “It’s amazing. I’m thrilled. I’m happy. So the Spider Bull stands, and I’ll be right there on his heels. And I’ll be looking for another one.”
Read Next: The Real Story Behind the Casey Brooks Bull, the Pending World Record Elk
Brooks, now 60, shot the bull on Dec. 31 on a 40-acre property where he had secured permission in central Washington. The bull’s sheer size and the location of the hunt spawned unfounded rumors that Brooks had committed game violations. An investigation by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife determined Brooks had done everything by the book. Meanwhile, one of his most vocal critics on social media, Aaron Whitefoot, had been investigated or cited by WDFW for hunting violations at least four times from 2011 to 2020, according to records obtained by Outdoor Life.
Andrew McKean and Dac Collins contributed reporting.
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