Shelly Sayer is no stranger to the Boone and Crockett record books. Over the years, the Idaho native has made the books for everything from bighorn, stone, and dall sheep to grizzly bear, mountain lion, and bull elk. But her most notable big-game animal to date is the enormous bull moose she just killed in the South Hills of her home state late last month.
A Last-Minute Lottery Tag Opportunity
Sayer was hunting with Deadline Outfitters out of Twin Falls when she shot the moose, she tells Field & Stream. “The outfitter called me a few months ago and said I should be playing the super-tag lottery because he had a big one, likely over 200 inches,” Sayer says. “I was heading to a sheep hunt in British Columbia when Idaho Fish & Game called to tell me I’d won the tag. I only had five minutes to contact the outfitter and tell them I’d be there on opening day.”
IDFG hands out 34 Super Hunt tags each year. Hunters either put in for their chosen species or for a Combo Super Hunt Tag for multiple species, which is even harder to draw. There’s no limit to the amount of Super Hunt tags participating hunters can purchase. Winners of the single-species tag, like Sayer, can participate in any open hunt in the state for the species they draw.
Sayer says she left her B.C. sheep hunt a day early to make it back to Idaho in time for opening day of moose season—August 30th. “My family and I got to the lodge the night before the opener, and the guides came in and told us they’d just bedded the big bull,” she recalls. “We got in there early the next morning, but he was already gone.”
After searching the bedding area, the group hiked through a creek bed where the outfitter had spotted the moose before. “We didn’t see any sign of him there, so at the last minute, we decided to have some guys brush a tree patch nearby,” she says. “I positioned myself so I’d have a good shot if he came out. Sure enough, they pushed him right out.”
A Running Shot
The moose came out of the tree patch at dead run, Sayer says. Despite the fist shot from her custom-made Red Rock Precision 7mm Short Action Ultra Magnum (7SAUM) misfiring, she managed to get three quick shots into the running moose from about 100 yards away.
“He stoped behind a patch of aspens, and I pulled up to shoot again,” she says. “The guide said, ‘Don’t take that shot. It’s too difficult.’ I told him I could kill him with that shot. He said, “OK, take it,’ and that was that.”
When Sayer walked up to the moose, she realized it was every bit as big as the guides had expected. “The pictures and videos I’d seen didn’t do it justice,” she said. “It was a magnificent animal.”
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Sayer’s moose has a preliminary green-gross score of 212 inches, a net score of 208 1/2, and a 55-inch antler spread. The current B&C Worlds Record for Shiras moose—the subspecies found throughout the Rocky Mountains—is 205 4/8 net. It was shot near Green River Lake, Wyoming in 1952. Sayer will find out if her moose officially takes the top spot after a mandatory 60-day drying period.
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