A 325″ class bull is bigger than many elk hunters will ever encounter a 350″ elk will really get your attention. I have been fortunate to hunt some of the nation’s top trophy areas, and I have come across some big bulls in my time. When first mounted many years after the kill, it was fitted with the biggest elk cape to be found. One antler has a basal circumference of over 12 inches, and two points are more than 25 inches long. The rack at its greatest spread tapes at over 51 inches, with 7 points on one side and 8 points on the other. In person it is very nearly overwhelming, and it takes some time to evaluate its true size as the eye struggles to gain perspective.
Photographs simply don’t convey the magnificence of this specimen, and you can barely fit it within the view finder anyway. The formalities took a little longer yet, until it was officially recognized by the Boone and Crockett Club as the new World’s Record Elk in 1961, The final score came in at a jaw-dropping 442 3/8 points. It later passed to the stepson of the saloon owner, who dragged it out of storage and submitted the first unofficial measurement of its antlers in 1955. An inveterate bachelor, a miner, and a mountain man, he traded the head to the local saloon keeper in payment of an overdue bar bill. He was also known to be a colorful character. More than likely, he was usually not too concerned about the size of a bull’s headgear.
Plute was a good hunter, and he often traded wild game for the goods that he needed. He has quite a history, this bull, and I can only imagine that his story only survives because of luck and some divine providence. It is here, in 1899, that John Plute of Crested Butte, Colorado looked down his rifle barrel and laid down one of the largest set of elk antlers ever recorded.
BIGGEST BULL ELK EVER SHOT LICENSE
But it was the backdrop, with some poetic license included, of a monumental event in the big game hunting world. No, this is not the scene of some campy, dramatic flick, as mysterious and foreboding as it may sound. We catch our breath as we climb up the Devil’s Staircase, towards the great unknowns of the Ruby Range and the perils of the Ragged Mountains…
The high, whistling notes are nearly overcome by the falls above, the waters now airborne, flying from the cliffs towards Anthracite Creek. …An elk bugle echoes down and around us in the half-light of early morning, as the towering walls of Dark Canyon take over the skyline. A Legend in Elk Genetics A Dark Canyon Monarch.
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