Archive for September, 2005
There is no question the 2005 archery season will go down in history as one of the best. What seals the deal on this assumption is another amazing buck taken in Saskatchewan. Reports of this buck have been surfacing around the Internet that it scores around 274 non-typical. But the big question is this score a gross or net score. Can you believe that this is the NET score!
Two hunting buddies were laying in the brush for five hours and the buck finally stood up and they both shot with their bows and both of them hit the buck. The buck did not go far before it went down. Both arrows hit just four inches apart. The buck green scores 290 gross and 277 net non-typical.
This buck opens up again the great debate on the next world record archery buck. This buck could be big enough to challenge the official Pope & Young World Record non-typical buck which scores 274 7/8 net from Colorado taken byKenneth Plank in 1987.
This Saskatchewan buck would have to be stripped of its velvet and then go through a panel scoring process before it could be confirmed any kind of world record. However, this buck could keep its velvet and be classified in velvet category, but have no world record status. The biggest archery velvet non-typical buck record in Pope & Young scores 264 6/8 taken by Bruce Felker in Arizona.
I will keep you posted…
September 29th, 2005
I had the opportunity to score a very pretty elk last Thursday night. My friend and neighbor Chad Olson had been after this elk and was able to get some very good footage of this bull. Chad had a rifle tag and his brother Brandon had a archery tag for the Manti unit here in Utah. They had a chance during the archery hunt, but unfortunately he was not able to find the bull again. Wednesday night the 21st of September, Bonnie Nielson of Ephraim, Utah came into town with a great bull. It didn’t take long before we knew this was the same bull.
I had the chance to look at the footage of this bull a couple of weeks ago. We were trying to field judge the best we could on what this bull would score. He was very pretty with good fronts and very long main beams. After looking at the footage I was hoping he would reach the 390 gross mark.
When I got the phone call on Thursday about this bull being in town, I was anxious to have an opportunity to score it and see how I did on my field judging. The main draw back to the bull was that he broke his right third point, losing about five inches. I was guessing he had 60 inch main beams when looking at the footage. After scoring the bull the right beam was 60 2/8 inches long. But the surprise was the left beam was a little shorter and came in at 56 6/8 inches. With the broken third point I ended up gross scoring the bull at 380 B&C. If the third point would have been intact (like he was on the video), he would have scored 385 gross. I was off about five inches. Where I went wrong with my field judging is I had accounted for both main beams pushing 60 inches. This is where I lost four inches and the bull would have grossed 389 - pretty close to my guess of 390.
That is why I enjoy having the chance to field judge a bull I get to score later because you learn more and more and where you went wrong. Maybe next time I can get a little closer!
Here are some pics of the antlers the night I scored it:
This pic shows the great main beam that reaches out to 60 inches
and the broken third point.
What a great bull! Look at the great beam length on both sides.
Great fronts and beams - this bull has it all.
September 26th, 2005
You may have heard about a monster typical bull that was just recently taken in Arizona by Shawn Patterson. Shawn was guided by John McClendon and Sons and his amazing typical archery bull is coming in with a green score of 432 5/8 gross and 415 net and is a new pending world record for P&Y. The bull is a 7×7 typical and carries great backs and beams.
However, there could be another bull that was just taken that could even challenge this great Arizona bull. This archery elk has the most incredible backs I have ever seen on a typical bull elk. The bull’s fifth and sixth points match the height of the royal points (fourths). I do not know yet what the green score is on this bull, but 430 plus on the gross score would seem pretty safe. He will have some deductions as it has a short abnormal point coming off from the right royal point that seems to be four to five inches long. Also, the left side has a seventh typical point that is not matched on the right side. What state did this bull come from? Idaho.
There has been some speculation about this bull, whether it is a high fence bull or really a fair chase bull. The monster Idaho bull with the huge backs is in fact a high fence bull. It may be a new world record within the SCI scoring method for high fence, but it is not eligible for Pope and Young. There are not too many high fence bulls that actually really make you look twice, or even a third time. Regardless, this bull is very impressive.
So for now, the Shawn Patterson Arizona bull is still at the top for pending records.
September 24th, 2005
If you remember a massive whitetail that was generating a lot of buzz around the Internet during the fall of 2003, you will then recognize this great whitetail deer. Chad Goetten took this amazing whitetail in Illinois. Chad recently emailed his great buck to us to get posted in our trophy room. Thanks Chad, and what a great buck. You will also see Chad’s buck in a future King’s Calendar.
Those of you out here in the West will understand when I say that Chad’s whitetail could very well be the whitetail version of the Buck of Justice. The Buck of Justice was declared ‘the world’s most massive deer’ when the sheds were found to this great mule deer back in the mid 1990s in southern Utah. The buck was never harvested, but multiple sets of the sheds were found over the years. The most recent set were found by Dennis Shirley in 2001 while on a sheep hunt.
Chad’s 23-point whitetail buck scores 234 7/8 non-typical B&C. It was the largest gun kill in Illinois in 2003. So how massive is the Goetten buck? The buck has over 55 inches of mass and is one of the most massive whitetail listed in B&C.
Here is a great shot of Chad’s massive Illinois whitetail
Here is the last set of sheds from the Buck of Justice picked up by Dennis Shirley in 2001
King’s Outdoor World featured one of the first sets of sheds found of the Buck of Justice in our Original Magnificent Seven Print in 1996. The set that Dennis Shirley picked up were featured in our 2003 King’s Mule Deer Calendar and the story of how he found the sheds and the actual remains to this buck has been featured in our Hunting Illustrated Magazine.
September 22nd, 2005
The early archery mule deer season for 2005 is turning to be down right spectacular. Last year it was definitely the year of the record typical velvet mule deer as a handful of record book archery bucks were taken in Nevada, Colorado and Saskatchewan. Heading the pack was Greg Krogh’s Nevada buck that scores 202 3/8 net typical and is the new #2 all time velvet typical mule deer. All three of the aforementioned bucks were featured in our April/May 2005 “Best of 2004″ issue of Hunting Illustrated.
The tide has turned to the non-typical bucks this year and three world class velvet mule deer have been taken. Randy Ulmer knocked down once again another trophy buck with his bow in Nevada. The buck is 32 1/2 inches wide with a green score pushing 240 plus.
A lot of excitement happened here in Utah when the “General” went down. This buck has been heavily pursued and last fall almost went down with the Governor’s tag, but to no avail. The great buck came in better than ever for 2005 and early measurements could put the buck pushing the 250 gross mark! Definitely a state record contender. Time will tell in the coming weeks as we wait the official drying time and score. The current state record is held by Casey Glover with his awesome 40 inch wide 235 7/8 buck taken in 1999.
You would think that would be enough to satisfy the mule deer nut. To top it off, there is a potential world record velvet non-typical mule deer taken in the high country of Colorado. The kill shots of this buck are nothing more than spectacular. The buck has been green scored and has the potential of becoming the new world record velvet archery buck for Pope & Young. The buck is pushing 38 inches wide and scores 273 gross and 267 net. The current world record velvet buck scores 264 6/8 net P&Y and was taken by Bruce Felker in Arizona during the 1993 season. Pope & Young does not have an official world record category for velvet bucks and require them to be stripped of their velvet if they are going to be in contention for a classification of ‘world record’. However, there is a velvet category and Bruce Felker is the largest velvet non-typical on record.
Once again we will wait and see how all of the early success of these hunters pan out. I will keep you posted…
UPDATE! There is word of a possible 274 velvet archery mule deer being taken in Saskatchewan. We are working on trying to get some more details. The buck is very impressive and could challenge the Colorado buck taken by Jed Lowe (mentioned above) as the largest velvet non-typical archery buck. See this updated post about this buck
September 21st, 2005
There are reports of a potential state record typical bull elk for the state of Utah. These reports are true. The elk season of 2005 for Utah is turning up some great bulls and so far some good 400 class bulls have been taken. However, there is one bull that could shatter the current state record typical bull. The current record bull was taken by Brian Gilson in 2003 and scores 402 4/8 net and 414 6/8 gross B&C as a clean 6×6.
September 17th, opening day of the limited entry hunt, Lloyd Jacobsen downed what could be not only a state record but a truly world class typical bull. The bull has incredible front tines carrying amazing mass measurements. The bull is a 6×7 and carries about a four inch kicker on the right side (by the base of the royal). The two front tines are long and very heavy. One of the heaviest front tines I have ever seen. The thirds are 27 inches long and are what really bring the beauty out on this bull. The bull is very symmetrical and the green score surprisingly proves very little in deduction even with the small abnormal point. The green score on this bull is roughly 423 gross and 414 net typical. Closer estimates might put this bull around 420 gross and 410 net.
It will be interesting to see how close this bull comes to this score after the mandatory 60-day drying period. For a breakdown of all the current state records for Utah click here. Stay tuned for more…
UPDATE: It is going to be difficult to keep track of all of these big bulls that are continuing to get taken. There are reports of many other big bulls that are going to challenge the state records, especially Utah. There has been another huge bull elk taken in Utah that will also challenge the state record typical score. This bull has been green scored at 426 gross with royal points spanning 26-inches long. There is a four inch inline point along with a devil point that will count as deductions if it is to be scored as a typical. With a supposed 8-9 inches of abnormal points, this bull could still net score over 400 typical B&C.
UPDATE: the Lloyd Jacobson bull has beaten the current state record typical bull, read the updated post here.
September 21st, 2005
This is the subject of an email that seems to be hitting a waive around the Internet. Usually if we end up getting the same email about a big buck or bull three or four times there comes a time when we need to start clearing things up.
The email is full a pictures of two huge bulls reported to be taken off from a reservation. It does not state the year so many people are wondering if these bulls are from the 2005 season. These are two bulls that were taken in the 2004 season. The first bull that is pictured (the bull facing out of the back of a truck with the tailgate down) is Anthony Avalos from the San Carlos Reservation with his bull that green gross scores 444 4/8.
The bull in the back of the truck filling up the whole thing is the Godzilla bull taken by Robert Hartwig. Robert killed this amazing bull elk with his long bow in Arizona and is the new SCI world record scoring 464 3/8 SCI. This is not a Reservation bull. Both of these bulls were featured in our April/May 05 Best of 2004 Issue in our Hunting Illustrated Magazine and both are also featured in our new 2006 King’s Bull Elk Calendar. We also featured the story on the great sheds that Chris Gravatt found of the Godzilla bull in that same issue.
Here are just two of the pics that were included in the mass email that is going around.
Anthony Avalos with his 444 4/8 gross San Carlos bull from 2004
Robert Hartwig next to his amazing longbow bull scoring 464 3/8 SCI from 2004
This is the new SCI world record fair chase archery bull
September 20th, 2005
This is not news to most of you. However, I was fortunate to attend the VIP event August 24th and was there for one reason - check out the awesome animals. I was not disappointed. Incredible amount of taxidermy work that is worth the trip. A ton of elk on the wall, but of course I was there to check out the mule deer display. Amazing stuff and I was surprised to see some of the heads. For example, they had the Burris buck (world record typical) and the Babe Hansen buck (largest buck taken by a woman scoring 305). I was pumped to see the Ashton buck back in the corner. This Utah buck is over 43 inches wide and is a site to see.
Here is some video and photos that I took with my digital camera of the mule deer display.
You need Apple Quicktime to view this video. If you can view the video player, simply click on the PLAY button to begin (wait for it to load and play).
Here are just a couple of photos of the store.
September 17th, 2005
It has been a little rocky…and we aren’t finished yet. We are in the process of relaunching our web site, email server, moving to a new host, and posting new products in our new on-line store. A lot is going on and I apologize if our web sites are not working properly right now. It also doesn’t help when our new host went down with the big power failures in Los Angeles. Not a good start. Hopefully the bugs will get worked out soon. I am in the process of launching a whole new site with a new foundation of coding. I have dreaded this day for a while knowing the problems we will face, but am very excited to finally get the new updates we really need to support the growth of kingsoutdoorworld.com. The foundation of the old site took too long for simple updates and was really overloading me. I was frustrated because I have been getting busier and busier with other responsibilities and having less time to devote to the web sites. My goal was to re-gut the web sites and build them around new database software that allows for easier management, which in turn will allow me to do more in less time. We have also been working hard over the last several months on building a brand new on-line store. There is a lot of back end coding that will give one central database for all of our orders - whether it is done over the phone or web site. Our main goal is to improve our customer service and give the tools and features customers have come to expect. I feel these improvements will help tremendously. We will be launching our official blog (you are reading it now), a new and improved King’s Main web site, and our on-line store will be all new as well.
Please bare with us as I try and get all of these updates completed. It will take some time to finally get the content that I want transferred over. It will be a continuing effort that will never end. That is just the life of doing a web site. It never ends and you are never finished. I have a lot of cool ideas that I will now have the platform to implement and include over time. However, I will try and get at least the foundation posted with some content pages as soon as possible. The official blog is something I have wanted to do for some time. I wanted a way to interact with our customers, but also have some fun by providing some insight to what goes on behind the scenes here at King’s Outdoor World. There is a lot going on with our Hunting Illustrated Magazine, King’s Calendars, ShadowCamo clothing line, and our own direct mail catalog. In between all of that I hope to be able to manage the web sites a lot better. The foundation of the new websites will enable me to make faster updates and improve and increase the amount of content that we can post. Our goal is to improve our on-line presence by giving you more of what you want - that is more content, fresh content, that you won’t find anywhere else.
This blog, along with the new King’s Main site will be syndicated. So those of you who are more on the tech side will appreciate being able to subscribe to our feeds and get updates coming automatically after any new posts. We try and stay up on new technology with everything we do and believe in staying current with the vast wave of technology that is developed to improve performance. I welcome any comments you want to make on our blog. I will do my best to help post interesting news and events, but also resolve any concerns or problems that may arise. It will be kind of relaxed here on the blog and I may get some of the other guys here in the office to do some posting as well. The comment posts are for that very reason- comments. If you have a question that needs answered please contact us through our helpdesk.
Thanks for visiting!
David King
King’s Outdoor World
September 15th, 2005
