The final judgment is in on Timothy Carpenter’s massive Roosevelt’s Elk. Not only did the Special Judges Panel convened by the Boone & Crockett Club confirm the rack as a new world record, it added more than 15 inches to the official score.
Carpenter, an elk guide and wildlife biologist with multiple Roosevelt’s records, shot the big bull in Humboldt County, California, during a rifle hunt on September 21, 2023. The preliminary score reported by Boone & Crockett earlier this year pegged the rack’s dry measurement at 439 7/8 inches—an impressive improvement over the existing record of 419 6/8 shot by Rick Bailey in British Columbia in 2015.
Boone & Crockett Club procedures require that any potential world record score be verified by either an Awards Program Judges Panel or a Special Judges Panel. B&C convened a Special Judges Panel in Verdi, Nevada, made up of two separate teams of judges to remeasure Carpenter’s kill. Among those putting fresh eyes on the elk were panel chairman Victor Clark, Tim Humes, John Capurro, Slade Sanborn, and Jeff Simmons. They adjusted the final score from 439 7/8 to 455 2/8 inches.
“The main objective of any panel, whether it be a Special Judges Panel or Awards Judges Panel, is to confirm the accepted entry score,” Kyle Lehr, the club’s director of big game records, said in a press release. “Sometimes differences in measurements are discovered through this process, and corrections need to be made. In the case of Mr. Carpenter’s Roosevelt’s elk, those differences resulted in an increase in score.”
The Roosevelt’s elk, which is named for conservationist and Boone & Crockett Club founder Teddy Roosevelt, is found only in the Pacific Northwest, ranging from northern California through British Columbia and into Alaska. It is the largest-bodied elk species (and one of three for which B&C maintains records), with bulls weighing as much as 1,100 pounds.
“It was probably from a combination of great genetics, perfect environmental conditions, and lots of late rain providing great forage for finishing out antler growth,” Carpenter said of his world-record bull, which he estimates was 11 to 12 years old. “It is very rewarding to be part of any successful Roosevelt’s elk hunt,” he added. “It is that much more rewarding when we are able to take animals that are mature—or even past their prime—and are Boone & Crockett animals.”
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Carpenter also holds the archery world record for Roosevelt’s elk, with a 2011 bull that scored 398 1/8. In 2023, he successfully guided hunter Chris Krampe to a 324-inch Roosevelt’s bull that Pope and Young Club certified as a velvet world record.
