Creeping into archery range on a bugling bull elk takes skill, stealth, and nerve—and it's one bow hunting's most sought-after experiences. But what if the bull elk you're stalking scores over 400 inches? Better yet, what if it ends up being a top-five record book animal? That's a scenario that most elk hunters will only dream about.
For a select few, though, a top-five bull elk became a reality. With help from the Pope & Young Club, the definitive record-keeping organization for all archery-killed big game in North America, we dug up the top-five typical and non-typical American elk ever taken with archery equipment—along with photos of the animals and thrilling stories from the hunters who shot them.
None of these bulls score under 400 inches, and the biggest non-typical—taken in Canada in 2021—measured just a hair shy of 450. Some of the stories aren't what you'd expect. The biggest typical of all time, for example, was taken during a DIY public land hunt deep in the Montana backcountry. From Alberta to Arizona, these are the biggest, baddest bulls ever taken with a bow and arrow.
Typical
1. The Felix Bull
The number one typical elk of all time lived and died on federal land in Montana's Powder River country. Steve Felix, an EMT by trade, spotted the 430 1/8 inch bull from 100 yards out while it was feeding, bugling, and raking trees in a basin on the morning of September 10, 2016. Felix was hunting solo that day, hoping to clear his mind after responding to a fatal car crash while on the clock with the Montana Department of Transportation.
He'd hunted the area for a few years with a friend, and they'd both taken nice elk with rifles, scoring in the mid-300s, Felix told Field & Stream in a recent interview about his record bull. The day he killed the number 1 typical of all time, Felix could hear elk bugling as soon as he got out of the truck. He hiked in to a grassy bowl where he'd seen elk before, and around 8 a.m., more bugles rang out.
Eventually, the record-breaking bull followed a 300-plus incher to within 60 yards of where Felix was standing—a do-able shot for the accomplished public land bow hunter. He let the arrow fly while aiming for a crease behind the bull’s shoulder. It ran for about 150 yards and piled up. Then Felix packed it out by himself over the course of the next two days. And it's not just Pope & Young's number one, the Felix Bull is also the biggest typical elk ever entered into the Boone & Crockett Club record books.
2. The Shawn Patterson Bull
NFL veteran Shawn Patterson tagged what is now the second-highest scoring typical elk back in 2006. When he shot it, Patterson’s bull took the P&Y World’s Record slot away from Chuck Adam’s 2000 Rosebud County, Montana bull (more on that bull below).
Patterson, who retired from an NFL career with the Green Bay Packers after a season-ending knee injury, got the bull while hunting a prime Arizona unit with acclaimed guides John McClendon & Sons, out of Flagstaff. After the hunt, he told ESPN Outdoors that every elk in the area seemed to be bugling that morning, and that the unit was chock full of 300-plus inch mega bulls thanks to an inordinate amount of moisture on the landscape.
When they spotted what would go on to become the new world record bull bugling in a small clearing about 200 yards away on the morning of September 16, Patterson and his guide crawled in on hands and knees over rocks and thick brush. At one point, they lost the elk’s tracks but soon found him again thanks to his loud, persistent bugling.
When Patterson finally made it into bow range, the bull presented a quartering-away shot, and the arrow met its mark. It ran about 100 yards and dropped. Its net score of 412 1/8-inches edged out Chuck Adams' bull by just 3 and 1/8 inches.
3. The Jed Reidhead Bull
Arizona hunter Jed Reidhead arrowed the number three archery-killed non-typical elk on September 3, 2013. Reidhead got the bull in Greenlee County, Arizona, which lies east of the San Carlos and Fort Apache Reservations, where big bulls are a common site. An initial green gross score put Reidhead's bull at close to 430 inches, but the official P&Y measurement went down as 410 6/8. Just days after shooting the massive elk, Reidhead drove to a different part of the state to help his friend and fellow bowhunter Blake Owens harvest a 370-inch bull of his own.
4. The Chuck Adams Bull
Chuck Adams is an undisputed bow hunting legend with 34 entries in the P&Y books for typical American elk alone. At one point, he held the Pope & Young World's Record for a 409 2/8 inch bull he arrowed in Rosebud County, Montana in 2000. Today, that bull—shot 24 years ago this September—stands as the fourth biggest typical elk ever taken by a bow hunter anywhere in North America.
Adams first spotted the bull in 1999, but he was hunting mule deer that day and had already filled his Montana elk tag. The following year found him in the same drainage glassing for elk with a good friend and trusted guide.
“I felt my neck hairs prickle as a familiar, single-note bugle rolled down the draw,” Adams wrote in a commemorative article about his hunt published by Boone & Crockett in 2023. “I saw only one antler at first, but I recognized the rack as the animal came into view. The colossal bull crossed an opening and nudged a cow with its rack. Its left seven-point side flashed clearly before the bull disappeared, showing the dramatic down-sweep of the beam.”
After creeping to within 300 yards of the herd, Adams said he “trotted crosswind” and closed the gap even further. Then he hoofed it up a steep ridge and found himself just 50 yards from the monarch and his harem. He dipped below the ridge line to draw his bow, and when he popped back up, the bull was 10 yards closer and standing broadside.
“I let go a single cow chirp with the diaphragm call I always clench in my teeth during an elk stalk,” he said. “The monster stopped and whipped its head to stare. My 40-yard pin found its heart. Thirty minutes later I wrapped both hands around the biggest elk antlers I had ever seen."
5. The Schimberg Bull
Matthew Schimberg guides in the Arizona Strip (one of the state's most prized trophy units) where he's been putting clients on once-in-a-lifetime elk and mule deer for years. In 2020, he notched a once-in-a-lifetime tag of his own, killing a bull elk with his bow that went on to score 405 inches P&Y. According to A3 Trophy Hunt Instagram page, he shot the enormous elk in unit 10, which is north of Prescott on the San Francisco Plateau. It's one of seven Arizona bulls on this top-ten list.
Non-Typical
1. The Shawn O'Shea Bull
The largest archery-killed non-typical elk ever recorded was shot by a 50-year-old rancher from Alberta, Canada on land he's been hunting since he was a child. Sean O'Shea shot the 449-inch monster during an evening hunt in mid-September, and it's score went on to outmatch the standing P&Y record (Nick Franklin's Grandpa Bull at the time) by 7 and 4/8 inches.
O'Shea had trail camera photos of the giant, and his son's had seen it during previous days, but he never laid eyes on it until the night he shot it. It walked to within 18 yards of his ground blind at last light on the evening of September 14, 2020, and the rest is history. In addition to being the reigning P&Y world record for non-typical American elk, the O'Shea bull also holds the number three non-typical spot in the Boone & Crockett record books, which includes animals taken with firearms.
2. Nick Franklin's Grandpa Bull
Nick Franklin's "Grandpa Bull" is further proof that northern Arizona is the consistent home of the world's biggest and baddest wapiti. According to an ESPN Outdoors article written in 2003, Franklin arrowed the 8-and-a-half year old giant in Arizona's hard-to-draw Unit 8, west of Flagstaff in the Kaibab National Forest.
Franklin and a buddy had been targeting the Grandpa Bull for days when they finally found him on the morning of September 18. They heard him bugling near a watering hole and had to slip past cows and satellite bulls to get in range. Eventually, Franklin's hunting partner dropped back, and he moved in for a solo stalk. Every time the big bull put its head down to rake a tree, Franklin inched closer, working to within 35 yards before finally taking a shot.
"As soon as I shot him, the arrow went clean through him and hit rock behind him," the hunter told ESPN Outdoors more than 20 years ago. "When that happened, he picked his head up and looked over at the rocks to see what happened. He stood there for about three or four seconds, and then started moving off."
The bull only walked 35 yards from the spot where Franklin shot it before dropping. It stood as Pope & Young's World Record Non-Typical for 17 years before it was ousted by O'Shea's Alberta giant.
3. Casey Brooks' 2012 Bull
Like Chuck Adams, Washington State farmer Casey Brooks is no stranger to the Pope & Young Club's venerable record books. What sets Brooks apart, though, is the fact that his name shows up in back-to-back slots on P&Y's top-five list for non-typical American elk.
Brooks took both of his top-five bulls during consecutive years in Graham County, Arizona. The bigger of the two, number 3 of all time, scored 436 1/8 inch. He shot it on September 8, 2012, and it was his 59th career elk at the time.
The weather was hot and dry in Graham County in 2012, and Brooks, hunting with a guide, got skunked during his morning hunt. Persistence paid off, though, when he called in and shot the 436-inch monarch pictured below later that evening from a distance of just 30 yards. It became the number two non-typical in the world at the time, besting out Clay Heuett’s non-typical from Navajo County, Arizona.
4. Casey Brooks' 2013 Bull
In what has to be the most remarkable follow-up hunt ever, Brooks went on to arrow another top-five non-typical during the following 2013 season—this time on the San Carlos Apache Reservation. The 10X10 monster reportedly came in with a group of good bulls to Brook’s expert calling. The whole group was holding up in timber 80 yards from Brooks when the biggest one broke away, crested a hill, and closed the distance to just 30 yards. The bull dropped where Brooks shot it, and Pope & Young later confirmed its official net score as 430 and 6/8 inches.
5. The Clay Heuett Bull
Clay Heuett shot his 422 6/8-inch record setter on September 21, 2003 in Arizona's famed Unit 3C, just three days before Nick Franklin shot the Grandpa Bull. For a brief moment in elk hunting history, Heuett's bull was poised to claim the number one spot in Pope & Young's non-typical category—but the Grandpa Bull edged Heuett's out in short order. More than two decades later, the Heuett Bull sits at the bottom of P&Y's top-five list for biggest non-typical American elk of all time.
