Now I was really excited, but also in disbelief! Could I possibly have a new world’s record?”Įllsworth wanted to know more about the amazing elk and traced the story to the previous owner’s brother, Alonzo (Lon) Winters of Globe, Arizona. When I returned home that night, I re-measured the huge rack, this time a lot slower! After double checking everything I came up with a score of 445-4/8. While I was gone I kept thinking, I must have made a mistake on my score. I didn’t think it was that big. Telling my wife, Debby, that we may have a new state record, I hurried out the door to get back to my antler business. ![]() I took the rack back home, quickly put a tape to it, and came up with a score of 438 points. “To make the story short," Ellsworth said, "I was able to purchase the elk antlers. The truck turned into a local restaurant, and I had to see the bull up close, so I turned in as well. My first thought was, ‘There’s a 400 point bull!’ I followed the truck for about a mile, guessing the 6圆 would score about 420 points. It was turned upside down, straddling the dryer. As I pulled onto Main, behind the truck, I was in awe of the faded elk rack. “Being a local antler buyer, I was leaving my home to pick up some antlers," Ellsworth told the Boone & Crockett Club. "As I was waiting at an intersection to pull onto Main Street, a blue Dodge pickup loaded with a washer and dryer, along with a great elk rack, drove by. But he'd never seen anything quite like the set of antlers he spotted in the back of a pickup truck on February 28, 1995, a set so massive that he had to find out the story behind them. Ellsworth has seen some great elk antlers. Growing up in eastern Arizona's White Mountains, Alan C. Later, after Winters' death, the antlers were scored and recorded as the new World's Record typical American elk. Today, those antlers hang in Crested Butte’s Heritage Museum.Arizona Rancher Alonzo Winters used a Savage Model 99 rifle to kill a massive bull elk in 1968. In 2016, the antlers sold at auction for $121,000, and the new owner agreed to keep them on public display. The antlers returned to Crested Butte in 1971, where they sat in a hardware store. The rack hung in the saloon and was officially measured in 1961. By 1915, Plute had run up a decent bar tab, and he paid it with those antlers. When he got back to town, though, no one believed Plute when he told them how big the rack was. As usual, he took the meat and left the antlers. One day in 1899, he went up Dark Canyon, 12 miles west of Crested Butte and killed a fine bull. He lived in a boarding house, occasionally trading wild game meat for rent. At 31, John Plute was a miner around Crested Butte, Colorado. Decades ago, Zumbo tracked down the details of what was then the world’s largest typical elk. We have outdoor writer Jim Zumbo to thank for that. More than a century old, this rack has plenty of details relating to its demise. The score, along with proof of a fair chase hunt, established this elk as (and still is) the typical World’s Record. Ellsworth’s mental “rackulator” paid off. Ellsworth tracked down the owner of the truck and ended up buying the rack. ![]() When Alan Ellsworth pulled up next to the truck, he was only interested in the rack.Įllsworth is an antler buyer who grew up in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona-a place that has now become synonymous with giant, record-book bulls. Also in the back of the truck was a washer/dryer set. The rack was given to Lon’s sister, and one day in 1995 it ended up in the back of a pick-up parked outside of a bar. Even though the rack was stored in a garage for years, Winters would show it off every chance he got. Winters shot the bull with his Savage Model 99. In the fall of 1967, Winters and his friend spotted this bull in the White Mountains near the Black River. He came home from the war to punch cows, raise a family, and hunt. His mother rode a donkey to the hospital in Globe, Arizona, where Lon was born.
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