Idaho Woman’s Bull May Break 74-Year Shiras Moose Record
An Idaho hunter’s bull moose, tagged last Sunday, could unseat a Boone & Crockett world record that has stood for three-quarters of a century, and it already stands to be the largest Shiras moose ever killed by a woman.
The Numbers
Shelly Sayer’s bull carries a green-gross score of 212 inches and a net score of 208 1/2 inches, with antlers spanning 55 inches wide, she told Outdoor Life. It still faces the mandatory 60-day drying period before any record is official. The current B&C all-time Shiras record for any hunter measures 205 4/8 inches, taken in Wyoming in 1952. The biggest Shiras killed by a woman on B&C’s books is an 188 4/8-inch bull taken in Idaho in 1976.
For perspective, the average moose sampled during Idaho Fish and Game inspections runs around 35 inches. When Sayer brought her bull in for mandatory inspection, IDFG staff filed out to the parking lot to see it.
“It’s the whole package. The size. The quality. Lots of paddle. Good points. Everything you want in a moose rack,” IDFG southeast regional supervisor Dan Garren told OL. “It didn’t look like it was from around here. It looked like something that came out of Alaska.”
The Hunt
Sayer had drawn her once-in-a-lifetime moose tag, a weapon-of-choice hunt, and opted for her rifle. On Aug. 30 in Sawtooth National Forest, guides with Deadline Outfitters pushed thick cover while the bull broke out the far side at a run.
“I had a hundred yards and he was already fifty yards out when my gun misfired,” Sayer said. Her rifle, which she calls White Lightning, has a history of misfires. With her guide’s help she cleared the malfunction, got back on target, and connected on the second trigger pull.
Deadline Outfitters owner Hoby Gartner had tracked the bull for two years. He credited a mild winter for the region’s bull size, noting the animals entered antler-growing season without the mass deficit that harsh winters impose.
The moose also amounts to roughly 400 pounds of meat for the Sayer family.
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