It’s official. Dawsonite Heinz Naef’s enormous moose rack is the new world record.
Naef shot the bull moose back in September. At the time, he suspected the animal’s antlers might be a record, but had to wait two months for the rack to dry before he could confirm it.
“Thankfully they didn’t shrink much at all, because we had such a good fall with lots of moisture,” Naef said.
In order to confirm the record, Naef and his hunting party, eight guys in total, drove the antlers to Reno, Nevada last month to be officially measured.
He said the rack caused a little bit of a stir at the border.
“At the U.S. border, a fish and wildlife officer came out and just had to look at it. And a normal border guard came out, and he got on the radio and said, ‘You guys have to see this.’ The next thing we knew we had 10 or 12 people standing around looking at it,” Naef said.
The official score, which includes a number of factors including total width, number of points, and the quality of the antlers, was 263 and 1/8th. The previous record was 261 and 5/8th.
Now that the results are bona fide, Naef said he’s been getting offers from collectors and buyers across North America offering him between $50,000 and $100,000 for the rack.
That’s a princely sum and, depending on who buys them, the horns could one day adorn the walls of numerous hunting shops or museums.
While there’s obviously only one real set, Naef said it’s become popular for stores like Bass Pro Shop to make replicas of record-setting racks.
Naef and his hunting party bagged the bull this past fall, near the confluence of the Stewart and Yukon Rivers.
Naef said he hasn’t made any decision about what he’ll do with the rack yet, or whether he will sell it. First he wants to make sure that the eight guys who helped him bring the 560 kg bull down get a chance to enjoy the rack as well.
“I’ve heard from lots of collectors, and they’re all telling me to take my time. So I will,” he said.
Contact Jesse Winter at jessew@yukon-news.com