When Beau Brooks, a well-liked looking character, posted a New 12 months’s Day photograph of his dad holding up the rack of a fully gigantic bull elk, out of doors social media went wild.
In the post, Beau famous the bull’s inexperienced scores, 480 4/8 internet and 490 4/8 gross, which might be sufficient for the bull to dethrone the Spider Bull because the all-time Boone & Crockett non-typical world file. However other than tagging Washington State as the situation, and celebrating his dad, Casey Brooks, because the “King of Elk Searching” with 86 bulls to his credit score, Beau’s publish was skinny on particulars.
It was not lengthy earlier than commenters began criticizing the ethics round Brooks’ hunt. Aaron Whitefoot, a neighborhood elk hunter and enrolled Yakama tribal member, gave the impression to be main the controversy on social media.
“Must name this man the driveway hunter,” wrote Whitefoot on Facebook on Jan. 4. That publish was shared 375 instances and garnered 1,300 feedback.
Whitefoot, who declined to be interviewed on the file in January, posted greater than a dozen pictures of the bull that different locals had reportedly shared with him. The photographs confirmed what gave the impression to be the elk in varied backyards, close to white-picket fences, and beneath Christmas lights. Extra criticism poured in.
“Appears like anybody with the authorized tag might have shot this animal … Cash buys it … It’s simply killing, not looking.”
One social media consumer even digitally manipulated a picture of Brooks and his bull in order that they appeared in entrance of suburban homes.
For months Brooks remained quiet and did no public media interviews. In the meantime a neighborhood landowner claimed that Brooks had poached the bull. An investigation was opened and promptly closed by the Washington Division of Fish and Wildlife. No violations had been discovered.
Then final week Brooks had his bull scored by a number of official P&Y scorers who measured the antlers at 482 4/8 inches internet with a gross rating of 491 6/8. If that internet measurement holds up throughout two separate panel scoring classes (one every for B&C and P&Y), Brooks’ bull will turn out to be the official Rocky Mountain non-typical world file elk.
And right this moment, lastly, Brooks is able to inform his aspect of the story. Bowhunting influencer Cam Hanes dropped a podcast during which he interviews Brooks on his looking background and the controversy over the world file bull. Brooks additionally sat down with Outside Life to inform the story of how the hunt truly performed out.
The Story of the Pending World File Elk
By the point Casey Brooks drew a marquee raffle tag in Washington final summer season, he knew precisely which bull he hoped to place it on.
The 59-year-old Washington resident is an investor, a hay farmer in Oregon and Washington, and a diehard big-game hunter with a loyal community of looking buddies, landowners, and contacts throughout the West. So it was no shock when two separate teams of buddies not solely knew a couple of large, reclusive bull dwelling on public land for the previous a number of years, however that all of them advised Brooks about it.
“The primary time I noticed [a photo of] that bull, I knew precisely what he was,” says Brooks, who can’t keep in mind if it was a mobile phone or path digicam photograph. All he might deal with was the animal itself. “And massive bulls like that — in the event that they survive the winter and the wolves don’t kill ’em, and the lions don’t kill ’em — these are the sort of leads that we stay for. Once we get an image like that, then we gotta go searching and try to discover this factor. You’ve received to test sources, and test credibility and, and make it possible for this factor truly lives. And it wasn’t simple as a result of there have been darn few footage of this bull.”
Brooks’ buddies hunted arduous for the bull’s sheds throughout the winter of 2023, and in early 2024. After almost 60 days of looking they discovered either side on public floor removed from any city. By estimating the unfold (often round 40 inches), they guessed the bull scored about 440 final winter. (Brooks declined to call his buddies on this story to honor their needs for privateness and to keep away from additional hot-spotting of their looking grounds. OL corroborated lots of the particulars Brooks supplied with extra sources.)
With this big bull in thoughts, Brooks entered — and received — a tag raffle that will permit him to hunt from Sept. 1 by means of Dec. 31. Brooks additionally declined to specify which raffle he entered, although he confirmed he was not looking with the Governor’s tag and entries had been $7 apiece. He bought a couple of entry.
Though his tag allowed him to make use of any weapon, there was by no means any query what technique he’d use. Brooks has been a Hoyt pro-staffer for many years, he has killed all of his 86 bulls with a bow — 12 of which scored above 400 inches. Of these 86 bulls, Brooks guesses about 20 may need been taken with outfitters. Though he prefers looking with buddies, Brooks says generally outfitters are required to hunt sure areas, together with reservations. He additionally grew to become the twentieth individual to ever full the North American 29 with a bow.
Now Brooks and his buddies simply needed to discover the bull — and preserve tabs on him. They hung cameras and did their greatest to ascertain a sample.
Although the bull had a comparatively small summer season and fall vary, this remained a tall order. The elk lived in thick, brushy timber on prime of a mountain that proved difficult to hunt. Most elk hunters within the space use treestands (and Brooks noticed loads of different hunters, most of whom had spike or cow tags).
“He would make loops in there and may solely come by means of as soon as every week or as soon as each couple weeks. It was not a enjoyable place to try to stroll round … and sneak up on an animal,” Brooks says. “It’s steep and rugged, and it’s in a type of locations that street looking [would be] just about unimaginable. In order that’s why this bull simply wasn’t getting seen. If he was off that street in any respect, you couldn’t see into that darkish timber. He was in a spot the place, I don’t know, he was simply kinda left alone.”
On a typical hunt, Brooks would climb into his tree properly earlier than daybreak and descend after darkish. He doesn’t know of any hunter on the mountain who ever noticed the bull in individual.
“I by no means heard of anyone ever sitting there and having him are available in. Of all of the folks I talked to who know of this bull, he was very seldom seen. I solely noticed him one time, and that was the time that I harvested him. I had him on digicam far and wide, however I by no means noticed the bull [on the mountain].”
Brooks hunted that public floor in September, October, and November when he might. On Dec. 7, 2024, the bull confirmed in an evening time path digicam photograph. Precisely one minute later, a mountain lion appeared in the identical spot.
“I used to be fearful to loss of life that the bull received — or was going to get — eaten by the lion. However he didn’t, he ended up displaying up on a special digicam the following day in a special location. [The lion had] ran him off the mountain after which we found out the place he was. He had moved to public floor in one other spot.”
Earlier than Brooks might get there, nonetheless, one other path cam photograph got here by means of of a person using a side-by-side down a street that was presupposed to be closed to automobiles. That image was adopted by extra pictures of individuals strolling across the space.
“I believe it simply fully bumped him out of the realm. So then we needed to go searching for him and we scoured the nationwide forest for him. I don’t understand how lengthy, however we had been wanting loads looking for him. And we by no means discovered him.”
Then Brooks’ unhealthy luck took a harmful flip. 5 days after the mountain lion appeared on digicam, Brooks was driving residence to work; he lives in La Heart, Washington. The roads had been snowy and icy, so he opted to keep away from a steep canyon and take what he thought can be a safer route.
“I got here round a nook and noticed a snowplow coming. I attempted to ease nearer to the within since they’re so large, and I misplaced management of the truck.”
Brooks’ F-150 slid throughout the middle line and smashed driver’s-side into the oncoming plow.
“I keep in mind wham and all of the airbags went off. [There’s] sort of like smoke within the automobile and the whole lot stands nonetheless. You then understand you’re capable of transfer.”
As quickly as Brooks made positive the plow driver was unharmed (“I used to be the one which drifted into her lane and I used to be simply hoping she was okay”) he took inventory of his personal accidents. A go to to the emergency room confirmed he had a fractured left wrist. One thing felt torn in his left shoulder.
When he shot his bow just a few days later, the ache was “excruciating.” However he wanted to know if he might nonetheless draw his compound, and he additionally needed to test his bow, which had flown off the backseat within the accident. Brooks loosed two arrows at 20 yards: They hit the identical spot, however just a few inches left. If he discovered the bull once more, he’d need to preserve his photographs at 20 yards.
All the way down to the Wire
The low-density elk numbers, usually a supply of frustration for public-land hunters, helped Brooks and his buddies lastly monitor down the bull. That they had combed a number of tracts of public land, and eventually they situated a set of big elk tracks. The bull, they guessed, had crossed onto personal property.
It was all they needed to go on, so Brooks began cold-calling for permission. By the point he lastly heard again from a landowner it was Dec. 29, and he was driving to attempt to discover a completely different bull and save his hunt. He had left a voicemail (which OL obtained and reviewed) asking for permission. The landowner referred to as again and left their very own voicemail, granting him permission to hunt.
“It was hypothesis” that the bull had been within the space, says Brooks, “however it paid off once we received the digicam in there and received his image, then we knew.”
Along with his busted shoulder and wrist, Brooks knew he couldn’t slip in and attempt to sneak up on the bull. He additionally refused to choose up a rifle. So he and his buddies walked into the property, arrange a blind (Brooks makes use of an ice-fishing shanty to assist include his scent), and put out 5 gallons of apples and 5 gallons of alfalfa. Hunters can set as much as 10 gallons of bait in Washington.
The property he’d gotten permission to hunt abutted a small woodlot (roughly 40 acres) stuffed with thick timber and brush. There have been homes within the space — largely rural heaps starting from 4 to 10 acres and past. Snow coated the bottom, temps hovered round freezing, and Brooks sat from darkish to darkish on Dec. 30 with no whiff of the bull. By now, the bowhunter was discouraged and second-guessing his determination to finish the season there, holed up in a blind.
Finally, he determined to “swing for the fence.” If we’re gonna get a bull, Brooks advised himself, it’s gonna be this bull with my bow.
On Dec. 31 — the final day of the season — Brooks once more sat all day. Lastly, with lower than an hour left, Brooks regarded up from his cellphone and noticed an antler at 23 yards. A bull, obscured by the material of the blind, had walked in from his proper.
“Instantly I acknowledged that he had cut up second [tines]. And it was an enormous bull. I imply, there’s no different bull it might have been, [especially] as a result of that different bull that was with him was a four-point. And I stated, ‘Oh boy, we’re open for enterprise right here. Have a look at this.’”
Brooks drew and held at full draw for a number of lengthy minutes, however the bull stopped behind brush that obscured its lungs. Lastly Brooks needed to let down — that was excruciating. For 15 lengthy minutes, Brooks watched the bull. Whereas he waited, he used his tried-and-true technique to handle his adrenaline.
“If I begin to really feel these shakes approaching, I take an enormous breath after which I maintain it in and I press actual arduous in opposition to my lungs,” Brooks says, describing how he tightens his abdomen. “After which after I [exhale] these shakes go away. A part of it’s being nervous. A part of it’s being excited, and a part of it’s being chilly. , you’re chilly anyway. You’ve been sitting there all day in the identical spot. You don’t transfer a muscle the entire whole time since you don’t wish to make any noise. And it simply compounds issues while you’ve received a pleasant animal that reveals up. It excites you.”
When eventually the bull became place — closely quartering-to now — Brooks muscled his manner by means of the ache of drawing a second time.
“I nonetheless wasn’t pleased with the shot, after which he stretched his leg ahead. He went to take a step and I held tight to the shoulder … I shot, and the arrow disappeared.”
The bull bumped into the woods and Brooks, utilizing the diaphragm already in his mouth, cow-called on the bull to “sluggish him down.” This can be a method he usually depends on after the shot to assist mitigate monitoring and, on this case, hopefully preserve the bull from crossing a property line.
When the bull disappeared into the woods, Brooks referred to as his buddies. He was shaking now however he additionally knew it had been a very good shot.
“I gave him a bit of little bit of time and labored my manner up there, and he was nonetheless on his toes. And I watched him stroll over and mattress down. Then I might see his head, his head was sort of transferring round … and he was simply getting sick. And so I backed out of there.”
Brooks joined his buddies and phoned a recreation warden. They needed to return within the morning to get better the bull, and the warden gave them the inexperienced gentle. Though Brooks stated the warden might have joined them, the officer (presumably as a result of it will be New 12 months’s Day) determined to not be part of.
Even when the season hadn’t ended at darkish that evening, Brooks usually calls regulation enforcement when he plans to get better an animal after darkish or the next day to make sure the whole lot is by the e book. In all his years of looking, Brooks says, he’s by no means had a recreation regulation violation.
The subsequent morning Brooks and a buddy glassed the woodlot earlier than transferring nearer.
“As we walked over this little hill, we might look by means of there with binoculars and see a part of his antlers. And his antlers had been so large that I wasn’t positive that I used to be a stump or his rack.”
The bull was useless in his mattress the place Brooks had final seen him, recent snow protecting his antlers.
“I truthfully didn’t suppose he was as large as he was after I shot him, as a result of his physique was fairly large. He was a big-body bull. And the nearer I received to him [I realized] that mass had been hiding his size. …Antlers, after they get heavy like that, they are often longer than you suppose they’re. Each step that I received nearer, I simply stored saying ‘I used to be improper. I used to be improper.’ He’s greater than I assumed he was. And even when I’d have recognized what he scored, I by no means would’ve stated it as a result of I’d’ve regarded like a idiot saying that. I imply, I virtually can’t even say it now.”
An Opened and Closed Investigation
Donnie Morrison has lived within the forested group close by for the reason that Eighties, “when you could possibly experience a snowmobile during [here] with out hitting any fences.” He says there at the moment are “tons of homes,” together with the cabin on the tract the place Brooks killed the large bull.
Morrison advised OL that he was accustomed to the bull Brooks shot, and that he’d been feeding it on his personal property for a number of weeks. He additionally says he confronted Brooks on Dec. 29 when he noticed him organising on the neighbor’s land.
“I stated, ‘What the fuck are you guys doing? That is personal land,’” Morrison says of their first encounter, which grew to become barely extra amicable when Brooks advised him he had permission and gave Morrison the proper names of the landowners.
Based on Brooks, Morrison stated he was feeding a giant bull on his (Morrison’s) property. When pressed by Morrison, Brooks advised him he had a deer tag — which was true. (“I stated, ‘You positive you’re not out right here chasing that large bull round, making an attempt to get him to drop his antlers early?’” Morrison says.)
Brooks says if had advised locals he was elk looking, he was fearful somebody may attempt to harass him or the elk off the property.
“I didn’t need that to occur,” Brooks says merely. “And it was none of his enterprise. Day-after-day it was one thing with that man.”
Over the following few days Morrison stored an in depth eye on Brooks’ comings and goings.
“The final time I noticed [Brooks] it was virtually darkish on Dec. 31, and I requested him, ‘Properly, how’s the looking going?’ And he stated, ‘Properly, you’re feeding ‘em too rattling good.’”
Morrison figured that will be their final encounter, understanding Brooks’ tag was solely good by means of Dec. 31. So when Morrison noticed Brooks’ truck parked in the identical spot on the morning of Jan. 1, he grabbed a pair of path cameras and positioned one close to the street. At 10:48 a.m., the digicam photographed a side-by-side with an enormous elk head within the again. Morrison drove over and noticed Brooks and his pal with the large bull loaded right into a truck.
Morrison then referred to as a recreation warden at WDFW, which launched a poaching investigation the next day. That investigation is now closed, and Outside Life obtained a report from WDFW.
The one sticking level within the investigation seems to be that the landowners misunderstood Brooks’ request and believed that he’d solely been asking for permission to retrieve an animal that had run onto their property.
A recording of the voicemail that Brooks left the landowners was included within the investigation report:
“Sure, uh. My identify is Casey Brooks. I received an elk tag over by [omitted]. I used to be looking the opposite aspect of the freeway and a lion chased the elk that I used to be looking throughout the [road] over onto your piece there. And I’m seeking to get permission to archery hunt. I’ve received two days earlier than the tip of the hunt, and if I used to be fortunate sufficient to shoot this bull, I’d handle you someway financially with a trespass charge. So in the event you might give me a name again … I’d respect it. Thanks a lot, have a very good day.”
Based on the investigating warden, Brooks broke no legal guidelines in the best way that he acquired permission or hunted the bull.
“I suggested primarily based on the voicemail he was asking for permission to hunt the property,” the investigating warden wrote within the report. “Since [the landowner] advised me they gave him permission, then it will imply he can be authorized to hunt the property.”
Brooks says the landowner by no means requested for cash and he by no means ended up paying a trespass charge. As a thanks for permitting him to hunt, Brooks says he invited the household and their youngsters to affix his family at their lakehouse this summer season.
“I stated, ‘You guys had been type sufficient to let me come hunt in your property and open your home as much as me. I’m gonna do the identical for you … I may need met some buddies out of this deal,” says Brooks. “These individuals are so type.”
Brooks additionally says he couldn’t stand to depart unhealthy blood with Morrison, as Brooks takes his position as a bowhunting ambassador severely. He says the 2 males spoke after the hunt ended, and he supplied to offer Morrison a pair of duplicate sheds.
Morrison tells OL, “I stated you’ll be able to shove them proper up your ass.” Nonetheless Brooks says Morrison accepted the provide in entrance of witnesses, and that he’s a person of his phrase and can current him with the duplicate sheds no matter what Morrison publicly states.
Reflections on a File
Each hunt comes with completely different challenges, says Brooks. This hunt proved to be a psychological grind and bodily painful in a brand new manner. It’s additionally a reminder why a bowhunter like Brooks would shrink back from social media.
“To assist different hunters sooner or later, what I’ve discovered is the final second of the final day is the tip of your hunt,” says Brooks. “Each single second counts, you gotta be there to the tip. After you’ve been looking for a full season, you’re exhausted. But it surely could possibly be that final 5 seconds that adjustments your life. It … remind[s] me of the instances that I’ve given up that possibly I shouldn’t have.”
Brooks describes himself as a “decided” elk hunter, but additionally a sensible one. To kill a world file, you need to hunt that animal the place he’s — not the place you need him to be.
“I’d like to have been capable of let you know that we received on him in September, and in his rutting rage, he got here by means of a good looking open meadow, and I received my shot. Which, that’s occurred a lot of instances with me. However this wasn’t the case on this one.”
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For about 20 years Brooks has quietly been making an attempt to shoot the world file elk. It was simply as a lot of a shock to him because it was to the remainder of the looking group to find he might shoot the world file bull in his residence state of Washington.
“Huge bulls are my life. I like looking large elk. If you happen to would’ve wager me any amount of cash, I’d’ve stated the file was gonna come outta Arizona,” says Brooks, who stated he hunted arduous on the San Carlos searching for that file bull. “One 12 months I handed up a number of giants searching for the world file, and I ended up taking pictures a [smaller] bull on the finish. However you already know what? It’s all good. As a result of that’s a part of what makes you who you’re. It didn’t work out [then], and it makes you get pleasure from it all of the extra later.”
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