Picture releasing an arrow on the last day of the year, on a bull you’ve chased for two straight seasons, and watching the biggest archery elk in history hit the dirt. That’s how Casey Brooks closed out December 31st — and the record books haven’t been the same since.
The Pope & Young Club has officially confirmed Brooks’ Washington bull as the new non-typical archery world record. It’s a monster, a once-in-a-lifetime animal, and the story behind it is even better than the number.
A Number That Rewrites History
The Brooks bull officially scored 478 2/8 inches — shattering the previous archery non-typical world record of 449 4/8″, set by Alberta’s Shawn O’Shea back in 2020. That’s not edging past the old mark. That’s blowing the doors off it by nearly 29 inches.
Here’s the part that’ll make your jaw drop: Brooks’ bull came within a whisker of the all-time record for any method of take. The legendary “Spider Bull,” the reigning Boone & Crockett non-typical world record, scores 478 5/8″. Brooks missed tying the all-time crown by three-eighths of an inch — the length of a fingernail — on a scoring technicality.
Tagged in Kittitas County, Washington, in December, the bull was measured by a first-ever joint panel of Pope & Young and Boone & Crockett scorers. When two rival record-keeping clubs sit down at the same table to measure your elk, you’ve done something special.
Two Years of Obsession
What makes this hunt stick isn’t just the score — it’s the grind. Brooks didn’t stumble into this bull. He hunted him for two years, learning the animal, closing the distance, and finally getting inside bow range on the very last day of the season.
That’s the reality behind almost every giant. A world-record bull isn’t luck — it’s a hunter who refused to quit, who kept showing up, who did the homework until the pieces finally lined up on December 31st. Brooks already had 86 bulls to his name and owns the third- and fourth-largest non-typicals in the P&Y book. The man is the definition of obsession.
And before the internet trolls could even fire up their keyboards, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife investigated and confirmed Brooks did everything by the book. Clean tag, clean hunt, clean record.
What It Means for the Rest of Us
No, you’re probably not going to arrow a 478-inch bull this fall. Neither are we. But that’s not the point. The point is that giants like this are still out there, still walking the same western mountains you and I hunt — and every September, somebody’s tag is going to wrap around the antlers of a bull nobody knew existed.
The only way to be that somebody is to be in the game. Put your boots on the ground, learn your country, and hunt hard until the last light of the last day. Brooks’ bull is proof it’s worth staying out there when everyone else has packed it in.
If chasing a bull of your own is the dream, we can help make it real. Our Colorado guided elk hunts and the Gunnison-area trophy hunt put you in genuine big-bull country, and our New Mexico trophy elk hunt is built around the kind of private ground where giants get old. Not sure where to start? Browse all our hunt adventures or reach out and we’ll help you build the hunt.
Want a shot at a dream bull without the price tag? Throw your name in for our Dream Hunts giveaway — because somebody’s going to draw the tag of a lifetime, and it might as well be you.
Records fall. Legends get made. And it all starts with one hunter who wouldn’t give up.
Hunting is not a hobby. It’s an obsession.
