On Jan. 24th, the Pope and Young Club assembled a special panel to officially measure a new potential world record Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, taken by Clayton Miller in Pennington County, S.D. in October 2018.
With a final score of 209⅛ inches, the ram was massive ram was confirmed as the largest hunter-killed bighorn sheep with both Pope and Young and Boone and Crockett, exceeding the previous world record ram (taken by Todd Kirk in 1998) by nearly 10 inches.
“I couldn’t believe it when I got the phone call that my name had been drawn for the first and only bighorn sheep unit in the Badlands of South Dakota! I have been dreaming of the opportunity to draw a tag like this since I started applying religiously at the age of 12,” said Miller. “I went into this hunt knowing that there were some spectacular animals in the area, but it was beyond my wildest dream that I would be after the new Pope and Young Club World Record!”
Justin Spring, Records Director for the Boone and Crockett Club and part of the special panel that measured the new world record sheep said, “Boone and Crockett would like to join Pope and Young in congratulating the hunter on his record-setting ram. In addition, we also would like to thank all those involved … in the restoration efforts bringing a robust population of bighorn sheep back to South Dakota. This is a true testament to the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and a shining beacon of what can be accomplished with efforts and funds being dedicated to wildlife."
Miller’s ram will be on display at the Pope and Young Club’s 31st Biennial Convention in Omaha, Neb., April 10-13, 2019. It will accompany both the new World Record non-typical mule deer, which scored 191⅛ inches, and the new World Record Alaskan brown bear that measured 29-4/16 inches.
