After the Hunt

EDITOR'S NOTE: Tim Hooey, the host of "North American Fish and Game Outdoor Magazine," has hunted avidly since childhood. One of the lucky ones, he's turned his love for hunting into a 10-year career. His show runs in syndication in several cities and the Outdoor Channel runs his show on cable on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST.

In September 2000, Tim Hooey took a monster elk with his bow in New Mexico. Viewers will have the opportunity to see the hunt on the next season of Hooey's show. This week, he gives visitors to Mossy Oak's website the inside scoop on how he took this elk.

QUESTION: OK, so you've killed the elk. What did you do next?
ANSWER: Well, I took the bull about two hours before dark, so I didn't have much time to prepare. I knew I didn't have time to get that big elk out of the woods. We field-dressed him by way of lantern and flashlight. We covered him with all the leaves and stuff we could find. We lit a fire and took turns maintaining a vigil overnight. I was going to keep this elk, and I wasn't letting any bears or anything else get it from me.

We finally got through the night. The next morning, we skinned, caped and quartered the animal. Then we wrestled with that elk nearly the whole day to get him out of there.

QUESTION: How big was the elk?
ANSWER: It gross-scored 382 2/8-points. The world's record was 417. The scorer was amazed at the size of that elk. He told me that because the animal had his fourth and fifth points deformed, my score was lower. If the points of each side of the rack had been symmetrical, the scorer told me he could have scored the elk between 405 to 410 points. I'm still real proud of my 382 2/8-point score.

QUESTION: What kind of bow did you use on this hunt?
ANSWER: As always, I used my Mathews Solo Cam Conquest Pro.

QUESTION: And what arrows did you shoot?
ANSWER: I always use Game Tracker carbon arrows and a Game Tracker Tri-Lock broadhead.