Bowhunter Tyson Hiebert of Seiling came away with more than a scored rack at the third-annual March Rack Madness! event at the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation headquarters in Oklahoma City. Now he’s known as the new record holder in the nontypical elk category of the Oklahoma Cy Curtis Awards Program.
His 9-by-9 bull elk tallied 346 7/8 points after a four-man panel measured the massive rack March 5. The score bested the previous record by 21 inches, and became the second-place elk overall in the state’s Cy Curtis record book for big game harvests.
Hiebert hauled his elk mount to Oklahoma City in an enclosed trailer. Because of its size and the large crowd in the scoring area, the rack had to be placed in the building’s lobby to await the attention of a panel of judges.
The record bull elk was harvested with a compound bow Oct. 3, 2017, on private land in Dewey County. Hiebert recalled his hunt during a Facebook Live interview posted on the Wildlife Department’s Facebook page. Click here to view the video.
“I was actually in the middle of changing spots that evening, and I was out in the middle of a wheat field. … And he came out of the trees like a tank.
“Somehow, luckily, he ran right out in front of me. When he got in front of me, he stopped, and I just drew my bow and let her fly. … Dreams come true sometimes!”
The hunt area is in the Special Northwest Zone, which has a season quota of just two elk. As it turned out, Hiebert said another elk was taken the same day in that zone and, had he not found success that day, the area
