For the first time, an Oklahoma-harvested elk has officially measured more than 400 inches and is now the new nontypical state record for the species in Oklahoma’s official Cy Curtis Awards Program.
The trophy elk was taken Sept. 28, 2025, on Fort Sill by archery hunter Zane Scrivner, a Claremore native who was serving in the U.S. Army at the time of the hunt but recently moved to Idaho.
A four-man certified judging panel measured the 9-by-9 set of antlers on Dec. 29 at the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation headquarters and arrived at an official net score of 411 1/8. The rack also qualifies for the Boone and Crockett Club’s national all-time records book.
Scrivner, 27, is no stranger to elk hunting. He was stationed in Washington state for seven years and hunted in the Northwest before arriving at Fort Sill. “I’ve been lucky enough to harvest two elk out of the Southwest Region over the last three years, but this is my first bull elk out of the state.”
Sept. 28 was full sun, and the temperature would climb to about 90 degrees that day. Scrivner said he caught sight of the record bull immediately upon starting his hunt. “I had a stare down with him at like 80 yards at first light … and another bull stepped out, and they started kind of chuffing at each other.
“And then they both saw me, and I thought I'd blown it right then and there.”
At midmorning, a cow came within 12 yards, and he raised his bow to take a shot. But the cow quickly walked behind a tree, and Scrivner decided to pass.
After a noon break, Scrivner returned to the field and sat in the thickest briar patch he could find. In a bit, he caught the pungent odor of an animal. He looked up and spotted the record bull, thrashing in the trees about 70 yards from him.
“And so I got on fins and knees and crawled through the briars to close the distance, and he stepped forward and gave me a 32-yard shot. I made a really good frontal shot on him.”
At the time, he wasn’t thinking his harvest might be a state record.
“When I looked at him, I thought he lacked the spread that look like a lot of elk that you see in the record books kind of have. I knew he had the mass. I knew he had really good eye guards. I wasn't really thinking anything about the record book until I took it in, and we ran an unofficial green score on him and came up with a number pretty close to what he scored today.
“Whenever I took him back up north (to Idaho), I had people in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Idaho that were all saying, ‘That's the biggest I've ever seen.’ ”
As it turns out, Scrivner’s 411 1/8 score would place in the top five Boone and Crockett all-time records for about a half-dozen western states.
The former Oklahoma-record nontypical elk scored 390 1/8, taken in 2024 by Jame Evans in Dewey County. The Oklahoma-record typical elk was taken in 2016 by Olivia Parry in Dewey County, scoring 377 6/8.
Besides private-land elk hunting opportunity statewide, public land elk hunts are offered at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and Cookson Wildlife Management Area through ODWC’s Controlled Hunts program. This year’s application period will open online April 1 for hunts to be held next fall and winter.
Oklahoma’s Cy Curtis Awards Program began in 1972 and originally recognized white-tailed deer and mule deer only. Starting in 2014, the Wildlife Department’s official trophy big game recognition program expanded its record book to include elk, bear and pronghorn that exceed minimum qualifying scores. For details and to learn how to submit a trophy for the program, go to wildlifedepartment.com and search for “Cy Curtis.”