Teen's giant elk makes record books

The Daily Inter Lake

The final scores are in, securing a Kalispell girl's place in big-game record books.

Cheyenne Moore, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Kalispell Middle School, bagged a 7-by-7 bull elk on Nov. 23 in the Missouri Breaks.

She was one of the lucky 200 hunters to draw tags for hunting district 700, out of 1,800 applicants.

Her father, Mike Moore, knew the elk was a potential record breaker, so he promptly had the rack scored under Safari Club International guidelines at an unofficial 401, without deductions.

Last month, the rack was officially scored under the same guidelines at 396 3/8 - ranking as Number 34 for Safari Club International's typical elk class.

This week, the rack scored an official 393 under Boone and Crockett guidelines.

"It is the largest elk ever killed by a youth hunter under 15, and it is the largest elk ever killed by a female hunter," Mike Moore said, citing information from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Moore said foundation officials also told him that it was also the largest elk killed in Montana last year.

Cheyenne has been getting considerable media attention as well.

According to her father, she will be featured in "Real Hunting" magazine; in May, she will be on the cover of Trophy Hunter magazine; she was featured in Hunting Illustrated last month; and she has been contacted by television hunting programs.

Mike Moore has applied for an elk permit in district 700 for the last 29 years, without success, and he will try again this year.

But his daughter, he said, will no longer apply for a permit in that district.

"She won't apply for one there any more, just because she feels someone else in the hunting community deserves to have that opportunity," he said.