Surprise shrinkage costs horns world record
Measure after mandatory drying period puts them fifth, not first
A pair of huge ram horns found south of Hinton were butted from an expected world record after they shrank during a mandatory drying period, astonishing experts.
The horns, discovered attached to a bighorn sheep’s skull by two fish and wildlife officers on April 10, were dried at room temperature for 60 days before being officially measured.
At that point, they had lost nearly four inches in size, a Montana-based conservation club reported. When initially measured, they received an overall score of 209-1/8 inches — which would have been a new world record — but the final measurement came in at 205-7/8 in.
Big-game measurers determine the overall score by combining the length and four circumference measurements of each horn. The largest horns yet found were discovered in Alberta in 2000 and measured 208-3/8 in.
The Boone and Crockett Club believes the ram died of old age in the early summer of 2013, but the horns spent a year exposed to the elements and became swollen after absorbing moisture during a winter buried in the snow.
Most horns are measured 60 to 90 days after they have been found, but they are typically submitted within a closer window of time to the animal’s death, said Dean Bromberger, an accredited measurer from Edmonton who scored the Hinton horns.
Although it is typical for rams’ horns to shrink after death, he added, it is rare that they would shrink as much as they did in this case.
“We were s ho cke d , absolutely flabbergasted, by the difference in the horns,” said Bromberger. “I didn’t expect it to shrink any, let alone shrink three and a half inches.”
Bromberger said there was no doubt that the horns had already shrunk from their initial size and he didn’t expect they would continue to shrink so much more.
He said when the horns were discovered in April that he was certain they would break the old record.
“I feel very confident in saying, if it was under the normal circumstances in which trophies are measured, if it had been taken by a hunter (last year) and measured after 60 days of drying, it would have been a new world record,” he said.
“There’s no doubt in my mind.”
The horns have officially been ranked the fifth largest of all time.