Auction winner bags trophy bull

Dan Agnew of Vancouver paid $50,000 for the first modern rifle shot this season at a trophy bull elk. His investment paid off.

Agnew was high bidder for Washington’s East Side bull tag offered by the state at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s annual convention.

He reportedly filled his tag on Sept. 20, the day after the archery elk season, in a burn area of the Blue Mountains. The 6-by-7-point bull reportedly has an estimated gross score of 428 and an estimated net score of 409.

The main beams were reported at 59 and 57 inches with an inside spread of 44 inches.

The auction tag allows the holder to hunt bull elk in any open unit with a modern firearm during any open season.

Agnew politely declined to confirm the figures or be interviewed this week. “I was skewered pretty good the last time by some people for what I thought was a pretty good hunt,” he said.

The “last time” to which he’s referring was 2008, when he paid a state-record $65,000 for the auction tag and bagged a Washington state record bull in the Blues near Dayton.

That bull was a 9x10 non-typical American elk that scored 436 2/8 net points and 446 4/8 gross on the Boone and Crockett scale. He was aided by hunting guides who had been monitoring the bull, reportedly on public land.

Money from the auction tags is earmarked for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife big-game management programs.