This bighorn ram from Arizona could break world record that has stood since 2012.
Last year was a heck of a year for world-class animals, and yet another potential world record has just been added to the list.
Pope and Young has announced the giant desert bighorn arrowed by Georgia's Tony Loop in Arizona back in November, has an initial entry score indicating a possible new world record. Loop's ram scored 186 ½ inches, putting it well above the current world record of 175 ¾, a ram taken back in 2012.
Often in record animal harvests, the person who takes the animal doesn't fully realize just what they've done at first, but that wasn't the case here. Pope and Young reported in their press release that Loop and his guides realized immediately this animal was world class.
It made for quite the emotional moment for Loop.
"As we knelt beside the big ram and admired this great warrior, I was overcome with both joy and sadness," Loop said in a press release. "He was majestic in every sense of the word."
As is the case with any world record animal, Loop's ram is still subject to a panel judging and scoring before it can be confirmed a new world record.
Loop's bighorn is yet another in a list of world record animals harvested in 2016. In Montana, a new world record elk was taken. Pope and Young also just announced a pending world record non-typical Coues deer.
And of course, the biggest hunting news was the new world record non-typical whitetail out of Tennessee.
It seems 2016 is a year to remember when it comes to new hunting records!
NEXT: POPE AND YOUNG ANNOUNCES NEW POTENTIAL WORLD RECORD NON-TYPICAL COUES DEER
