For several days earlier this month, Wasilla hunters Lisa and Tom Pelfrey had traipsed the woods of Fort Richardson, desperately seeking a moose but not seeing a single animal.

By 4 p.m. on Nov. 1, their fourth day on a special muzzleloader permit hunt, they were starting to cramp up after crouching in a blind much of the day. With about an hour of daylight left, they decided to drive around a little in their Ford F-250 pickup.

"I just figured we'd see what we see," Lisa said.

The first open patch yielded more of the same. But 15 minutes later, a big bull appeared, nibbling on a branch beside the road. Unfortunately for the couple, the moose was on the side of the road closed to hunting.

"He just sat there a second," she said. "Then he just crossed the road and charged into the woods."

That side of the road was open, so Lisa, 34, grabbed her .50-caliber Thompson Center Triumph muzzleloader and gave chase. The woods were thick; her cow calls weren't working.

So she left the woods and walked parallel to the road about 30 yards in an effort to get ahead of the moose. It worked.

"He stopped running about 55 yards away," she said. "He knew I was there but didn't know what I was doing."

After moving to where she could get a clean shot, Lisa knelt on one knee, said a prayer, aimed and fired.

"He fell like a load of bricks," Lisa said. "All this happened while Tom was in the truck thinking I'd let the moose run off."

Once he heard the shot, Tom came running with reloading equipment (muzzleloaders are single-shot rifles), which Lisa used to dispatch the animal with a second shot.

Not until then did the Pelfreys appreciate the bull's size. At 69 inches, the spread of its antlers exactly matched the height of 5-foot-9 Lisa.

"It's a pretty big bull -- one most Alaska hunters would give their eye teeth to bag," said Alaska Department of Fish and Game spokesman Bruce Bartley.

"Wow, a 69-inch spread on a Fort Rich moose," added his colleague Ken Marsh. "That's a beauty."

"It's very possibly the biggest one ever on Fort Rich," said David Battle, Fort Richardson natural resources specialist. "Certainly, it's the biggest since I came on in 2003."

But in order to qualify for record status, several measurements of the bull's antlers are required. Lisa said antler width was the only measurement she kept after a member of Battle's department came out to check the animal and confirm it was shot in a legal area. She added that it had two bow tines on its left antler and two more on the right.

Is the rack, now at a taxidermist shop, a record?

"I've got friends who ask me about that," she said. "But I'm clueless."

For record purposes, moose antlers are scored by Boone and Crockett Club where "scoring is all about symmetry," Bartley said. The world record taken in 1994 by John A. Crouse at Fortymile River scored just under 262 points with a spread just over 65 inches. Other measurements include the length of palm, width of palm and the circumference of the beam at the smallest place.

Many years ago," Bartley said. "I killed a 69-inch bull that didn't even make the book because of a partial second palm and some bizarre drop points. So it's about more than width.

"The moose in our lobby (at Fish and Game) at one time was the world record. And it's only 65 inches wide."

As impressive as the big bull's size is the fact it was felled with a muzzleloader, a gun used by just a small cadre of hunters.

"It takes the exhilarating sport of hunting one step further by combining the one-shot challenge of muzzleloading with the nostalgic awareness that it has been done this way for well over 250 years," according to the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association.

Of the 90,000 licensed hunters in Alaska, only 1,655 are certified for muzzleloader-only hunts. Those hunts, such as the Fort Rich hunt the Pelfreys participated in, require hunters to be certified with Fish and Game before applying for a permit.

The Fort Rich muzzleloader-only season is split into two sessions -- Sept. 8 to Nov. 15 and Dec. 15 to Jan. 15 -- with 20 bull permits and five cow permits issued. Some 315 hunters applied.

Statewide, there are four drawing permit hunts restricted to muzzleloaders.

While the Army oversees the Fort Rich hunt, Fish and Game manages the wildlife, as is the case with all hunts on Alaska's federal land. The state Board of Game sets the seasons, bag limits, conducts the drawing and issues the permits. The Army, as the land manager, imposes additional requirements.

Lisa Pelfrey, who grew up on an Illinois farm, has been hunting with a muzzleloader nine years. To qualify for the Fort Rich hunt, she needed to pass proficiency tests offered by both the state and Fort Rich.

"I like muzzleloading because it's more of a challenge," she said. "With just one bullet, you have to make sure you're a pretty good shot."

While Battle said the bull was the biggest animal taken on Fort Rich for years, Lisa Pelfrey had a different concern.

"I asked my husband, 'Is it bigger than your biggest moose (a Yukon bull with a 55-inch spread)?"

Tom Pelfrey had to laugh.

"She was more excited it was bigger than (mine); she didn't care much about record books," he said. In fact, the spread was big enough that Tom could fit his 5-foot-4 frame in the rack.

Despite some friendly ribbing, the couple loves to hunt together.

"My husband taught me everything I know about hunting," Lisa said. "We're best friends and enjoy doing things together."

After killing the bull, the couple worked together with a family friend to butcher the moose by the light of a full moon and the warmth of a propane heater. That task lasted from sundown to 4 a.m. By the time the couple left Fort Rich, it was 14 degrees.

Suffice it to say, the large animal filled their freezer. Burgers and sausage meat alone totaled about 400 pounds, and there were roasts and steaks on top of that.

They'll mount the antlers on a board in their home.

"It'll take up a whole wall in office," Tom Pelfrey said.

Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.

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