Mike Gallo donated his new World's Record pronghorn to the Boone and Crockett Club's National Collection while attending the Club's 29th Big Game Awards Banquet in Springfield, Missouri. In 2013, I bought the New Mexico enhancement pronghorn tag. I have purchased that tag each of the eight or so...
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The Boone and Crockett Club announced today that it will be creating a new category in its big game records for javelina (collared peccary, Pecari tajacu ), the first new category created since 2001. The proposal to include a new big game category for javelina was brought forward to B&C’s Big...
In 2020, we published Records of North American Whitetail Deer , Sixth Edition. This 700-page whitetail encyclopedia featured 17,000 trophy listings. In addition, we ranked the top 53 states and provinces according to the number of whitetail records listed. Those stats compiled whitetail trophy entries from 1950-2019. Things have changed in just the past three years. States have fallen behind, while others have gained ground.
Boone and Crockett Club records for whitetail deer go back 194 years, with literally tens of thousands of trophies dating back to 1830. Yet over 20 percent of the biggest bucks ever recorded were entered in just the past seven years. Since 2017, nine whitetails ranking top 20 All-time in typical or...
In the near future, we will be hearing more about record-book whitetails coming out of Indiana. Have hunters and wildlife managers there found a sweet spot for the state’s herd? By PJ DelHomme In case you missed it, a 27-year-old Indiana hunter named Dustin Huff recently shot the third biggest...
While Dustin Huff sat in his treestand in November 2021, all he was hoping to do was kill a deer big enough to beat his personal record of 134 inches.
The first thing you will notice about a large whitetail buck’s rack is the overall height and width, followed by the number of points, and mass. When assessing a potential trophy’s score, we need to look at the lengths of the main beams, lengths of the points, the inside spread of the main beams, and the mass or circumference of the main beams at four locations. Learn more about the different components that contribute to the overall score for a whitetail and other big game animals recognized by B&C.
Recieve Fair Chase magazine and a host of premium benefits. Note: Join the Boone and Crockett Club with confidence : there's no automatic renewal or hidden fees. Your membership is a yearly choice , not an obligation. We'll remind you when it's time to renew, giving you complete control over your...
Bison are symbols of the American West, and market hunting nearly wiped them from the planet. The story of their near-extinction and then of their restoration thanks to members of the Boone and Crockett Club is the story of the first animal reintroduction in North America.
There were about two million acres of old-growth redwoods in Northern California before Europeans arrived en masse to the area. Today, only about 110,000 acres of old-growth redwood forest remains. If it weren’t for Boone and Crockett Club members, there wouldn’t be any redwoods left at all.
Big Game Records LIVE is the next generation of Boone and Crockett Club's Trophy Search, a hunting research tool. With Big Game Records LIVE, we give you access to the Club’s massive trophy database of North American big game. Our founders devised the records-keeping system more than a century ago to measure the success of conservation efforts across the country. Now, these records are available to you by subscribing to Big Game Records LIVE.
The Rifles They Carried — From family heirlooms to sporterized military surplus rifles, the guns that hunters carry always tell a story. You can see that in the following vintage photos, these men and women pose not just with their winter’s meat, but also with the tool that helped bring home the bacon. Enjoy this trip down memory lane.
Mule deer are just cool. With their big ears, big country they call home, and their unique stotting, there’s a lot to love about mule deer. And we’ve been appreciating mule deer for a long time as you can see from this gallery. Enjoy this trip down memory lane, and if you like vintage hunting photos, check out a special offer at the bottom.
George Bird Grinnell, co-founder of the Boone and Crockett Club, worked for decades to protect a chunk of northwest Montana we now call Glacier National Park.
In the early 1900s, national parks were under constant threat from private industry, which hoped to capitalize on those unique landscapes. Two charismatic members of the Boone and Crockett Club worked the halls of Congress to ensure management of those wonders fell to a new agency that would prioritize their protection.
Members of the Boone and Crockett Club were key players in laying the groundwork for both conservation of game species and generating the funds to pay for it—a system that we still use today.
After establishing the foundation for America's National Wildlife Refuge System, members of the Boone and Crockett Club continued to build upon their successful wildlife restoration efforts that still exist today. Challenges in managing these special places take collaborative solutions—and that’s where the Club excels.
More than a century ago, members of the Boone and Crockett Club spearheaded efforts to set aside areas of land and water where conservation of our fish and wildlife is the number one priority. This is how it all began.
Members of the Boone and Crockett Club worked relentlessly not just to save pronghorn from extinction, but also to preserve the land on which they roam where they still flourish to this day.
How one member of the Boone and Crockett Club (almost) single-handedly established Denali National Park.
It’s hot out there, but not as hot as this installment of More to the Score. Presented by Fiocchi If you like big elk, then take a gander at what we have for you. There’s a state record, a near Montana state record, and a Nevada beast that comes in as number four for the state. Let’s not forget...
Vintage Bowhunting We scoured the archives for old-school bowhunting field photos and discovered most were of whitetail hunters. But we found a few other species, too. We hope this handful of die-hard, early stick-and-string devotees encourages you to get out there as those whitetails start to feel...
There really isn’t a better way, in my opinion, to learn some new country than on a bear hunt. Load up your backpack as you would for a fall hunt, and head into the mountains. Early spring can reward you with morels, shed antlers, and a freshly emerging bear from hibernation whose coat and meat is second to none. A fall trip can serve as a scouting trip for an upcoming hunt, and without the common spring thunderstorm, it is really a great time to be out in the woods as well.
Excerpt from Fair Chase Magazine By Craig Boddington, regular contributor, photos courtesy of author The .30-06 is not only the .308’s parent case; it is also the cartridge that the .308 is best compared against. Despite its much shorter case, the .308 offers about 96 percent the performance of the...
It takes the right place, the right time, and plenty of patience—and even these aren’t always enough! Article from Summer 2002 Fair Chase Magazine By Craig Boddington, B&C Professional Member, photos courtesy of author The morning wasn’t just frosty, it was downright cold! I was sitting in a...
Uniquely American, it’s otherwise enigmatic, with no brand name. Millions of hunters own one. Excerpt from Winter 2012 Fair Chase Magazine By Wayne Van Zwoll, regular contributor, photos courtesy of author Winchester’s 94, the archetypal deer rifle, was built from 1894 to 2006 in New Haven. To some...
Research Antlers in Detail Antler Analytica is an antler geek's dream, and the newest addition to our suite of tools in Big Game Records Live. Is it just trivia? Maybe. Or perhaps it may reveal clues into genetics, habitat, and game management practices. Measurements form the foundation of our...
Warning: The following slideshow may evoke mixed emotions. You may smile at first and then scratch your head, wondering how in the world these hunters 16 and younger will ever top these scores that vaulted them into the records. What you shouldn’t feel is jealousy. It’s just not a good look. The...
These stories of the biggest elk in the Boone and Crockett records are not what most hunters consider typical hunts. They are, after all, non-typical elk. Terrible puns aside, these are tales of near death, unsolved killings, mistaken identity, lethal mud holes—and one typical story about a lady from Canada.
Using the most up-to-date data from the Boone and Crockett records, we compiled the entries from the last ten years to bring you the states (and counties) that give you the best shot at killing the bull of a lifetime.
Classic Elk Images Nothing goes better with fall colors than the quaking of aspen leaves and the scream of rut-crazed bull elk in the mountains. We dug through the archives to find classic photos of elk hunts from yesteryear. You’ll notice classic rifles, plenty of plaid, and big smiles on the faces of successful hunters. May the elk gods be just as generous to you this fall.
Adding packrafting has catapulted MOHAB into the highest category of BSA high adventure programs. Excerpt from Fair Chase Magazine By Luke Coccoli, Director of Conservation Programs Photos Courtesy of MOHAB/BSA contributors When I was filling out the application to work for Boone and Crockett,...
Because basketball stars making millions of dollars still miss free throws Excerpt from Fair Chase Magazine Summer 2015 By Wayne Van Zwoll, regular contributor, photos courtesy of author Approach ready to fire again, from behind the animal, rifle up front. Save congratulations for later. Why is...
The world is changing quickly because of artificial intelligence (AI). If you’re wondering if it’s going to change hunting, you’re too late—it already has.
The records department of the Boone and Crockett Club recently convened a Special Judges Panel to verify the entry score of a musk ox entry received earlier this year. Two separate teams of judges remeasured the musk ox entry and confirmed its score of 131 4/8 points. The massive set of horns...
Read the entire story of Kullusy's hunt in the summer issue of Fair Chase magazine. Not a member? Join today . A Special Judges Panel convened by the Boone and Crockett Club confirmed a new World’s Record Rocky Mountain goat. The Club announced the new record at the Wild Sheep Foundation’s...
Rocky Mountain goats are tough animals, and hunting them is no walk in the park. Their horns are incredibly hard to judge in the field. To make matters worse, hunters need a keen eye to discern nannies from billies. They live in some of the most inaccessible terrain of any North American big game animal. Even if you see a great billy, you must know that you can recover it after the shot. Every year, determined hunters venture into goat country with a coveted tag—and each one of them has the adventure of a lifetime.
The old saying, “waste not, want not” means if you don’t waste anything you will always have enough. In the context of hunting ethics and public perception, it means far too many people have the wrong impression of hunters and hunting. There is a growing belief that hunters waste the game they harvest.
Illinois 1965 By PJ DelHomme Armed with a crewcut, a plaid coat, and a recurve, Mel Johnson hunkered down in a homemade ground blind on the edge of a soybean field hoping to get a shot at a big buck he’d seen cruising the area. When he released the string, that shot vaulted him straight into the...
They may not be the prettiest specimens on the planet, but then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And we’re willing to bet you wouldn’t pass up any of these bucks because they were a tad asymmetrical. Some of these deer were taken by hunters who didn’t mind a lot of junk. One deer’s...
Whether you’re looking for record-book whitetail deer or the biggest moose to come out of your state, look no further. Here, you can search the Boone and Crockett database for state and provincial records for big game from Alaska to Mexico.
While Wisconsin has plenty of game to hunt like turkey, upland birds—and even elk and wolves—it’s the whitetail deer and black bears that make the record book. In fact, their black bears are consistently in the top 100, and they have been since 2000. To hunt one of the state’s 24,000 estimated bruins, hunters have to apply for roughly 11,500 permits. More than 129,000 hunters applied in 2021. As for deer, Wisconsin is home to the Jordan buck, the number three typical whitetail of all time. The state has plenty of typical deer entries in the 180-inch range, and there are a number of non-typicals over 220 as well.
Much like Wyoming, Colorado is a sporting paradise. Roaming those sage-covered hillsides, record-book mule deer were quite numerous, especially in the top 20. A few pronghorn and black bear make an appearance in the top 100. The antlers belonging to John Plute’s famous “meat bull” were pulled out of Dark Canyon after the locals didn’t believe him when he told them how big the antlers were. While the state’s elk are numerous, there aren’t that many record bulls running around anymore. Then again, you can just wait a lifetime to draw a tag in one of their trophy units and see if you can find one yourself.
Hunters wait a lifetime or spend a fortune at a chance to hunt record-book bighorn sheep in the Missouri River Breaks or the cliffs of western Montana. Nearly as impressive, Montana’s elk hunting features a shot at some trophy bulls, too. Then, of course, you can always try hunting for cougars, bison, pronghorn, the list of species to hunt in Montana seems limitless.
February 07, 2024 Read Update! The records department of the Boone and Crockett Club recently received a Roosevelt’s elk entry, which, if confirmed by a judges panel, will be crowned the new world’s record. The recent entry was killed by Timothy Carpenter on September 21, 2023, in Humboldt County,...
The Combinator Research Tool lets you pick and choose any state and species to see where the hunting is hot. Say you want to know the hottest state for typical elk entries from 2000. Use the dropdown menu for the ‘Year’ in the top left corner. Choose 2000. The graph populates all the species’ entries for 2000. Then, click ‘typical American elk’ in the species menu above the chart. It’s that easy.
With the Method Visualizer tool, you can search the records for the most popular calibers and draw weights on 29 species of North American Big Game. The Boone and Crockett Club has plenty of records. But did you know that for more than a decade the Club has also been keeping track of the weapons...
Motivation to Plan Your Hunting Season Starts Today Presented by Fiocchi You like walrus? How about big whitetails? We hope you like big, state-record black bears because we have those, too, in this installment of More to the Score. Would you sit in treestand while it pours rain and the temps hover...
A typical whitetail scoring 207-7/8 was stashed in an Illinois basement for 32 years until some electrical work needed to be done. When the electrician saw it, he “went bonkers.” After a long day of hunting pheasants in Lasalle County, Illinois, Sam Aiuppa put the dog away and climbed into a stand along the timber. He replaced birdshot with a slug in his Remington 870 shotgun and waited for evening. It was late November and the peak of the whitetail rut—the perfect time to find a buck with its guard down. After 40 minutes or so, a buck sauntered under his stand. Aippua shot it in the face.
At the end of the two-day determination meeting, Club officials finally voted on scoring criteria along with book and awards minimums. It was also confirmed that all existing Fair Chase rules and ethics are appropriate for this category.
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