Fair Chase Spring 2016 by Boone and Crockett Club

SPRING 2016 | $9.95

CONSERVATION EDUCATION PROTECTING HUNTERS’ RIGHTS

It’s who we are. It’s what we do.

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Greatest Hunters Convention on the Planet™ January 5-8, 2017 For more information, go to www.bigggame.org

THE OFFICI A L PUBLICATION OF THE BOONE A ND CROCK ETT CLUB

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Volume 32 n Number 1 n Spring 2016

FROM THE EDITOR

FROM THE PRESIDENT | Conservation Policy

CAPITOL COMMENTS | Relevancy of Conservation

NUTRITION VERSUS GENETICS

ACCURATE HUNTER | Going Steady

150 YEARS OF WINCHESTERS

FACE TO FACE WITH DEATH | 1884

MILESTONES IN CONSERVATION

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR GAME AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

Doug Painter

Morrison Stevens, Sr. Jeff Crane and Gary Kania

Steven Williams

In Whitetail Deer Management: How Far Can Nutrition Take Us? Eric Michel, Steve Demarais, and Bronson Strickland

32. Face to Face with Death

Craig Boddington

Wayne van Zwoll

Excerpt from The Legendary Hunts of Theodore Roosevelt John Seerey-Lester

22. NEW! Accurate Hunter

FAIR CHASE CONTEST WINNER ANNOUNCED

THE CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE NATIONAL COLLECTION OF HEADS AND HORNS | Part Four Lowell E. Baier and William Harold Nesbitt

54 SCIENCE BLASTS | Moose in Southern New England John F. Organ 56

70. Hurry Up and Wait!?

Bernard Lozé

62. Ryan’s Time

B&C Staff

EDUCATING THE NEXT GENERATION OF CONSERVATION LEADERS

Texas A&M and Michigan State University

61 WILD GOURMET | My Favorite Recipe For Success, Part Three Daniel Nelson 62

RYAN'S TIME

TROPHY TALK | Boone and Crockett Club’s 29th Awards Program

BEYOND THE SCORE | Hurry Up and Wait!?

GENERATION NEXT | 29th Awards Youth Trophy List

RECENTLY ACCEPTED TROPHIES AND TROPHY PHOTO GALLERY 29th Awards Program Entries | Sponsored by Realtree Xtra Green

44. The Campaign to Save the NCHH COVER . Pronghorn buck in full rut in

central Montana. © DONALD M. JONES

Aron Shofner

Jack Reneau

Hanspeter Giger

87 THE ETHICS OF FAIR CHASE | Common Ground Daniel A. Pedrotti, Jr. @BooneAndCrockettClub #BooneAndCrockettClub FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6

ABOUT THE BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB

FAIR CHASE PRODUCTION STAFF

CONSERVATION HAD A BEGINNING, BUT HAS NO END A LEGACY TO BE PROUD OF n

Oldest wildlife conservation organization in North America—founded in 1887 by Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell; Initiator and champion of the first National Parks, including Yellowstone, Glacier, Denali, and Grand Canyon; Initiator and champion of the first legislation for wildlife, including the Timberl a nd R e s e r ve Bi l l , Yellowstone Protection Act, Lacey Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and Alaskan Game Laws; Champion of the earliest science-based wildlife management efforts and legislation, including the National Wildlife Refuge System Act, and the creation of the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units;

Champion of the first legislations funding wildlife conservation, including the Wildlife Restoration Act (Pittman-Robertson), and the federal Duck Stamp Act; Pioneered and established the principles of responsible, ethical, and sustainable use hunting known as Fair Chase; Created the first big game scoring and data collection system to objectively measure and evaluate species and population health and habitat quality to improve state and federal wildlife polices and management; Initiator and champion of all of the principle federal land management agencies, including the US Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service;

Spawned and supported key wildlife conservation organizations, including the New York Zoological Society (1895), National Audubon Society (1905), Wildlife Management Institute (1911), National Wildlife Federation (1937), Ducks Unlimited (1937), and American Wildlife Conservation Partners (2000) to name a few; Recognized, respected, and trusted authority on big game wildlife and habitat conservation for 129 years, thus far.

This is an excerpt from a message to members and guests from Simon Roosevelt at the Boone and Crockett Club’s annual black tie dinner, December 1st, 2012.

Photographic Contributors Tony Bynum Peter Eades Donald M. Jones Fair Chase is published quarterly by the Boone and Crockett Club and distributed to its Members and Associates. Material in this magazine may be freely quoted and/or reprinted in other publications and media, so long as proper credit is given to Fair Chase. The only exception applies to articles that are reprinted in Fair Chase from other magazines, in which case, the Club does not hold the reprint rights. The opinions expressed by the contributors of articles are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Boone and Crockett Club. Fair Chase (ISSN 1077-3274) is published for $35 per year by the Boone and Crockett Club, 250 Station Drive, Missoula, MT 59801. Periodical postage is paid in Missoula, Montana, and additional mailing offices.

BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOUNDED IN 1887 BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Fair Chase, Boone and Crockett Club, 250 Station Drive, Missoula, MT 59801 Phone: (406) 542-1888 Fax: (406) 542-0784

CLUB

NATIONAL ADVERTISING

Club President – Morrison Stevens, Sr. Secretary – Tom L. Lewis Treasurer – C. Martin Wood III Executive Vice President – Administration Timothy C. Brady Executive Vice President – Conservation James F. Arnold Vice President of Administration Marshall J. Collins, Jr. Vice President of Big Game Records Eldon L. “Buck” Buckner Vice President of Conservation James L. Cummins Vice President of Communications CJ Buck Foundation President – B.B. Hollingsworth, Jr. Class of 2016 Ned S. Holmes Class of 2017 Anthony J. Caligiuri Class of 2018 Mary Webster

Editor-in-Chief – Doug Painter Managing Editor – Karlie Slayer Conservation and History Editor Steven Williams Research and Education Editor John F. Organ Hunting and Ethics Editor Mark Streissguth Assistant Editors Keith Balfourd Jim Bequette CJ Buck Kendall Hoxsey Marc Mondavi Jack Reneau Tony A. Schoonen Julie L. Tripp Editorial Contributors Lowell E. Baier Craig Boddington Jeff Crane Steve Demarais Hanspeter Giger Gary Kania John Seerey-Lester Bernard Lozé Eric Michel Daniel Nelson William Harold Nesbitt John F. Organ Daniel A. Pedrotti, Jr. Jack Reneau Aron Shofner Morrison Stevens, Sr. Bronson Strickland Steven Williams Wayne van Zwoll

FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

FOUNDATION

Foundation President – B.B. Hollingsworth, Jr. Secretary – Tom L. Lewis Treasurer – C. Martin Wood III Vice President – R. Terrell McCombs Vice President – Paul M. Zelisko Class of 2016 John P. Evans Steve J. Hageman R. Terrell McCombs John P. Schreiner C. Martin Wood III Class of 2017 Remo R. Pizzagalli Edward B. Rasmuson James J. Shinners John A. Tomke Leonard J. Vallender Class of 2018 Gary W. Dietrich B.B. Hollingsworth, Jr. Ned S. Holmes Tom L. Lewis Paul M. Zelisko

Bernard + Associates, 767 Mill St. Reno, NV 89502 Jeff@bernardandassociates.com Phone: (775) 323-6828

B&C STAFF

Chief of Staff – Tony A. Schoonen Director of Big Game Records – Justin Spring Director of Publications – Julie L. Tripp Director of Marketing – Keith Balfourd Director Emeritus - Big Game Records – Jack Reneau Office Manager – Sandy Poston Controller – Jan Krueger TRM Ranch Manager – Mike Briggs Development Program Manager – Jodi Bishop Assistant Controller – Abra Loran Digital Strategies Manager – Mark Mesenko Creative Services Manager – Karlie Slayer Conservation Education Programs Manager – Luke Coccoli Customer Service – Amy Hutchison Records Dept. Assistant – Wendy Nickelson Records Dept. Data Specialist – Kyle M. Lehr

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FROM THE EDITOR

FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

continues to grow. You can bet that few, if any, of America’s urban dwellers can walk out their kitchen door and go hunting. Over recent decades our resource—game animals and the land on which they live—have become increasingly distant from the broad base of our users, the millions of hunters who depend on access to public hunting areas. Indeed, both national and state studies confirm that access is a key factor in influencing a decline in hunting participation among active hunters. It is, of course, easy to lament the challenges our community faces today. More importantly, how do we turn those challenges into opportunities that will help sustain and grow our hunting heritage? One of the most positive trends I’ve seen over the past 15 or so years is the number of state wildlife agencies who now view license holders not just as licensees, but as customers. This change in perception has helped generate a number of new strategies designed to expand

hunting opportunities and encourage new participation. A few quick examples: n

Not too many years ago, Pennsylvania GPS mapped their public hunting lands. This not only helped hunters find these locations statewide but also provided precise boundaries for each area. A number of state agencies have done the same. Tennessee has long been a leader in the Scholastic Clay Target Program with, last time I heard, some 3,000 active participants in the state. As the program got going, the agency invited these young shooters to go on an agency sponsored duck hunt. Not surprisingly, many signed up. Missouri, long a leader in recruitment and retention efforts, has not only built more than a 100 open-tothe-public ranges in the state; they also offer a wide variety of hunting seminars at their larger shooting facilities. What a great way to turn a trap shooter into a turkey hunter.

Doug Painter EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Space doesn’t allow me to provide more examples of such marketing strategies. Suffice it to say, state agencies are today involved in efforts well outside their traditional, or historic roles. And our community is all the better for it! Access, of course, isn’t our only issue. It is however, a good example of how creative strategies and a willingness to “shake things up” can make a difference. It’s often said today that we live in a disruptive era, where companies such as Uber and Airbnb have “changed the landscape” in only a few years. So for 2016, let’s roll up our sleeves and put our thinking caps on. As we look at the challenges ahead, let’s see how we can be disruptive, in a constructive way. Hope to see you down the trail. n

After breakfast the next morning we grabbed our guns, gathered the dogs, and headed out the kitchen door. Instead of getting into the pickup truck, however, we simply walked through the back yard and onto an adjacent field where we started hunting!

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege to hunt in some of the world’s more remote and exotic locations, from Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve to Russia’s Siberian wilderness. Several years ago, however, I hunted somewhere that was neither far-off nor foreign but was, nonetheless, a whole new world to me. This hunt began when a great friend of mine picked me up at the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, airport. We then drove a few hours back to his place, an old farmhouse near the town of De Smet. I knew we’d be hunting pheasant—this was South Dakota, after all—but I didn’t know exactly where we would be chasing roosters. After breakfast the next morning we grabbed our guns, gathered the dogs, and headed out the kitchen door. Instead of getting into the pickup truck, however, we simply walked through the backyard and onto an adjacent field where we started hunting! Now, if you live in a rural area or grew up “down on the farm,” you’re no doubt getting a chuckle out of this. After all, what’s the big deal about hunting on your own “back forty?” Well, for someone who grew up in Washington, D.C., and spent 40-plus years living not 50 miles from New York City, it was, for me, a unique experience. Back in 1950, 60 percent of our population was classified as urban. According to the latest U.S. census (2010), that urban classification has climbed to 80.7% and

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CONSERVATION POLICY I want to thank Jeff Crane and Gary Kania of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation for their articles on the Sportsmen’s Act and the American System of Conservation. Their leadership and insight into policy affecting sportsmen and sportswomen is always appreciated. The historic accomplishments of the Boone and Crockett Club resulted from a process in which highly influential and visionary members, in addition to other individuals with different assets or strengths in a specific area, would come together to identify, discuss, and solve problems related to hunting and conservation in North America. Sometimes this type of problem-solving would include direct action from the Club or one of its members. In other situations the Club would rely on its connections and direct the issue to the appropriate government agency or organization, or even facilitate the formation of a new organization or coalition of organizations. The formation of this highly effective consortium of organizations, known collectively as the American Wildlife Conservation Partners, is the most recent effort of the latter. The Boone and Crockett Club’s Strategic Plan has four strategic goals; two of them are directly related to conservation policy. These two goals are, first to improve the system of conservation throughout North America, and second to create an atmosphere where conservation and hunting can thrive.

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The Club has a bold and aggressive policy program as outlined in this Strategic Plan. As the leader of the hunting and conservation community, the Club is still very much challenged today, but not as greatly cha l lenged as Roosevelt was in the later part of the 1800s. If I were proposing to you today that we, like Roosevelt did, establish a framework for conservation, a forest service, a park service, and a fish and wildlife service, while lobbying the Congress to set aside 36 million acres of national forest lands and expand Yellowstone, then that would not at all be possible. However, it is our duty, as both citizens and as members of the Club, to maintain as best we can what our conservation leaders before us created. That is, more often than not, easier said than done. Today obstacles to carrying out the Club’s mission, vision, and beliefs are increasing in number and complexity. America’s land management and hunting traditions are being distorted by many factors, including urbanization, demographic changes, ecosystem management, biological diversity, and our crowded, fast-paced lives. As hunters, we represent a small portion of the larger society. Thus, as wildlife conservation becomes more of a global concern, non-hunters and other societal groups are questioning our hunting heritage, tradition, and deep appreciation for these resources, further complicating our ability to accomplish our vision and mission.

FROM THE PRESIDENT

In spite of the many great conservation successes of the past, these changes make it necessary for fish and wildlife managers, hunters, and conservationists to work together on policy initiatives to ensure longevity of our cherished habitat and resources. There are many conservation groups doing many good things, but there is a need for today’s fish and wildlife leaders to unify their collective strengths and apply them to common challenges and opportunities to protect fish and wildlife, habitat, hunting, trapping, and the hunter-conservationist’s way of life. Functioning at our highest level of effectiveness will require focus and prioritization, greater internal and external communications, the formation of unique partnerships, and enhanced longterm strategic thinking. Furthermore, we do not need to do what everybody else is doing. We need to focus on what everybody is not doing or is not good at, but most importantly, what is needed. Recently, we have worked with two partners— the American Wildlife Conservation Partners and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership—on funding conservation, which has been in a decline for the past 30 years. In 2015, the total amount we as a nation spent

Morrison Stevens, Sr. PRESIDENT

on natural resources was approximately one percent of our total budget. The last time our nation spent such a large percentage of its budget on natural resources was during the Reagan Administration (four percent). As a result of this collaborative effort, I am pleased to report that the omnibus appropriations bill, which funds federal government programs through September 30, 2016, will provide funding boosts for many conservation programs. For example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will receive an increase of $69 million, the National Park Service an increase of $237 million, the U.S. Geological Survey an increase of $20 million, and the Bureau of Land Management will receive an increase of $117 million. One key provision of this bill was the three-year reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which will receive an increase of $150 million. This bill directs $2.5 billion to the U.S. Forest Service for non-fire related activities, which is a $35 million increase; $4.2 billion was designated for Wildland Fire Management.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

It is obvious that the Boone and Crockett Club has paved the way in creating an extensive and integrative system for conservation. However, this system must constantly be nurtured. There will always be competition for funding for managing this system and special interest groups that have their own plans for how to use that funding. In addition to Jeff and Gary, we have a great team of government affairs specialists in Washington—David Anderson, Dr. Greg Schildwachter, and Mitch Butler, led by Bob Model and the Club’s Government Affairs Committee. We are constantly adapting to the diverse political, economic, social, technological, and environmental changes we face in order to maintain this impressive system of hunting and conservation. Except for the late 1800s, at no other time in history has hunting and conservation been at such a crossroads in North America, where we still have the capacity to “win.” The challenges are great, but the historic achievements and the financial, political, communication, and scientific assets of the Club’s members place us in a unique position, unlike ANY other conservation organization, to not only protect our investment in hunting and conservation, but advance it for future generations. n

PASSING A COMPREHENSIVE SPORTSMEN’S ACT IN THE 114TH CONGRESS JEFF CRANE PRESIDENT, CONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN’S FOUNDATION B&C PROFESSIONAL MEMBER

As the 114th Congress convenes in their final year, leaders and members of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC) continue working to move a bipartisan package of pro-sportsmen’s legislation. The Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act and The Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act, both introduced in 2015, aim to benefit America’s sportsmen and sportswomen, addressing issues from enhancing recreational access to promoting wildlife conservation. The end of 2015 saw a positive movement of both House and Senate packages. In October, the House Natural Resources Committee held a markup and passed the SHARE Act out of Committee with a vote of 21 to 15 in favor of the bill. In November, the

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed the first half of the Sportsmen’s Act provisions, and the Environment and Public Works Committee is expected to hold a markup on the second half of the Senate package early in 2016. With bipartisan support, these bills are indicative of the fact that hunting, angling, recreational shooting, and our outdoor traditions are not defined by or constrained to any partisan label. We are sportsmen and sportswomen because we appreciate and are stewards of America’s great outdoors, regardless of political affiliation, race, religion, gender, or socio-economic standing. The bills have received written support from nearly 50 national hunting and angling conservation organizations who collectively represent millions of American sportsmen and sportswomen. Among other important measures for sportsmen and sportswomen, provisions within the House and Senate sportsmen’s packages will: add lead fishing line to the list of exempted products from EPA regulation, leaving regulatory authority to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state fish and wildlife agencies; require federal land managers to consider how management plans affect opportunities to engage in hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting; and enable states to allocate a greater proportion of federal funding to create and main-

tain shooting ranges. Leaders of the CSC are working with partners within the hunting and angling community to gain more bipartisan supporters from the House and Senate and to pass a sportsmen’s package that addresses important measures for the sportsmen’s conservation community, users of our public resources, and conservation funding. The importance of passing a comprehensive sportsmen’s package helps sustain and enhance the “user pays, public benefits” program known as the American System of Conservation Funding, which has generated billions of dollars for conservation projects across the United States since 1937. These funds, from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Programs, come from hunting and fishing licenses as well as excise taxes from hunting, fishing, and boating equipment. The term “conservationist” was originally attributed to sportsmen and sportswomen, as true stewards of our fish and wildlife resources. In October, 37 members of the American Wildlife Conservation Partners, including the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation and the Boone and Crockett Club, published a letter emphasizing the true identity of America’s conservationists. CSF and conservation partners urge you to contact your Members of Congress and ask them to support the SHARE Act in the House, the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act in the Senate, and the swift passage of a sportsmen’s bill crucial to conservation and our American traditions. n

CSF President Jeff Crane testifies before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act. COURTESY OF THE SENATE ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMIT TEE.

Find out who your members of Congress and Senators are and how to contact them by visiting www.congress.gov/ members.

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THE POLITICS OF WILDLIFE THE TRUE IDENTITY OF AMERICA’S CONSERVATIONISTS GARY KANIA VICE PRESIDENT, CONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN’S FOUNDATION B&C PROFESSIONAL MEMBER

The community of hunters and anglers must take every available opportunity to educate the American people and the media on what the term “conservationist” means, who the conservationists are, and what conservationists have achieved in making this country’s wildlife resources the envy of the world. 10 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF), Boone and Crockett Club, and 35 other members of the American Wildlife Conservation Partners, signed on in support of the following published letter at the end of 2015, a testament to sportsmen and sportswomen as American’s true conservationists. At the beginning of the 20th century, Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service and one of the fathers of the American conser vation movement, developed the now widely accepted definition of conservation as the “wise use of the Earth and its resources for the lasting good of men.” According to Pinchot, the purpose of conservation is to produce “the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time,” with sound science as the recognized tool to accomplish this objective. Conservationists are people who support and/or engage in this approach to natural resource management. Hunters and anglers are among the first Americans to endorse the idea. Their legacy is now over 100 years old. Through their leadership, state agencies were established to manage our nation’s fish and wildlife, and to adopt laws and create programs to conserve these public trust resources. Arguably, the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Programs (WSFR), a key component of the American System of Conservation Funding, were the most important of these programs to be created. Through this unique “user-pays, public-benefits” system, sportsmen and sportswomen are the primary funders of wildlife conservation, providing upwards of 80 percent of the funding for state fish and wildlife agencies. They also financially support conservation through the purchase of hunting and fishing licenses and permits, duck stamps, firearms, ammunition and archery equipment,

philanthropy, and the creation of organizations whose sole mission is the restoration and enhancement of species of wildlife. Unfortunately, the tremendous contribution made by sportsmen and sportswomen toward the restoration and conservation of our wildlife resources remains largely unknown to the general public. This situation is exacerbated by the media’s broad-based use of the term “conservationist.” They are unable to distinguish between individuals and organizations that financially support wildlife conservation and those that don’t. The latter include animal rights and antihunting organizations, those whose funding is spent primarily on litigating resource management decisions and those that promote a preservationist “don’t touch” philosophy in wildlife management. It is not by accident that these groups through their interaction with the media seized upon the term “conservationist” in order to cloak their preservationist, anti-consumptive use philosophy. In the 1990s, labels such as “environmentalist,” “protectionist,” and “animal rightist,” became undesirable labels. These groups began the calculated adoption of the term “conservationist” in an effort to reverse the political and societal credibility that they were beginning to lose. It is critical that we educate the American public about the fact that hunting, angling, recreational shooting, and trapping are closely related to fish and wildlife

conservation. In fact, it is almost universally impossible to speak of one without the other. The term “conservationist” must be rightfully applied. Using phrases like “sportsmen and other conservationists,” or “sportsmenconser vationists” when describing ourselves accurately characterizes the relationship between sportsmen and sportswomen and our nation’s natural resources. “Conservationist” is a title sportsmen and sportswomen helped create, work hard to maintain, and are proud to rightfully claim. They truly earned and deserve this distinctive designation. The community of hunters and anglers must take every available opportunity to educate the American people and the media on what the term “conservationist” means, who the conservationists are, and what conservationists have achieved in making this country’s wildlife resources the envy of the world. Leading the charge for the hunting and fishing community are members of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC), who are working in 2016 to pass comprehensive sportsmen’s packages in the House and Senate: The Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act and the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act. CSF and the Boone and Crockett Club, along with our other partners within the conservation community support and are actively engaged in advancing these important packages of conservation legislation. n

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RELEVANCY OF CONSERVATION Although it is a cliché, it is true, our world is changing rapidly. Consider first that the United States’ population has doubled since I was born in 1957. This population doubling has increased the demand for food, fiber, energy, and water throughout the nation. The nation’s demographic changes have been startling. Today’s incoming minority pre-school students constitute the majority of their classes. We continue to become more urbanized and more technologically dependent. Our children have competing interests that did not exist when I was a child and most have become detached from nature and consumed with social media. Given this changing world, how has the conservation profession adapted? Do we even understand the social dynamics in play as we manage society’s resources? To be fair, some individuals, agencies, and organizations have taken steps to transform the way they respond to the changing public culture. However, as a profession, fish and wildlife conservation appears to be irrelevant to a broad segment of the public. I base that statement on a number of facts. The declining financial support for conservation funding is undeniable. Federal funding for conservation has decreased from around three percent of the federal budget to less than one percent in the last 40 years. The 50-year-old Land and Water Conservation Fund has been temporarily reauthorized and only once fully funded. Urbanization 12 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

has removed people from rural settings where much of the conservation work is actually done; therefore, removing them from observing the benefits of conservation. The nation’s fishing and hunting par ticipation rate have declined dramatically for decades. By all measures, it appears that conservation has lost relevancy to the public. Perhaps the environmental successes associated with legislation passed in the 1970s, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, have achieved such success that we as a nation believe that the important environmental issues have been addressed. As a profession, we have done an admirable job improving our biological science knowledge. However, the loss of relevancy is a function of our inability to understand the social impacts of a changing world. There are the social sciences to consider. We have not taken advantage of the disciplines of economics, sociology, demography, public health, childhood development, or urban planning to inform us about the relevancy of conservation. Rather, most professionals rely on past experiences to design and implement programs and labor in agency structures that were formed decades ago in response to decades-old issues. Our own professional jargon is wildlife-centric even though we live in an increasingly humancentric world. We talk of ducks produced per wetland acre, bucks produced per square mile, fish produced

CAPITOL COMMENTS

per stream mile, and on and on. Those metrics are largely lost on a public where more than 85 percent of people live in urban areas with little or no appreciation for hunting or fishing. If we want to enhance the relevancy of conservation I believe we need to communicate the benefits of conservation in a way that garners people’s attention. Our conservation programs should be culturally relevant, address issues of public concern, engage technology in outreach, base public opinion on scientifically sound measures of human desires, employ marketing, and consider the economics of conservation. Financing natural resource conservation provides a large return on investment because of the multitude of public benefits provided. Conser vation w ill remain relevant if we design agency structures and programs with an understanding of the public’s needs and desires. We will remain relevant if we explain the spectrum of benefits provided by habitat conservation in terms that people relate to. The public benefits of conservation are necessary for all life forms:

Steven Williams, Ph.D. B&C PROFESSIONAL MEMBER PRESIDENT Wildlife Management Institute

clean air, clean water, flood retention, water filtration, ground water recharge, climate regulation, biodiversity, pollination, storm surge protection, outdoor recreation, and physical and mental wellbeing. These benefits resonate with the American public, rural and urban alike. These benefits will drive public engagement, political support, and financial support for conservation. They will provide public health benefits, quality of life benefits, and ultimately enhance further conservation efforts. It is a matter of increasing conservation’s relevancy to the public. It is very simple, if we are not relevant to society, we will be irrelevant. I leave you with this quote from General Eric Shinseki “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” n

Conservation will remain relevant if we design agency structures and programs with an understanding of the public’s needs and desires. We will remain relevant if we explain the spectrum of benefits provided by habitat conservation in terms that people relate to.

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HUNTING IS NOT FAIR. The ‘fair’ in fair chase relates to legitimate, honorable, genuine, or appropriate.

Fair chase hunting means working relentlessly to hone my backwoods skills; to spend time practicing with my bow and rifle to the point of obsession; to walk through the woods with watchful eyes, studying the flow of nature and how to move along with it; and to only take the shot when I am absolutely sure that it is the right shot at the right animal at the right time. PG 44. #FAIRCHASECONTEST WINNER HOWELL PUGH

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ERIC MICHEL STEVE DEMARAIS BRONSON STRICKLAND THE MSU DEER LAB Photos Courtesy of Authors

Nutrition versus Genetics in Whitetail Deer Management: How Far Can Nutrition Take Us?

The average antler size at three years of age for a first generation LCP buck was 95 inches. Using this score as a basis for our prediction, first generation LCP bucks would score about 122 inches at six years of age.

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Interest in whitetail deer

management is at an all-time high with hunters having a wide array of goals. Some hunters want more deer while others want higher â&#x20AC;&#x153;qualityâ&#x20AC;? deer. Regardless of their specific goals, the one topic that always arises is antlers. Antlers have intrigued hunters since the dawn of time. As early humans drew pictures of them on cave walls, it's no surprise that they are at the center of most of today's management strategies.

There are many tried and true management strategies to increase antler size. For example, maintaining appropriate deer density, practicing active habitat management, and planting supplemental forages will improve nutritional quality for a deer herd. The basis for each of these strategies is maintaining a supportive nutritional carrying capacity that ensures animals fulfill their genetic potential. Mississippi is similar to many states and provinces in that there is significant regional variation in the size of the deer. The Delta region tends to produce the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest bucks, while hunters harvest the smallest deer in the Lower Coastal Plain (LCP) region, and medium-sized deer in the Thin Loess region. The extent of the difference between Delta and LCP regions is remarkable, with Delta bucks averaging 41 pounds heavier and 25 inches larger than LCP bucks at three years of age (Figure 1). Early taxonomists recognized 15 subspecies of whitetail deer in the United States based primarily on regional morphological variation. The Boone and Crockett Club recognized this variation in 1932 with a separate trophy category for Couesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; whitetail of the southwest, and interest has been expressed for further subdivisions. Mississippi is home to two subspecies, the Virginia whitetail found across most of the state, and the Osceola whitetail found in the LCP. Our significant regional differences in antler and body size lend some support to this classification. However, similar patterns of variation suggest nutrition may contribute significantly to regional variation in body and antler size. Soil quality and land use decisions are known to impact deer growth potential by affecting the quantity and quality of available forages. Soil fertility is a complex concept, but one simple measure is the amount of phosphorus found in the soil. Greater levels of phosphorous stimulate plant growth, and actively growing plant tissue has more nutritional value than non-growing plant parts. Soil and deer forage characteristics vary across the Delta, Thin Loess, and LCP regions (Figure 2), with phosphorus levels in Delta soils being about twice those in Thin Loess soils and five times greater than LCP soils. A similar pattern is present in protein content of springtime deer forages, which varies from 20 percent in the Delta down to

ABOVE - FIGURE 1: Body weight and antler size of harvested bucks differ greatly by soil region in Mississippi. BELOW - FIGURE 2. Soil fertility, as measured by amount of phosphorus, and deer forage crude protein varied with the same regional pattern as buck body weight and antler size.

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15 percent in the LCP. The Delta region is also home to large acreages of production agriculture; in order to maximize crop production, producers often add fertilizer to the soil. Although a nuisance to farmers, deer populations in the Delta benefit from soybeans in the summer and wheat in the winter. In contrast, timber production is the most common land use practice in the LCP region because the acidic, sandy soils coupled with frequent rainfall make for ideal pine growing conditions. However, a consequence of growing timber is limited deer forage production during most of the stand rotation. Forage production is limited because the forest canopy captures most of the sun's energy; little sunlight reaches the understory. Although we

demonstrated that regional differences in body and antler size are related to soil quality and land use, there was concern that smaller antlers in some regions were due to genetic limitations in antler potential. The successful deer restoration effort during the 1940s and 1950s add to the potential genetic confusion. Mississippi wildlife biologists released over 3,000 deer, some from as far away as Wisconsin and Mexico. The MSU Deer Lab has confirmed that some differences in the genetic “signatures” of current Mississippi deer populations appear related to the restocking program, but there is no evidence that Wisconsin or Mexico “genetics” are the cause of the variation in body and antler size of deer throughout the state. If there are actual

BELOW - FIGURE 3: Capture locations of deer used in our study, (black dots). Multiple locations within each soil region insured that we adequately sampled the full range of genetic material present in each region’s deer population. RIGHT: Keeping deer in captivity allowed us to control their diet as well as their breeding, such that males were only breeding females within their region.

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genetic limits to body and antler size, then improved nutrition would not allow smaller deer like the Osceola subspecies living in the LCP to compensate and grow as large as Delta deer. The combination of the subspecies designation and the subtle genetic signatures remaining from past restocking efforts dictated that we take a special approach to determine if genetic limitations were involved in the extreme regional variation in body and antler size of deer across Mississippi. IS IT GENETICS OR NUTRITION; NATURE OR NURTURE?

We needed a controlled study to determine if differences in body and antler size across Mississippi were caused by differences in genetic potential or by factors such as soil

quality and land use, which are proxies of nutrition. These sources of environmental variation could be reduced to one simple factor that we could control: nutrition. We needed to obtain deer that represented the genetic variation within each of the three soil regions and raise offspring on an optimum diet. Mississippi biologists and Deer Lab personnel captured deer from the Delta, Thin Loess, and LCP soil regions of Mississippi (Figure 3), and brought them back to the MSU Deer Research Unit. We captured deer from several locations within each soil region to ensure that we included the full range of genetic variation. Keeping deer in captivity allowed us to control their diet as well as their breeding, such that males were only breeding

females within their region. If body and antler sizes remained different while all deer ate the same optimum diet, then we could conclude that regional variation is caused by genetic limitations. However, if deer with historically smaller body and antler size catch up to the bigger Delta deer when fed the same diet, we can conclude that nutrition is the ultimate cause of regional variation. GENERATIONAL RESULTS

Previous research has shown that significant environmental stressors can impact growth and survival of deer for multiple generations, a phenomenon referred to as “maternal effects.” So, we planned to raise deer on optimum nutrition through two generations to account for this effect. Fawns produced by wild does but raised on optimum nutrition are first generation deer. Fawns produced by first generation deer are second generation deer. First generation bucks raised on optimum nutrition experienced a moderate increase in growth compared to their wild predecessors (Figure 4). Over all three regions, body and antler size increased about six percent, but the pattern was not consistent among regions. Body weight for three-year-old bucks from the Delta and Thin Loess increased by nine pounds while LCP bucks remained essentially unchanged compared to their wild counterparts roaming the nutritionally deprived region of south Mississippi. The pattern differed for antler size as the Delta was essentially unchanged while Thin Loess and LCP bucks grew seven more inches of antler compared to their wild predecessors. Improvements in body and antler size of the second generation of all three regions were profound! As you can see

in Figure 5, bucks from the Delta, Thin Loess, and LCP regions increased 32, 21, and 36 pounds, respectively, compared to wild bucks—that’s an 18 percent increase! The second generation LCP bucks grew body weights equivalent to wild bucks from the Delta region. Antler size displayed the same trend. Bucks from the Delta, Thin Loess, and LCP regions increased 5, 11, and 28 inches, respectively, compared to their wild counterparts. The 28-inch increase for LCP bucks was an amazing 32 percent increase compared to their wild predecessors! For logistical reasons, we had to end the study when bucks were three years old, but that’s not the end of the results. We’re able to predict antler size at maturity based on growth rates from our other studies. The average antler size at three years of age for a first generation LCP buck was 95 inches. Using this score as a basis for our prediction, first generation LCP bucks would score about 122 inches at six years of age. This means that after one generation of improved nutrition, average LCP bucks almost reach the minimum 125-inch requirement to be entered into the Pope and Young record book, and many of the larger animals would surpass it. The average antler score for our second generation bucks was 116 inches. Again, using this score as a basis for our prediction, second generation LCP bucks would score about 147 inches on average at six years of age!

ABOVE - FIGURE 4: First generation bucks with genetics representative of three soil regions and raised on high-quality nutrition grew bodies and antlers about 6% larger than bucks harvested from the wild. BELOW - FIGURE 5: Second generation bucks (F2) with genetics representative of three soil regions and raised on high-quality nutrition grew bodies and antlers about 20% larger than bucks harvested from the wild.

NUTRITION AND TIME ARE KEY

We documented some amazing results. First and foremost, you are what you eat—and also what your mother and grandmother ate too! Our results clearly show that smaller deer in the LCP region of Mississippi that are FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 19

similar to the Osceola whitetail deer are not genetically doomed to have smaller bodies and antlers; they are simply a product of their environment. Once nutrition was improved, LCP bucks displayed their true genetic potential, but it took time. Buck responses took two generations to compensate because the nutritional improvements had to overcome long-standing morphological adjustments to previous habitats that were mediated by their mothers, or what’s called “maternal effects.” Simply put, maternal effects can be thought of as a mother communicating information about the quality of the environment that she is experiencing with her in-utero offspring. One likely mechanism for expression of maternal effects is a relatively new concept called epigenetics, where gene activity can be switched off and on based on repeated patterns. For example, the first generation bucks were raised on the same optimal diet as the second generation bucks, but their mothers had passed along a signal to their genes that said, “don’t grow as big as you can because even though the environment has improved, it’s not normal and it may be too risky to grow a large body and antlers.” This allows for certain genes that code for growth to remain “switched off,” and prevents investment in a larger body and antler size in response to a temporary resource. Thus it keeps animals from growing larger in a particularly good year, only to sustain themselves when forage quality returns to “normal.” However, by the second generation, these genetic switches likely were turning on, signaling to genes in offspring that it is now safe to grow larger because the environment my mother experienced has improved and is now the norm. Maternal effects can also be thought of as the mother “inheriting” her environment. If a mother inherits a high quality environment, she will pass it along to her fawns. The same will occur if she inherits a low-quality environment. There’s even research in mice that suggests the males contribute “switching” information via his sperm, so it’s not all left up to mom. A second important result was exhibited by deer with genetics representative of the Delta region. Those study animals came from the region that we considered to be the “Gold Standard” for 20 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

Nutrition versus Genetics

If body and antler sizes remained different while all deer ate the same optimum diet, then we could conclude that regional variation is caused by genetic limitations. However, if deer with genetic backgrounds from regions with historically smaller body and antler size compensate and catch up to the bigger Delta deer when fed the same high quality diet, we can conclude that nutrition is the ultimate cause of regional variation.

body and antler growth by whitetail deer in Mississippi. Yet, we observed a 32 pound increase in body weight and a five inch increase in antler score. These results suggest that even deer in the Delta are not attaining their full potential in the wild. Limited resources wouldn’t allow us to continue this project beyond two generations. So we may never know how large Mississippi’s whitetails can grow when optimum nutrition is provided for many

generations. We promote proper habitat management for free-ranging deer and hope that many generations will be grown on such improved landscapes. But, one thing is for certain, the Mississippi State University Deer Lab will continue to work with wildlife biologists to identify and address research topics of importance to proper management of our wonderful deer resource. n

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CRAIG BODDINGTON PROFESSIONAL MEMBER Photos Courtesy of Author

ACCURATE HUNTER GOING STEADY

The subject of this column is field shooting,

Hey, this isn’t high school, but perhaps the most important skillset in field shooting around the world is “going steady.” Figuring out almost instantly, exactly how to get steady enough to make the shot. This is not as simple as it sounds.

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so over the next several issues we will focus on shooting positions, natural and artificial rests, moving game, shooting at distance, and shooting close and fast. Before we delve into such a broad and important subject, it’s important to start with full disclosure. Because people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, let’s understand that my walls are made of thin glass! I have made some disastrous misses, and unlike some of my colleagues, I’ve never been shy about admitting (and writing about) them. Nor, I hope, have I ever blamed anyone other than myself! In this season just past, at my own place in Kansas, I missed a lovely buck. It broke my string—eight years, eight shots, eight bucks. It had to happen sooner or later, right?

Every time I’ve written about a miss or some other horrible mistake, I’ve gotten letters from readers who tell me it has never happened to them. Many go on to question my lineage or my right to be in the occupation I’m in. In the past I’ve generally been of one or two minds on such letters. First, I’ve considered that the writer must be blessed with a wonderfully selective memory. I can’t seem to forget the missed opportunities because they still haunt me. Second, I’ve considered that the writer may simply have extremely limited experience. It hasn’t happened to you? Stick around, sooner or later it will! It now occurs to me that there is a third option. At least ten million of our more than sixteen million North American hunters are primarily deer hunters. By demographics most of them are whitetail hunters; by locale, tradition, and efficiency, most of them hunt from tree stands. Even though it just happened to me, if you do most of your hunting from a familiar tree stand and pick your shots with care, I can appreciate that one might go decades without missing a shot. Potentially there are

I almost always carry at least a light pack, so using it for a shooting rest is one of my favorite options. Depending on what is available to set it on, a pack can be used in almost unlimited ways to aid steadiness.

similar situations with Western hunters who know their ground and pick their shots. Especially the many of us who focus on a fat young buck or cow elk for the freezer and have no interest in seeking the largest horns and antlers. This column is not about staying in your comfort zone. Quite the opposite; it’s about expanding your shooting horizons. Now, I suspect there are many readers who have taken more game than I have, certainly of one or another favorite species. I’m a lot more certain that many of you have taken better horns and antlers of many species than I have. After all, just like you, I drool over the photos in this magazine! On the other hand, I’ve been an eclectic hunter my entire lifetime. Nobody will live long enough to go everywhere and do everything in this wide and wonderful hunting world of ours, but I’ve hunted under most conditions and in most terrains and climates on this continent, as well as all the others. Things are different when you’re out of your comfort zone. In the mountains you’re constantly out of

breath; in the forest you’re trying to pick holes in the vegetation; when it’s cold you’re shivering; when it’s hot your hands are slick with sweat; and yet you still have to make the shot if you get a chance. One of the wonderfully charming (and frustrating) things about all hunting in all places is the ultimate uncertainty. You can do everything right and never get a shot because in most situations the final move is up to the animal. So luck is a factor, and I do believe in beginners’ luck. Either way, hunting luck can be defined as opportunity meeting preparation. Whether you’re a veteran or a beginner, when an opportunity arises one has to do a lot of things right—quickly—in order to capitalize. This column will not be about hunting tactics. Truthfully, in many or perhaps most cases I’m not qualified to offer that. I am the lifelong Jack of all hunting trades, and master of very few. Instead, it’s about shooting tactics. When a hardwon opportunity arises one must seize the moment and take advantage. Often the chance is fleeting, so the

opportunity must be seized quickly. Those who don’t share our passion have no idea what the surge of adrenaline in the presence of a fine game animal feels like, or how it shortens our breath and makes our hands shake. And yet we have to get through that and perform quickly and accurately. Hey, this isn’t high school, but perhaps the most important skillset in field shooting around the world is “going steady.” Figuring out almost instantly, exactly how to get steady enough to make the shot. This is not as simple as it sounds. In open country you may be expecting a longer shot, but a close encounter can happen at any time. Sometimes you have plenty of time to prepare; other times you have to take the shot now…or not. Realistically, at longer ranges you simply must have time to prepare, to read the distance and judge the wind, and to “build your house” into a rock-steady position. So a fleeting opportunity at several hundred yards probably isn’t an opportunity at all, nor is a quick glimpse of a flagging tail in close cover.

On the other hand, part of the skill is constant anticipation, what we in the military call “situational awareness.” If an opportunity arises now, how would I get steady? When the desired animal appears, there must be instant evaluation: How much time do I have? Perhaps it’s measured in milliseconds, perhaps you have all day. Either way you could be wrong, but you still must make the call and then instantly evaluate your options for getting steady enough to make the shot. Shooting at game is not like small-bore competition where the “10-ring” is much smaller than the .22-caliber bullet you’re shooting. Nor is it like thousand-yard competition where a stray puff blows the bullet onto the next target. Regardless of distance, the vital zone of a deer, sheep, goat, or pronghorn is at least the size of a pie plate; and on elk and moose it’s considerably larger. So, steady enough and accurate enough are relative terms depending altogether on distance, time to set up, shortness of breath from climbing that ridge, and shakiness of hands from the dreadFAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 23

ed malady of buck fever. The real trick is to know how to get steady enough fast enough, and from the widest variety of shooting positions as possible. Then if you have the luxury of time, as in waiting for an animal to turn or a bedded animal to rise, you can spend those extra seconds (or minutes, or rarely, hours) controlling your breathing and focusing on doing what you hopefully already know how to do. Lord, I’ve shot from some weird positions, including some where I absolutely knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I was going to take a scope cut. At the moment that wasn’t important; getting steady was. We all have comfort zones. For many of us, it’s leaning over the bar or rails of our favorite deer stand. For me, thanks to so much African hunting, I’m extremely comfortable shooting over the three-legged sticks almost universal over there. My real comfort zone and default position, however, is shooting over a pack. I almost always carry one, and it’s my preferred rifle rest if terrain allows. I’m also very comfortable shooting prone with a bipod, and almost equally comfortable sitting with a tall bipod, but I am not nearly so steady shooting kneeling or standing with a two-legged rest. Those are shooting horizons I should work on because the real goal is to have almost unlimited options—a full repertoire of positions you know you can make steady enough. But it’s okay to have a default position; it just isn’t okay if that’s your only steady position!

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To my thinking, it all starts with the four NRA competition positions of prone, kneeling, sitting, and standing. Mind you, we aren’t competing, and our only rulebook is game regulations, which tell us when and how we can hunt, but not how we should shoot. So initially we’re going to work on those four basic shooting positions, and we’ll see how they can be modified, compromised, and even bastardized as we try to get as steady as possible. Let’s begin with just one ground rule: It is possible I can offer some ideas and options that, just maybe, you hadn’t thought of. But you must get out on the range and practice. That means get away from the benchrest. Be creative and practice from real field shooting positions. You don’t have to expend costly ammo or get kicked around. For long-range shooting there is no substitute for shooting at actual range, but “position” shooting can be practiced perfectly well with a .22 or an airgun in your basement or garage. For that matter, you don’t need any ammo at all to practice getting into field positions. As we’ll see, some of us old guys need to limber up for some of them! n

TOP TO BOTTOM: Bench- Too many of us spend too much time at the benchrest. It’s a necessary evil for testing the rifle, and not bad for working on trigger press and breath control but there are no benches in the fields, so it’s essential to get away from the bench and practice from field positions. Stand- It’s likely that the majority of American deer hunters spend a lot of time in deer stands. If it’s a familiar stand and you pick your shots, it is possible that you might go many years without a miss. As terrain varies the odds go up. Sticks- The threelegged shooting sticks are almost universal in Africa, but they also have application in many other places. I carry them with me on many hunts and I spend a lot of time on the range practicing with them.

Survival of the Flattest The 30 caliber category has gotten crowded over the last hundred years, so we decided to add something more evolved into the population. Introducing the 30 Nosler, a 30 caliber round that fires a 210 gr. AccuBondÂŽ Long Range bullet at 3,000 fps from a standard length action. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s survival of the flattest. And now we wait for the others to drop. Flat out. Lights out.

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800 . 285 . 3701 FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 25

150 Years of

WAYNE C. VAN ZWOLL B&C PROFESSIONAL MEMBER Photos Courtesy of Author

WINCHESTERS The first Winchester came on the heels of a war that tested it. Hunters still hail its offspring.

This original Winchester 1892 in .32-20 has a rare set trigger and a tang sight. Is it too lovely for the field?

The .38-55, charter round in Winchesterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1894, gave way in deer camps to the .30-30 and .32 Special. 26 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

Approach ready to fire again, from behind the animal, rifle up front. Save congratulations for later.

Fast, natural pointing— a characteristic of leveraction carbines that endears them to big game hunters.

Had the buck broken away, I’d not

have fired. But the alders were too thick even for a blacktail to exit fast. He rocketed toward me, then sunfished, bound for the river. I triggered the carbine twice to no avail, shortened the lead and fired twice more. Recoil bounced the bead on his rear rib as he vanished in willows. I found him right away. The last .30-30 bullets had driven through his chest. In my youth, you could have bought that Winchester Model 94 for $82; a Marlin 336 for the same money. Savage’s 99 cost $100 at that time. While many hunters had gone to scoped bolt-actions, iron-sighted lever rifles remained popular in deer camps. Not every sportsman could spill $135 for a Winchester Model 70. During the next 50 years, the complexity of lever rifles plus requisite hand fitting and assembly hiked production costs. CNC machining that sped-up shaping of close-tolerance parts also benefited bolt rifles, which are easier to stock and require little handwork. Now bushels of bolt guns list for less than the plain-jane saddle guns once so affordable. Savage’s 99 have expired. Winchester’s current 94 cost $1,200. The closure of Marlin’s plant pained legions of fans that predicted, accurately, that 336s built by trolls with no lever-rifle skills would never match their forebears. Walter Hunt had no way to see this coming. In 1848, this inventor (of a lock-stitch needle and the safety pin) brooded over his balky new rifle. The “Volitional Repeater” fed

Wayne used a 1920s-era 1886 Winchester in .45-70 to down this bull. The cartridge dates to 1873. FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 27

The Volcanic rifle (top) failed at market. The Henry succeeded and spawned the Winchester 1866.

John Browning’s single shot (Winchester 1885) had vertical sliding lugs later adapted to lever rifles.

hollow-based bullets called “rocket balls” from a tube under the barrel. A loop behind the trigger cycled the action, which fed primers separately. Sparks from the primer pierced a paper covering at the bullet base, igniting a small charge in the bullet’s cavity. In 1849, Hunt received a patent. Hunt’s mechanism caught the eye of New York entrepreneur George Arrowsmith, who engaged Lewis Jennings to make the complex rifle reliable. Arrowsmith soon abandoned the project, selling rights to financier Cour tland Pa lmer for $100,000. When sales of HuntJennings rifles stalled, Palmer stopped producing them. A handful of New York investors stepped in, hiring Horace Smith, Daniel Wesson, and young engineer B. Tyler Henry to build a marketable rifle for their nascent Volcanic Repeating Arms Company. Bankruptcy, however, truncated the project. In 1857, one of the investors bought all company assets for $40,000. New Haven shirt-maker Oliver Fisher Winchester—who’d initially owned 80 share of common stock at $25 a share—now counted on Henry to improve the Hunt-Jennings rifle. In 1860, Henry earned a patent for a quirky, under-powered, 15-shot, 44-caliber rifle prone to leak gas. “… Where is the military genius [to] modify the science of war as to best develop the capacities of this terrible engine—the exclusive use of which would enable any government … to rule the world?”

This 1894, well seasoned in British Columbia’s bush, is still hunting, having downed many animals.

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This might once have been written of the horse, and later the atomic bomb. But Oliver Winchester’s words, in an appeal to the U.S. government, described his leveraction rifle. Though it saw limited use in our Civil War,

its 15 quick shots got the attention of the Confederacy. A Henry repeater almost surely saved Union Captain Wilson of the 12th Kentucky Cavalry when, as he sat at dinner with his family, seven Confederate guerillas burst in. He pleaded with them to “take me outside.” They consented. At the door, Wilson raced for the corncrib. He came up shooting, killing five guerillas with five shots. The others ran for their horses, one losing fingers to a sixth bullet as he grabbed the saddle horn. Wilson dropped him with his seventh shot, the remaining man with his eighth. During the Atlanta campaign of 1864, a Confederate soldier told his captors: “One of your men, in retreating [faced us four soldiers and fired] simultaneously with us. One of our group fell dead… The rest of us proceeded to load when he fired twice in quick succession, killing two more of my comrades. I dropped [the cap in my fingers]… Sir, there is no use in the South fighting men armed as yours…” A huge improvement over Rocket Balls, the Henry’s.44 rimfire loads were still anemic. Thrust by 26 grains black powder to 1,025 fps, the 216-grain bullets packed less energy than you’ll coax from a short .357 handgun! Current .30-30 ammo hits harder at 350 yards than the .44 Henry did at the muzzle! After B. Tyler Henry left the company, Nelson King overhauled the rifle’s fragile magazine and added a receiver port for loading; and so emerged the Model 1866, also fitted with a wooden forend. It was the first rifle marked by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Its .44 rimfire cartridge, based on that of the Henry, featured lighter 200grain .44 bullets and a stiffer, 28-grain powder charge. In

Winchester’s 1873 in .44-40 became most popular when in 1878 Colt so-chambered its revolvers. 1867, Winchester hawked the rifle as “stronger, yet lighter; the magazine is closed and strongly protected; it is more simple in operation [but] the whole 15 cartridges can be fired in 15 seconds…or in double-quick time…at a rate of 120 shots per minute…” The rifle then held 17 rounds, the carbine 12. The Model 1866, built on full schedule beginning in 1867 after Winchester moved to Bridgeport, put the Henry in mothballs. For six years, the firm focused on its new lever rifle, shipping 100,000 during that period. The Model 1873 that followed was an improved 1866 and fired Winchester’s first centerfire cartridge. The .44-40 burned 40 grains of black powder, launching a 200-grain bullet at 1,200 fps. In 1878, Colt offered its 1873

Single Action Army revolver in .44-40. Both firearms were hits. You could load either from your belt, with no danger of mix-ups. Supplying the West with ammo became easier; and finding ammo became easier as the .44-40 gained traction. Hardly a “stopping” round, it still impressed hunters. William F. Cody wrote in 1875: “For general hunting or Indian fighting I pronounce your improved Winchester [‘73] the boss…” On a hunt in the Black Hills he met an aggressive bear and relayed about the incident: “Before he could reach me I had eleven bullets in him… more lead than he could comfortably digest…” Favored by bandits and lawmen—including Texas Rangers and the RCMP—Winchester 1873s rode in the

scabbards of Army scouts and the wagon boxes of sheep herders. Long service in lawless environs, stateside and abroad, drew this observation: “The .44-40 has killed more people, good and bad, than any other commercial cartridge.” At one time, that was probably true. Winchester followed the 1873 with a similar rifle for larger cartridges. Chambered to the .45-75 WCF, the ironframed 1876 endured for a decade. It was Winchester’s last lever-action deriving from the Hunt and Henry. A better design appeared unexpectedly after a Winchester salesman brought a second-hand rifle to Thomas Bennett, company president, and Oliver Winchester’s son-in-law. Bennett traced the single-shot to the “biggest gun shop between

Ron Ens admires a Winchester 71, last of the Browning-inspired leveractions, dropped in the 1950s.

Omaha and the Pacific,” staffed by four brothers barely out of their teens. The oldest was John Moses Browning. Brought up in a frontier gun-shop, Browning had fashioned a crude gun at age 11. His brilliance must have been evident to the shrewd Bennett, who paid $8,000 for rights to the rifle John had designed for hunters. No blueprints; he’d built the accurate, reliable dropping-block with hardly any machinery. “His designs are so simple,” marveled a colleague, “he measures in inches, not thousandths.” Bennett introduced the Browning rif le as Winchester’s Model 1885, and then urged the Utah genius to focus on lever-driven repeaters. For 17 years, John Browning would work e xclu sively for

John Moses Browning, a veritable genius in firearms design, was responsible for many Winchesters.

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150 Years of

WINCHESTERS

Winchester’s 71, introduced in 1935 to replace the Model 1886, chambered only .348 Win.

Bighorn Armory builds fine leveractions with Winchester features. Here Wayne loads a .500 S&W.

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Winchester, contributing 44 designs. Bennett bought them all, some just to keep from the competition. John Browning adapted his vertical-lug lockup to lever-actions. The first, replacing the 1876, was the strong, powerful Model 1886. It netted John $50,000— “more money than you could find in Ogden,” he said. Bored most notably for the .45-70 Government, the 1886 appeared in other chambers as well. The .33 Winchester joined them in 1902, pushing a 200-grain bullet to 2,200 fps. Winchester kept the .33 in its line until 1936 when the .348 Model 71 supplanted the ’86. The .348 sent 200-grain bullets at 2,530 fps and was offered only in the 71. That lovely rifle dropped from the catalog in 1957. Delighted with the 1886, Thomas Bennett offered John Browning $10,000 for a short-action rifle if he finished in three months, or $15,000 if he finished in two. John replied, “The price is $20,000. You’ll have it in 30 days. If I’m late, it’s free.” The Model 1892 arrived early. In .25-20, .32-20, .38-40, and .4440, it listed at $18 and sold to the walls, overseas as well as in the U.S. It remained in the line until 1941. Winchester’s iconic Model 1894 appeared in .32-40 and .38-55, but within a year added the .30 WCF or .30-30, our first smokeless sporting cartridge. Its original load, a 160-grain bullet at 1,970 fps, gave way to a 170-grain softpoint at 2,200 fps. Including Models 55 and 64, the 1894 lasted 112 years. That run ended in March, 2006, with the shuttering of Winchester’s New Haven plant. The rifle later returned and is now available in four configurations: Carbine, Short Rifle, Sporter, and Take-Down; in .38-55, 30-30 and .450 Marlin. The ‘94 is Winchester’s bestselling lever gun, with more

than six million produced! A radically different lever-action followed the 1894. The Model 1895 featured a massive bolt and receiver. Its top-fed box magazine held pointed bullets safely. It came in .30-40 Krag, .38-72, and .4072; and then in 1898, it came in .303 British as well. Winchester added its .35 in 1903, a year before the .405. The .30 Government 03 joined the 1895’s roster in 1905; the .30-06 in 1908. T.R’s 1895 “did admirably with lions, giraffes, elands…” he wrote of his .405 in Africa. With due reverence for its fine machining and box magazine, I find the 1895 a brutal rifle. Its sharp comb slams me in the chops. The two-piece lever bites my fingers. As in 1866 when Winchester defined itself with the lever-action 1866, it now hawks the Model 70 bolt-action as its flagship. No new Winchester centerfire levers have appeared since the hammerless Model 88 (1955-1973). The company still catalogs limited-production “historical” entries, built in loose rotation by Miroku: the 1873, 1886, 1892, 1894, 1895, and Model 71. Most of the cartridges chambered in these rifles are still available and useful! They’re also fun to fire. In this age of ear-splitting magnums whose flights span zip codes, I’ve taken elk handily with the .30-30 and .32 Special. I’ve taken elk and bison with the .45-70. Iron sights keep these rifles nimble and ensure that when I fire, the animal is truly within killing range. When I slide an 1894 into a scabbard or slip through lodgepoles with a Model 71, a slice of Winchester history goes with me. Lean walnut and trim, solid steel. A hammer, a loop and a tube. Such is Winchester’s signature, no matter the shape or substance of rifles to come. n

honor the history and ongoing legacy of Theodore Roosevelt and the Boone and Crockett Club, we present to you the Theodore Roosevelt Commemorative Model 1895 .405 Winchester. Roosevelt’s legacy left us many things. More important to him than what he drew from his scabbard were the practices of ethical, sportsmen-like conduct, the public’s stewardship over its wild game resources, and conservation policies backed by science. Each of these core values are depicted in this one-of-a-kind commemorative firearm; fair chase hunting as promulgated by Roosevelt and the Boone and Crockett Club; records keeping to raise the level of public awareness about the excellence of big game management; and wise use without waste of our natural resources. Our hunting heritage is strong in this country and nothing stirs the imagination of what it was like “back then” like the look and feel of a true American original sporting arm. The Boone and Crockett Club Theodore Roosevelt Commemorative Firearm is this type of collectible.

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weekdays between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to order your rifle. Allow 3 to 4 months for production. FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 31

32 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

An excerpt from our newest book, The Legendary Hunts of Theodore Roosevelt by John Seerey-Lester. Special Boone and Crockett Edition now available.

FACE TO FACE

WITH

DEATH 18 8 4

wenty-six-year-old Theodore Roosevelt slowly stood from

a crouched position behind some bushes. Before him, not 25 feet away, was a huge grizzly staring back with its beady eyes.

FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 33

His hunter’s heart was pounding as he first looked to his companion for instructions, then back toward the fierce-looking bear that had not shifted its gaze. He could almost smell the bear’s breath as he raised his Winchester 76 and prepared to shoot. Although a tenderfoot, TR knew that he would have but one chance at that distance. It would be his first and largest grizzly. TR had embarked on a seven-week hunt in the snowcapped Bighorn Mountains on the Montana-Wyoming border with his friend and ranch manager Arthur William Merrifield. They would kill three grizzlies, several deer, and six elk (one of which now hangs at Sagamore Hill), on the hunt. Roosevelt was most impressed with Merrifield and generously gave him most of the credit for the hunt’s success. Merrifield killed two of the bears and three of the elk. After the hunt, TR said of the 34 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

29-year-old Merrifield: “He was an invaluable guide.” The two men had heard of a grizzly that had been seen feeding on the remains of a dead elk, and they wasted no time in heading out from their wagon camp to trail the bruin. Clad in buckskins and moccasins, they moved noiselessly across a spongy cushion of pine needles and dwarf shrubs. Merrifield knew how to find the carcass, but neither man knew the bear’s exact location. Bears typically feed on a kill for a short time, then leave it while they rest a short distance away. But they are ever watchful, and most attacks occur when a hunter stumbles onto a bear’s meal. With Merrifield in the lead, the men threaded their way through the thick timber, trying hard to be as quiet as possible. TR shadowed Merrifield’s progress, tracing his every step. Now and then they would snap a twig underfoot, which sounded uneasily loud in the silent forest. Both men

continuously looked around, anticipating a sudden charge. As they struggled through the thick undergrowth, they could see a clearing ahead, strewn with deadfalls. Suddenly, Merrifield dropped to his knees and turned to look at TR, his eyes wide and his face flushed with excitement. At first he motioned for TR to crouch down, then signaled him to move forward carefully. TR raised his rifle while Merrifield, still kneeling, readied himself to act as back-up. TR realized for the first time that he was face to face with a huge grizzly, only feet away. The bear had been sleeping near some fallen timber when the men made their silent approach. As TR cocked his rifle, the huge bear turned its massive head toward the hunters and slowly rose up, showing its full size. TR took a deep breath, knowing he could not miss or they would be attacked. Even with Merrifield to back him

up, the bear would be on them in a split second unless he made a killing shot. As he looked down the barrel, TR was pleased that his hand was steady. He lined up the top of the bead between the bear’s eyes and pulled the trigger. After firing, TR instantly jumped to one side in anticipation of a charge, but as the smoke cleared, they saw that his shot had killed the great bear. When they examined the grizzly, they discovered that the bullet had hit dead center between the animal’s eyes. The huge bear measured almost nine feet long and weighed more than 1,000 pounds. A wonderful trophy. For TR, this was one of his most memorable hunts, but it was the challenge of the chase and camping in the wilderness for almost two months that he found most rewarding. It is thought that on this trip Theodore Roosevelt truly came of age, an important first step in becoming the spirited sportsman of later years. TR would go on to hunt many more bears, but his first grizzly was perhaps the most rewarding. Editor’s Note: The story about TR’s first grizzly is featured in John Seerey-Lester’s new book, The Legendary Hunts of Theodore Roosevelt. This book is available in a special Boone and Crockett Edition with exclusive stories and paintings not found in the regular edition. Limited to 500 copies, the B&C edition retails for $250 (just $200 for members, associates, and official measurers). The deluxe edition, which includes an original 8x10-inch painting by Seerey-Lester, retails for $2,500 has already sold out. Call B&C headquarters at 888840-4868 to order your B&C edition today. Visit www. boone-crockett.org/trhunts for additional information. n

BOONE A ND CROCKETT EDITIONS NOW AVAIL ABLE

B&C LIMITED EDITION Limited to 500 signed and numbered copies with a signed giclée print (shown above), gilt edges, and matching slipcase – $250 B&C members, associates, and official measurers pay only $200.

DELUXE EDITION ALREADY SOLD OUT!

cclaimed wildlife artist John Seerey-Lester takes you on a historic journey in words and paintings that will make you feel as though you were there, sharing the exciting adventures with the former president in the new book, The Legendary Hunts of Theodore Roosevelt. This much anticipated new book features over 50 true stories devoted to Roosevelt’s most spectacular hunts on three continents. Complementing Seerey-Lester’s fascinating text will be some 120 of his paintings and sketches, which altogether provide a fascinating glimpse into the life of the former president and his passion for wildlife and adventure.

SPECIAL BOONE AND CROCKETT EDITION!

The exclusive Boone and Crockett Edition includes stories and paintings not found in the regular edition and is only available directly from B&C. These hard-bound books come in a slipcase and have gold gilt edges and a signed giclée print. This unique edition is limited to just 500 copies.

“While there ar e numerous photog raphs of TR in huntin g camps and the like, I kn ow of only one photog ra ph of him shooting a rifle while on the hunt . John Seerey-Lester ha s filled this gap by creati ng more than 60 painting s of TR for this book . Se ereyLester as you will see is more than an artist; he is a historian who embraces his subj ects, and especially T R, both accurately an d dramatically.” —Tw eed Roo sevelt

Now shipping... Order today.

TO ORDER CALL 888-840-4868

O R V I S I T W W W. B O O N E - C R O C K E T T. O R G / T R H U N TFAIR S CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6

Milestones in Conservation

The history of the Boone and Crockett Club is a tale of over 127 years of measured and thoughtful commitment to conservation. It is a commitment that balances human needs with wildlife needs. We will be celebrating the anniversaries of the passage of laws, the establishment of institutions, and the designation of wildlands, which exist today in large part because of the extensive efforts of the Club and its dedicated membership.

Boone and Crockett Club 2016

Migratory Bird Treaty Centennial One of the seven principles of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation is that wildlife is to be considered an international resource. One of the first steps that led to this principle becoming law was the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1916. The year marks the centennial of the Convention between the United States and Great Britain (acting on behalf of Canada) for the Protection of Migratory Birds (also called the Migratory Bird Treaty), signed on Aug. 16, 1916. That Migratory Bird Treaty and three others that followed—with Mexico, Japan, and Russia—form the cornerstones of efforts to conserve birds that migrate across international borders. Concern to protect what was left of dwindling migratory bird populations began several years earlier in 1904 led by Boone and Crockett Club member George Shiras III, a congressman from Pennsylvania. It took until 1913 for the Club to assemble enough political support to place migratory birds under Federal jurisdiction. The first piece of legislation was the Weeks-McLean Act of 1913. The WeeksMcLean Act was designed as the first attempt to stop commercial market hunting and the illegal shipment of migratory birds from one state to another. Pushed through Congress with the help of Congressman and Club member John W. Weeks, the Weeks-McLean Act rested on weak constitutional grounds, having been passed as a rider to an appropriations bill for the Department of Agriculture. It was soon replaced by the 1850

36 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

1875

Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which decreed that all migratory birds and their parts (including eggs, nests, and feathers) were fully protected. The law prohibited the spring hunting and marketing of migratory birds and the importation of wild bird feathers for women’s fashion ending what was called “millinery murder.” Also instrumental in initiating this included Club members Congressman George Shiras III, John Bird Burnham, Edward William Nelson, T. S. Palmer, William T. Hornaday, Madison Grant, Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, T. Gilbert Pearson, George Bird Grinnell, Charles S. Davidson, and Elihu Root. n

110th Anniversary of B&C Score Boone and Crockett Club’s involvement with keeping records goes all the way back to its very roots. Theodore Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, and Archibald Rogers, all founding fathers of B&C, served as Competition Judges for the first-ever Sportsman’s Exposition held at Madison Square Garden in 1895, which became an annual event. In 1902, Roosevelt, Rogers, and Caspar Whitney were appointed to a committee assigned the task of creating a standard scoring procedure for native North American big game. In 1906 the Boone and Crockett Club published the first book on the 1900

subject in North America, titled Game Book of the Boone and Crockett Club. The purpose of this book was to put into practice a uniform standard of measurements of the large game species of North America. B&C published its first records book, which was edited by Prentiss N. Gray, in 1932 titled, Records of North American Big Game. Included were relatively few specimens that were listed by simple criteria of length and spread of horns, antlers, or skulls. This volume was followed by a second edition in 1939. The latter edition is especially notable for a chapter authored by Grancel Fitz on his ideas for a complex, objective system of measurements, which would result in a numerical score that would naturally rank trophies. This chapter furnished an excellent counterpoint to a rival system being used by Dr. James L. Clark, a noted taxidermist and longtime Club member, for his personal Big Game Competitions. Both systems had serious flaws but were superior to the measurement system devised by TR’s committee in 1902. In 1947, the Club began annual Big Game Competitions, with winners being determined by a Judges Panel. While these proved popular, they also highlighted the subjective nature of awards based entirely upon the opinions of a group of judges, no matter how well qualified. There was an obvious need for an objective system that could be applied by sportsmen to their own best trophies. In 1949, Samuel B. Webb, well known to Club members and a close friend of both Fitz and Clark, was chosen to chair a special committee of the Club to devise an equitable, objective measurement system for native North American big game. The fruits of their yearlong labor resulted in a more equitable scoring 1906

1916

1925

OWN A PART OF HISTORY 1906 Reprint - Big Game Measurements - Boone and Crockett Club Standard The Club is pleased to offer this limited edition reprint of the first scoring manual published by the Boone and Crockett Club. Game Book of the Boone and Crockett Club was originally published by Club member James Hathaway Kidder in 1906. There are only four known copies of the 1906 edition in existence today. - Smythe sewn and bound in black cow leather with three-loop closure - 4.5 x 7.25 inches, 120 pages BR1906 | $200.00

system adopted by B&C in 1950. Prior to publication, it was circulated to 250 sportsmen, biologists, and other interested parties for their comments. Once adopted, the system, which B&C still uses today, quickly became established as the universally accepted standard for measuring native North American big game. B&C’s scoring system depends upon carefully taken measurements of the horns, antlers, etc., to arrive at a numerical final score that provides instant ranking for all trophies of a category. Unlike all other systems, B&C’s system places heavy emphasis on symmetry, penalizing those portions of the measured material that are non-symmetrical. This results in even, wellmatched trophies scoring better and placing higher in the rankings than

equally developed but mismatched trophies, a result that most people readily accept. Non-typical categories were established for those antlered trophies with unusual amounts of abnormal point material to give them recognition, as they would be unduly penalized in the typical categories. This scoring system will be used to determine the final scores of the trophies accepted for this year’s 29th Big Game Awards Banquet. n

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BERNARD LOZÉ PRESIDENT OF THE CIC

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR GAME AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION (CIC) To the North American sportsmen, acronyms like NWFT, RMEF, WSF, DU, DSC, B&C and others are familiar when we see them. CIC maybe not so much, but to sportsmen in Europe, CIC is well known. Like B&C, CIC is not a species-specific organization; therefore their footprint is broad. You may not know them by name, but their mission speaks a thousand words: To promote–across the globe–sustainable hunting to conserve wildlife and wild lands, support communities and preserve our hunting heritage. Sound familiar? It should. They are our friends across the pond. CIC was recently recognized for their efforts by being presented the prestigious Peter Hathaway Capstick Award by the Dallas Safari Club, an award presented to the Boone and Crockett Club in 2008, and past Club president and conservationist Dr. James H. “Red” Duke in 2015. CIC President Bernard Lozé accepted the award and shared these thoughts, which should also sound familiar if not ring true.

38 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

Gerhard R. Damm and Buck Buckner at the CIC reception in Dallas. Gerhard is the CIC president in the Applied Science Division.

SPEECH ON OCCASION OF THE GALA DINNER OF DALLAS SAFARI CLUB JANUARY 9, 2016 The International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation is extremely proud today. This is the first time that the CIC has been publicly recognized on North American soil for our global work to promote wildlife conservation and sustain the diverse hunting heritage. Thank you for this honor and recognition. I am also proud to note that four of the nine individuals previously recognized with this award are CIC members. The CIC must be doing something right in its mission to promote sustainable hunting to conserve wildlife and wild lands, support communities and preserve our hunting heritage across the globe. In order to achieve these fundamental goals, we need to work together. We also need to include the non-hunting conservationists to conquer the impossible. Why is the very act of hunting in the crosshairs on the international media stage today? Why does hunting come under fire over moral objections? Why are the contributions of hunting to landscape and wildlife conservation not recognized? This may be our own fault, at least in parts. If we don’t face the present attacks on sustainable hunting, if we don’t win our case in the court of public opinion, wildlife and habitats will disappear much quicker than anyone has yet predicted. Nobody wants this. If we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that we struggle to find truly persuasive messages. Our messages focus on species conservation, hunter motivations, hunting systems and methods. We highlight the conservation contributions of hunting on a narrower or wider scale. We dish out a cocktail of ecological, social, and economic facts and beliefs. These messages are imperative. But the presentation of these messages lacks emotion and fascination, and sometimes clear and hard data. And on occasion, the visual impressions we present are counterproductive. Rarely does our true, but complex message reach the public and policy makers in a concise and understandable form. Especially the urban youth of the 21st century. These young urban people have a resounding voice. Their social media accounts wield tremendous power. Every second, Facebook, twitter hashtags, and Instagram are at their fingertips. They use them to great effect. What about us? Around the globe are millions of young hunters and millions who are young at heart. We can also create influential information and networking platforms to spread the word about the amazing connection between hunting and landscape conservation. Amongst us and our allies are also skilled and professional communicators who can simplify conservation complexities into a tweet. The connection between hunting and conservation must come vibrantly alive. Short and concise messages that explain conservation and sustainable use through hunting must flood the net. Our quest is to develop innovative approaches that

encourage non-hunters to see us in a positive light. Bottom line: we need to mobilize our ranks, change our approach and meet people on the digital turf. Let’s follow President Theodore Roosevelt’s advice: “There can be no life without change, and to be afraid of what is different or unfamiliar is to be afraid of life” With the prospect of change comes the opportunity to ‘brand’ hunting…we must disassociate hunting from negativity and social disapproval. Our logos, mission, and vision statements show the direction, but we need to step it up. We must promote coherent sets of values and promises, which the non-hunter understands and accepts. There was a time, when hunters were the leaders of broad-based conservation coalitions. Roosevelt is a proud and shining example of such leadership. Today, like in the times of Roosevelt, we need to cross the aisle and enter into constructive dialogues with non-hunters and develop together win-win outcomes for landscapes, biodiversity, and people. In doing so we don’t sacrifice hunting, we don’t compromise on our values. Using 21st century communication tools and branding hunting help us to explain, engage, and inspire. It’s time that we take up Roosevelt’s challenge. It’s time that we once again lead a broad-based conservation coalition. Lead with integrity and empathy…Lead with transparency in our actions…and welcome all those who care for wildlife …help them understand hunting…help them accept its contribution to conservation, even while they may remain less than totally comfortable about it. The results will be provocative and intriguing. It will be a powerful new hunting message. After all, what will be more inspiring than the hunting brand that embodies conservation of biodiversity on incredibly vast tracts of land outside protected areas? I repeat—we need professional help and guidance. We must recruit first class PR advisors and seasoned campaign managers. Let’s fire up the enthusiasm of millions of young hunters and use social media to our advantage. Let’s brand hunting, and let’s engage with the non-hunter… It always seems impossible until it’s done, said Nelson Mandela…and he achieved the impossible. We hunters also never back down from a challenge. We thrive when things get tough. We are a resilient bunch. We selflessly charge to the forefront to preserve the wild landscapes we love. Let’s rise to the present challenge in the best traditions of President Theodore Roosevelt, who once said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Hunters do care for wild landscapes and biodiversity. Let’s prove this to the world. — BERNARD LOZÉ

PRESIDENT OF THE CIC

FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 39

Blaser & Boone and Crockett Club asked... Blaser and B&C asked people to submit a short essay up to 350 words or a video up to 2 minutes long telling us what Fair Chase hunting meant to them and they could win the new Blaser R8 Professional S rifle, a Leupold VX-6 2-12X42mm rifle scope, and VIP passes for two to the Boone and Crockett Club’s 29th Big Game Awards in Springfield, Missouri.

Entries were recognized by: Tagging Blaser USA and/or Boone and Crockett Club in your post or tweet Using #FairChaseContest in your post or tweet ‘Liking’ or ‘following’ Blaser USA and Boone and Crockett Club on Facebook or Twitter

After five months we received 220 entries! A judges panel narrowed down the finalists and voted on a winner. The winner will receive a: Blaser R8 Professional S and Leupold Vx6 scope 2 Vip passes to Boone and Crockett’s 29th Big Game Awards

What does Fair Chase mean to you? WINNER: Howell Pugh The majority of TV hunting programs show the host bagging the biggest game with minimal effort. Equipment manufacturers use sophisticated marketing campaigns to convince us that success will come easier if we use their brand. And if you don’t have the time and knowledge to scout your game, well, there are outfitters that can take care of that for you.

Congratulations to all the finalist that submitted an entry:

I didn’t grow up traveling to deer camps in the fall with my family, nor did I plink for squirrels and rabbits in the backyard. The hunting bug hit me late in life, but I have fallen in love with this sport. Being relatively new to the sport most seasons have ended in unfilled tags and an empty freezer. I was not gifted with the skills that are required to know when and where to hunt successfully. Instead I must trust that by putting in honest, hard work, I will become successful. To me, this is the embodiment of fair chase hunting. Fair chase hunting means working relentlessly to hone my backwoods skills; to spend time practicing with my bow and rifle to the point of obsession; to walk through the woods with watchful eyes, studying the flow of nature and how to move along with it; and to only take the shot when I am absolutely sure that it is the right shot at the right animal at the right time. This is what fair chase hunting is, not giving in to the temptation of the shortcut, even if it means unused tags at the end of the season. Aldo Leopold said it best when he said, “Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching, even when doing the wrong thing is legal.”

Brian Woodford

James Williams

Stephen Cox Dean Blanchard Alex Pinero William Burch Kim Kassar Clay L Hamann

I believe in fair chase hunting because it is the legacy I want to leave to my children. With hard work and perseverance, hunting becomes so much more than the kill, it becomes about the journey that got you to that spot at that point in time, and you did it without giving in to the temptation of the shortcut. #FairChaseContest FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 41

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THE JACK WARD THOMAS TRILOGY The Boone and Crockett Club is proud to announce a newly published trilogy of journals by Jack Ward Thomas, who served as chief of the U.S. Forest Service from 1993-96. Thomas’ memoirs offer a rare, real-time peek behind the curtain of conservation leadership during a turbulent period marked by conflicts over spotted owl habitat, old-growth timber and the deaths of 14 wildland firefighters in 1994. Equally featured in the trilogy are journals describing the hunting, horseback and wilderness experiences that shaped the values and vision of a field biologist who would go on to lead the agency created by two icons of the conservation movement: Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot. A child of the Dust Bowl era who became a sportsman, biologist, and leader in conservation, Jack Ward Thomas has devoted his life and career to the outdoors. His professional service included the dustiest trenches as well as the highest offices of natural resource management—culminating with his 1993 appointment as the thirteenth chief of the U.S. Forest Service. His personal adventures spanned hunting rabbits for Mom’s skillet to leading pack strings up into the “high lonesome” of western wildernesses. A Texas native, Thomas earned progressive degrees from Texas A&M, West Virginia, and Massachusetts universities. He spent twenty years in forest, range, and wildlife research in Oregon, becoming increasingly involved in natural resource sciences and politics in the years leading to his tenure as Forest Service chief. Thomas later became Professor of Wildlife Conservation at the University of Montana, a position endowed by Boone and Crockett Club, before retiring in 2007. FORKS IN THE TRAIL n 25 n 6

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HUNTING AROUND THE WORLD n

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FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 43

The Campaign

LOWELL E. BAIER B&C REGULAR MEMBER B&C PRESIDENT EMERITUS

to Save T H E N AT I O N A L C O L L E C T I O N

OF HEADS AND HORNS

Boone and Crockett Club members, Jack Parker (2nd from left), William Harold Nesbitt (3rd from left), and Lowell E. Baier (4th from left) were instrumental in reviving and finding a new home for the National Collection of Heads and Horns.

PART 4

This four part series will narrate the history and legacy of Boone and Crockett Clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s National Collection of Heads and Horns. From its inception in 1906 to the big move this spring to Springfield, Missouri. 44 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

It is a story that begins with an undertaking to memorialize through museum displays big game species whose futures, at the time, looked bleak. It is, however, a story that ends on a far more positive note: the dramatic restoration of these same species to healthy and abundant numbers throughout much of their native range. This historical recap was originally published in the 8th edition of Boone and Crockett Clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Records of North American Big Game.

Club member, Fairfield Osborn opens the NYC Aquarium in 1957. Osborn and the Zoological Park were increasingly preoccupied with endangered species being perpetuated as “living treasures” in zoo wards” and with the development of new methods through which animal life could be more sensitively and imaginatively maintained in captivity. The animals within the Zoo were referred to as “the living collection.”

The available written

history of the 1930s is unclear as to whether the appa rent phi losophica l differences on emphasis in the National Collection’s raison d’etre were real or imaginary between Hornaday’s successor, M.S. Garretson, the Zoological Society’s Heads & Horns Committee, and the Boone and Crockett Club. But, history is clear on several facts. Notwithstanding Garretson’s regular reports of large crowds visiting the Museum from throughout the world, the Society refused to provide him funds to print a catalog or guide book of the exhibits, although he pleaded for over 10 years. Of course, the 1930s brought the Zoological Park into a hard financial period, since much of their funding was privately donated. But their budget shows the Heads and Horns Collection being the only category in which funding, once begun, was totally suspended between 1896 and 1963 (save for building renovations in 195–60). Moreover, the only private donations to the Heads and Horns Fund after 1922 were $1,000 donated by Madison Grant in 1937 and $200 by Alfred Ely in 1936–39.

Where were the Zoological Society’s monies going? Into the Wild Life Protection Fund, the Education Fund, the Tropical Research Account, the Aquarium Research Account, and many others. The budget figures clearly signaled a shifting of emphasis in the focus of the Zoological Park. History has also recorded a major changing of the guard within the Zoological Society and Park during this period. Between 1935 and 1940, all of the original founders and staff of the Zoological Society and Park that shepherded it into being over the previous 40 odd years died or retired, leaving no one in high command who had been molded by the past and felt an obligation to the old ways and traditions. Fairfield Osborn, son of Henry F. Osborn, one of the Society’s principal founders in 1895, left Wall Street to become secretary of the Society in 1935 and president in 1940, immediately assuming a vigorous new leadership emphasizing conservation, research and education. The National Collection seems to have been forgotten during the 1940s and the initiation of the Osborn era. Dr. John Tee-Van, then the executive secretary of the Zoological Society and operational chief of the Zoological Park, wrote Alfred Ely, head of the Society’s Heads & Horns Committee and also treasurer of the

Boone and Crockett Club, in 1950, “As far as sportsmen are concerned, the collection now is something of the past. I do not believe that many sportsmen think about it or come to see it.” The South Hall containing the “Geographic Collection” was closed to the public and used for temporary exhibits. Dr. Tee-Van, in consultation with Dr. James L. Clark, proposed consolidating the two collections into one (total of 2,371 specimens in 1940) to achieve Hornaday’s first objective of zoological completeness, discarding all duplicates and retaining only the best specimens of each species and subspecies. They advocated an exhibit devoted to the biology of the horns (their evolution, growth, and purpose in the scheme of life) and a reorganization that would relate the heads whenever possible to living animals in the park. In 1949, President Fairfield Osborn encouraged Boone and Crockett Club member Samuel B. Webb to cull the Collection and “sell” it to the American Museum of Natural History or the Smithsonian. Neither museum wanted it. Webb did, however, cull the inferior heads, reorganize the remaining Collection and arrange for a taxidermist to spend over a year at the Zoological Park to renovate the Collection. Webb also classified, measured, and ranked the remaining 73 North American heads using the measurement system under development by FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 45

the Big Game Records Committee of the Boone and Crockett Club. The best 11 trophies were photographed by Grancel Fitz for the 3rd edition of the Club’s records book, published in 1952. The Zoological Society’s attitude toward the records keeping system and their lack of response to the Club’s efforts for restoration and reorganization was lamented by Webb in a letter to Alfred Ely in 1953: My hope is that the Zoological Society or the Conservation Foundation will be willing to recognize our work in this field [of big game record’s keeping] as the type that does promote sound conservation and help us with a financial contribution. Of course, you realize that the National Collection cannot benefit in the future without our knowledge and leads on record trophies. It is too bad we can’t get Fairfield [Osborn] to take some action to revitalize that collection which could be made into an asset to the Zoo. I believe that funds for such work are available. In its present condition, I cannot solicit world’s record trophy gifts from owners known to this Committee. We are ready and willing to help guide it s restoration. The Zoological Society finally responded to the Club’s growing concern over the state of the Collection. In 1959 they expended $21,800, (the first monies spent since 1937– 39) to renovate the Heads and Horns Museum, then 38 years old, and refurbish the collection. The Collection was further consolidated to show only “the most important and significant heads,” reducing it to about 300 specimens, with the 46 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

balance being disbursed, most without a trace. The emphasis of the Collection was now solidly on trophy character rather than zoological completeness and classification. Moreover, the Collection now contained the treasured Chadwick Ram that had been restored in 1955 at the expense of the Boone and Crockett Club and transferred from the American Museum of Natural History. As if writing the epitaph of the National Collection, Zoological Park Director William G. Conway’s 1968 Annual Report stated: Even if zoos had not been established for education and recreation, they would be instituted today as sanctuaries for the growing number of species threatened with extinction. Increasingly, the potential of zoos and aquariums for research upon forms of life not readily maintained in conventional laboratories is being recognized—and it is about time. It is remarkable that museums holding collections of dead animals have always been deemed places worthy of research and study while living collections of animals have frequently been relegated to the status of mere amusement. Thereafter, the Zoological Society’s standing Heads & Horns Committee, in existence since 1932, was dropped from their Annual Report and the National Collection of Heads and Horns was quietly closed to the public, ceasing to exist as an appendage of the New York Zoological Society’s Bronx Zoo. The Society’s genuine concerns lay in sustaining existing diminishing species of wildlife on an environmental level worldwide.

Hornaday, the naturalist-taxidermist, viewed the National Collection at the turn of the century as a zoological entity against the backdrop of rapidly vanishing big game populations. The sporting fraternity of the 1930s viewed it as a trophy collection of record heads and horns at a time when the decline of big game had been successfully reversed. The hunter’s interest in maintaining trophies and big game records overshadowed his many conservationist accomplishments and contributions in the eyes of an enlightened Zoological Society which was itself forging a new identity within the emerging environmental community. And, the sportsman’s trophy interests colored the historical purpose and value of the National Collection in the eyes of the Zoological Society as purely self-serving, without broader educational or zoologic relevance; hence, it was

not deemed worthy of a place of recognition in the Zoological Park. The story of the National Collection of Heads and Horns would perhaps have ended here but for my chance discovery of the state of the National Collection in 1977. I had gone to the Zoological Park on January 20, to talk with Dr. George Schaller about his recent expeditions through Asia. After visiting, I asked to see the National Collection and was reluctantly admitted after being told it was closed and no longer open to the public. I found the Collection in a deplorable state, boarded up from public view, dusty, dirty, unhumidified, and many of the hides badly in need of repair. After a robbery of 13 heads in 1974 (including the world’s record mule deer and Atlantic walrus, and number three pronghorn) the Zoological Society had quietly begun

The National Collection of Heads and Horns went on temporary display at the NRA Museum, Washington, D.C., while a suitable, long-term display could be identified.

“My hope is that the Zoological Society or the Conservation Foundation will be willing to recognize our work in this field [of big game record’s keeping] as the type that does promote sound conservation.” - Samuel B. Webb, letter to Alfred Ely

SPECIA RA

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making the total transferred 232, of which 34 were from North America. Arrangements were made by Nesbitt with the National Rifle Association, which generously renovated one section of its Firearms Museum in Washington, D.C., to display the North American specimens. On May 5, 1978, these trophies, re-designated as the National Collection of Heads and Horns, were put on public display for the first time in a decade. The remaining nonNorth American specimens were redesignated the International Collection of Heads and Horns and were deeded to Safari Club International in 1978 for installation in their museum. In June 1978, the Boone and Crockett Club formed a subcommittee of its Big Ga me R ecords Committee, with Nesbitt as chairman and myself as member, to watch over the National Collection of Heads and Horns. With strong input and help from Michigan spor tsman P. Franklin Bays, Jr., an enthusiastic fund raising program was established, offering donors a limited edition print of a h a nd s ome oi l painting of the

standard, convincing the Boone and Crockett Club to seek ownership of the Collection. Into the breech reappeared long-time Club member Samuel B. Webb who agreed to present the Club’s plan to the Zoological Society. He convinced them that the Collection rightfully should pass to the Boone and Crockett Club, with formal acceptance being noted by letter dated January 23, 1978, from the Club’s President, Wesley M. Dixon. Nesbitt and I served as an ad hoc Club committee that inventoried the collection, packed it for shipment and attended to the numerous small details of such an undertaking. Our inventory of the Collection in February 1978 revealed only 238 specimens; 34 of North American origin and 204 from the world’s five other continents. Six of the 238 specimens were retained by the Zoological Society,

trying to find another home for the Collection. The Boone and Crockett Club was contacted but could offer no aid. Subsequent to my discovery, I mounted what became a year-long crusade to enlist the aid of the sporting fraternity in trying to find a suitable home for the Collection that would allow public display while satisfying the Society’s requirements of potential use in education of the public and/ or research. My efforts proved fruitless, although considerable interest was generated. By late 1977, it was apparent that the American Museum of Natural History was reluctantly going to receive the Collection, but could not display it as all their space was being utilized. At this point, W. Harold Nesbitt, then Director of the Hunter Services Division at the National Rifle Association and a Boone and Crockett Club Associate, picked up the

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Chadwick ram that was donated to the Club by Michigan artist Harry Antis. The funds generated by this project would be utilized to maintain and expand the Collection on a sustaining basis. The National Collection now includes these notable trophies: the world’s record Chadwick Stone’s sheep; the world’s record Zack Elbow Quebec-Labrador caribou; the world’s record De Rham woodland caribou; the world’s record Witherbee Canada moose; the former world’s record Scull Pacific walrus; the former world’s record Pop mountain caribou; the number two Kitto Rocky Mountain goat.* In a very real sense, the Collection is today where it was in 1907, when William T. Hornaday created a Nucleus Collection with his own private specimens. It is a foundation a round which a regeneration of the Collection can occur, albeit only with native North American specimens. The Collection contains irreplaceable specimens of significant historical value and extreme rarity. Life and vitality are given to such a collection by perpetual renewal and upgrading so that the collection takes on a living existence. It is this very character that becomes self regenerating by drawing to it the finest specimens as they become available, which Hornaday himself had in mind. n

W I L L I A M H A R O L D N E S B I T T, E M E R I T U S M E M B E R NABGAP** COORDINATOR 1973 - 1980

FROM B&C ASSOCIATES NEWSLETTER - VOLUME 6, NO. 2 I was then Manager of the NRA’s Hunting Activities Department. The warm summer day outside was much more appealing than the stack of work on my desk. I needed some fresh air. Telling my secretary I would soon return, I left the NRA building, walking down 16th Street. At the corner of K Street, I ran into Lowell Baier. The conversation went like this. “Hi Lowell. How’s the National Collection relocation going?” “I don’t want to talk about it. Let me tell you about this spring bear and I shot at him and he just disappeared into the mist. I could not believe it!” During the next few minutes, Lowell told me details of an exciting Alaska bear hunt and I determined that he had hit bottom in trying to save the National Collection of Heads and Horns (NCHH). An agreement between the New York Zoological Society and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) would transfer the specimens. The AMNH was grudgingly accepting them for specimens and they would not go on display. It appeared dark indeed, but I knew of one final card to play. I persuaded Lowell to give me his files from his nearby office. As I lugged the heavy cardboard box back

* This is a reprint of from an article published in 1981. This list is no longer up to date. ** NABGAP was the jointly sponsored big-game records keeping of the Club and the NRA during 1973 - 1980. INSET: Lowell E. Baier with the Chadwick Ram Stone’s sheep. RIGHT: The National Collection of Heads and Horns was moved to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, in 1982. 48 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

Where is the National Collection of Heads and Horns now? Find out about the big move to Springfield, Missouri, in the next issue of Fair Chase.

Where There’s a Will... “Making the decision to include the Boone and Crockett Club in our will was easy for my wife Cindy and me. We strongly believe in the Club’s multi-tiered mission of conservation leadership for North America, the support of science based conservation education, the fair chase hunting tradition, and maintaining the most respected record book scoring system in the world. Meeting this mission in the future will be much more challenging than it is today. Leaving a portion of your will to the Club is a positive way you can help. I think it is one of the greatest legacies one could leave. Please join me in the Roughriders Society. Together, we can ensure that the Boone and Crockett Club will have the ability to fulfill its vital mission far into the future.”

The Boone and Crockett Club Foundation can help with your plan. Call today: Winton C. Smith, J.D. 1-800-727-1040

- Terrell McCombs

Regular Member Boone and Crockett Club

FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 49

T H E N AT I O N A L C O L L E C T I O N

OF HEADS AND HORNS

to NRA, I was mapping out a plan in my mind. I reviewed all of Lowell’s files and then wrote up a one-page summary of the problem and an executive summary. The Boone and Crockett Club’s Records of North American Big Game Committee would soon meet and I felt sure this was an item they would not refuse. The Club had been a part of the NCHH from its start, from Club members forming the New York Zoological Society right through members making and encouraging major donations of money and trophies. Surely there would be a felt obligation to save this portion of the hunters' heritage. Just prior to the Records Committee meeting, I gave the summary to Jack S. Parker, the committee chairman. He read it, asked a few questions, and took it under advisement. One of his questions had been what would be done with the trophies. I had already set up inquiry pathways that would enable proper displays of the specimens to be carried-out and I assured Jack of this. He then placed the matter before the Records Committee, which forwarded a recommendation to the Club's Executive Committee for action. The Executive Committee agreed and directed the Club officers to seek ownership of the NCHH. I was made chairman of an internal committee to carry out necessary details. Unfortunately, things had not been static at the Bronx Zoo in the meantime. An agreement had been signed between the New York Zoological Society and the American Museum of Natural History to transfer the specimens to the AMNH. It 50 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

appeared to be a major problem until Samuel B. Webb answered the call for help. Sam had strong ties with the AMNH Board and he agreed to seek a reversal of the agreement. Sam accomplished the reversal and the Boone and Crockett Club accepted ownership of the specimens and records of the NCHH, by letter from the Club dated January, 23, 1978. The redesignated ‘National Collection of Heads and Horns,” consisting only of native North American specimens, went on temporary display at the NRA Museum in Washington, D.C., while a suitable, long-term display could be identified. The NCHH moved to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in 1982. The June 1991 installation in the new Cody Firearms Museum provided a long-term home. One with a most appropriate complement of other displays and mission. It appeared unlikely that the Collection will ever again become an unwanted orphan. With the NCHH safely on long-term display I find it interesting to speculate on several “ifs”; If Lowell Baier had not gone to see the collection…If Jack Parker and the Club had not agreed to action…If Sam Webb had been unavailable. And, if that summer day had not called me away from my desk. n

TOP AND MIDDLE: The exhibit inside the Buffalo Bill Historical Center was built to look like a rustic hunting cabin displaying the North American trophies. BOTTOM: The Winchester Arms Museum in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, houses more than 6,000 firearms and a varied collection of other weapons and materials. This museum contains the world’s largest collection of American firearms.

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FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 51

SUCCESS IN THE FIELD MEANS MORE when earned honestly.

52 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

The two hunters had no prior knowledge of Colorado weather or high country conditions in October. They drove all night from Dallas to Burns. Neither had brought sleeping bags, and every night they just slept on the ground under their pickup truck. The hunt itself took place near the ranch below King Mountain in an area surrounded by the White River National Forest. It was on the third or fourth day of the hunt, after taking the first buck of the two deer limit (at the time) that Charlie came up on this giant at roughly 50 yards. After two clean broadside misses, the deer took off running. The naturally energized hunter wasted no time in pursuing the buck at a full run himself. PG 70. HURRY UP AND WAIT!? by Hanspeter Giger

FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 53

MOOSE IN SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND The distribution of the North American moose (Alces alces) has undergone some dramatic changes in the northern United States in the last two to three decades. The core of the geographic range of the species in North America is across boreal Canada and into Alaska, but moose dip well into southern New England, the northern Great Lakes, and down the Rocky Mountains into Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. In the Northeast, moose were present historically as far south as Pennsylvania and New Jersey before colonial times, but land clearing and unregulated hunting pushed the population well into the north. As forest cover returned to southern New England (SNE) and effective game laws became the law of the land, moose started to make their way back south until, in the 1980s and 1990s, a population was established and is now breeding in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, along with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, and Department of Conservation and Recreation, have been studying moose in Massachusetts for the past 10 years. According to Dr. Steve DeStefano, Unit Leader, and Postdoctoral Associate Dave Wattles, the moose population increased exponentially from the 1980s until the mid-2000s, and then likely declined to a lower carrying capacity where it has remained relatively stable. The story has been different 54 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

elsewhere, though, particularly in Minnesota. For decades, the upper Great Lakes region of the Midwest, centered on Minnesota, has been a stronghold for moose. In the past few years, however, numbers of moose have plummeted in Minnesota, to the point where hunting seasons have been closed and the abundant and iconic image of the Northwoods has become a species of concern. Researchers believe that climate change, particularly increasing temperatures have interacted with brain worm (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis) and other diseases to negatively impact moose survival. In addition to these factors, wolves (Canis lupus), in areas where they are abundant, are thought to be playing an increasing role in suppressing moose numbers. So what can the moose population in southern New England tell us about moose elsewhere, and why does this population at the extreme southern edge of its range, where it is clearly warmer and the habitat is decidedly different from the boreal forest, appear to be holding its own? Co-op Unit research indicates four key components that appear to work synergistically to keep the moose population relatively stable, for now. Drs. Dave Wattles and Steve DeStefano of the Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit attach a GPS collar to a bull moose in west-central Massachusetts.

SCIENCE BLASTS

The first is habitat: Animals on the edge of their range are typically not in prime habitat that usually exists near the center of their geographic range. The mixed deciduous-coniferous forests of southern New England may thus not be the best habitat for moose, but they do provide food and shelter. More importantly, however, may be the interspersion of cover types. The disturbances that set back succession and encourage the growth of young woody vegetation that forms the majority of the moose’s diet are very small scale and scattered on the landscape. Closed canopy forest and wooded wetlands are important shelters for moose during hot weather, especially in the warmer climate of SNE. This creates a mosaic of interspersed areas of food and thermal shelter, where moose can easily move into various patches depending on their needs, the ambient temperature, and the time of day.

JOHN F. ORGAN B&C PROFESSIONAL MEMBER Director of the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units

The second key component is behavior: The movement data collected on moose fitted with GPS collars shows a clear pattern of habitat use based on ambient temperature. When it is hot, moose can be found in the canopied forest or wetlands, which are measurably cooler than out in the open. Feeding in open, young forest—which is so important in providing food— takes place when temperatures are lower, like at night or during times of day when it is cooler. Third is density: The moose population in SNE will probably never be very high, but it is that relatively low density of individuals (about 0.14/km2 [0.35/mi2] versus

0.03-5/km2 [<0.1-14/mi2] range-wide) that reduces the threat of winter ticks (Dermacentor albipictus) and diseases. Parasites and diseases are density-dependent phenomena. That is, generally the denser a population, the greater impact parasites and diseases can have. Winter ticks and diseases such as brain worm are indeed present in SNE, but currently the impact of these maladies is likely relatively low because of the low density of moose. Lastly, are predators: There are two serious predators of moose in North America: wolves and grizzly bears (Ursus arctos). There are obviously no grizzly bears in the Northeast, and wolves have been absent from SNE for some time. Black bears (Ursus americanus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) likely take some moose calves but the incidence is probably low. Without major predators, not only are moose free from a major source of mortality, but they are also not being moved around and pushed out of either foraging patches or thermal shelter at inopportune times. This undoubtedly saves energy and likely improves the chance of survival, especially in a region with a warm (for moose) climate. Wolves provide many important ecological functions and are integral parts of natural communities; their absence in SNE creates a different set of circumstances for local ungulate populations. The thermal environment of SNE is no doubt a challenge for a species like moose, which are so well adapted to extreme cold. However, a combination of ecological and demographic factors has allowed moose to not only reestablish their place in the region but may actually be keeping their population relatively healthy and stable. Moose populations constantly

change, for a variety of reasons, and it would not be unexpected to see some of those changes in SNE over the next few decades. As such, the Unit and its cooperators will continue to monitor population abundance and demographic parameters, like cow-to-calf ratios, occurrence of twin calves, bull-to-cow ratios, and other measures of population performance.

Legal hunting seasons for moose became re-established in Maine in 1980, New Hampshire in the late 1980s, and in Vermont in the early 1990s. Legal hunting for moose in Massachusetts would require an act by the state legislature, and the political obstacles may prevent this from ever occurring; but a limited, permit-based hunt, driven by scientific population

data may be an effective means to sustain the population at a level where density-dependent mortality factors will not trigger a decline and concerns regarding moose-vehicle collisions and regarding forestry could be addressed. n

FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 55

EDUCATING THE

NEXT GENERATION OF

B&C UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS

CONSERVATION LEADERS FROM:

Texas A&M and Michigan State University TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

The Club is excited to announce Dr. Perry Barboza has begun his position as the new B&C Endowed Chair at Texas A&M University. He comes to Texas A&M University from the Department of Biology and Wildlife at University of Alaska Fairbanks and has 24 years experience in working with big game species through his teaching and research. Dr. Barboza said, “My research laboratory measures how animals use the available supply of food and water to meet the demands of living in an area. We measure what foods animals use, how much they use and how well they are able to survive and reproduce in an area. Ultimately, we hope to better inform decisionmakers about sustainably managing that landscape for wildlife and to help formulate policies to meet those management goals.”

He and others are currently revising the B&C Program at Texas A&M to incorporate research, teaching, policy, and extension through a team approach. The program will include more instruction and emphasis on policy. To train future scientists that are confident to enter the policy arena, Perry has asked “Professors of Practice” to teach courses on functional policy. Dr. Barboza teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in wildlife ecology with particular emphasis on the management of big game species. Barboza was educated in Australia and holds a doctorate from the University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales. He has worked in North America since 1989 when he began a postdoctoral fellowship with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. LEFT: The Boone and Crockett Club welcome’s Dr. Perry Barboza to Texas A&M. RIGHT: Demmer Scholars at Shenandoah National Park during their summer internship in Washington D.C.

56 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

All 27 students completed the 2015 Demmer Scholars Program. One highlight of the summer was a 90-minute meeting with Associate Justice Antonin Scalia who entertained questions from the scholars at length and was quite engaging. The Demmer Scholars Program is an annual summer internship program that brings graduate and undergraduate students from MSU and Mississippi State University to Washington, D.C. Students take a senior-level class in natural resources policy while working full-time as paid interns at federal agencies or non-governmental organizations that focus on natural resources. The program is led by B&C Member Mark E. Rey, executive in residence in the MSU Center for Systems Integration and

Sustainability and Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. “The course reviews and analyzes how each branch of federal government, as well as non-governmental groups— including the media—affect the development and implement at ion of federa l government policy in the natural resources area,” said Rey. “Through these internships, the students get real-world experience, see classroom principles applied in practice and make valuable career contacts for educational and employment opportunities in the future. Since we started the program, 20 alumni got jobs in D.C. This program gives the participating universities a cadre of young natural resou rces leaders w it h exper ience in federa l policy-making.”

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FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 57

MEMBERS OF THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR SOCIETY The Wilderness Warrior Society is the Clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier major gifts society. It is named after Doug Brinkleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s historic book about Theodore Roosevelt and his Crusade for America and was launched in 2011 to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Boone and Crockett Club. With your gift of $125,000 or more, you will be honored by being named a member of the Wilderness Warrior Society. You will be presented with your own numbered limited edition bronze of Theodore Roosevelt on horseback, a custom Hickey Freeman Blazer, as well as other gifts to recognize and honor you for your contribution. Funds raised from Wilderness Warrior contributions are placed in the Boone and Crockett Club Foundation endowment where the principal remains intact, and the annual interest income generated provides permanent funding for vital conservation programs. We added four new members in 2014, bringing our total to twenty-four members of the Society. This translates to more than $3 million for the endowment and has been a major portion of the growth of these funds. It has been a huge success by any measure. Please join us in this grand effort. Contact the Boone and Crockett Club today to find out how you can become a member of the Wilderness Warrior Society.

Trevor L. Ahlberg James F. Arnold Rene R. Barrientos Marshall J. Collins Jr. William A. Demmer Gary W. Dietrich John P. Evans Steve J. Hageman B.B. Hollingsworth Jr. Ned S. Holmes Tom L. Lewis Jimmy John Liautaud R. Terrell McCombs Jack S. Parker* Paul V. Phillips Remo R. Pizzagalli Thomas D. Price Edward B. Rasmuson Morrison Stevens Sr. Ben B. Wallace Mary L. Webster C. Martin Wood III Leonard H. Wurman M.D. Paul M. Zelisko * Deceased

2015 Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas

Contact Ben Hollingsworth at 713/840-1508 for more details. Boone and Crockett Club www.boone-crockett.org 250 Station Drive, Missoula, MT 59801 406/542-1888

58 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

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FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 59

MY FAVORITE RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

CATEGORY

748

Typical Whitetail Deer

583

Non-typical Whitetail Deer

1,331

Total No. of Entries for Illinois

NO. OF ENTRIES

COUNTY

Pike

Adams

Fulton

Jo Daviess

Macoupin

Schuyler, Peoria

Hancock

Brown, McHenry

Greene

Randolph

Clark

Sangamon

Bureau and Knox

Vermilion

Edgar, Morgan, and McLean

Shelby

Calhoun, Cass, Jersey, Ogle, and Perry Henderson, Iroquois, Jasper, La Salle, Mercer, and Rock Island Coles, Lake, and Warren Fayette, Henry, Madison, McDonough, Menard, Pope, and St. Clair Marshall, Wayne, Will, and Williamson

Christian, Jefferson, Kankakee, and White

15 14 13

Hamilton, Jackson Lawrence, Livingston, Montgomery, Richland, Union, and Whiteside Clinton, Edwards, Logan, Macon, Mason, and Woodford Grundy, Johnson, Lee, Saline, Stephenson, Tazewell, and Washington Bond, DeWitt, Franklin, Kane, and Winnebago Alexander, Carroll, Cook, Crawford, Cumberland, Gallatin, Marion, Pulaski, and Scott Clay, Douglas, Effingham, Kendall, Moultrie, Piatt, and Wabash Champaign, DeKalb, DuPage, Monroe, and Stark

Boone, Ford, Massac, and Putnam

Hardin

9 8 7 6 5 4

Note: Illinois has 7 additional entries with unknown or incomplete location data.

64 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

I started to regret the blind choices since the eight-point in the field was big enough that Ryan would have likely been happy to shoot. Some time went by as I watched the bigger buck keep the doe in check and keep the other two lesser bucks away. Suddenly, I heard a shot ring out that I thought must be Ryan. I immediately clasped my hands in front of my face, closed my eyes, and thought to myself, “Please be a good one.” It seemed like forever before I heard any news, all the while my mind racing. Finally, the phone rang, “I just shot a nice one. He turned and ran.” I asked for some basic information but his emotions had taken over and he was barely coherent on the phone. “Just relax and calm down, I will be there as quickly as I can,” I said. By the time I got to Ryan he had calmed down a bit. I asked the size of the deer referencing a buck my niece had harvested for comparison and Ryan thought this buck was bigger than hers. “Oh boy,” I reply. “Well let’s find him and see.” I had him guide me to where he thought the deer was when he shot. I could not find anything other than a hoof print and I was unsure if it was even from the buck that he shot at. I circled for a bit then started blindly looking down a well-used trail. My stomach was knotting up because over 20 minutes had gone by and we had not found anything to indicate a hit. I wanted this so bad for him, but started questioning the shot or distance, yet thinking that he had been shooting so well, there was no way he missed. I was about to call it a night and come back in the

morning to look again when I heard his voice. Ryan yelled, “I got him.” I ran to him standing there holding his flashlight above his head shining on this magnificent animal ten yards ahead of him, tears rolling down his face, “I got him.” I glanced at the deer not really paying much attention to it other than it appeared big at first glance. My focus was on Ryan as I embraced him and we both broke down. Despite my death grip hug on him, he managed to softly whisper, “I got him” one more time. I could barely speak but managed to get out, “Yes, you did.” I have relived that exact moment many times since. I am positive it is one that will stick with me forever. We gathered our composure and I finally focused on the magnitude of his deer. Now seeing the actual size and character of it I mentioned that house rule #1 had been broken. He laughed as he wiped his face and recited rule #1… “Never shoot a deer bigger than any of Dad’s.” In talking later, Ryan expressed sorrow knowing that I had planned to go there and possibly would have shot the deer myself. His selflessness never ceases to amaze me. I am humbled daily by the two great young men that my wife and I have raised. I could not imagine the day playing out any better. I don’t say this because he is my son; I say it because I know him and know his character. He is the most caring, kindhearted, deserving person that I know and anyone else that knows him would agree. Reading the story, one may say that it was pure luck and being in the right place at the right time as we had no knowledge of this deer prior, but I see it as fate that brought all of this together. It was simply Ryan’s time, finally. n

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BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB’S 29TH AWARDS PROGRAM

TROPHY TALK

JACK RENEAU B&C PROFESSIONAL MEMBER Director of Big Game Records

On behalf of the Boone and Crockett Club and the records committee, it gives me great pleasure once again to invite you to attend the premier hunting event in North America this year Boone and Crockett Club’s 29th Big Game Awards Program Banquet and associated activities that will take place in Springfield, Missouri, July 13-16, 2016. Not only will you have the opportunity to view well over 100 of the finest North American big game trophies taken in the last 100 years, but you will also have the opportunity to meet the hunters who took them, hear their hunting stories firsthand, and make some new friends and hunting companions. Perhaps you’ll be able to take home a few choice tips that will enable you to connect with that once-in-a-lifetime trophy. I can assure you that you will not regret the decision to go.

B&C began the Awards Program recognition banquets in 1948 to honor the finest big-game trophies taken by modern-day hunters, to recognize the hunters for their significant achievements, and to celebrate the conservation successes of sportsmen like Theodore Roosevelt who founded Boone and Crockett Club in 1887. If it wasn’t for Roosevelt and his fellow Club members, we would probably not be enjoying the fruits of their labor today. The guests of honor at the banquet will be the fortunate handful of sportsmen and sportswomen who have harvested some of the largest North American big-game animals ever taken by hunters and recorded by B&C. The highly prized B&C medallions and plaques will be presented at the 29th Awards Program Banquet on Saturday, July 16, 2016, to those few fortunate trophy owners who have accomplished something that

BELOW: 1957 8th Big Game Awards Exhibit

66 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

most of us only imagine in our dreams. The quality and quantity of trophies that will be honored during this premier hunting event continues to serve as proof positive that we are actually living the “good old days!” I have personally attended twelve such banquets since I became involved with the Club in 1976, and I never cease to be amazed at the quality of trophies on display, which can only be described with superlatives. Approximately 100 award-winning trophies will be on display at America’s Wildlife Museum and Aquarium next to Bass Pro Shops flagship store in Springfield during May through July.

The Club is also pleased to announce that it is hosting its third youth hunter recognition program which has come to be known as the Jack Steele Parker Generation Next Banquet. This event will spotlight hunters who have accomplished a lifetime achievement of taking a B&C trophy at age 16 or younger. In total, nearly 158 youths who had a B&C trophy accepted during the 29th Awards Program (20132015) have been invited to attend and display their trophies at America’s Wildlife Museum and Aquarium (AWMA) in Springfield. This is an exceptional world-class wildlife museum and aquarium that is solely dedicated to the American hunter and

angler, and their role in successful conservation. The Youth Recognition Banquet will be held in their honor on the evening of July 15 at the University Plaza Hotel. Youth who display their B&C trophy at AWMA will receive two complimentary tickets for this unique and memorable banquet, and will be presented with a certificate to recognize their accomplishment. All B&C Official Measurers have been invited to attend the second Field Generals Luncheon hosted to honor their contributions to

ABOVE: Each trophy owner will be recognized individually on stage and presented with a plaque and medallion in honor of their trophy. RIGHT: A total of 4,832 entries were received in the 29th Awards Program, which means the total number of trophies was down 786 (12 percent) compared to the previous, 28th Awards Program (2010-2012). Except for the typical and non-typical whitetail deer categories, which were down a combined total of about 410 entries, there was roughly a 10 percent decline in entries across the board in most categories. OPPOSITE: All Official measurers in attendance at the Field General’s Luncheon will receive this belt buckle.

the Club’s universally recognized records-keeping program. It is a great opportunity to visit with other Official Measurers from all over North American and discuss experiences. Official Measurers who attend will receive two complimentary tickets to this luncheon; a beautiful belt buckle to memorialize their attendance at this event, and a unique certificate to recognize their years of service to the Club’s records program. All attendees will have plenty of opportunities to share their unique hunting experiences with fellow hunters, including many who have harvested that unique trophy of a lifetime – a B&C animal. Who knows, you might even take home some tips that aid you or someone you know in taking a records-book animal in the years to come. You may even meet someone who will become a lifetime hunting companion, which has happened more than once at past Awards Programs.

The weekend of events will culminate with the 29th Awards Program Banquet on July 16, where hunters who have taken an exceptional B&C specimen will be recognized with beautiful B&C plaques and medallions. Everyone should watch their mailbox for a complete schedule of the 29th Awards Program activities and registration information! Registration materials will be sent to all Official Measurers, youth trophy owners, associates, and Club members. As soon as all the details are worked out, it will also be possible to register online at www.BigGameAwards.com 29TH AWARDS PROGRAM SUMMARY

As you already know, the 29th Awards Program (2013-2016) closed on December 31, 2016, without any fanfare or serious glitches. Any trophies received with postmarks after that date are entries in the 30th Awards Program (2016-2018) that closes December 31, 2018. With the close of the 29th Awards Program, I have put together some very interesting statistics. A total of

4,832 entries were received in the 29th Awards Program, which means the total number of trophies was down 786 (12 percent) compared to the previous, 28th Awards Program (2010-2012). Except for the typical and non-typical whitetail deer categories, which were down a combined total of about 410 entries, there was roughly a 10 percent decline in entries across the board in most categories according to Justin Spring. We are not aware of any specific reasons for the decline in overall number of whitetail deer entries, but the records office had noticed declines in the number of entries throughout the entire range of whitetail deer, especially in the upper Midwest. The table below illustrates how the 29th Awards Program stacks up in the total number of entries and the total number of accepted entries with the previous 10 Awards Programs, beginning with the 20th Awards Program which encompassed the years 1986-1988. I cannot include an accurate figure for the number of trophies accepted in the 29th Awards Program yet

7,000

BIG GAME AWARDS ENTRIES SINCE 1983 6,000

5,000

4,000 Total Entries Total Accepted Projected Total Accepted

3,000

2,000

1,000

19th

20th

21st

22nd

23rd

24th

25th

26th

27th

28th

29th

FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 67

TROPHY TALK because it may take a couple of months to complete the 364 that are still working their way through the system. Some of those will be rejected for failure to complete all entry requirements and many others will be transferred to the 30th Awards Program. As of January 14, 2016, a total of 3,927 entries have been accepted in the 29th Awards Program, which means the grand total of accepted entries could be 4,291 at best if all 364 unaccepted entries were completed in time for inclusion in the 29th Awards Program. POTENTIAL NEW WORLD’S RECORD ACCEPTED

The Club’s records department is very excited to announce that B&C just accepted another potential New World’s Record AlaskaYukon moose, scoring 270-6/8 points, in

time for inclusion in the 29th Awards Program. As a potential new World’s Record, its final score, which is 7-1/8 points greater that Heinz Naef’s World’s Record bull, must be verified by an Awards Program Judges Panel or a Special Judges Panel to take top place honors. Since it is so close to the 29th Awards Program Judges Panel, the score will be verified at the end of April in Springfield. This magnificent bull was taken by Rex J. Nick on the Lower Yukon River, Alaska, on September 26, 2010, and remained undiscovered until recently. THANKS TO OFFICIAL MEASURERS

Once again, Richard T. Hale, the Records Committee Chair, and the records department staff would like to publicly thank all of our Official Measurers who donate their talents and countless hours of their precious time to make B&C’s records-keeping

The 29th Awards Program Judges Panel will meet in April to verify the scores of the trophies entered.

activities possible. We especially appreciate Official Measurers who contact the records office to resolve scoring problems they encounter while scoring trophies and before they submit completed score charts. During the last year I have received as many

THIS INCREDIBLE ALASKA-YUKON MOOSE HAS EVERYTHING Greatest Spread

76 inches Right

This magnificent bull was taken by Rex J. Nick on the Lower Yukon River, Alaska, on September 26, 2010, and remained undiscovered until recently.

68 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

Left

Palm Measurement

53-6/8 inches 54 inches

Number of Abnormal Points

Number of Normal Points

Width of Palm

23-1/8

22-5/8

Length of Palm

53-6/8

Circumference of Beam

8-6/8

8-4/8

as three such emails or calls from Official Measurers in a single day. Settling scoring issues before score charts are submitted avoids significant processing delays. n

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HURRY UP AND WAIT!? Charlie Rush has a selfdescribed “energy problem.” Interaction with the man and listening to the details as he recounts his life both reinforce the point. It’s quite appropriate that he changed his middle name almost thirty years ago to Hurr y from Douglas. According to Charlie, it’s also “good for business.” Charlie’s wife of 16 years, Roz indicates that weekly dates during their courtship were perpetually intriguing but quite exhausting. Roz continuously wondered, “Is this guy for real?” At 77, the man’s built like the distance runner that he is both literally and metaphorically. He has worked in the carpet business for almost 60 years, and still possesses seemingly boundless “go.” These factors have kept his mind very sharp as well. He is also a fair chase big game hunter. In July of 2008, I received a request to score an Alaska brown bear skull. The bear was taken in May near Wolf Lake on the Alaska Peninsula. As an Official Measurer (OM) for B&C since 2005, and living in North Carolina, I was excited to get such a call. Charlie was confident that his trophy would make the records book. As an OM, I knew that the skull needed to measure roughly 16 inches long and 12 inches wide in order to meet the minimum score for the All-time B&C records book. Unlike many OM callers, Charlie was very well versed in the 70 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

measurement process, and was a fountain of knowledge about his favorite big game animal. The details he presented to me over the phone reinforced the likelihood that this was an outstanding brown bear. However, the skull had been pressure washed and frozen before being shipped back to his home. As I reviewed my OM notes, I realized it would make good sense to confirm drying period requirements with a call and subsequent emails to Jack Reneau, Director of Big Game Records for B&C. Not surprisingly, a slight adjustment to the appropriate 60-day waiting period was in order. After what was likely a painful, albeit brief delay for the man, Mr. Rush’s Alaska brown bear indeed made the All-time B&C records book with room to spare, at 28-7/16 inches. Fast-forward (no pun intended) to 2015, when Charlie called on me to score another Alaska brown bear he’d taken. This time the hunt was on the Aliulik Peninsula on Kodiak Island in late April. My mind flashed back to Charlie’s 2008 visit. I then recalled how he’d mentioned sightings of even larger bears on previous trips, and commented on plans to pursue these

BEYOND THE SCORE

Hanspeter Giger B&C OFFICIAL MEASURER AND LIFETIME ASSOCIATE

giants on subsequent hunts. Clearly, he was still at it. I had to ask myself, “Who is this guy, really?” Charles Hurry Rush grew up on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas, during the years following World War II. Starting at about the age of ten, Charlie indicates that he essentially raised himself. When not in school, his free time passed largely unsupervised. He spent countless hours exploring the country and creeks around his family home. He fished, trapped, and occasionally caught snakes— including a few water moccasins. Fortunately, he was never bitten.

Charlie Rush has both bears on display. The first bear, taken in 2008 near Wolf Lake, Alaska, scores 28-7/16 points. His second, scoring 28 points, was harvested on the Aliulik Peninsula on Kodiak Island, Alaska, in 2015.

Charlie also owned a shotgun and became popular with some older, “rough” types who took him out for Hoover hog (armadillo and jackrabbit) hunting in the area. Wise beyond his years, he was also clever enough to stay out of the trouble that some of his acquaintances ultimately got into. Adventurous and industrious, Charlie used his abundant energy to earn money starting as a youngster. He worked multiple paper routes, sold eggs, washed cars, and hauled broken washing machines to the local dump.

This column is dedicated to the system that supports the public hunting of public wildlife for all fair chase sportsmen, and the stories and trophies that are the result. Theodore Roosevelt strongly believed that selfreliance and pursuing the strenuous activities of hunting and wilderness exploration was the best way to keep man connected to nature. We score trophies, but every hunt is to some extent a way of measuring ourselves.

One day, while parallel parking cars for ladies in downtown Dallas (for 25 to 50 cents a pop) he walked by an upscale department store. In the display window stood a huge polar bear mount. At that point, Charlie began to dream about one day living in Alaska and hunting big bears. Having married at an early age, and with four young sons to feed, Charlie had to wait a long time to actually Official Measurer HP Giger (left) and Charlie Rush pose with Charlie’s mule deer. This mule deer was taken by Charlie in 1967 while hunting in Eagle County, Colorado. The buck scores 198-7/8 points.

BEYOND THE BEARS On October 22, 1967, Charlie took an outstanding typical mule deer. This was during the heyday of western deer populations. Charlie’s hunt was not only in the top state for trophy mule deer, but in #1 ranked Eagle County, Colorado. To this day, as a county, Eagle ranks second in the country for the highest number of B&C records book entries for the species.* Charlie and an acquaintance he described as “a rather shady fellow with a big scar on his face” had driven from Dallas to the Luark Ranch in the northwest quadrant of central Colorado. The ranch trespass fee at the time was a great deal at only $7.50 per hunter!

be dragging the beast across a small flat at a running clip. We would expect no less from Charlie.

Back at the ranch, the exceptional mule deer buck’s carcass scaled 261 pounds field-dressed. The missed shots were later attributable to a loose, swiveling scope mount. Not surprisingly, Charlie never hunted with that type of scope attachment again.

The hunt itself took place near the ranch below King Mountain in an area surrounded by the White River National Forest. It was on the third or fourth day of the hunt, after taking the first buck of the two deer limit (at the time) that Charlie came up on this giant at roughly 50 yards. After two clean broadside misses, the deer took off running. The naturally energized hunter wasted no time in pursuing the buck at a full run himself. SEE ALSO: “Colorado Mule Deer by the Numbers,” by Justin E. Spring in the Winter 2014 issue of Fair Chase.

Boone & Crockett Club’s 18th Big Game Awards, 1980-1982 , pages 1618, and page 31 for photos and the hunt story of another Luark Ranch record buck—a 272-4/8” nontypical mule deer taken by Eddie Stephenson, Jr. in 1978.

After an initial quarter-mile sprint, Charlie was able to gather himself and sneak in to take a very close-range shot which mortally wounded, but did not kill the deer immediately. He was finally able to subdue it with the use of a knife, amongst sheer adrenalin and “a lot of dust.” Fellow Luark Ranch hunters viewed the aftermath from the mountainside above. In the heat of the moment, Charlie appeared to

Charlie’s jaw-dropping buck scores 198-7/8 B&C points. This great mule deer has amazing back forks, including greater than 19” G2s and greater than 14” G3s. In addition, the H1 circumferences stand out at 5-7/8 inches each. I had a chance to see this deer recently. Charlie was not exaggerating when he said it made some elk he’d shot look comparatively scrawny. A gross score of 204-6/8 points helps enhance the mental picture of this deer’s antlers, especially for trophy mule deer hunters. Also, when one considers that this buck’s inside spread is only 19-3/8,” with fairly short brow tines, it’s easy to conjure up a lot of “if only” mental calculations that could easily have resulted in the deer scoring between 205 to 210 points typical! Now, a taxidermist can do quite a bit to stretch the neck on a deer to meet the hunter’s recollection of “how big it really was.” However, in part because this buck’s cape was huge to begin with, it’s one of those rare deer that actually looks fairly normal on the mount. Normal, that is, until you put it next to another above-average mature mule deer or an average five-point or six-point bull elk mount!

FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 71

BEYOND THE SCORE hunt big bears. Years of hard work building a carpet business with his younger brother to feed his family clearly came first. For well over a decade there was little time for any hunting. Texas whitetail deer were the first big game animals Charlie hunted. In 1967 he went on his first out-ofstate hunt to Colorado for mule deer. He took a whopper of a buck (see sidebar, Beyond the Bears). Circumstances never quite played out for moving to Alaska. However, Charlie

Charlie Rush with his bears. Above, the claws of his 2015 Alaska brown bear. Right, with his first bear, taken in 2008, scoring 28-7/16 points.

72 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

made it at least part of the way. He ended up living in Bozeman, Montana, for nine years. Great game country, but not the far north wilderness he dreamed of. In 1975, while living in Bozeman, he was able to go on the first of his five Alaska brown bear hunts. He has taken four brown bears in total since then. When Charlie brought over his 2015 brown bear skull, the measurements confirmed that this was also a records book bear at exactly 28 inches. This time, he had the skull cleaned with the use of beetles, making the 60-day required drying period very straightforward math. The specimen was also closer to “museum quality clean.” This bear’s teeth were heavily worn, with many badly broken off. Older age class brown bears’ teeth tend to show significant wear and tear.

By that time I could not recall the details of Charlie’s 2008 hunt. However, in reviewing the entry materials, I was able to glean that the bear was taken on the morning of the second day of a 12day hunt. Hunting with a .300 Weatherby Magnum, Charlie’s final shot was taken at 16 yards, or 54 feet! An article from the Charlotte Observer, dated August 31, 2008, included the following: “He was just coming out of hibernation and he was hungry,” said Charlie with a chuckle. “He was looking us over and definitely considered me and guide Danny Nicolai as a meal.” The 2015 brown bear hunt culminated at 5:20 p.m. on the next-to-last day of a 14-day hunt. Moderately overcast, raining, and at a temperature of around 40°F, the stalk for this bear lasted over

17 hours. As Charlie jokes, during that time he aged a year—spotting the bear and beginning the stalk at 76 and making the killing shot on his 77th birthday! To add to the excitement, the bear’s carcass was about to wash out to sea given a rising tide. Clearly it was no easy task to move such a hulking dead weight. In fall of 2016, Charlie Rush has plans to visit the Luark Ranch near Burns, Colorado. His last visit there was in 1974. Since his epic first hunt, he made the trip several more times and became close friends with the Luark family. I could tell he was truly looking forward to returning to the Colorado high county. Charlie’s always going and doing. But as life has a tendency to reveal itself, sometimes you just have to wait. If you work hard at it, there’s plenty to savor along the way as well. n

Charlie was very well versed in the measurement process, and was a fountain of knowledge about his favorite big game animal. The details he presented to me over the phone reinforced the likelihood that this was an outstanding brown bear.

FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 73

JACK STEELE PARKER

GENERATION

NEXT The Boone and Crockett Club would like to celebrate young hunters who have embraced the outdoor way of life and embody the spirit of fair chase hunting.

The following is a list of all the big game trophies accepted into Boone and Crockett Club’s 29th Big Game Awards Program, 2013-2015, that have been taken by a youth hunter (16 years or younger). Each one of these youth hunters has been invited to attend the 29th Big Game Awards Program’s Jack Steele Parker Generation Next Banquet. This event will honor all the youth in attendance and their trophies will be on display at the America’s Wildlife Museum and Aquarium. All of the field photos in this section are shown in bold orange text. * WORKING NOT OFFICIALLY ACCEPTED YET

Morgan K. Wynne

FINAL GROSS SCORE SCORE

LOCATION

HUNTER

DATE MEASURER

BLACK BEAR 21 14/16 Taylor Co., WI Joshua J. Niehaus 2015 21 12/16 Chippewa Co., WI Noelle K. Voigt 2012 21 11/16 Bayfield Co., WI Carson J. Kurtz 2013 21 9/16 Oconto Co., WI Aubrey C. DeBauch 2013 21 9/16 Lake Luke C. Bossuyt 2015 Manitoba, MB 21 9/16 St. Croix Co., WI Charles L’Allier 2013 21 8/16 Barron Co., WI Makenna E. Olson 2014 21 6/16 Clark Co., WI Trevor D. Bush 2015 21 6/16 Rusk Co., WI Matthew L. 2013 Strzyzewski 21 4/16 Mifflin Co., PA Alec R. Smith 2012 20 12/16 Montmorency Hunter R. Webber 2013 Co., MI 20 12/16 Preston Co., WV Parker R. Calvert 2013 *20 9/16 Pushmataha Kaylin S. Russell 2011 Co., OK 20 8/16 Menominee Aaron A. Beyer 2015 Co., MI 20 7/16 Clearwater John R. Brown 2010 20 7/16 Waupaca Co., WI Hunter H. Milanowski 2014 20 6/16 Washington Co., ID Tyler J. Rasmussen 2013 20 5/16 Page Co., VA Dalton K. Griffith 2013 20 3/16 Whitmore Isaiah H. Ritter 2013 Lake, MB 20 3/16 Pushmataha Drew B. Savage 2011 Co., OK 20 2/16 Ashland Co., WI Garrett L. Loesel 2013 20 1/16 Petersburg, AK Jack M. Opitz 2014 20 Penobscot Co., ME Colton D. Trisch 2014 20 Wexford Co., MI Kayli A. Peak 2012

B. Tessmann T. Beissel L. Zimmerman P. Gauthier E. Parker S. Ashley L. Zimmerman T. Heil L. Zimmerman R. D’Angelo G. Bandrow S. Rauch Dru Polk D. Wellman K. Hisey D. Goers R. Addison B. Trumbo J. Bogucki J. Dougherty B. Ihlenfeldt M. Opitz T. Montgomery R. Novosad

ALASKA BROWN BEAR 28 2/16 26 5/16

Ruth Lake, AK William S. Shumway 2014 C. Cook Talkeetna Mts., AK Morgan K. Wynne 1997 R. Deis

COUGAR 15 4/16 15 3/16 15 2/16 15 1/16 15 14 15/16 14 13/16 14 9/16

Shelter Bay, BC Quesnel, BC Gallatin Co., MT Caroline, AB Carbon Co., UT Dolores Co., CO Moffat Co., CO Bonneville Co., ID

TYPICAL AMERICAN ELK 387 411 1/8 377 6/8 387 7/8 375 379 2/8 373 4/8 384 1/8 364 4/8 376 2/8 361 2/8 368 5/8 361 1/8 368 7/8

74 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

Gila Co., AZ Garfield Co., CO Meagher Co., MT Twin Falls Co., ID Lewis and Clark Co., MT Modoc Co., CA Lemhi Co., ID

Kevin J. Nurmi 2013 Brandon J. Robinson 2011 James W. Morton 2012 Kate M. Gossling 2011 Lacey J. Bennett 2013 Hunter W. Richardson 2014 Trystan J. Lyons 2013 Yosune Fitzhugh 2014

F. Pringle T. Cody F. King W. Paplawski R. Hall R. Spencer B. Wilkes K. Hatch

Madysen N. Jones 2013 D. May Hunter J. Norris 2012 R. Hall Michael J. Parsons 2013 R. Spring Justin R. McDonald 2014 D. Biggs Quinton E. Grantier 2012 L. Lack Andrew M. Evans Jordan M. Hardy

2014 R. Tupen 2014 P. Gardner

Luke C. Bossuyt

Kayley M. Raasch TYPICAL MULE DEER 194 4/8 200 4/8 193 4/8 195 4/8 193 4/8 203 4/8 193 4/8 196 7/8 192 5/8 213 7/8 191 6/8 226 2/8 190 7/8 203 2/8 186 2/8 199 186 1/8 190 7/8 184 1/8 191 1/8 183 5/8 202 4/8

Coconino Co., AZ Archuleta Co., CO Hazlet, SK Pennington Co., SD Archuleta Co., CO Harney Co., OR Wilkie, SK Pondera Co., MT Dundy Co., NE Elko Co., NV La Plata Co., CO

Leslie M. Harris Kyle T. Schoenborn Cole G. Schommer Simon P. Carlson

2012 2011 2013 2014

Nicholas E. Cronon, Jr. 2013 Cole D. Warren 2013 Kayla Kuttai 2012 Savanah N. Mook 2014 Jared S. Crouse 2012 Terry L. Fagg III 2014 Quincy J. Witt 2013

R. Black R. Novosad D. Pezderic P. Carlson T. Watts S. Boero B. Seidle J. Pallister B. Wiese C. Lacey T. Watts

Troy B. Pompeo

TYPICAL COLUMBIA BLACKTAIL 138 1/8 145 7/8 137 4/8 145 1/8

Humboldt Co., CA Cole S. Davis Humboldt Co., CA Ridge H. Peterson

2013 G. Hooper 2013 G. Hooper

TYPICAL SITKA BLACKTAIL DEER 101 7/8 118 3/8

Prince of Ethan J. File Wales Island, AK

2014 M. Nilsen

TYPICAL WHITETAIL DEER 191 7/8 221 6/8 Gage Co., NE Frosty A. Adams 2000 S. Cowan 187 6/8 190 Ottawa Co., MI William C. Finkler 2012 R. Novosad 184 7/8 189 5/8 McLean Co., IL Richard E. Pelphrey 2011 E. Randall 182 3/8 190 Spencer Co., IN Jase J. Otto 2015 M. Verble 182 187 1/8 Wayne Co., KY Cody L. McLean 2014 D. Weddle 180 2/8 196 6/8 Ripley Co., IN Christopher J. 2012 J. Bogucki Weisenbach 179 7/8 196 McIntosh Co. OK Micalah L. Millard 2015 G. Moore 179 1/8 190 1/8 Montgomery Kevin P. Rippentrop 2012 G. Salow Co., IA 176 179 4/8 Allamakee Co., IA Dalton D. Christoffer 2012 L. Miller 176 180 4/8 Coahoma Co., MS David B. Carr, Jr. 2014 W. Walters 176 182 4/8 Ontario Co., NY Austin C. Avanzato 2014 R. Songin 175 2/8 202 3/8 Randolph Co., MO Dillon M. Schumann 2013 J. Sumners 175 190 2/8 Marion Co., IA Kirkland A. Howard 2014 S. Grabow 174 7/8 179 Beltrami Co., MN Tyler R. McNamara 2012 S. Grabow 174 3/8 190 7/8 Wood Co., WI Alexa J. Armagost 2012 T. Heil 173 4/8 179 6/8 Coahuila, MX Taite B. Read 2015 J. Barrow 171 4/8 179 2/8 Wells Co., IN McKenna N. Liby 2012 J. Bronnenberg 171 3/8 174 6/8 Pepin Co., WI Devin M. Drier 2013 S. Fish 171 1/8 188 King Co., TX William H. Blake 2012 T. Caruthers 170 7/8 177 3/8 Jackson Co., MO David C. Everett 2013 J. Shadwick 170 174 1/8 Fulton Co., IL Dylan J. Phelps 2012 T. Walmsley 170 177 2/8 Highland Co., OH Brent D. Paesler 2011 R. Perrine 170 179 3/8 Polk Co., AR Bradley L. Creekmore 2014 B. Sanford 169 2/8 186 1/8 Hamilton Co., OH Nathan M. Henderson 2013 M. Wendel 168 7/8 178 3/8 Winnebago Co., IL Picked Up 2006 J. Lunde 168 5/8 182 1/8 Fayette Co., IN James C. Pugh 2012 T. Wright 168 1/8 170 5/8 Shelby Co., OH Tyler M. Mentges 2013 M. Wendel 167 7/8 178 1/8 Warren Co., IA Devin M. Erickson 2012 L. Briney 166 5/8 169 1/8 Kenton Co., KY Robert S. Rison, Jr. 2012 J. Lacefield 165 6/8 179 2/8 Kennedy, SK Kyle C. Hungle 2012 P. McKenzie

Kevin J. Nurmi

FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 75

TYPICAL WHITETAIL DEER CONTINUED

BARREN GROUND CARIBOU

165 5/8 172 3/8 Parke Co., IN Justin A. Waymire 2014 R. Graber 165 2/8 175 1/8 Leslie Co., KY Dylan M. Thomas 2012 N. Minch 165 2/8 183 6/8 Otter Tail Co., MN Malcolm G. Bradbury 2014 C. Kozitka 164 7/8 172 4/8 Phillips Co., AR Cooper S. Cannon 2013 B. Sanford 164 7/8 170 4/8 St. Croix Co., WI Spencer D. Peterson 2012 S. Ashley 164 2/8 189 2/8 Jefferson Co., IA Blake C. Vice 2013 D. Ream 163 3/8 183 6/8 Greenup Co., KY Johnathon E. Cox 2013 G. Surber 163 2/8 171 Washington Callahan P. McCreary 2012 D. Bathke Co., WI 162 6/8 175 5/8 Jasper Co., IN Bryant S. Alson 2011 J. Bogucki 162 2/8 167 2/8 Cupar, SK Trevor R. Macknack 2014 J. Lorenz 162 1/8 168 1/8 Branch Co., MI Kassandra M. Cary 2013 D. Merritt 161 3/8 173 5/8 Leslie Co., KY Samantha Turner 2012 D. Weddle 161 3/8 189 6/8 Lake Gray, AB Elizabeth M.F. Thomas 2012 D. Bromberger 160 7/8 167 2/8 Meigs Co., OH Hannah L. Ridenour 2012 J. Satterfield *160 7/8 186 Shellbrook, SK Corbin J.R. Long 2015 R. Delorme 160 4/8 164 1/8 Palo Pinto Co., TX Kayman L. Culley 2015 L. Kirby 160 3/8 169 7/8 Strawberry Erik L. Jehn 2012 B. Daudelin Creek, AB 160 3/8 165 Richland Co., WI Alex R. Fruit 2006 E. Randall 160 2/8 168 3/8 Jackson Co., WI Austin J. Bittner 2012 J. Lunde 160 1/8 177 5/8 Henderson Co., KY Drew P. Chaney 2011 D. Belwood 160 1/8 182 5/8 Grant Co., WI Mikalah A. Enright 2012 E. Randall

393 6/8 408 1/8

NON-TYPICAL WHITETAIL DEER 243 250 6/8 Otter Tail Co., MN Dylan R. Beach-Bittner 2012 M. Harrison 228 1/8 236 7/8 Decatur Co., IA Chance A. Lecy 2014 D. Ream *222 6/8 234 2/8 Stafford Co., KS Clayton D. Brummer 2015 L. Desmarais 221 3/8 241 2/8 Coahoma Co., MS Bradley S. Paton, Jr. 2012 W. Walters 220 3/8 225 Linn Co., IA Hunter D. Carlson 2014 S. Grabow 219 3/8 223 7/8 Washington Co., IA Matthew L. Hoenig 2014 L. Miller 211 7/8 222 2/8 Christian Co., KY Brooke D. Bentz 2015 D. Weddle 211 5/8 219 6/8 Chariton Co., MO Nealie R. Niemeier 2012 L. Lueckenhoff 207 7/8 214 6/8 Shawnee Co., KS Gunnar G. Murray 2012 D. Hollingsworth 207 3/8 211 5/8 Jones Co., IA Seth M.S. Deutmeyer 2011 D. Boland 204 5/8 209 7/8 Harrison Co., IA Seth M. Christiansen 2014 D. Pfeiffer *199 4/8 192 5/8 Clinton Co., IA Kamryn Vegel 2013 Dale Ream 199 3/8 206 6/8 Ross Co., OH Lincoln P. Bossert 2013 D. Haynes 199 2/8 208 6/8 Benton Co., MS Kyle Simpson 2012 R. Dillard 195 2/8 204 2/8 Madison Co., TX Makayla A. Hay 2013 B. Lambert 189 4/8 195 6/8 Queen Anne’s Hunter J. Kinnamon 2014 R. Newton Co., MD 188 193 7/8 Goodhue Co., MN Micah E. Jeppesen 2012 J. Lunde 187 1/8 194 4/8 Cuyahoga Co., OH Michael S. Flanigan 2013 D. Haynes 186 3/8 193 3/8 Pulaski Co., KY Hayden G. Jones 2012 D. Weddle 186 2/8 191 7/8 Sauk Co., WI Kayley M. Raasch 2011 M. Miller 185 5/8 191 3/8 Jo Daviess Co., IL Ryan P. Sheehan 2012 R. Novosad

Brooks Range, AK Samuel S. Inukai

PRONGHORN 88 6/8 89 Lake Co., OR Gideon W. Fritz 2014 C. Lynde 86 4/8 87 2/8 Navajo Co., AZ Aaron J. Cook 2015 R. Stayner 84 84 5/8 Elmore Co., ID Coy Braithwaite 2014 T. Boudreau 83 84 Park Co., WY Matthew G. Huff 2012 D. Hart 82 6/8 83 5/8 Catron Co., NM Sidda L. Schultz 2014 J. Edwards 82 4/8 84 6/8 Sublette Co., WY Hunter A. French 2013 R. Stayner 81 82 Lincoln Co., WY Corbin R. Ourada 2013 E. Boley 81 81 6/8 Torrance Co., NM Alan M. Schmitt 2013 R. Madsen 80 6/8 82 1/8 Elko Co., NV Brycen D. Kelly 2014 G. Hernandez 80 4/8 81 Gallatin Co., MT Trevor J. Eickman 2012 F. King *80 2/8 81 3/8 Rosebud Co., MT Brayden Fulton 2015 F. King 80 80 3/8 Custer Co., ID Hunter J. Stunja 2014 M. Demick 80 80 1/8 Lander Co., NV Ethan J. Harrow 2014 R. Hall

ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT 53 53 4/8 52 52 50 2/8 50 2/8 50 50 49 2/8 50

West Kootenay, BC Kyle C. Bartsoff 2014 Slocan Valley, BC Nina J. Schuelle 2012 Revillagigedo Natasha A. Bolshakoff 2013 Island, AK Dease Lake, BC James F. DeBlasio 2013 Sage Creek, BC Tyler T. Press 2012

Gila Co., AZ Hidalgo Co., NM

CANADA MOOSE

Colt Lake, BC Austin A. Reed 2012 R. Jones Chinchaga Brayden R. Fibke 2012 B. Daudelin River, AB

203 208 3/8 186 7/8 195 2/8

Robert MacMillan Troy B. Pompeo

DALL’S SHEEP 162 1/8 162 4/8 Chugach Mts., AK Jamie H. Green 2013 C. Brent

2012 R. Stayner 2012 J. Edwards

Chekok Lake, AK Kade V. LeKites 2012 R. Deis Saint Johns Jacob A. Goetz 2014 S. Hill, AK Kleinsmith

SHIRAS’ MOOSE 166 1/8 153 5/8 153 2/8 147 7/8 142 1/8 140 5/8

173 3/8 159 2/8 158 7/8 149 6/8 158 6/8 141 2/8

Clearwater Co., ID Jefferson Co., ID Meagher Co., MT Teton Co., ID Gallatin Co., MT Shoshone Co., ID

Nathan L. Weimer Perry A. Shackelford Zachary M. Martin Cory M. Lewis Nathan M. Hope Joel M. Crank

2012 2012 2013 2013 2014 2013

S. Wilkins R. Atwood G. Taylor H. Morse F. King T. Brickel

MOUNTAIN CARIBOU 391 1/8 405 2/8

Long Lake, YT

76 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

Adam J. Henderson 2013 T. Grabowski

R. Berreth D. Patterson

DESERT SHEEP 191 192 1/8 Socorro Co., NM Chase A. Willis 2012 L. Rominger 182 4/8 185 Pinal Co., AZ Carl A. Luedeman 2013 C. Goldman 171 3/8 172 Pinal Co., AZ Zachary J. Rush 2014 M. Zieser 165 6/8 166 7/8 Clark Co., NV Zachery J. 2014 H. Grounds Christensen

ALASKA-YUKON MOOSE 236 6/8 240 5/8 225 233 1/8

L. Hill R. Pawluski J. Baichtal

BIGHORN SHEEP 196 4/8 196 4/8 Fergus Co., MT Jared R. Bellows 2013 B. Zundel 189 7/8 190 4/8 Teton Co., MT Andrew C. McLain 2012 R. Rauscher 182 182 3/8 Granite Co., MT Zeb R. Pearson 2012 J. Bradford 179 179 5/8 Sanders Co., MT Samantha M. Moulding 2013 J. Reneau 178 178 7/8 Kamloops Richard H.J. Reid 2014 R. Berreth Lake, BC 176 6/8 177 1/8 Gregg River, AB Tyssen M.J. Voogd 2012 J. Graham

TYPICAL COUES’ WHITETAIL 113 5/8 117 105 1/8 111 3/8

2012 C. Brent

Kyle C. Bartsoff

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RECENTLY ACCEPTED TROPHIES The following pages list the most recent big game trophies accepted into Boone and Crockett Clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 29th Big Game Awards Program, 2013-2015, which includes entries received between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2015. All of the field photos in this section are from entries that are listed in this issue and are shown in bold green text.

BIG GAME TROPHIES LISTING AND PHOTO GALLERY B&C Associate Jill E. Joyce was on a hunt in Baker County, Oregon, in 2013, when she harvested this bighorn sheep scoring 181-2/8 points. She was shooting a 7mm Remington Mag.

This listing represents only those trophies accepted since the Winter 2015 issue of Fair Chase was published. SPONSORED BY

Share your field photos with us! Follow: @BooneandCrockettClub Tag: #booneandcrockettclub 78 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

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BEAR & COUGAR FINAL SCORE

LOCATION

HUNTER

DATE MEASURER

BLACK BEAR - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 23-10/16 22 1/16 Navajo Co., AZ David A. Schrader 2015 N. Lawson 21 11/16 Dennis Lake, MB Neil A. Smerchanski 2015 J. Hayduk 21 9/16 Lake Manitoba, MB Luke C. Bossuyt 2015 E. Parker 21 4/16 Hamilton Co., NY Joseph Van Houten 2014 J. Dowd 21 4/16 Puntledge River, BC Chantelle R. Bartsch 2015 B. Mason 21 3/16 Athabasca River, AB Trevor W. Russell 2015 D. Bromberger 21 3/16 Tioga Co., PA Kenneth L. 2014 D. Lynch Sarangoulis, Jr. 21 2/16 San Bernardino Craig N. Davis 2015 E. Fanchin Co., CA 21 2/16 Somerset Co., PA Jamin A. Flora 2014 E. Wahl 20 12/16 Duck Mountain, MB William A. Gottschalk 2015 B. Nash 20 8/16 Price Co., WI Charles R. Klassa 2014 P. Jensen 20 7/16 Becker Co., MN Christopher J. Powers 2013 T. Kalsbeck 20 6/16 Christopher Nikolette L. Barrail 2012 L. Clark Lake, SK 20 6/16 San Miguel Co., CO James N. Wilbanks 2014 J. Hughes 20 3/16 Antrim Co., MI Douglas M. Bergmann 2015 L. Hansen 20 3/16 Bayfield Co., WI Michael J. Reilly 2002 E. Randall 20 3/16 Cree Lake, SK Ryan N. Howe 2014 B. Milliron 20 2/16 Elk Co., PA Brian R. Hill 2014 D. Razza 20 Clearwater Co., MN Tad L. Budke 2015 C. Kozitka 20 Itasca Co., MN Brian S. Overline 2012 D. Meger 20 McKinley Co., NM Tye A. Gibson 2015 R. Madsen 20 Page Co., VA C.J. Cubbage 2014 B. Trumbo 20 Rio Blanco Co., CO Dianna G. Walter 2014 G. Glasgow

In 2014, Dianna G. Walter harvested this 20-point black bear while on a hunt in Rio Blanco County, Colorado. She was shooting a .270 Winchester. B&C Associate Zalmen Blanck took this Alaska brown bear, scoring 264/16 points, in 2014 while hunting near Sandy River, Alaska. This non-typical American elk, scoring 422 points, was taken by Ashlee K. Smith in Garfield County, Utah, in 2014.

GRIZZLY BEAR - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 27-13/16 24 13/16 24 8/16 24 4/16 24 3/16

Tanana Flats, AK Nutzotin Mts., AK Iskut River, BC Mineral Lake, AK

Bert E. Thomas Mary E. Young Justin Ferster Cody S. Cook

2015 2007 2014 2015

R. Boutang S. Bayless R. Berreth K. Leo

ALASKA BROWN BEAR - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 30-12/16 28 14/16 28 1/16 28 1/16 27 14/16 26 11/16 26 5/16 26 4/16

Kodiak Island, AK Afognak Lake, AK Sturgeon Lagoon, AK Karluk Lake, AK Hinchinbrook Island, AK Talkeetna Mts., AK Sandy River, AK

Clay J. Evans Robert T. Eubank Patrick A. Carter

2015 B. Wilkes 2015 S. Kleinsmith 2014 R. Boutang

Richard H. Manly Thomas H. Ong

2015 D. Whitehouse 2014 T. Caruthers

Morgan K. Wynne Zalmen Blanck

1997 R. Deis 2014 P. Barwick

COUGAR - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 16-4/16 15 4/16 14 14/16 14 12/16 14 11/16 14 10/16 14 8/16

Shelter Bay, BC Powell Co., MT Washoe Co., NV Cascade Co., MT Dimmit Co., TX Washoe Co., NV

Kevin J. Nurmi 2013 Matthew J. Anderson 2015 Timothy D. Zahniser 2015 Ryan A. Mills 2015 James E. Farmer 2014 Collette E. Zahniser 2015

F. Pringle J. Spring J. Capurro L. Coccoli D. McBride J. Capurro

ELK & MULE DEER FINAL GROSS SCORE SCORE LOCATION

HUNTER

DATE MEASURER

TYPICAL AMERICAN ELK - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 442-5/8 380 7/8 377 2/8 363 5/8 361 3/8

400 4/8 385 6/8 370 1/8 367 1/8

Moffat Co., CO Chad M. Kurtenbach San Juan Co., UT Kerry E. Montoya Jefferson Co., MT Garth J. Johnson Sweetwater Co., WY Clay J. Evans

2015 2015 2010 2013

D. Hart K. Leo J. Pallister B. Wilkes

2014 2015 2012 2015

S. Bagley L. Hill R. Hall W. Bowles

NON-TYPICAL AMERICAN ELK - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 478-5/8 422 432 6/8 Garfield Co., UT 399 5/8 411 4/8 West Kootenay, BC 385 397 5/8 Carbon Co., UT 385 403 Garfield Co., UT

Ashlee K. Smith Eric D. Cotter Rick L. Klien, Jr. Joseph B. von Benedikt

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RECENTLY ACCEPTED TROPHIES

TULE ELK - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 379 327 4/8 332 6/8 San Luis Obispo Co., CA 313 4/8 319 5/8 Solano Co., CA 289 293 6/8 Monterey Co., CA

Paul E. Wollenman

2015 M. Barrett

Martin A. Roberts, Jr. 2014 D. Caughey Kevin Dettler 2014 J. Utter

TYPICAL MULE DEER - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 226-4/8 203 4/8 208 4/8 199 5/8 235 7/8 194 5/8 210 7/8 192 6/8 199 2/8 192 195 4/8 191 4/8 224 4/8 191 1/8 204 6/8 186 3/8 204 2/8 186 1/8 193 4/8 185 3/8 194 183 7/8 193 5/8 181 6/8 209 3/8

Beaverhead Co., MT Picked Up 1976 Saskatchewan Clayton C. Harder 2014 River, SK Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Ravalli Co., MT Robert L. Farnes 2015 Lake Co., CO Paul Ellsworth 1945 Mohave Co., AZ Glen E. Summers 2013 Sonora, MX Ross D. Murphy 2015 Rio Blanco Co., CO Hovis H. Williams 2013 Garfield Co., UT Jeremy B. Barton 2014 Lincoln Co., NV Joseph M. Danna 2011 Lake Tyler T. Pisiak 2007 Diefenbaker, SK

D. Merritt J. Clary R. Hall R. Selner K. Lehr J. Williams B. Smith R. Henicke W. Cooper D. Nielsen G. Ponsness A. Long

NON-TYPICAL MULE DEER - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 355-2/8 246 5/8 257 6/8 243 7/8 248 4/8 241 245 7/8 236 2/8 241 7/8 235 5/8 248 7/8 232 3/8 237 5/8 228 4/8 237 7/8 223 4/8 229 6/8 220 7/8 224 4/8

Klamath Co., OR Cheyenne Co., NE La Plata Co., CO Vanguard, SK La Plata Co., CO Bonneville Co., ID Unknown Lake Diefenbaker, SK Unknown

Jack Falkoske 1948 Harlan G. Maddox 1954 Picked Up 2015 Evan Myers 2014 Erik D. Dillon 2014 Roger Christensen 1981 Unknown Tyler T. Pisiak 2011 Unknown

S. Nasby A. Crum J. Gardner H. Hanson B. Long R. Selner R. Hall A. Long

1984 M. Demick

TYPICAL COLUMBIA BLACKTAIL - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 182-2/8 140 7/8 144 4/8 Clatsop Co., OR Byron Hawkins 138 3/8 140 7/8 Humboldt Co., CA William W. Proctor 129 7/8 132 5/8 Whatcom Co., WA Frank J. Heller

1972 W. Cooper 2014 G. Hooper 1975 M. Opitz

NON-TYPICAL COLUMBIA BLACKTAIL - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 208-1/8 155 5/8 156 2/8 Yolo Co., CA

Philip J. Gaines

2015 B. Abele

TYPICAL SITKA BLACKTAIL DEER - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 133 105 3/8 112 3/8 Bock Bight, AK

Richard A. Greseth

1979 M. Nilsen

NON-TYPICAL SITKA BLACKTAIL DEER - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 134 122 4/8 125 2/8 Horseshoe Island, AK

Picked Up

2015 K. Lehr

WHITETAIL DEER FINAL GROSS SCORE SCORE LOCATION

HUNTER

DATE MEASURER

TYPICAL WHITETAIL DEER - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 213-5/8

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This typical mule deer, scoring 185-3/8 points, was taken by Jeremy B. Barton, in Garfield County, Utah, in 2014. He was shooting a .300 Ultra. B&C Associate Paul M. Nault took this non-typical whitetail deer, scoring 201-7/8 points, in 2014 while hunting in Kenedy County, Texas. He was shooting a .300 Winchester Mag. B&C Associate Shelly D. Sayer was on a hunt in the Chugach Mountains, in Alaska, when she harvested this Dall’s sheep, scoring 170-1/8 points. She was shooting his .270 Weatherby.

80 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

185 6/8 197 6/8 Chariton Co., MO Scottie L. McKenzie 2014 B. Harriman 182 3/8 190 Spencer Co., IN Jase J. Otto 2015 M. Verble 179 5/8 192 4/8 Clay Co., IN David R. Pennington 2014 J. Bogucki 179 5/8 203 5/8 St. Charles Co., MO Edward J. Krings 2014 J. Hindman 176 3/8 180 6/8 Oak River, MB Darcy K. Robins 2014 D. Wilson 176 1/8 190 2/8 Battle River, AB Matthew T. Hunter 2014 D. Butler 174 3/8 183 Maverick Co., TX Clarence J. Kahlig II 2013 J. Stein 172 1/8 189 St. Charles Co., MO Kristen R. 2011 L. Ostmann-Twellman Lueckenhoff 171 7/8 175 5/8 Arkansas Co., AR Cameron K. Cormier 2014 D. Doughty 170 4/8 173 4/8 Harrison Co., IA Unknown 2014 T. Rogers 170 200 4/8 Ramsey Co., MN Jon M. Abrahamson 2014 S. Grabow 168 6/8 175 1/8 Pawnee Co., KS Gustavo A. Flores 2014 L. Lueckenhoff 168 6/8 190 7/8 Woodruff Co., AR Picked Up 2015 C. Latham 167 7/8 179 1/8 Butler Co., OH Zachary M. Walker 2013 G. Trent 166 7/8 169 7/8 Sawyer Co., WI Unknown 1976 J. Gunnels 166 2/8 173 3/8 Nuevo Leon, MX Christopher E. 2014 J. Stein Embrey 165 4/8 169 Sargent Co., ND Joshua M. Herzog 2015 C. Kozitka

FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 81

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Chipper Beiner took this typical Couesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; whitetail, scoring 108-1/8 points. He was hunting in Cochise County, Arizona, in 2011. He was hunting with a .300 Ultra. This typical whitetail, scoring 176-1/8 points, was taken by Matthew T. Hunter near Battle River, Alberta in 2014. In 2015, Tyson Marshall was on an archery hunt when he harvested this 115-2/8-point bison in Coconino County, Arizona. James A. Walkenhauer was on a hunt near White Lake, British Columbia, when he harvested this Rocky Mountain goat scoring 52 points. He was shooting a .338 Winchster Mag.

OPPOSITE PAGE: TOP TO BOTTOM

B&C Lifetime Associate Frank Noble was on a hunt in Colfax County, New Mexico, during the 2015 season, when he harvested this pronghorn scoring 81-2/8 points. While on a 2015 hunt near Moon Lake, Alaska, Levi B. Robinson took this 237-6/8-point AlaskaYukon moose. B&C Official Measurer Russell A. Mort took this bighorn sheep, scoring 177-3/8 points, in Big Horn County, Wyoming, during the 2015 season.

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation

1. Publication Title: Fair Chase 2. Publication Number: 1077-4627 3. Filing Date: 9/24/2015 4. Issue Frequency: Quarterly 5. Number of Issues Published Annually: Four 6. Annual Subscription Price: $35.00 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: Boone and Crockett Club, 250 Station Drive, Missoula, MT 59801-2753 Contact Person: Karlie Slayer Telephone: 406/542-1888 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters of Publisher: Boone and Crockett Club, 250 Station Drive, Missoula, MT 59801-2753 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor: Publisher - Boone and Crockett Club, 250 Station Drive, Missoula, MT 59801-2753 Editor - Doug Painter, Boone and Crockett Club, 250 Station Drive, Missoula, MT 59801-2753 Managing Editor - Karlie Slayer, Boone and Crockett Club, 250 Station Drive, Missoula, MT 59801-2753 10. Owner: Boone and Crockett Club, 250 Station Drive, Missoula, MT 59801-2753 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders: None 12. Tax Status: Has Not Changed During the Preceding 12 Months 13. Publication Title: Fair Chase 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data: Summer 2015 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months and No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date (respectively): a. Total Number of Copies: 8,0325 and 8,300 b. Paid Circulation (1) Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541: 4,455 and 4,453 (2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541: 0 and 0 (3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Counter Sales and Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS: 0 and 0 (4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through the USPS: 726 and 596 c. Total Paid Distribution: 5,181 and 5,049 d. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 1,636 and 1,638 (2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 0 and 0 (3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS: 176 and 148 (4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail: 179 and 36 e. Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 1,991 and 1,822 f. Total Distribution: 7,172 and 6,871 g. Copies Not Distributed: 153 and 129 h. Total: 7,325 and 7,000 i. Percent Paid: 72.23% and 73.48% 16. Publication of Statement of Ownership: X If the publication is a general publication, publication of this statement is required. Will be printed in the Spring 2016 issue of this publication.

82 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

TYPICAL WHITETAIL DEER CONTINUED 163 5/8 161 7/8 161 1/8 160 6/8 160 1/8 160

169 5/8 165 5/8 166 5/8 167 6/8 166 6/8 164 2/8

Desha Co., AR Erie Co., PA Crawford Co., WI Wilbarger Co., TX Lancaster Co., NE Sunflower Co., MS

Thomas F. Neblett Nathan C. Hazi Paul L. Peterson Clyde W. Hinkle II Kyle E. Hemje Ashley B. Horton

2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014

W. Walters G. Block E. Randall J. Dreibelbis R. Stutheit C. Neill

RECENTLY ACCEPTED TROPHIES

NON-TYPICAL WHITETAIL DEER - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 333-7/8 232 7/8 240 Winneshiek Co., IA Kyle W. Falck 2014 L. Miller 221 3/8 227 7/8 Lincoln Co., MT Ray Tetrault 1927 R. Selner 216 1/8 226 7/8 Lake Tyler T. Pisiak 2011 A. Long Diefenbaker, SK 207 6/8 214 1/8 Harper Co., KS Bradley F. Evans 2015 S. Johns 202 5/8 206 3/8 Meade Co., KY Perry Richardson 2014 T. Smith 202 4/8 214 1/8 Falls Co., TX Max G. Atkins 2014 R. Hale 201 7/8 205 7/8 Kenedy Co., TX Paul M. Nault 2014 N. Ballard 200 2/8 207 7/8 Butler Co., OH Gary K. Haines 2014 J. Messeroll 198 7/8 207 4/8 Carbon Co., PA Matthew J. Wentz 2014 R. Brugler 196 4/8 205 2/8 Switzerland Co., IN Steven M. Shackleford 2004 M. Verble 195 6/8 200 1/8 Iowa Co., WI Picked Up 2013 E. Randall 195 5/8 202 5/8 Maverick Co., TX Donald M. Holden 2014 H. Saye 195 1/8 198 5/8 Marquette Co., WI Scott W. Kempley 2014 J. Ramsey 189 5/8 195 4/8 Westmoreland Justin C. Greiner 2014 G. Fujak Co., PA 189 4/8 195 6/8 Queen Anne’s Hunter J. Kinnamon 2014 R. Newton Co., MD 189 1/8 199 5/8 Moniteau Co., MO Douglas L. Laird 2014 D. Hollingsworth 189 196 6/8 Madison Co., VA Lowell R. Cruey 2012 R. Mayer 188 198 6/8 Dallas Co., MO Kurt D. Hostetler 2014 B. Harriman 187 6/8 193 6/8 Vermilion Co., IL Robert C. Kotcher 2014 D. Good 187 2/8 199 2/8 Clinton Co., OH Jon D. Callan 2013 R. Perrine 187 190 1/8 Callaway Co., MO Audley V. Spencer 2014 L. Redel 187 196 2/8 Tripp Co., SD Alan R. Fast 2014 R. Pesek 186 2/8 191 7/8 Sauk Co., WI Kayley M. Raasch 2011 M. Miller

TYPICAL COUES’ WHITETAIL - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 144-1/8 125 3/8 115 7/8 108 1/8 105 1/8

143 1/8 121 110 7/8 111 3/8

Apache Co., AZ Yavapai Co., AZ Cochise Co., AZ Hidalgo Co., NM

Unknown Todd A. Hyslip Chipper Beiner Troy B. Pompeo

1998 2014 2011 2012

D. May S. Stiver E. Buckner J. Edwards

NON-TYPICAL COUES’ WHITETAIL - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 196-2/8 128 138 5/8 Gila Co., AZ Jeremy R. Pfeiffer 120 7/8 126 1/8 Santa Cruz Co., AZ Chipper Beiner

2014 R. Stayner 2012 E. Buckner

MOOSE AND CARIBOU FINAL GROSS SCORE SCORE LOCATION

HUNTER

DATE MEASURER

CANADA MOOSE - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 242 213 3/8 204 4/8 186 6/8 186

228 4/8 207 7/8 189 6/8 196 5/8

Madawaska, NB Klappan River, BC William Lake, MB Green River, NB

Paul E. Steeves 2014 Collin A. Marshall 2009 Darcy L. Bolton 2014 Matthew T. Campbell 2014

W. Hanson C. Zuckerman A. Safiniuk J. Hindman

ALASKA-YUKON MOOSE - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 263-5/8 250 5/8 237 6/8 216 3/8 214 5/8

258 1/8 243 2/8 224 221 7/8

Post River, AK Moon Lake, AK Ogilvie Mts., YT Clear Creek, YT

Mark W. McKinnon Levi B. Robinson Kent O. Beers Scott T. Smith

2015 2015 2014 2015

R. Gander R. Deis D. Eider C. Walker

SHIRAS’ MOOSE - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 205-4/8 161 6/8 159 2/8 158 1/8 156 6/8 154 4/8 142 3/8

163 4/8 168 3/8 165 2/8 162 2/8 155 5/8 150 2/8

Ferry Co., WA Mineral Co., MT Grand Co., CO Clearwater Co., ID Madison Co., MT Weber Co., UT

Joseph S. Marks Tyler A. Hoffman Kevin J. Westfall Kayla E. Brown William J. Shirley Ronald R. Burrell

2015 2015 2014 2012 2014 2015

D. Waldbillig J. Spring D. Hart S. Wilkins L. Coccoli D. Nielsen

WOODLAND CARIBOU - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 419-5/8 306 3/8 316 2/8 Deer Pond, NL

K. Kirk Bailey

2014 D. Nielsen

FAIR CHASE | S P RI N G 2 0 1 6 83

RECENTLY ACCEPTED TROPHIES

Lukas M. Rimmele was on a hunt in Otero County, New Mexico, during the 2014 season, when he harvested this desert sheep scoring 175-5/8 points.

In 2015, B&C Lifetime Associate Dale Hislop harvested this 117-point musk ox while hunting near Kilekale Lake, Northwest Territories.

BARREN GROUND CARIBOU - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 477

MUSK OX - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 129

403 7/8 413 6/8 Crescent Creek, AK Loren F. Becker

117 121 6/8 Kilekale Lake, NT Dale Hislop 2015 C. Dillabough

2012 W. Bowman

BIGHORN SHEEP - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 209-4/8

HORNED GAME FINAL GROSS SCORE SCORE LOCATION

HUNTER

DATE MEASURER

PRONGHORN - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 96-4/8 87 6/8 87 85 84 84 82 4/8 81 6/8 81 4/8 81 2/8 81 2/8 80 80

88 2/8 88 1/8 86 84 7/8 85 1/8 83 5/8 82 1/8 82 82 81 5/8 81 7/8 81 3/8

Elko Co., NV Daniel J. Richardson Converse Co., WY Shane R. Lorenz White Pine Co., NV Ryan T. Sams Carbon Co., WY Michael B. Heller Hudspeth Co., TX Wanda H. Bazemore Catron Co., NM Karl D. Malcolm Lassen Co., CA Danette L. Perrien Pershing Co., NV Cole D. Eddie Carbon Co., UT Bowdy Blanton Colfax Co., NM Frank Noble Lake Co., OR Chrisha E. Hafer Sweetwater Co., WY Jed E. Jones

2015 2014 2015 2014 2014 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015

T. Humes J. Mankin S. Sanborn R. Stayner O. Carpenter R. Madsen D. Perrien J. Williams K. Leo J. Williams E. Buckner R. Madsen

192 1/8 192 1/8 Fergus Co., MT 189 5/8 191 5/8 Taos Co., NM 188 3/8 190 Larimer Co., CO 187 6/8 190 2/8 Blaine Co., MT 186 5/8 186 7/8 Blaine Co., MT 184 3/8 185 1/8 Albany Co., WY 183 1/8 183 1/8 El Paso Co., CO 182 6/8 184 Big Horn Co., WY 181 2/8 181 7/8 Baker Co., OR 180 7/8 181 6/8 Baker Co., OR 180 180 4/8 Yavapai Co., AZ 179 6/8 179 7/8 Fergus Co., MT 177 3/8 178 3/8 Big Horn Co., WY 176 4/8 177 5/8 Ravalli Co., MT

Richard S. Kinzell 2015 Joseph F. Santistevan 2015 Caleb E. Huthmacher 2015 Nicholas T. Tolstedt 2015 Luther Q. Waterland 2014 Don D. Farrier 2015 Eric Stahlecker 2014 William B. Wilson, Jr. 2015 Jill E. Joyce 2013 Glenn Bailey 2015 Lawrence A. 2014 Bettendorf Jason T. Barker 2015 Russell A. Mort 2015 Martin G. Smorowski 2015

G. Taylor L. Rominger R. Burtis F. King B. Zundel R. Burtis M. Duplan D. Hart E. Buckner B. Trumbo D. Richardson V. Edwards R. Stutheit K. Lehr

DESERT SHEEP - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 205-1/8 175 5/8 176 2/8 Otero Co., NM

BISON - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 136-4/8 125 120 2/8 118 6/8 117 116 6/8 115 2/8 115

127 1/8 122 120 2/8 118 2/8 117 5/8 115 7/8 115 5/8

Giltana Lake, YT Park Co., MT Teton Co., WY Custer Co., SD Park Co., MT Coconino Co., AZ Teton Co., WY

Charles E. Shewen Donald L. Davis Ryan T. Allen Dean Davis Gregory B. Faul Tyson Marshall Karen L. Tallerico

2011 2014 2012 2014 2015 2015 2015

R. Ratz J. Pallister D. Hart S. Wilkins F. King M. Cupell E. Boley

ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT - WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 57-4/8 52 52 4/8 50 6/8 50 7/8 50 2/8 51 49 6/8 49 7/8 49 6/8 49 7/8 47 6/8 48 2/8 47 4/8 48 1/8

White Lake, BC James A. Walkenhauer 2015 Dease Lake, BC Gordon J. Hitchcock 2012 Samotua River, BC Taylor H. Raats 2015 Lost Lake, AK Justin M. Heil 2015 Mahoney Edward M. Soto 2014 Mountain, AK Moosevale Peak, BC Gary L. Bender 2014 Hallet River, AK Mason W. McClintock 2015

84 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

K. Lehr R. Berreth D. Patterson R. Deis C. Brent C. Hill J. McEachern

Lukas M. Rimmele

2014 D. Doerr

DALL’S SHEEP- WORLD’S RECORD SCORE 189-6/8 176 4/8 176 5/8 Alaska Range, AK Dylan T. Bell 2015 S. Kleinsmith 173 7/8 174 4/8 Wrangell Mts., AK Dennis W. Morrison 2014 S. Boero 173 2/8 173 5/8 Kusawa Lake, YT Robert L. Janits 2015 T. Grabowski 170 3/8 170 6/8 Dezadeash Lake, YT Alan W. Klassen 2015 C. Walker 170 1/8 170 4/8 Chugach Mts., AK Shelly D. Sayer 2015 R. Atwood 170 1/8 170 5/8 Mt. Arkell, YT James B. Elker, Jr. 2015 J. Medeiros 167 1/8 169 2/8 Tatshenshini Craig E. Gelsvik 2015 D. Milton River, BC 163 6/8 163 7/8 Kluane Lake, YT John J. Chaput 2015 R. Novosad 163 3/8 163 4/8 Rose Lake, YT Taylor T. Pasloski 2015 C. Walker 162 4/8 163 Eagle River, AK Donald S. South 2014 T. Spraker 161 6/8 161 7/8 Chandalar River, AK Sean H. Keck 2015 T. Heil

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COMMON GROUND We all know that sometimes the words we use mean different things to different people. This happens because we have diverse backgrounds and experiences that shape our perceptions, and in the case of language, this difference can be stark. Two intelligent people engaged in an honest conversation can and often do leave with vastly divergent impressions of the conclusion. The point here is that it is important that we take this into account when we are trying to talk about stuff that really matters. I’ve come to realize that most folks that I might otherwise disagree with aren’t taking a position contrary to mine just for the sport. Usually, they actually believe in their version of the issue. Until I recognize this, I am just being as arbitrary as they are and we will get nowhere except, into an argument. Recently, I was talking with some of my compatriots about the sudden realization that the phrase “trophy hunting” is offensive to a lot of people. At first, I simply couldn’t grasp the notion that this term could be construed as bad. To me, the point of taking a trophy animal was that it symbolized my time, skill, and effort spent in pursuit of the most adept, most experienced, most difficult challenge, and therefore the most worthy quarry. The “athletics” analogy is perfectly suited to this scenario. I consider the antlers or horns of my trophy as a reminder of the

86 FA I R CH A S E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

THE ETHICS OF FAIR CHASE

time afield, the skills and knowledge I brought to bear, and my success as a hunter. Of course, this is best enjoyed with a perfectly prepared plate full of the protein that came with the antlers. Personally, how big mine is as compared to yours is very, very secondary the role of the trophy as a reminder of the journey, the camp, the complete immersion in nature, and the rigors of the hunt. That said, it is not a “participation trophy.” It is a symbol that prods me from time to time to relive the experience and revel in the wonder of it all. To others outside our hunting community, there is a belief that we just want the horns or antlers. This is made even worse when this person sees this as all about the hollow pursuit of bragging rights at all cost. The fact that we have such a high regard and respect for wild animals is dismissed, often with a visual of a pen-raised deer with some “pseudo hunter” sitting on its back, raising its bloody head for a camera shot. What is interesting here is that both the anti-hunting community and fair chase hunters would agree that this dollar and ego driven, “antler inches at all cost” caricature is egregiously offensive and has no place in our community. Other practices we hold near and dear are also dismissed in their view of trophy hunting. The fact that we eat what we kill is often lost completely because trophy hunting is seen as all about the hardware (antler inches),

not the organic, naturally healthy protein. Add to this the slick TV portrayal of extreme long range shooting, put-and-take shooting preserves, and the various “monster buck” shows, and it is no wonder the phrase “trophy hunter” evokes such a negative reaction among the uninitiated. Those that would otherwise be somewhere between tolerant and supportive are being dealt a bad hand and we are the ones that lose. All the while, we are really not very different given the basis for their view of us. So, what are we to do about it? Over the long haul, we need to engage in a conversation whenever we can with those that might not understand our culture and our language. I submit that the best start is to find common values and beliefs. By example, no one that opposes hunting doesn’t also believe they have the animals’ best interest at heart. We agree completely that what is best for the animal is best for all. Additionally, those that are merely tolerant of hunting are generally supportive if they believe you eat what you kill. Again, I/we agree completely. There are more common beliefs and we need to find them and bring them into the conversation. On another tangent, we know that active, sciencebased management of wild herds and wild places is better for the animals than passive preservation. Current wildlife populations confirm this beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Daniel A. Pedrotti, Jr. B&C REGULAR MEMBER Chair, Hunter Ethics Sub-Committee

However, in the absence of bona fide conversation, it is easy for anti-hunting zealots to publish photos and evocative captions that seem to refute this notion. This is a more fundamental problem, which we as a community need to work to resolve. Remember, the folks that are “merely tolerant” to “anti-hunting leanings” want the same things we want when it concerns the welfare of wild animals. We can sit around and share stories with folks that see everything the same as we do or we can look for opportunities to preach the good word. In preparation, we need to find the common ground so we have an opener to the conversations necessary to share the more accurate and detailed substance underlying our commitment to the hunting community and the welfare of the wild animals and wild places. Each of us talking to folks that see things differently than we do will do more good than posting in the comment section of Facebook or ranting about it in a column. Who knows, if you take this upon yourself, you might even get a chance to explain trophy hunting in a way “they” can appreciate it. n

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