Many of you measure for several records-keeping groups including the Pope and Young Club. In the early formative days of the Pope and Young Club, founder Glenn St. Charles (a Boone and Crockett Club member) obtained permission from the Boone and Crockett Club to use their copyrighted system to serve as the basis for the measuring system for the Bowhunting Big Game Records of North America. The Pope and Young Club has employed it since. Thus, a caribou scoring 416-2/8 is measured in the same fashion and will have the same score if it is entered in both programs. As Pope and Young Club evolved, however, certain differences in the application of the system also came about. So what are the differences in these two measuring systems?
First, the obvious ones. The Pope and Young Club records only list trophies taken with a bow and arrow which meet the P&Y Club’s equipment standards. The Boone and Crockett Club records are open to animals harvested by any legal means, picked up trophies and trophies of unknown origin. Thus, a whitetail taken by a hunter using a crossbow or a compound bow with 75% let off would be eligible for entry in the Boone and Crockett Club program, while not eligible for entry in Pope and Young Club program, assuming that trophy met the minimum score for Boone and Crockett Club entry. This brings us to the next obvious difference. Each organization has established its own minimum scores and reviews and adjusts them independently. For example, the Pope and Young Club’s minimum score for typical mule deer is 145; for Boone and Crockett Club, it is 180 for the Awards Book and 190 for the All-time Book.
The Boone and Crockett Club accepts walrus entries while the Pope and Young Club does not. In similar fashion, the Boone and Crockett Club accepts entries for non-typical Sitka blacktail deer while Pope and Young Club does not. The Boone and Crockett Club recently added tule elk from California as a separate, new category for elk. The Records Committee of the Pope and Young Club is currently evaluating whether or not to take similar action but it does not seem likely to occur at this time. All other entry categories are the same in both groups. One other key difference in this area is that the P&Y Club accepts velvet entries for all antlered categories. These are listed at the end of each category listing and appear in only one record book.
In addition to scores for tule elk (Pope and Young treats them as American elk), there are some differences in the application of the system that may lead to different scores for the same trophy. One occurs on pronghorn. The vast majority of pronghorns have the D-3 circumference measurement taken above the prong. On rare occasion, the location of the D-3 measurement may fall below the swelling of the prong. The Boone and Crockett Club rule is that it is permissible to take the D-3 measurement below the prong. The Pope and Young Club rule is that in such cases the D-3 measurement is taken immediately above the prong. The primary reason for this difference in rules was that some younger, high prong antelope qualify for the lower Pope and Young Club minimums. These younger bucks have less developed prongs and it is not uncommon for the D-3 location to fall below the prong. The P&Y rule was implemented to keep these obviously smaller bucks from receiving higher scores than bucks that have more fully developed horns.
Another, and again uncommon, situation where differences may happen is the measurement of deer which have developed a third, separate antler beam. Usually these third beams are short and often unbranched spikes. However, on occasion fully branched beams appear. In the Boone and Crockett Club program, these deer are treated as freaks and, as such, are not eligible for entry. In Pope and Young system, these third beams and any points that project from them are measured as abnormal points and either added to or deducted from the final score depending on whether the buck is entered in the non-typical or typical categories.
While the actual entry procedures in both programs are similar, there are again some differences. Each organization has its own hunter entry affidavit. Thus, an entry of a trophy into both systems would require the hunter to complete two separate entry affidavit statements and two separate hunt information forms. For antlered and horned trophies, the entry photo requirements are the same–one of each side plus one front view and an optional (but desired) photo at the kill site. For the entry of bear and cougar, the Boone and Crockett Club requires one additional photo– one from each side plus a top view and a frontal view. A B&C entry requires a photocopy of the licenses and tag for hunter taken trophies; a P&Y entry does not. Entries into Boone and Crockett Club program must be measured by an official B&C measurer and on a copyrighted B&C Club score form. The Pope and Young Club accepts entries from either P&Y official measurers or B&C official measurers using either the P&Y or B&C copyrighted score forms. Neither Club accepts modified score forms.
Both groups collect entries into recording periods. The 28th Awards Program for the Boone and Crockett Club is currently underway ending on Dec. 31, 2012. Boone and Crockett Club Recording Periods are three years in duration. The Pope and Young Club uses two year Recording Periods. The end of the P&Y’s 27th Recording Period will be December 31, 2010.
Clarifications (changes) to the procedures for measuring trophy-class animals typically are reviewed and approved or disapproved by the Records Committees of both organizations. Most differences in procedures between the application of the measuring system by the two groups have been resolved in recent years. Working together, the two organizations have developed the recognized measurement standard by which North American big trophies are evaluated. ■