The Boone and Crockett Club’s trophy scoring system is relatively new, copyrighted in 1950 after 12 years of development. It was readily accepted in both the United States and Europe as the standard by which North American big game species is judged. A history of records keeping is included as a separate chapter in this guide for those interested.
Grancel Fitz of New York was a major developer of the B&C scoring system, as well as the first sportsmen to take trophy heads of all North American big game species. One of Grancel’s ambitions was to publish an inexpensive guide for the average sportsman that would explain the scoring system for the various big game species. In 1963, Grancel’s soft cover How to Measure and Score Big Game Trophies was published by Outdoor Life, with a foreword by both B&C Records Committee chairman Samuel Webb and Grancel’s friend and famous gun writer, Jack O’Connor. Unfortunately, Grancel died as the book was being published.
I am very familiar with Grancel’s guide, as it was the only thing available on measuring in 1969 when I organized the first measuring seminars for Arizona’s records program. Already out of print, I was finally able to acquire three dozen copies from Grancel’s widow, Betty. Boone and Crockett measurers began being trained in a similar fashion some six years later, which led to the next publication on measuring technique.
This guide, in its second edition, may be considered a third generation distant relative of Grancel’s little book, directly descended from Wm. Harold Nesbitt and Philip L. Wright’s Measuring and Scoring North American Big Game Trophies published by the Boone and Crockett Club in 1985, and later updated and revised in 1997, 2000, and 2009. These editions, originally developed in response to the glaring need for a comprehensive instruction manual for training new official measurers, mentioned earlier, continue to be revised and published for that purpose.
As the interest in selective hunting and big game trophies continues to increase and new generations become involved, there is an increasing demand for more information on the subject. This publication is intended to answer questions about how to score big game trophies, with numerous illustrations, as well as to give helpful pointers on field judging trophy quality in the field on the hoof. It also provides answers to many common questions about distribution of species categories and trophy entry procedures. Too, I think most hunters will find the comparison photos of World’s Record heads and those barely meeting minimum scores both interesting and helpful in evaluating what they see in the field.
Hunting is a special outdoor pursuit that has many different facets for each of us. Some of us take it much more seriously than others. However, we should all remember that it is meant primarily as outdoor recreation, although a recreation that involves the eternal natural cycle of life and death and thus should be engaged with only the utmost respect for the animals pursued. If the information on the following pages helps you achieve greater appreciation, satisfaction, or enjoyment from your all-too-few days afield, then its objective will have been met. ■
Eldon “Buck” Buckner
Chairman, Records of North American Big Game Committee