MISSOULA, Mont. (September 14, 2022) – Doug W. Wendel from Horace was honored on July 23rd during Boone and Crockett Club’s 31st Big Game Awards celebration. Since 1947, the triennial Big Game Awards program recognizes the biggest heads, horns, and antlers from North America accepted into Boone and Crockett Club’s records from the previous three years. Wendel’s Central Canada barren ground caribou officially scored 351 1/2 points by a panel of judges and ranks second for the 31st Awards period. Hosted by Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s and Centennial Sponsor Federal Ammunition, the 31st Big Game Awards recognition events were held July 21-23, 2022, in Springfield, Missouri at Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium.
“The Big Game Awards celebrations only happen every three years and we are honored to host the sportsmen and women who have found such success in the field,” commented Boone and Crockett Club president James F. Arnold. “Our congratulations to Doug for his magnificent caribou and even more so for his commitment to Fair Chase ethics and wildlife conservation.”
The Boone and Crockett Club began recording measurements of mature male specimens of big game species, taken in fair chase pursuit, in the early 1900s as a way to evaluate the health the species. At the time, wildlife was in decline and the National Collection of Heads and Horns was established by Club members in 1906 and a museum was opened and dedicated “In memory of the vanishing big game of the world” in 1922. As big game species recovered in the mid-1900s, thanks to conservation efforts initiated by sportsmen, records keeping supported the success of these efforts. In 1947, the awards program was developed, and shortly after, in 1950 the Club adopted an equitable, objective, and consistent measurement system for the big game of North America. The records program continues to provide an avenue to collect biological, harvest, and location data on big game trophies based on the principle that the existence of mature, male specimens is an indicator of overall population and habitat health. The Big Game Awards is now hosted every three years to recognize the top animals within 38 categories that were accepted into the Boone and Crockett Club records program. The top entries between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2021, were invited to have their trophy remeasured by a panel of judges who convened in April to validate the entry score that each trophy receives.
“The 31st Big Game Awards is a celebration of these hunters’ success—but it is really a celebration of our conservation accomplishments to have huntable populations of wildlife that continue to produce record book quality animals,” Arnold concluded.
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