The Boone and Crockett Club descended on Springfield, Missouri, during the third week in April for the 32nd Big Game Awards Judges Panel and Media Summit. There were 27 Official Measurers and 11 media representatives joining staff as the mounts were panel scored. By Saturday, April 26, all of the scoring was completed, and staff and volunteers were getting to work on setting up the Big Game Awards and Generation Next displays in the Wonders of Wildlife Museum. The display opened to the public on May 3rd and with 93 mounts in the Big Game Awards display—including three new World’s Records—and 38 mounts in the Generation Next display, it is an outstanding exhibit!

Judges Panel

The Judges Panel began work on Wednesday, April 23 with 27 Official Measurers working in teams to verify final scores for the mounts that were sent to Springfield. The top five animals accepted into the Record Book for each of the 38 categories are invited to participate in the Big Game Awards. In mid April, 93 incredible mounts were panel scored by teams of B&C’s top Official Measurers to verify their scores. In addition, 38 youth hunters who harvested an animal that was accepted in the record book over the past three years sent their mounts as well. This year’s exhibit includes three World’s Records—Justin Kallusky’s 2022 mountain goat, Aron Wark’s 2023 musk ox, and Tim Carpenter’s 2023 Roosevelt’s elk—as well as Austin Prieskorn’s new Virginia State Record and James Balise Jr.’s new Pennsylvania State Record American elk. In addition, we also have an unusual number of walruses—five total Pacific walrus (including the new #3, #4, #7 and #9) and an Atlantic walrus—in the display!

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The 32nd Big Game awards Judges Panel was made up of Official Measurers from across the United States and Canada with Saskatchewan’s Pat McKenzie serving as the Panel Chairman. Each of the measurers has decades of experience measuring trophies, and some have been measuring for the Boone and Crockett Club since the 1970s. The judges worked in teams of two and each mount was scored by two separate teams who worked independently to verify the final score. Even with the large number of animals to be scored, the teams finished a day early on Friday, April 25, thanks in large part due to efficiencies from entering scores into the new online scoring program that helped with tabulating final scores. This allowed staff and volunteers to begin setting up the display by Saturday morning.

Special thanks to Kyle Lehr, Jennifer Schwab, Karlie Slayer, Kate Thornburg, HP and Kimbery Giger, and Luke Coccoli who have spent many days and long hours in Springfield over the past few weeks to make sure that the Judges Panel and display setup went smoothly!

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Media Summit

Simultaneous to the Judges Panel, a group of 11 outdoor writers took part in a Media Summit to learn about the measuring process as well as the history of the Club, our big game records program, and our conservation and education activities. This year’s agenda also included two “off the record” sessions discussing challenging topics. We had writers and editors from Sports Afield, Field & Stream, MeatEater, Petersen’s Hunting, Game & Fish, North American Whitetail, Hook & Barrel magazine, Hunting Life, and Women’s Outdoor News, as well as a couple freelancers working for a variety of publications.

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We kicked off the Media Summit with a welcome reception with our Official Measurers and staff in the Sportsman’s Lodge of the White River Conference Center which created a great community for attendees of both events. Due to the Judges Panel moving so quickly we had to make adjustments to the agenda; the media got a briefing of Club history and conservation efforts over breakfast before heading to the scoring area to watch as teams did final measuring of the moose that were entered. This allowed writers to get a “behind the scenes look” at the Judges Panel and the opportunity to ask questions of the Official Measurers. We had excellent “off the record” conversations through lunch about technology and Fair Chase, as well as the challenges with public perception of “trophy hunting” and gathered good ideas on how to present these issues in the media. We then went for a tour of the nearby Fiocchi facility, thanks to Christian Hogg, director of marketing and new product development for Fiocchi, who has been a longtime supporter of B&C. We gathered with OMs and staff again for dinner in Uncle Buck’s private room in the Bass Pro store.

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On Saturday morning, we took the writers through the Wonders of Wildlife Museum including a long stop at the National Collection of Heads and Horns which provided excellent visuals for the conservation history that we shared with the group the previous day. Media was then able to head back into the closed off Bucks and Bulls Hall to watch as the display started to take shape. In addition, two measurers did a demonstration on how to measure a whitetail and took questions from the writers.

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We have received excellent feedback from the writers as well as the Records team about the quality interactions that took place (see below for one thank you note). We anticipate some great stories and coverage of the Club in the coming months, as well as good promotion for the Big Game Awards and display.

Thank you so much for inviting me to be part of the Media Summit in Springfield. It was a wonderful event all around, from the thought-provoking discussions, to the Fiocchi factory tour, to learning about the Big Game Awards and measuring and, of course, seeing the museum. Walking into the National Collection of Heads & Horns felt like completing a pilgrimage! I really appreciate all the hospitality, and the event has given me plenty of ideas and topics to cover in upcoming issues of SA as well as on our website. Thanks again for everything, and have a great week!

Best regards,

Diana Rupp,

Editor in Chief, Sports Afield

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Display Opens May 3rd

After the dust settled, and continued work by B&C staff, the 32nd Big Game Awards display opened in the Bucks and Bulls Hall of Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium on May 3rd. This collection of wildlife and conservation success will only ever be seen all together in this display! Special thanks to Host Sponsor Bass Pro Shops for supporting the shipping of the mounts and for providing this unique location for the display. In addition, this year for the first time we will have 32nd Big Game Awards merchandise available for sale in the Wonders of Wildlife Gift Shop. A new partnership with True Timber provided a significant donation of Big Game Awards logo apparel and hats that will be available to the public after they see the exhibit in the museum. Much of this merchandise will also be for sale through our website.

We hope you will join us July 24-26 for the 32nd Big Game Awards celebration—there’s a lot to be excited about!!

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