Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Boone & Crockett Club - Worth it?

This hunting season I have harvested a mule deer eligible for the Boone & Crockett All-time List. (Non-typical 237 points)

The question is: is it worth it to pay the fee and enter that list? Any real benefits from being on that list? Did any of you scored an eligible animal and decided not to list it there?

I'm little hesitant as I don't feel there is any real benefit other than the bragging rights plus I will have to disclose the location which I'm not too eager about as I don't need more competition in that unit.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Shaky Hands: You have taken an awesome trophy - good for you.
I have a Big Game Animal listed in the all time records books and often wonder about that - I have mixed feelings.
I go Big Game Hunting for the experience - Hunting seems to be built into me, I really NEED to Hunt?
I eat the Big game I harvest and that is an added benefit for me and my family.
I took two pictures of the large 11 point Whitetail Buck I harvested earlier this month - that was enough. Fifty years ago I would have run through a roll of 35mm film on him.
Times and peoples priorities change.
A number of people asked me what that big buck scored - I have no idea and probably won't even have it measured/scored.
I try to harvest large and mature animals mostly for the additional meat they bare.
One of my Hunting partners who lives here in Montana has taken what we figure is as many as six Boone & Crockett qualifying trophies (including Mt. Goat, Elk, Mule Deer) and he has them mounted on his walls.
He has never had a tape put to any of these amazing trophies!
I have never inquired why.
In my book YOU are welcome to "brag" in any and all ways about that amazing trophy you harvested!
Maybe your not listing that trophies location with B&C will serve you well?
Maybe a neat compromise/concession would be to make a nice engraved plaque for people to read showing it's B&C score and the state it was taken in and don't notify the B&C people?
And then display that plaque near the creatures horns/mount.
Best of luck to you in making your decision.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Heck yeah register it. It's quite an accomplishment on your end and, in my opinion, pays respect and homage to the animal's magnificence.

I have several species of animals that meet the requirements of pope and young (archery) and I have no interest in registering them and never will.
I have no problems with those that do enter their animals, just does not do anything for me.

I have official B&C score sheets of all time animals that I have not entered. So do many guys I know. I had them officially scored to see who they did their measurements and then did it against how I do mine to learn the official process. The "list" would look a whole different if even half of the officially scored animal were entered.

"Worth it" can only be defined by you.

Congrats on the trophy - sounds like quite the buck!

worth it to some not to me. no rocks thrown at those that like that sort of thing.

I find it puzzling that someone would place a value on a big game animal due to it's size or the size of it's horns, then question if it should be entered into a book of records. The whole reason for trophy hunting isn't to eat the biggest, oldest and most rank animal in a herd, but due to appreciation of the animal's size. If there is some reason to kill a trophy and not recognize the size, I don't know what that reason would be.

I have a few entered into record books, but I never went hunting specifically to shoot a trophy other than the special draw permits that you may only get once in a lifetime. If you want to kill a trophy animal, but don't want to mount it, that is your prerogative, but it doesn't make a lot of sense...

I have killed a number of eligible and officially measured animals including one top 25 all-time and another top 100 all-time. Only entered a few and will never enter another. Not because I do not believe B&C helps wildlife and not because I think there is anything wrong with entering them. The problem is the idiots that feel they are somehow a victim because someone else did well.

Several I know made a number of comments relative to my success as though I somehow impeded their performance... and somehow they feel I must have cheated and made a number of comments to that end.

No where, ever, did I intend to compete with them and frankly they were never up to the competition level required.

Measuring contests seldom bring out the best in little people...

I'd love to see a pic of that big NT muley shakyhands. Congrats on taking it, one of the hardest animals to put in B&C, period. For that reason I'd probably enter it. Yes, you'l have to give the county where it was taken, but that's it. I got lucky and killed a 213" gross typical mule deer about 10 years ago, and I knew it would be the largest I'd ever shoot, and probably ever see. At the time I entered it, it was in the all time top 100 heads, and was so magnificent I didn't hesitate.

As with most things in life, you only need to please yourself.

Congrats on a Helluva buck.

I've only taken one animal in a lifetime of hunting that made all time...

that be a hog Salmonella but you knew that.

SKane;
Good evening to you sir, I trust the day treated you well.

As usual I find nothing in your thoughts I'd disagree with.

Congratulations to the OP on a dandy buck for sure.

All the best to you all as we head into the winter.

Dwayne

Pics or it didn’t happen.

With all the deer farms being in business and 'gene production' in vogue.....this wipes out IMO any future records! Mighty hard to prove fair chase from game taken within fenced areas! I'd just as soon shoot a damn pasture bull....as from a fenced area!

Thanks guys for all the feedback and congrats to all that already are, or have harvested animals eligible for the B&C All-time list.

I'm still undecided but since I have to wait 60 days since the harvest anyway, I will have enough time to figure it out.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a matter of time before B&C listings are inundated with high fence "trophies" .

I never shot a " real trophy" so I can't say. I would never ever disclose the area. And Skane is right , a trophy is what your experience is , not the size of the horns. I have had some very good hunts , none came up as trophies but the hunt was awsum. Where the animal was taken makes a difference. If I go to Alberta every year and get a "trophy" that can go into the B&C book but had the deer inside a few hours , and was never there , never seen the deer before, the shot was a chip shot over a bait pile or something like that , it is not a trophy to me. How hard you hunt for an animal may make it a trophy. The Looks on some little kids face when they pull up to register a nubby buck is priceless, I always say out loud , " you shot that deer yourself?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are so proud! It is something they did that will never be forgotten. Some questions, how much do they charge to enter? Does it really help hunting that there is a B&C club? Like one poster said, if every B&C was entered it may not be a big deal anyway.. I have seen big bucks in northern WIs. bars and old sheds that would surely make the record books. Those old timers just cut the horns off and nailed them to the beams. These horns are all over western and northern Wisconsin, Upper Michigan, and Minnesota. I just had a hunt I won't forget anytime soon. I hunt only public land and it is very high pressured by hunters. No trophy but is was a really nice hunt. It was a doe and about 100 lbs gutted just 2 miles from my home. I think the bragging of a " Book Buck" has increased the pressure of people to go beyond the law to take the animal too , just so they can be one up on someone else.

I agree, but what does this have to do with his NT mule deer?