Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Boone and Crockett show

I attended the show in Reno on Friday and it was interesting. Guy Eastman preached to us about "fair chase". Didn't think that was the right crowd for it. He is not quite 40 and the average age was over 50. Mike

Isn't Boone and Crockett all about fair chase? Why wouldn't that be the right crowd?

Well fair question. I take it as preaching to the choir. The people there already subscribe to the precepts by belonging to Boone and Crocket club. That would be a good speech for the Boy Scouts or hunter safety class but not to a group that most were already hunters before he was born.
At one point he used Teddy Roosevelt as an example of fair chase. If we could get Teddy out of the grave to watch the Eastman DVD where Guy shoots a buck at around 400 yards with a 7mm STW after lazer range finding the distance (some of this may not be exact but is relatively accurate), do you think Teddy would call it fair chase?
Most answer this question a little differently based on their own experience and morals. Thing is I don't think I want a 40 year old telling me(63), how to believe.

If you read Teddy's book on hunting in Africa, you might have a different understanding. I don't think he'd be against modern equipment one little bit. Gifford Pinchot, sure, but not Teddy... .

Dennis

I think you are going to have a very hard time telling someone who hunts their ass off that they are not "fair chase" because they take a 400yd poke..

I'll ask this:

What's more "fair chase"?

-A guy taking a guided brown bear hunt. Guide does pretty much everything for him, including spotting the bear, and putting a second shot into the animal that is running away, gut shot.

or..

-A guy hiking up a mountain solo, and taking a 400yd shot at an animal across a giant bowl with the aid of a LRF.. And it takes him 1 hour just to get to the animal he shot. 5 hour pack down.

Nothing is fair chase 100%. There is always some type of modern convenience that plays a role in the kill.

A few years ago Guy killed a huge Kansas mule deer with a muzzleloader I believe. One of my buddies guides up there (not on that ranch), but I do know that the landowner had numerous trail cam pics of this huge muley and had him pretty well pegged for months. When Guy shows up, he looks at the cam pics and wants to shoot that deer but the landowner told him that was a $10,000 buck. He had to get on the phone to daddy and ask permission. Mike gave the OK after seeing the pics himself. Basically it was a show up, look at pics, go out the next day and kill it deal. Fair Chase? Yes, but not always what they make it out to be.

I think the Austed elk has really thrown a wrench at B and C. My gut feeling is they did not want to record this elk as a new world record............neither do I. The B and C is the LAST bastion of fair chase and they don't want to be SCI. There is a difference between fair chase and legal.

Well the "spider bull" of Austed was on display at Reno and labeled as the new world record non typical elk. I see the Pope and Young only allows trophys to be entered with an asterisk, if the compound bow exceeds a certain let-off percentage.
T.R. is a conundrum in that he would not shoot a tied up bear but wanted to hunt in Yellowstone. He did want to establish fair chase but slaughered game in Africa (for a museum). Could anyone in 1899 forsee, compound bows, scope sights, 4000fps rifles, lazer range finders, gps, walkie talkies, satelite imagery, a US population of 360 million?

Well I don't want to shoot a tied up bear either.......
I feel the new elk world record may have been the inspiration for the fair chase chat.
Of course, African game would not be considered for BC.

At the B&C banquet Saturday night, the Sagamore Hill Award (the award for the trophy of highest distinction) was presented to ? Dueling for his great Mountain caribou, not to Austed for his elk. So there mays be some "flies" on the Spyder bull. That said, the trophies on display at the B&C show were simply breathtaking.....at least 4 400-pt-net elk, 2- 200-pt bighorns, and the list goes on. I went to receive an award for my bison, but the trip was worth it even without the personal award. I'm definately returning again in 3 years for the next show.

A good friend of mine won the Sagamore Hill Award a decade ago. It is a very big deal. If B&C had given the award to Austed I would have eaten my words regarding the fair chase pep talk. The fact that it didn't go to Austed confirms my opinion that the B&C club is not crazy about this elk, IMHO.