Mar 12, 2016 4 min read

There are two things most of my readers can be sure of when it comes to my beliefs.

First, you know I am a fan of the old reliable .270 Winchester. Perhaps, as some might say, I read too much Jack O’Conner as a youngster.

The ever popular 40-06 was too common and mundane to suit this hunter. More than once, I referred to the .270 as an improved .30-06. Boy, do I get some people stirred up when I say that.

The other thing most readers know is I measure North America’s big game for a devoted book. This would be the national organization that keeps records of the largest big game animals taken and where they were downed, Boone & Crockett.

To be accepted into the Boone & Crockett record book, the hunter must have taken their animal under strict rules. These rules could be summarized by the club’s motto, “I hunt fair chase.”

To have an animal accepted into the record book, it first needs measured by an official scorer. The scorer must sign the sheet along with a witness, and the score must meet a minimum number. A fair chase statement must be filled out by the hunter, and he must produce a license or tag from that animal and that state.

Three photos, front and each side are also required.

Boone & Crockett is careful a game animal is not only at or above a minimum score but was taken legally and ethically. Or, at least it goes to lengths in trying to keep it so.

But beyond scoring big game what is the club itself?

First, it is the oldest conservation organization in America. One of its founding fathers was Teddy Roosevelt.

B&C also was instrumental in the creation of the first national parks. They initiated the first laws limiting the taking of wildlife in some areas such as Yellowstone National Park.

Boone & Crockett pushed for early science-based wildlife management. It pushed for the first legislation funding wildlife conservation. Then, it created the first big-game scoring data (the book) to evaluate species and their population and health.

Next, it got involved with the creation of other organizations, such as Audubon Society in 1905 and New York Zoological Society. Lastly, it publishes Fair Chase Magazine, the official publication of Boone & Crockett Club.

I read a paragraph in the magazine that got me thinking about a subject dear to my heart. The subject was shooting at big game at extreme distances. “If the animal is so far away that its natural defenses are neutralized by that distance, the taking of the shot is ethically questionable.”

In other words, if the deer or other animal is so far away it can neither hear nor smell you, it is too far away to fall under a fair chase. One should at least question the ethics of such a shot.

• Relax it is almost spring. The forsythia are getting a yellowish cast and so are the willows.

Daffodils are well above ground, and I saw some skunk cabbage poking its head above swampy ground.

While the odor they gave off when stepped on is unpleasant, they only show that pointed purple head when spring is close by.

I don’t know about you, but I sure do welcome spring with the array of wildflowers, trout fishing and the early morning gobble of an old long beard looking for love.

I just might catch a trout and put a lovesick tom out of his misery.

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.