B&C Award Honors Extraordinary Fair-Chase Hunt

The name Boone and Crockett is synonymous with big game records, conservation and fair chase hunting. Big game trophies have long been honored with awards, books, exhibitions and events. The Club's Hunt Fair Chase Award brings equal weight to the other half of the B&C brand.

Boone and Crockett's Hunt Fair Chase Award, presented every three years at its Big Game Awards banquet, recognizes one of the foundations of wildlife conservation and game management in North America--an ethical approach to sustainable hunting. 

British Columbia resident, Michael Swyers was honored on July 16 for extraordinary ethics in a hunt that ultimately produced an impressive Rocky Mountain goat scoring 55-6/8 B&C points.

Well-known hunting writer and television personality Craig Boddington presented the award to an emotional Swyers before a banquet crowd of 450 sportsmen and their families. 

Boddington told the audience, "Fair chase is just two words, but their meaning has deep significance to everyone who hunts and teaches young people about hunting. This was not an easy call to make, but of all the accounts of hunts from these 29th Awards, Michaels's story read 'fair chase' from beginning to end." 

The Boone and Crockett Club first promoted the concept of fair chase in the late 1800s when the alarm bell was ringing for all wildlife.

Left to right: Richard Hale, Mike Slack, Michael Swyers, and Eldon 'Buck' Buckner.

Boddington said, "There is no question something had to be done at the time to establish a new relationship with the country's wildlife. This is where conservation came from. How hunters conducted themselves in practicing a conservation ethic was equally important. This is where fair chase came from."

The Hunt Fair Chase Award reads, "In recognition of a hunt that best represents the determination, self-reliance, and respect for the game that embodies the tenets of fair chase set forth by Boone and Crockett Club founder Theodore Roosevelt."

"We're honored to sponsor this Hunt Fair Chase Award," said Mike Slack of Leupold & Stevens. "All of us at Leupold are deeply grateful for the Club continuing to carry the mantel of ethical hunting forward. We are happy to participate in this tradition by being part of something that truly represents how the majority of sportsmen approach their hunting activities in the field."

Leupold personnel joined the Boone and Crockett Records Department and others in selecting the winner from a number of written accounts of the hunts submitted for the upcoming 29th Big Game Awards records book, due to be released this October.