The Palmetto State palms trophy whitetails

In the land of Disneyworld, swamps, and retirees, Florida actually has some record entries — Florida actually has millions of acres of public land on which to hunt. The bad news is that those whitetail deer and black bears living there are not going to make the records.

This tiny state and its liberal seasons make it a solid place to fill the freezer — It makes sense that the smallest state in the U.S. would have the fewest record-book entries at just four. And that’s okay. There are a lot of deer here. 

In the early 1900s, when America’s conservation movement was in its infancy, Boone and Crockett Club members used media to spread the word about destruction of the country’s wildlife and wild places. In turn, the public pressured lawmakers to support legislation safeguarding those resources.  

By PJ DelHomme 

A Boone and Crockett Club member for 54 years, Lee Merriam Talbot was the primary author of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. That alone is a lifetime achievement, but there is so much more to the man who dedicated his life’s work to conservation—and humbly averted death numerous times. 

A Dozen Spine-tingling Record-book Trophies 

By Peter C. Knagge
19th Big Game Awards Program | From Legendary Hunts

Louisiana 1904  — For over a century, Ben Lilly’s Louisiana black bear has remained the state record, but it hardly compares to the stories behind the Lilly legend.