B&C Position Statements

Where the Club Stands on Topics Relative to Wildlife, Conservation, and Hunting

B&C Position Statements — Big Game Records and Hunting

TROPHIES AND TROPHY HUNTING What constitutes a trophy is a matter of personal choice and experience, as is choosing to hold out, hunt longer and harder for a mature animal. B&C has long suppor...

B&C Position Statement - Genetic Manipulation of Game

Genetic manipulation (also known as genetic enhancement or genetic engineering) is being used to produce big game specimens, especially deer and elk, with unnatural and abnormally large antlers and other physical characteristics. Human-selected, genetically-manipulated, game animals comprise an industry in which breeders produce such animals and their semen for game farms and shooting operations that will buy so-called trophy animals regardless of the animal’s origin or circumstance.

B&C Position Statement - Fair Chase

First Adopted December 7, 2013 - Revised June 21, 2016 - Reviewed April 15, 2016 - Updated May 20, 2021 Situational Overview As a means of separating the actions of commercial market hun...

B&C Position Statement - Deer and Elk Breeding

Breeders of captive, native North American cervids, primarily white-tailed deer and elk, raise these animals to sell as breeding stock, as trophy animals for fee-based shooting operations, or to produce meat, semen, velvet, and other saleable parts. The number of farms, ranches and other facilities engaged in this business has been growing rapidly over the past decade, and breeding captive cervids has become a billion-dollar industry in some states. As this industry grows, so do concerns over regulating this industry and the management of captive deer and elk.

B&C Position Statement - Canned Shoots

A canned shoot is the practice of pursuing and killing any big game animal kept in or released from captivity to be killed in an escape-proof, fenced, put-and-take shooting operation, often called a “hunting preserve” by this industry. In canned shoots, the game lacks the equivalent chance to escape afforded free-ranging animals, virtually assuring the shooter a kill.

Boone and Crockett: Defining Fair Chase

The Boone and Crockett Club, the oldest hunter-conservationist organization in North America, has released a comprehensive essay on fair chase, the first and longest standing honor code in North American hunting.

Long-Range Shooting: Defining a New Ethic in Hunting

The ethical issue isn't the 350-yard shot. The real concern, as Boone and Crockett Club sees it, is hunters not trying to get a closer one.

Long-range shooting is a hot topic in hunting. Improved and specialized guns, gear, bullets and sniper skills are growing in popularity, stretching the lethal range of hunters further than ever before. But many hunters wonder how it all fits with traditional, ethical standards. How far is too far to be considered fair chase?

How Matters - Why B&C has taken a Position on Long Range Shooting

All significant human activities, sooner or later, are conducted under a code, or set of guidelines, that direct appropriate behavior. Without this order there would simply be chaos and the activity would become unacceptable. Consequently, ethics apply in everything we do, from our personal relationships and how we treat our fellow man to business and recreational activities. Hunting too is conducted under a code, or set of ethics, that direct appropriate behavior. As such, a conversation about ethics in hunting is a conversation about values and continuance.