Book-buck quiz

Neil Snow with his 161-inch 13-pointer killed Dec. 23 in Winston County near Louisville.

The Boone and Crockett Club was founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887, and its Record Book of North American Big Game is the official registry of big game trophies, including white-tailed deer. It also established the noted trophy game animal scoring system used by all scorers.

Most deer hunters just dream about taking a “Booner” buck one day. A “book” buck is the benchmark above all other recognitions of a trophy buck. Much can be learned about the trophy class whitetail from the Boone and Crockett organization, which offers a number of books on trophy animals. Check their web site at www.boone-crockett.org to join or just to learn more about trophy game classifications.

Using a three-part quiz recently posted by B&C, test your knowledge of book deer (don’t cheat and look at the answers that follow):

1. Of the 8,568 typical whitetails in the B&C records, what percentage are 8-point bucks?

2. Which antler characteristic factors most heavily into the B&C trophy score?

3. What are the odds of a deer hunter collecting and entering a Boone and Crockett qualifying whitetail?

Answers:

1. Only 2.6 percent of registered BC trophy bucks are 8-pointers. The No.1 8-point buck in the world was taken in Mexico in 1985. It scored 184 5/8.

2. The main beam accounts for 30 percent of the total trophy score for whitetails. The average B&C class buck has main beams measuring 25.63 inches. Beam circumference makes up 18 percent of the score. Other crucial scoring features include 12 percent each for inside spread, length of 2nd point and length of the 3rd point. The average B&C trophy has a spread of 19.75 inches with 2nd points measuring 10.10 inches, and 3rd points measuring 10.12 inches.

3. The odds of a hunter taking a B&C buck are 1 in 20,000. There are approximately 10 million deer hunters in this country who now enter about 500 whitetails a year in the B&C record book. The leading state is Wisconsin with 600,000 hunters adding about 130 B&C trophies per year. Their success ratio is 1 in 4,500.

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