9-16 SS B & C Scoring
How did Boone and Crockett come to be?
We heard a couple of weeks ago that Boone and Crockett is actually a conservation organization that was started by Pres. Teddy Roosevelt in a time when lots of wild game was disappearing at an incredible rate because of overharvesting. Remember the Buffalo disappearing from the plains. But we also know about the Boone and Crockett scoring system. I called to find out the Genesis of this part of their conservation effort. Marketing director, Keith Balfourd "When I hear Boone and Crockett I think of the scoring system immediately. How did that come to be? That came to be as an extension of the vision of Pres. Roosevelt to recover these wildlife populations. He felt that if their recovery was going to take place, then there needed to be some sort of data collection, some data set that could be used to track recovery, to show that these types of conservation efforts were working, show that wildlife management was working, and so he and early club members developed this record-keeping system of collecting data on native North American, big game species. You are right, most sportsmen today only associate Boone and Crockett with a scoring system and a record book because that is what we have done as a public service for over 125 years. The rest of the story, all of the conservation policy, all of the funding for conservation, the establishment of expert agencies, the National Park Service, the national forest service, the national wildlife refuge system, all of these things were done by Boone and Crockett and its members but most sportsmen don't know that.
