So what is fair chase....... How many scuffles have been raised over this question.
Personally, in my opinion, there is no such thing as fair chase. A properly practiced human, using all the legal methods they can to take came will have no problem at all "killing" big game.
As a long range hunter. I kill game when I decide to kill game. Long ago, when I was starting my big game hunting career, I saw some amazing animals that were just out of my abilities to get.
Over the years, I have practiced to improve my skills and also learned to make my own long range equipment until the point now that if I see a big game animal I want to harvest in good conditions out to 1/2 mile or so, its simply not that big of a challange anymore to take that animal.
So why do I hunt if its that easy. Because hunting is not killing. Never has been. Hunting is the events that occur between humans and game that may or may not in the end result in a harvested big game animal.
In my case, 99% of the situations that result in the animal walking away are simply from me deciding I do not want to kill that animal. That does not mean I take any less enjoyment away from the encounter, hardly the case. It means that because I have the ability to harvest pretty much any animal I encounter out to 1/2 mile or so, I have a responsibility to take only that game I REALLY want to take.
I hear all the time about hunters getting animals they really did not want to kill. That is not the case with me. I have never been fooled over the last 10 years hunting big game. That is not to say I have not shot lower trophy quality animals in that time frame but in each case, I knew exactly what the reticle was on when that trigger broke and if I would not have been happy with that animal when I walked up to it, I would never have pulled the trigger.
So what do I consider fair chase, I guess it would have to be going out after big game with a 5" kinfe and thats it.
The more fair chase the hunting method is, the less efficent it is and the more likely that the game animals targeted will get away wounded.
Fair case to me is a joke. If I line one of my rifles up on a big game animal in good conditions after I have done my part practicing and setting up the rifle, there should be very little chase that that animal will travel any didstance at all before expiring. That is the way it should be, boring consistancy as far as quick kills go.
Does this happen every time the trigger is pulled, no, things happen, we are humans, but we should be flat amazed when it does.
As far as Boone and Crockett, no doubt that they have done alot for our sport and continue to do so everyday. That said, the Safari Club International has probably done more for world wide hunting and hunters then any other organization on the planet and they do allow in exotic and high fence hunting records into their books and they are clearly seperated from wild game so those two class of game are never compared head to head which they should not be.
About the only thing I would say that I do not agree with concerning Boone & Crockett would be in their scoring method. It is far to focused on symetry then any other aspect of the animals antlers characteristics. This can really be misleading because some very large animals really get hammered simply because they are not perfectly even.
Just for an example on how unfair the B&C scoring method can be would be the elk I took at the Rocking Heard Hunting Ranch this last fall. If you look at the bulls score on paper, scored on the B&C net nontypical scoring method which would be the only method acceptable for entry into the B&C books if it would have been a wild bull. It would have scored 410 4/8" with the B&C net non-typical score.
With the SCI scoring method, which includes every inch of bone on the head of a game animal with no dedictions, which I personally feel is the best method of representing the true size of any big game animals rack baring measuring total water displacement by a rack.
Anyway, with the SCI scoring method or the B&C gross non-typical scoring method, the rack scores 466 4/8"
You look at these scores on paper and while both are large, the 410" score is no where near representative of this rack and I feel that is a real disservice to the game animals we are measuring for trophy quality.
That is just my opinion about which scoring method more accurately represent the actual size of the game animals.
As far as helping us that enjoy the sport of hunting, they all serve us well. SCI still does far more all over the world including here in North America then any organization.
There are several organizations to choose from, pic the one that you like the best and is most in line with your opinion of such things.
JMO.
Kirby Allen(50)