Hunting Blog

For some, the hunt is about experience, memories and enjoying a good time in the outdoors. For other hunters, it’s all about the potential for taking a trophy. But who decides what makes an animal trophy worthy? For the bow hunters out there, it’s Pope and Young.

The system is fairly simple, but it is important to know no official score can be obtained without the rack being examined by an official Pope and Young scorer. Official scores are only done after a sixty day drying period - but you can rough score your rack in the field, just for fun.

The system is based on measurements taken along the frame of the antlers. The length of tines, main beams and greatest inside spread between antlers should be measured, as well as the circumference of the main beam. Add these measurements together, and then add to them any non-typical points you can measure (measurements must be over an inch). This is your gross score - any disparity in tine length, beam length or abnormal points should be deducted from the score and the result is your net score.