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Pope and Young Club Convention highlights

PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — An impressive array of big game animals, all taken with archery equipment used by men and women bowhunters, were on display and recognized at the 2023 convention of the Pope and Young Club held in Sparks, NV. The convention dates were April 12-15 and hosted at the Nugget Hotel convention center. The P&Y Club meets every other year to recognize and honor the animals legally and ethically taken under fair chase situations all across North America. There were a total of 179 trophies on display featuring at least one or typically several examples of all 29 species of North American big game recognized and recorded in the record books of P&Y. Attending were good down-to-earth working class men, women, young guys and gals, who came from just about every state. They exemplify the challenges required to skillfully use bows and arrows to take big game.

Pope and Young Club is a name recognized in the hunting community for its excellence in promotion of conservation programs, support for ethical hunting using bows and arrows, and for their longstanding diligent record keeping statistics for qualifying animals entered into the record book. The latest publication of the record book requires two large volumes that are filled with data on who, what and where.

Each entry is more than just statistics. There is a story that can be told for every name to memorialize the unique circumstances of how that hunt transpired.

The recent 33rd P&Y Biennium Award Banquet took place near Reno, NV. The convention facilities were top notch, and convention staff were well versed in how to accommodate large gatherings of people and displays.

That is a good thing. In today’s images, made at the convention, three long walls of the convention hall were dedicated to animal displays at either side of the central stage. What you see is a sampling of the excellent works by taxidermists who pulled out all the stops to create an exhibit honoring the animals.

Today’s image featuring white-tailed deer, and specifically the full body mount of the big buck in the lower right side of the photo, was taken by Nicole Miller in Guernsey County, Ohio, in 2021. This fine lady was in attendance to receive awards from Pope and Young for her trophy deer that scored 191, and Boone and Crockett Club officers also recognized Nicole with their own prestigious plaque to honor her accomplishment.

Special attention was available this convention cycle to honor a new category specifically for those big game animals taken during early in the fall, whose antlers may still be in “velvet.” The velvet condition is the retention of the soft outer covering of tissue that helped to add calcium nutrients during the summer as the antlers grew.

In early fall, the now completely formed antlers of deer, moose, caribou, or elk may still be covered in velvet. Taxidermists have many new products to safely preserve antler velvet and seal those tissues from decay.

Archery record keeping over the last six decades have proven to state fish and wildlife agencies the effectiveness of primitive type hunting weapons. When wildlife agencies acknowledged these accomplishments, it helped pave the way over time to create unique archery only hunting

season time frames prior to firearms seasons.

By carefully managing the off-take of huntable animals in each state, wildlife managers and biologists have tools in their tool kit to maintain a healthy breeding population. The data collected and maintained by the Pope and Young Club and its fellow organization the Boone and Crockett Club all testifies to the proof that viable wildlife populations exist and that carefully controlled allotments can be hunted each fall without degradation to the surviving breeding population.

The data from P&Y and B&C make significant contributions to the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

Preserve: Pope and Young has proudly documented and preserved bowhunting’s heritage for over 60 years. The P&Y record books contain over 100,000 harvests by archers of all 29 species of North American big game. Those archers have used longbows, recurve bows and compound bows to accomplish the hunts. Preserving the heritage of primitive weapon use is at the core of P&Y’s philosophy.

Promotion is another important point. By noting the heritage from long ago archery icons such as Saxton Pope, Arthur Young, Fred Bear and Glenn St. Charles, present day archers owe much of their success to these forefathers who paved the way for modern bow and arrow gear. Hunting is part of the fabric of the outdoor lifestyle which P&Y celebrates and promotes. The benefits of free range, natural and organic nourishment provided my wild game taken in a legal and ethical manner is a key point.

For the archer who takes a big game animal, the adrenaline rush of each encounter with an animal at close range is intimate and rewarding. Sharing those rewards with new hunters is one way to promote the use of archery gear.

Protecting is the final point emphasized by P&Y. Specifically, hunting is under attack by some elements who chose to ignore the data and history of successful wildlife management programs.

Facts matter a great deal. Facts and data support the truth. P&Y contributes funds to a select number of conservation agencies and special programs to help leverage other private dollars to assist state or tribal agencies with ongoing research and management tasks and habitat improvements.

To learn more about the Pope and Young Club, feel free to contact me. I am an official measurer of the antlers or horned big game animals of North America.

It is always interesting to hear the story behind the hunt, to learn what motivated the hunter, and to have the owner participate in the measuring process of their trophy animal. As we all look forward to the next hunt, all hunters need to rally together to preserve, promote and protect.

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Spring has sprung. Birds are singing. Tree buds are swelling, and new tree leaves are beginning to emerge.

Grass is green. Refreshing rains have fallen. Mushrooms will soon pop out of the ground, and wildflowers of the forest are emerging to catch early sunlight before full tree leaf canopy shades them out.

On Tuesday of this week, April 25, go to Grammer Grove Recreational Area at 2030 127th Street, Liscomb, and join a group of adventurers as they look for wildflowers. This park area has upland hills and hillsides, floodplain timber and meadows, and plenty of places for wildflowers to bloom.

The wildflower walk begins at 11:30 a.m. Bring a sack lunch to eat after the woodland hike is complete.

Grammer Grove is a 121 acre wildlife refuge. The land was purchased in 1967 and named after the family that once lived there. It is now an ideal park setting with hiking trails and equestrian trails, primitive camping sites and day use picnic shelters. One unique feature at Grammer Grove is a huge glacial erratic, a granite boulder that has been exposed from the erosion of soils along a nearby small drainage channel.

There have been many glacial events that have impacted the Iowa landscape. Prior to the most recent glacial episode called the Wisconsinan, there were others with geological sounding names like Kansan or Illinoian. It was one of those glacial ice advances that brought within its icy core a lot of big rocks, medium rocks and small rocks from their Canadian origin.

When glacial ice melts due to natural earth cycle re-warmings, called an interglacial, any rocky debris locked inside the glacial ice will be left behind. The ice melts and rocks fall out. Sometimes, these large erratics are located in the right place to become a unique signature piece for the property owner. Such is the case for the huge boulder at Grammer Grove, and many school groups on field trips have had the distinct pleasure of learning about glacial ice episodes of earth’s natural history.

Some of those school kids climbed to the top of the big rock, had their pictures taken, and just had lots of fun learning. Wildflowers and a very big rock await you at Grammer Grove.

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A hunter safety class is on the schedule. Young folks age 12 or older who want to learn how to safely hunt must first take a hunter safety class and pass the test.

Once this test is taken, a certificate will be issued. A young guy or gal will then be eligible, at age 16, to purchase their own hunting licenses.

Coming up in May, specifically May 18 and May 20, will be the dates for the next hunter safety program. The place will be the Izaak Walton League grounds southeast of Marshalltown. This class requires attending the introduction portion on Thursday evening from 6 to 9 p.m. on May 18, and the second date is to complete the course on Saturday, May 20 from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Attending both sessions is required.

To register for this class, go to Official Iowa Fishing and Hunting Licenses and look for the link called Go Outdoors Iowa. The hunter safety class for Marshall County and adjacent vicinity is already set up for attendees to register.

Having taken and passed a hunter safety course is a basic requirement of every state and Canadian provinces. Once taken, the certificate is honored by all other state wildlife agencies.

It is important to have this document on record, and this leads to other updates and more specific courses. One of those courses, which can be taken online, is bowhunter education.

To hunt with archery equipment in some states with a bow, this additional course may be required. Each state has different requirements.

Good planning is always a good thing. Prepare now for the future.

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When it comes to hunting, think about this: listen and silent are spelled with the same letters.

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Garry Brandenburg is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board.

He is a graduate of Iowa State University with

a BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology.

Contact him at:

P.O. Box 96, Albion, IA 50005

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