Hunters had their chance to swap stories and brag about their trophies from the hunting season during Ponoka Fish and Game’s horn measuring.
Held Dec. 3 at Lake Pofianga, the day gives hunters a chance to see how their trophies measure up against others in the Boone and Crockett scoring system, explained Ray Abt, big game chair for Ponoka Fish and Game.
“I just get to see a lot of different types of animals,” he said of the day.
He also sees trophies that come in which were hunted using a bow and arrow; in that case, judges use the Pope and Young scoring system.
Regardless of the scoring, for Abt it’s a day of bragging and telling the tale of the hunt. An exciting part of the measuring for him is in the non-typical deer antlers. For Abt, the size and points of non-typical deer antlers are fun to measure and give point value to.
“I prefer a non-typical to typical because it’s got character. All the points have character,” he said, adding that each point has a story.
This year also saw a variety of animals from a hunter who travelled to Argentina and was able to bring his trophies back to Alberta.
“We’ve got stuff here this year we’ve never had,” said Abt.
Along with fallow deer, and red stag there were impalas and goats. The exotic animals were hunted down in Argentina but took some time to get back to Alberta. Abt says the process for this hunter took more than a year to go through.
“They (the animals) have to be in quarantine,” said Abt, pointing out that doing this ensures no unwanted organisms or bugs come into Canada.
“We don’t want to wreck our eco-system,” said Abt.
Typically there are dozens of trophies that come in with hunters of all ages showing off their catches.
