Why Participate in SCI’s World Hunting Awards Program
Each year WGH launches its Hunting Awards Photo Challenge and encourages women to make photo entries in SCI’s World Hunting Awards Program. And every year, women unfamiliar with that program ask us to explain what it is.
While you do not have to participate in the SCI Hunting Awards Program to enter the WGH Challenge, there are some real advantages to doing so. SCI’s Hunting Awards Program is a part of its Record Book program, which has been documenting the hunting heritage for over 50 years. SCI Hunting Awards are designed to recognize hunters for their hunting successes and subsequent contributions to conservation and anti-poaching efforts.
SCI’s Record Book is best known as a record of hunted big game animals that are exceptional in size or mass for their species. Essentially, it is a record keeping system that memorializes exemplary big game animal specimens. But it is so much more than that.
It also documents the evolution of regions and specific areas in the world that rise or decline in their production of quality trophies, showing results in conservation efforts. It is a living record of the outfitter/guides who have succeeded in connecting clients with exceptional animals. And of course, the Record Book celebrates and even immortalizes hunters who challenged themselves to venture afield and achieve their hunting goals. A great example is the recent listing of DeeAndra Rohr Willett’s new world record desert mule deer. The Record Book documents how she broke a 58-year-old world record!
But not every animal taken by a hunter meets the minimum measurements required to be listed in the Record Book. They are still worthy of memorializing as the results of a hunter’s field accomplishments and can be recognized through SCI’s World Hunting Award Program. This program consists of many different awards specifically designed to celebrate hunters’ achievements.
The program is organized to recognize hunters with various levels of accomplishment, from hunting a variety game species in one region to hunting all the subspecies of a game animal around the world. The levels are designed to celebrate accomplishments from the most accessible to the most challenging and remote. Animals taken for each level count towards requirements for subsequent higher award levels.
As hunters earn each award, they are recognized in SCI’s annual awards issue of SAFARI Magazine and receive a plaque commemorating their achievement. The Hunting Award Field Journal spells it all out in an easy-to-understand layout that shows you the requirements of each award level at a glance. It even gives you space where you can check off each game animal you have already taken. Download a copy of SCI’s World Hunting Award Field Journal to see how many award levels you may already qualify for or to plan your future hunting goals.
There is a $35 processing fee to enter each animal to the awards program. SCI contributes 100 percent of the net proceeds from the Record Book and its World Hunting Awards to conservation and anti-poaching efforts.