Trophy Clubs Against Combining Drones and Hunting

As interest soars for combining drones and hunting, record-keeping clubs push back, saying they won't recognize trophies taken with the use of the gadgets.

By Darren Warner

If you intend to operate a drone in a state that allows them for hunting-related purposes, don't think you can enter your trophy in the big record books.

Both the Pope and Young Club and Boone and Crockett Club prohibit the use of aircraft, including drones, to locate, monitor, scout or stalk North American big game.

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"These highly sophisticated, remote-controlled aircraft have no place in Fair Chase hunting," said Richard Hale, chairman of the Boone and Crockett Club's Big Game Records Committee. "The Boone and Crockett Club stands with the Pope and Young Club and hunter-conservationists everywhere who are discouraging the use of drones in hunting."

Commemorative Bucks of Michigan, Michigan's official record keeper for trophy deer and other animals, doesn't have an official statement on the use of drones for deer hunting.

But given that it's illegal in Michigan to use a drone to actually hunt deer, it's a safe bet the organization would reject any entry if a UAS was used to help the hunter bag his whitetail.

(This article originally published in October's Michigan Game & Fish magazine. Click here to subscribe)

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