Position Statements
​Position statements are posted to inform hunters and non-hunters alike about Bolt & Quarrel Clubs stance on conservation and hunting issues.
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Fair Chase - The Bolt & Quarrel Club sees Fair Chase as the ethical, sportsmanlike, and lawful pursuit and harvest of any big game animal that is naturally bred and lives in nature in a manner which does not give the hunter an improper or unfair advantage over the animal Following the Rules of Fair Chase is required by anyone submitting an animal for entry in the Club’s Records Program.
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High Fence - The Bolt & Quarrel Club WILL NOT consider animals harvested in game-proof fenced enclosures at or below 1000 free range acres, to meet the fair chase requirement.
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Canned Shoots - The Bolt & Quarrel Club WILL NOT accept and damns the harvest of any animals in artificially created environment where the harvested animal was held in or released from captivity. The Bolt & Quarrel Club does not accept into its Records Program any animal taken under any captive scenarios.
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Antler/Horn Buying –The Bolt & Quarrel Club believes that the practice of buying/selling antlers and horns is a direct abuse of The Bolt & Quarrel Club scoring systems. The use of this system to determine an animal’s value is in complete opposition to the purposes and objectives of the scoring system.
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Cross-Tagging or Proxy Hunting, - The Bolt & Quarrel Club defines this as practice of tagging an animal he or she has legally harvested with the tag of another person. No animal tagged by this method (even if legal) will be accepted for Records Program consideration.
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Search and Recovery - The Bolt & Quarrel Club believes every hunter should make maximum effort to recover all animals. This includes the use of leashed tracking Dogs. The records program will accept animals recovered by trained dogs ONLY IN LEGALIZED STATES.
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Use of Tracking Dogs - The Bolt & Quarrel Club will accept Records Program entries recovered by this method, under the following conditions:
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It must be legal to do so in the state or province of the hunt.
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The dog must meet all requirements concerning training and/or licensing for that state/province.
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The dog must be leashed and controlled by a handler for the entirety of the search.
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Hunter that made the shot must be present.
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May not be used after locating animal alive.
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Must be the last method employed to recover an animal, unless medically documented physical requirements prevent tracking or trailing.
Drones – The Bolt & Quarrel Club believes the use of remote-controlled aircraft to scout, monitor and stalk North American big game during any hunting activities is a fundamental infringement of Fair Chase and with its aide, gives the hunter an unfair advantage. The B&Q Club thus will not accept any animal harvested with the help of a drone or other aerial assisted method into the records program. The Bolt & Quarrel Club stands with efforts by state wildlife authorities to ban the use of UAVs to aid or assist in any form of hunting.
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Trail Cameras- With advances in technology cameras capable of transmitting real time photos and videos to a hunters immediately viewable electronic devices. The Bolt & Quarrel Club believes this gives a hunter an unfair advantage and thus does not meet fair chase requirements. Any animal harvested with the aid of such a camera must be harvested at least 24 hours after receiving the image or it will not qualify for the record book consideration.
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Air Bow – As the inventor himself classifies this as an air gun, and NO state presently permits its use during bow season The Bolt & Quarrel Club will not accept an animal taken by this method.
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Built In Range Finding Scopes -Bolt & Quarrel Club deems this technological advance to be an enhancement to fair chase by the betterment of shot placement, increasing tracking sign. and the reduced injured animal loses do to ineffective ranging resulting in poor shot placement. Thus B&Q Club Will accept animals harvested with said scopes.