History of the WI Buck & Bear Club

The Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club is a group of dedicated volunteer individuals, organized for the purpose of collecting and maintaining records on trophy whitetail deer and black bear according to the Boone & Crockett scoring system.

The W.B.B.C. was originally formed in 1965 when one of the founders, Peter Haupt, noticed an unusually low number of trophy whitetail entries from Wisconsin in the national records books. It certainly wasn't due to a lack of trophy class animals but rather the absence of an organized statewide measuring program. This idea was first brought to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, but because they were required to have all funding go into wildlife management, a program like this would not have been possible. So, Pete along with a small group of enthusiastic sportsmen, got the ball rolling on a state measuring/records keeping organization currently known as "The Wisconsin Buck & Bear Club".

From that meager beginning emerged a network of certified measurers, located throughout the state. At the present time there are five active chapters handling the chores, the Badger, Chequamegon, Kettle Moraine, Northeast and the Nortwest chapters.

In 1965, Wisconsin had only five deer listed in the Boone & Crockett Record Book. The Wisconsin Buck & Bear Club has over 20,000 entries in its organization of which over 12,000 of these are Pope & Young Club class animals and over 3,000 of these are Boone & Crockett class animals exceeding the minimum for entry into the Wisconsin State Record Listing.

The backbone of the W.B.B.C., that network of state certified measures, is complimented by a number of certified Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young Club scorers. Because of the enthusiasm of our membership, we often travel to the different sport shows around the midwest seeking out the many trophy animals that are not yet listed in our records.

In 1996 the State of Wisconsin passed Assembly Joint Resolution 19, recognizing the Wisconsin Buck & Bear Club as the state's official big game records keepers.