Chicora man bags record-book ram
CHICORA — Chuck Mager isn't certain whether his most recent hunting trip in Alaska will be his last one.
If it was, he made it count.
Mager, a Chicora resident who will turn 58 Nov. 9, went sheep hunting in Alaska in August 2017. He wound up bagging a 200-pound ram, one of the biggest ever harvested in the state.
“The officials out there told me I had to get it (horn span) measured by Boone and Crockett,” Mager said. “They said it was the biggest ram they've seen taken in the state in quite some time.”
Boone and Crockett records such measurements and keeps a record book of biggest animals harvested by hunters.
Mager completed his sixth lifetime hunt in Alaska. He's also gone on hunts in Quebec, Africa, Colorado and Utah, among other places.
“My goal has never been to make Boone and Crockett,” he said. “I just enjoy the hunts, the different challenges they bring.”
Hunters must be patient when their kill is being measured by Boone and Crockett. A 90-day “drying” period is required just to begin the process.
When Mager's score came in, he made the record books.
“The right horn measured 86 3/8 inches, the left horn 87 inches,” he said. “There's a deduction that figures in ... The official score was 172.68 inches when you add both figures with that deduction.
“An official measurement over 170 (for the ram) makes the record book.”
Mager shot the ram from 598 yards away “just using a regular scope that covers maybe 300 yards.
“I had to do a lot of educated guessing,” he said of aiming his .257 magnum.
The hunt's success made up for a couple of previous trips to Alaska Mager may prefer to forget.
“I flew out there to hunt goat one year and during my flight, the goat limit was reached in the state,” he said. “I got all the way out there and goat season was closed.”
Mager went on a moose hunt in Alaska in 2008. The plane bringing him supplies went down and he was stranded in a small Alaskan village for three days.
His guide was with him and had brought some food. He was able to rent a room in a resident's house until the rest of his supplies arrived so he could get the hunt under way.
“It was just a little village,” Mager recalled. “There were no hotels or anything. There was one restaurant. A large pizza was $35, a cheeseburger $10 ... It was crazy.
“I lost three days of that hunt. That left me only four days and I didn't get the moose.”Mager travels alone to his hunting excursions. His wife of 20 years, Joyce Mager, is fine with it.“This is what he loves to do,” she said. “Chuck works hard and he's earned the right to go do what he loves to do.“The hunts are expensive and he almost didn't go on that last one because of the cost. I made him go. Do it while you can.”The Mager home has a game room consisting of 20 mounted animals, including an impala, buck, mountain lion, white-tail deer, caribou, lynx, elk, grizzly bear, goat and black bear, among others.“I remember the story behind each one,” Mager said. “Everything I shot, I'm very proud of.”He's also emotionally invested. “Chuck sheds a few tears every time he makes a kill,” his wife said. “He loves animals.”Boone and Crockett holds an annual banquet in Missouri, inviting the hunters of the two largest kills of the year in each animal category.“I'm hoping to receive that invitation,” Mager admitted. “If I don't, it's still an added bonus that I made the record book.“All of the years I've been hunting, it's something I never dreamed of doing. If I never go on another hunting excursion — and I'm not sure I will — this is a great way to end it.”
