Events

Next Chapter Meeting May 20, 2014

Our next chapter meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 20th, 2014 at the Marriott Hotel on Highway 280 in Birmingham.

Board Meeting
4:00 – 6:00

Cocktails
5:30 – 6:30

Dinner & Programs (Meals are now $25 per person)
6:30 – 9:00

The Birmingham Marriott is located at 3590 Grandview Parkway on HWY 280 across the highway from the Cahaba Center at Grandview (the site of our fundraising banquets).

News

SCI Online Record Book Now Free to Members

Simply browse to www.scirecordbook.org to quickly and easily access the entire SCI record book. This great tool not only provides the information that you are looking for; it also offers multiple search options that you will find very interesting and helpful. In addition to a reference, you can submit your own report. If you haven’t already done so, have your membership number handy, go to www.scirecordbook.org, and select REGISTER to sign up for the free Standard SCI Member Subscription.

Tiger Cub Safari Day

The Central Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts held its annual Tiger Cub Safari Day at the Birmingham Zoo on October 7, 2013, and the Alabama Chapter of SCI was on hand with a sensory safari display.
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Mobile Sensory Safari

Posted in Feature on March 21, 2014 at 12:16 pm

Sensory Safari Trailer

In 1997 the Alabama Chapter of SCI established the first permanent Sensory Safari at the School for the Blind in Talladega, Alabama. The project received a great deal of publicity as it was honored in conjunction with the opening of the school’s new science building, home to the Sensory Safari. An avid hunter in Arizona donated the entire trophy collection to our chapter for the purpose.
The Sensory Safari at the School for the Blind is a spectacular display, and the Alabama Chapter decided to expand the project. In 2013 we took a major step in bringing attention to SCI and promoting humanitarian services with the completion of our new Mobile Sensory Safari. It will reach many more people in all walks of life.
To increase the exposure of the Mobile Sensory Safari, we had partnered with Alabama 4-H and the Alabama Wildlife Federation. Our chapter furnished the trailer and mounts, and 4-H agreed to warehouse the trailer and provide transportation for the trailer to different venues around the state.
In June, 2012 our chapter made the commitment by contracting with Big Tex Trailer Company to build a trailer to our specifications, which would include extra headroom, non-slip flooring, extra thick walls to support the mounts, and wheelchair accessibility for both front and rear doors. We had cabinets installed with much help from Dan Dimick and decals applied to the outside, thanks to help from Jim Smith. Our membership donated many fine mounts, skins, skulls, and antlers representing animals found in Alabama as well as the rest of the world. A surplus of mounts in storage will allow us to rotate specimens.
The first public showing of the trailer occurred on October 6, 2013 at the Tiger Cub Scout event at the Birmingham Zoo. Although it rained that day, spirits were not dampened as we had 848 visitors go through the Mobile Sensory Safari.
The Mobile Sensory Safari trailer will be displayed in2014 at Hueytown High School, Oak Grove High School, Oak Grove Elementary School, Von Braun Center in Huntsville, both Deer Expos in Birmingham, and the Buckmasters event in Montgomery. Requests are increasing as word spreads about the opportunity. We encourage members who have ¾ or 1 ton trucks with electric brake controllers to volunteer to transport the trailer when possible.
The Alabama Chapter’s Mobile Sensory Safari trailer is now featured on the cover of the new Sensory Safari brochure from SCI, and it is soon to be featured in a DVD that SCI is producing on how to build a mobile sensory safari.

Randall Bush

Another Success Story!

Posted in Feature on February 23, 2014 at 9:12 pm

We had another successful event. Thanks to all who attended our 32nd annual Alabama SCI Chapter Banquet in support of SCI. A very special thanks to our exhibitors and our sponsors. We look forward to an even bigger and better event next year.

Featured Photo:
Anne Spurlock

Posted in Feature on October 31, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Anne Spurlock

 

Anne Spurlock and her atypical kudu in Namibia.

For more great photos like this one, visit our photo gallery.

Dreams Do Come True

Posted in Article, Feature on September 17, 2012 at 12:33 am

By Jason E. Capstraw

“He’s good!!!” “I don’t have a shot!” “Stand Up!” “I still don’t have a shot!” “Stand on the roof of the truck!” I put one foot on the roll bar and the other on the seat; standing on the safari truck and shooting offhand, I pressed the trigger. My rifle boomed! This was the exchange between Professional Hunter Leon Small and myself as Leon ate his Hawaiian pizza and I took my first shot at a trophy kudu bull. I was hunting in the Mapungubwe area of Limpopo Province, South Africa with Thaba Mahaka Safaris.

…continue reading Dreams Do Come True

Back to the Basics

Posted in Article, Feature on September 17, 2012 at 12:23 am

by Bowen Slade

Open any hunting magazine or turn on any hunting television show now days and you are bombarded by product endorsements and antler score references that seem to be masking the true reason that a lot of hunters trek afield each season pursuing the whitetail deer.

I have all but given up rifle hunting over the past five or six seasons, finding a purer reward in chasing game with stick and string. There’s just something about the challenge of getting inside a deer’s comfort zone that has mesmerized me since my first bow hunt over a decade ago. But an experience that I had this season really hammered home what it means to be a bow hunter and brought me back to the basics.

…continue reading Back to the Basics