Be a part of Min­neso­ta white­tail deer hunt­ing his­to­ry and include your tro­phy in the biggest dis­play of state bucks in one place. If you took a mount-wor­thy buck dur­ing one of the past Min­neso­ta deer hunt­ing sea­sons, bring it to the 2025 Min­neso­ta Deer & Turkey Clas­sic. The goal of the event is to show­case your tro­phy for the entire week­end, plus, you have a chance to win rib­bon and a great prize.

The top three entries in each of the cat­e­gories list­ed at the right will receive a first‑, second‑, or third-place ribbon

Yes, it’s an awe­some oppor­tu­ni­ty to show off the buck you har­vest­ed in Min­neso­ta. But, even more impor­tant­ly, get­ting a rack scored at the Clas­sic could mean big prizes, too.

There are 44 scor­ing cat­e­gories that will be avail­able in the rib­bon com­pe­ti­tion, they will be sep­a­rat­ed by Cur­rent (tak­en in 2024) or His­tor­i­cal (any­thing from a pre­vi­ous year) divi­sions. Tro­phies can only be entered into the com­pe­ti­tion one time (you can­not bring that tro­phy in for a sec­ond year to com­pete). New for 2025 is the LADIES DIVISION. We will add 4 cat­e­gories. Ladies Typ­i­cal Firearm & Archery and Non­typ­i­cal Firearm & Archery.

Bring your antlers in for all three days of the show – sched­uled Fri­day through Sun­day, March 14–16 at Can­ter­bury Park in Shakopee – and you’ll be eli­gi­ble for a host of oth­er prizes, includ­ing a Gear­head Dis­rupter 24 com­pound bow, 10 Madi­son Cus­tom Deer Calls, 10 Rivers Edge Trav­el­er Hang On Tree­stand, 3 Cud­de­back Tracks IR Trail Cam­eras and 3 Tac­ta­cam Reveal Trail Cameras.

For those leav­ing their antlers for all three days, to be eli­gi­ble for the draw­ing, white­tail antlers need a min­i­mum gross score of 140. Shed antlers, bear skulls, moose and elk antlers are eli­gi­ble. One entry is allowed per per­son from hunters who har­vest­ed their ani­mals in Min­neso­ta. The draw­ing and award cer­e­mo­ny will be held at 1 p.m. Sun­day at Sem­i­nar Area B.

The RADAR by Bar­ronett Blinds will be award­ed for first place in each of the 44 cat­e­gories, but win­ners must be on hand Sun­day, March 16 at 1 p.m. by Stage B to receive their prize and a blue rib­bon. The top three fin­ish­ers receive rib­bons. Must be present to receive rib­bons and blind.

The Min­neso­ta Offi­cial Mea­sur­ers will be on hand scor­ing antlers all three days of the Clas­sic. The scor­ing office will open ear­ly each day of the show – Fri­day at 10 a.m., Sat­ur­day at 8 a.m., and Sun­day 8–10 a.m. No entries will be tak­en after 10 a.m. Tro­phies that the MOM staff scores also can be entered into the organization’s state record­book, “Big Game Records of Minnesota.”

Those plan­ning to show their tro­phy this year may bring them to the event Fri­day or Sat­ur­day and leave them through Sun­day at 1 pm will receive one entry into the Uncle Sam Draw­ing. The 2 or 3 day pass will cost $20 and will include mea­sur­ing one antler or skull, entry into the com­pe­ti­tion and a tick­et in the draw­ing (must be present to win Sun­day at 1 pm on Stage B).

Atten­dees bring­ing their big-game tro­phy antlers or bear skulls to the Min­neso­ta Deer and Turkey Clas­sic should rest easy know­ing that those prized pos­ses­sions will be in good hands. Can­ter­bury Park will pro­vide 24-hour secu­ri­ty dur­ing the show. There will be two secu­ri­ty guards on duty at all times and one secu­ri­ty guard will be posi­tioned at the tro­phy wall 24 hours a day. Secu­ri­ty cam­eras are also posi­tioned to mon­i­tor the entire facility.

Our staff looks for­ward to see­ing you. For more infor­ma­tion go to: www.mndeerclassic.com.

FAQ

• Who does the scor­ing? Scor­ing is con­duct­ed by the Min­neso­ta Offi­cial Mea­sur­ers, who are cer­ti­fied to score antlers for Pope & Young and Boone & Crockett.

• Can I get into the record book? “Big Game Records of Min­neso­ta” For typ­i­cal scores, the min­i­mum thresh­old is 125 for an archery kill, 135 for a muz­zle­loader kill, and 140 for a gun kill. For non­typ­i­cals, the min­i­mum require­ments are 155 for archery, 160 for muz­zle­loader entries, and 165 for gun kills. A fee, which is han­dled exclu­sive­ly through the Min­neso­ta Offi­cial Mea­sur­ers, applies.

•What are the cat­e­gories? There are 44 dif­fer­ent cat­e­gories, rang­ing from deer and moose sheds to bear kills.

• How long does it take? The process for drop­ping off antlers to be scored and then pick­ing them up has been stream­lined over the years, though depend­ing on the num­ber of peo­ple wait­ing, it can take up to 2–3 hours. For this rea­son, scor­ing starts at 10 a.m. Fri­day and an hour before the main gates open on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day of the Deer & Turkey Classic.

• Where do I bring my antlers? To the SW entrance at Can­ter­bury Park by valet park­ing. Look for des­ig­nat­ed sig­nage not­ing TROPHY/ ANTLER ENTRANCE. Do NOT bring your antlers to the main tick­et gates! Antlers are not allowed to be car­ried through the exhib­it area by guests.

• What does the process involve? The first thing hunters will do is fill out paper­work (three copies of the paper­work will be pro­duced – one of which you will keep, that you will be required to turn in at the end of the show to receive your tro­phy), at which point they will wait their turn to have their antlers scored.

The mea­sur­ers will be mea­sur­ing as fast as pos­si­ble, while tak­ing extreme care to ensure accu­ra­cy. If there is a ques­tion about how some­thing is scored, sev­er­al scor­ers will col­lec­tive­ly make the judg­ment call.

After each tro­phy is scored, they’ll pen­cil in a score on the back of the tro­phy mount, and then the score­sheet is entered into a data­base. The tro­phy then goes to the floor of the show, where it is displayed.

• Why should I leave my antlers on dis­play all three days of the event? If you bring your antlers in for scor­ing on Fri­day or Sat­ur­day, and leave them on dis­play until 1:00 pm on Sun­day, you’ll be entered into a spe­cial drawing!

• How do I pick my antlers up? The des­ig­nat­ed tro­phy pick­up spot at the event will be the Show Office Head­quar­ters. Par­tic­i­pants will need their orig­i­nal sign-in paper­work to retrieve their antlers. That’s a secu­ri­ty mea­sure to ensure the right folks receive their antlers. With the crowd of peo­ple, some­body could get hurt or the chances of a tro­phy being dropped and bro­ken increase — for this rea­son once antlers have been picked up, they must leave the show immediately.

• If I leave my antlers on dis­play, what assur­ances do I have that they’ll be safe? There will be a secu­ri­ty guard on duty 24 hours guard­ing the tro­phy walls. Accord­ing to the Min­neso­ta Offi­cial Mea­sur­ers, in all of the years since MOM began scor­ing antlers at the Deer Clas­sic, no set of antlers has ever gone missing.

• Can I win some­thing? On Sun­day, March 16 at 1 p.m., the Min­neso­ta Deer and Turkey Clas­sic will award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place rib­bons in every cat­e­go­ry. Final results will appear in Out­door News. 1st place win­ners will also receive a The Trav­el­er Hang On by Rivers Edge Tree­stand if they are present at the show Sun­day, March 16.

Tick­et options for atten­dees with trophies/ cost for scor­ing: If the own­er of a tro­phy rack intends to bring a rack or bear skull in for scor­ing and dis­play dur­ing the 2025 Min­neso­ta Deer & Turkey Clas­sic, the fol­low­ing admis­sion prices apply:
3‑Day Admis­sion Pass for $20, which includes one free antler scor­ing and one entry into a spe­cial drawing.
2‑Day Admis­sion Pass – $20 ‑Includes admis­sion to the show and one tro­phy mea­sured by the Min­neso­ta Offi­cial Mea­sur­ers. Antlers brought in on Sat­ur­day through Sun­day at 1 p.m. will eli­gi­ble for the spe­cial drawing.
1‑Day Admis­sion Pass – $15 – Includes entry and one tro­phy measured.
(Addi­tion­al tro­phies can be mea­sured for $5 each.) No dis­count coupons apply to these spe­cial scor­ing-relat­ed admis­sion offers.

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