2025 Winner: John Hattner
The Dr. Bob Speegle Outstanding Hunting Achievement Award (OHAA) Committee has proudly selected John Hattner as the 2025 Award recipient.
John will be presented with the OHAA Award at the Saturday evening banquet at the 2025 DSC Convention and Sporting Expo in Atlanta on January 11. John qualified in multiple categories for this prestigious award by completing his DSC African 32, of which 20 are record class; Spiral Horned Antelope of Africa: 15 species, of which 9 are record class; and Wild Oxen and Buffalo of the World: 10 species, of which 7 are record class.
“I’m honored and humbled by being selected as a member of DSC’s most prestigious hunting group,” he said. “I never considered being selected to a group of such renowned hunters.”
John started his hunting career following in his dad’s footsteps in the snow in the upper Midwest, mainly hunting small game.
“We ate all the small game we hunted,” he said. “Mostly rabbits, squirrels, pheasants and ducks. My dad and I were very close and always had a rabbit hunt the morning of all the winter holidays. Unfortunately, I lost my dad at a young age when my son was just a year old, and I remembered the times I had with my dad.”
After a life review, John decided he was getting back into hunting and committed himself to teach his son, Johnny, what hunting was about.
“Fortunately, Johnny took to hunting like a duck to water, as well as fishing, and we were able to spend a large amount of time together hunting. Since he was mostly limited to summers for hunting, we traveled to a number of southern hemisphere countries (mostly Africa) where we started hunting big game. Johnny harvested a large number of animals, won the DSC youth hunting award and was on his way to starting on qualifying for OHAA. I mostly tagged along watching and supporting his quest for the Colin Caruthers Young Hunter Award and qualifying for OHAA.”
After getting talked into submitting his animals (almost always smaller than Johnny’s), John never believed he’d ever be qualified or considered for the award.
“John was one of the most qualified candidates we have seen,” said OHAA Committee Chair Rick Warren. “It will be an honor to present this award to such a deserving candidate in January.”
The most challenging animal on the way to the OHAA award was a North American giant.
“I was challenged to obtain my Western Canadian moose,” John said. “It took me three trips over a 10-year period and a brand new set of titanium knees before I was finally able to harvest my moose with only 90 minutes left in the 3rd hunt.”
Congratulations, John!
Purpose
The Dr. Bob Speegle Outstanding Hunting Achievement Award recognizes the profound contributions of the hunter in wildlife conservation and is given solely for outstanding achievements in big game hunting, which are essential to wildlife conservation.
Selection Criteria
There are several collections and criteria acceptable for this award such as the collection of the North American 29, the DSC African 32, and the collection of any twelve of the sheep of the world. Additional Accomplishments in conservation or education are not considered for this award. Click the OHAA Selection Criteria tab above for a complete list.
Eligibility
To submit an application:
- The candidate must be a Life Member of DSC (and must have been a Life Member for at least four (4) years immediately prior to submitting an application).
- At least sixty percent (60%) of all trophies required for anyone category must have been taken while a member of DSC.
- Weatherby Award winners and hunting professionals are not eligible.
- This award may be won by an individual only once.
- Applications for this award may only be submitted by the individual involved.
- Once an application and its criteria have been accepted by the committee, the candidate will remain a candidate for the award until he or she wins the award, unless the candidate is subsequently rejected by the committee for a hunting or ethics violation, resigns from DSC, or withdraws the application. Even if an animal that was not huntable at the time the application was submitted becomes huntable, the candidate will not be required to collect that animal.
Application
1.) The application must include an organized list of the animals taken, including for each animal:
- Location taken
- Date taken
- Name of guide or outfitter, if applicable
- Field photo of the hunter with the animal
- Official score sheet for each animal completed by an official measurer (green measurements are acceptable).
2.) Each application requires a signed Fair Chase and Hunting Ethics Affidavit.
Certain species (such as African Lion) may require additional forms.
Completed applications must be received by the OHAA Chair by May 15 to be eligible for the award at the following Convention.
The criteria may change, so any applicant should contact the DSC office for the latest requirements. The animals required for the Malek Award will not be an acceptable criterion.