The space comes complete with its own big fish legend: A few years back Bass Pro Shops owner Johnny Morris was fishing with legendary angler Bill Dance on the Mississippi outside of Memphis. A bet was made. If they caught a catfish weighing at least 30 pounds, Morris would bring his outdoor emporium to the Memphis Pyramid, a 32-story, steel-clad ruin that had been vacant since 2004. They caught a 34-pounder that day and, so the story goes, a bet's a bet. Today, the pyramid is buzzing with shoppers, outdoorsmen, and tourists looking to shop, eat, drink, and tease some gators in this massive facility. Here are 8 very good reasons to join them. The LodgeStyled after the company's Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri, the Big Cypress Lodge wraps around the second and third floors of the Pyramid. But once inside you really will forget you're staying in what amounts to a giant Bass Pro–styled mall. Each of the 103 rooms is designed like a hunting lodge with electronic fireplace, taxidermied animals (most rooms have deer and pheasant, but book the deluxe Governor's Suite and you can spend the night staring into the marbled eyes of a moose), chandeliers made out of antlers, and even screened porches that look over the retail floor — and the gator pond.

The AlligatorsThree alligators lurk within the 600,000-gallon pond on the ground floor, along with 1,800 fish (36 species including catfish, sturgeon and gar) and an unfortunately growing constellation of coinage tossed in by guests who mistake this aquarium for a wishing well. One pond is dedicated to a catch-and-release program teaching inner-city kids the basics of sustainable fishing. The Tallest Freestanding Elevator in the CountryStanding like a tent pole in the middle of the Pyramid is a 28-story ride up through a canopy of 100-foot-tall artificial cypress trees draped with Spanish moss. For $10 (it's free for hotel guests), you too can ride the tallest freestanding elevator in the country. Mississippi ViewsBarry Hannah wrote that "in Mississippi, it's hard to achieve a vista." On the Mississippi, it's no problem. Two cantilevered observation decks look out over the Memphis skyline, the barge-laden river, and the relatively undeveloped expanses of Arkansas. Unsurprisingly, the best views are at sunset.

Inside, the Lookout bar has a decent bourbon list and a smattering of outdoorsy appetizers, such as venison sliders with blackberry jelly. Waterfowl ArtifactsSet back on the second floor, the Ducks Unlimited Waterfowling Heritage Center contains relics from the history of duck hunting — vintage duck calls, watercolors, and display cases full of handmade 19th-century decoys. A more morose artifact from that time period is the eight-foot long punt gun. Quickly outlawed, the gun was mounted onto the prow of the boat and used to blast as many birds as possible. Any ducks not shredded beyond recognition were packed in barrels and sent to market. FishingConnecting the Pyramid to the Big Muddy is the Mississippi River Boat Launch, which allows Bass Pro to host fishing contests big and small. Also, the Big Cypress Lodge will soon unveil an all-inclusive kayak package down the river. The price of the equipment, training and guide will be bundled into the cost of a room. Underwater BowlingA geographic outlier is Uncle Buck's Fishbowl and Grill, the corporate-Florida themed bowling alley and restaurant on the first floor.

The 13 underwater-themed lanes (the ball-return unit looks like shark and gator heads) are a bit campy, but reveal their appeal after a few locally brewed pints of Wiseacre's Tiny Bomb pilsner.chandelier badoere The Shop itselfThe complex represents the largest Bass Pro on the planet. wrought iron chandeliers pietermaritzburgBeyond the standard fare — fishing gear, snake boots, tents and mobile fish-fry units — they've got a Tracker boat store with a fleet of climb-aboard pontoon boats docked in the indoor ponds, a sunglass section run by Apex (Sunglass Hut's sports performance brand), and a general store with moon pies and homemade fudge.chandelier restaurant tunbridge wellsWhen it comes to the antlers sprouting forth from the noggin of a white-tailed deer, the answer is quite a bit actually.

Because when added together, the numbers obtained from the calcified headbones of a deer serve as a benchmark measuring stick to help hunters to figure out just what they’ve spent their hard-earned buck tag on for the season. For those unfamiliar with the concept, what we’re talking about here is the score of a whitetail as determined by the Boone & Crockett Club’s measuring system, a way of deciphering the inches of antler the deer actually grew, either in a typical or non-typical fashion. In a moment of true confession, let it be known that until recent years, a certain outdoor writer — yours truly — didn’t like numbers or mathematics very much. Sure, I survived high school and college higher math classes. But when the degree plan at the University of North Texas indicated I didn’t need to take another class involving numbers, I didn’t. In fact, I’ve joked about disliking math so much that I married a math teacher to do it all for me. Just kidding, deer …

I may not have liked numbers then, but I certainly do now. And it’s a good thing too, because more than a decade ago, I accepted an invite to learn how to score deer antlers. ), which follows the scoring guidelines of the Boone & Crockett Club. A few months later down the road, I found myself in Springfield, Mo., at the Bass Pro Shops’ flagship store, going through the Pope & Young Club’s measuring school. Eventually, in a little less than a year’s time, both organizations entrusted me to be an official measurer for their programs. Hey, if only my math teachers had surrounded me with the antlers or horns from white-tailed deer, I might have been interested in taking a few more classes dealing with numbers! All kidding aside, getting back to the original idea in this story, the concepts of scoring help hunters and interested observers determine just how impressive a big game animal’s headgear is when compared against other members of the species.

Based upon the principles of rewarding mass, length and symmetry, the score of a white-tailed buck is basically the inches of antler the deer grew. These measurements are obtained by using a ¼-inch steel tape measure, a carpenter’s ruler, a carpenter’s square and a measuring cable. A scorer measures the rack, then adds together the deer’s tine-length numbers, its inside spread measurement, its main beam lengths and the four circumference measurements on each side to obtain an overall gross score for the buck’s rack. Once a gross score has been obtained from the antlers, it is then time to do the math and come up with a final net score. With that idea in mind, note any symmetry differences and abnormal point lengths are deducted to obtain a final net score for typical whitetails, while abnormal point lengths are actually added into the final score for a non-typical deer. Seem clear as mud? Here is a rundown on the three basic trophy-buck scoring systems and their respective requirements:

Founded in 1887 by the conservation minded and future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the Boone & Crockett Club represents in many ways the Holy Grail for hunters, not to mention an organization that remains one of the sport’s foremost champions of fair-chase hunting practices. With more than a century of hard work behind it, the B&C Club continues to be deer hunting’s biggest shrine for hunters fortunate enough to harvest a big buck.Because the B&C Club’s hallowed record book contains the records of the biggest of the big bucks ever taken anywhere in North America with any type of weapon. While the current time span we live in actually offers some of the best deer hunting opportunity in modern history, it still almost literally takes a one-in-a-million buck to qualify for B & C. This is because the minimum entry score for a typical whitetail buck is 170-net inches or 195-net inches for a non-typical buck. In case you haven’t noticed, such bucks don’t grow on trees in very many places.

In fact, those bucks are so scarce, only a handful of B & C bucks are harvested each year. During a normal state-of-Texas deer season, hunters can expect only a half-dozen or so low-fence Boone & Crockett qualifiers – Booners as many hunters call them – to be reported. In an exceptional year, that figure could rise to a dozen, or occasionally up to a couple of dozen, but that’s about the best that can ever be expected. As an old west Texas rancher is apt to say, “Them is pretty tough odds.” And the odds aren’t much higher in other whitetail Mecca’s like Canada, the upper Midwest or portions of the Deep South either. But every year, hunters go afield hoping and praying they’ll catch lighting in a bottle and bag a Booner buck. Formed in 1961, this is the archer’s Holy Grail, to arrow a buck big enough to qualify for the P & Y Club’s record book. The scoring system used by Pope & Young is actually based upon the Boone & Crockett system.

But the difference here is all bucks entered into P & Y must have been harvested using either a compound bow, a longbow or a traditional recurve bow and arrow. Given the inherent difficulty in arrowing a mature white-tailed buck with archery tackle anywhere in North America, the Pope & Young Club’s minimum entry scores are lower than the Boone & Crockett Club’s entry scores. To qualify for the P&Y archery record book, the minimum net scores are 125 inches for typical bucks and 155 inches for non-typical bucks. If there is a knock against the Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young scoring systems, some hunters would say it’s the addition of the inside spread measurement between a buck’s antlers. The reason for that complaint? Critics claim the measurement is merely a measurement of air, not a determination of actual grown antler. Editor’s Note: Because of inside spread measurement requirements in both B&C and P&Y, a rack featuring a broken skull plate cannot be entered into either record book.

Because the Buckmasters BTR system does not include this measurement, the organization will accept racks with broken skull plates. A second knock against the two previously mentioned scoring systems are their penalization of symmetry differences, which sometimes lowers the score significantly on an otherwise exceptional whitetail rack. Aside from the differences noted above, the BTR measuring system is otherwise similar to the Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young scoring systems, although minimum entry scores are significantly lower due to the elimination of the spread credit. For bow and crossbow harvested bucks, the minimum BTR entry score for typical and non-typical bucks (BTR categories are divided into Perfect, Typical, Semi-Irregular and Irregular) is 105 inches. For firearm harvests, the minimum entry score is 140 inches of antler. Learn more about the “Buckmasters” TV show on Outdoor Channel With a brief synopsis of what each scoring system does, what should a lucky hunter do when he or she harvests a big buck?

Or if they have a whitetail rack from a previous season they’d like to get officially measured? Simple, contact a scorer for the respective organizations (see their websites for details and contact information) and get the rack scored for potential record placement. Keep in mind scorers generally like to work with just the rack and skull plate, not a mounted head or a smelly carcass. And as mentioned above, if a skull plate is broken, a rack cannot be officially measured for B&C and P&Y, so be careful when handling and transporting the rack. If the buck is being scored for Pope & Young or Boone & Crockett, a mandatory 60-day drying period will be observed following the harvest. Once the rack has dried, a final official gross and net score will be measured and recorded. Editor’s Note: No drying time is required for BTR entries. If the buck qualifies for the appropriate record book, the hunter then fills out the proper forms, mails in required entry fees and waits on his or her certificate and eventual placement in the record book(s).