I am about to really show just how ignorant I am where it comes to African game. As I mentioned in an earlier thread I was lucky enough to draw a oryx/gemsbok tag for soldiers stationed at Fort Bliss. I am still impatiently waiting for that call from the base Range Riders giving me a hunt date. But in the meantime I am trying to learn all I can about the animal I will be hunting. So far I have done a lot of research into the biological side of the animal and spent many hours observing a lot of oryx from both near and far. I have seen a couple animals that would make exceptional trophies by anyones standard. Personally I think that any oryx is impressive. With help from all of you I have learned how to better judge trophy quality but that has opened up more questions for me.

The first being: what is the proper way to score a gemsbok?

I have also read mentions of SCI medals for different score. Just what are these medals? Is it a title only or are there actual medals? What are the score requirements? What is needed to submit an animal?

I have also heard of Rowland Ward score. Is this different that SCI?

Is one more prestigious or difficult than the other?

I realize this is a lot of questions but your indulging me in my lack of knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

M1 I'll have a go at answering your questions, since no one else has and I think you have put forward a good question, well structured.

I have heard that Gemsbok can be hard to judge, especially from afar. Use the length of their head for reference. You need to try and estimate how many head lengths there would be in the horns, also take notice of the thickness of the bases. You will be best able to judge this when the animal if facing you, look at how much space there is between the bases.
Cow typically will have thinner horns, though they can grow to be very long.

As far as SCI & Roland Ward, I don't know much about scoring, though as I understand it R&W takes the measurment of the longest horn along the front edge, then the thicker base, plus the spread from tip to tip.(method 7 from their book) SCI takes the length along the curl or longest curve, + thickness of both in the thickest spot and adds them all together.

Hope that helps you some, I have taken two Gemsbok, one got me and a tracker lost following him up wounded, that was an interesting experience...

Express is correct. Rowland Ward require the length of both horns, the bases and ttp to tip measurement, but they only rank on the length of the longest horn and the other measurements are used for compilation purposes.

Generally speaking it's easier to get into the SCI book than Rowland Ward as the SCI standards are lower. The other differences are that to get into the SCI book one has to be a member of SCI and pay a publication fee, whereas RW only charge a minimal measurement fee.

There are also a few other organisations that run their own systems, but SCI & RW are the leading ones by far.

I don't know if RW records Introduced species in NA. SCI has different scores for Introduced NA than Africian species. SCI Africia Kalahari Gemsbok B 88, S 90 2/8 and G 94. Introduced NA B 80, S 84 6/8 and G 90. The score is the combination of the lenght of both horns and the circumference at the base. I hope this helps.