What is a Trophy Deer?

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Dearhunter61

New member
I guess I was curious about what you all consider to be a trophy? Over the last 23 years of hunting I have came to the conclusion it is not simply a matter of how large the rack is but how great the hunt was that landed the deer!

One of my most memorable RACKs is a small basket 7 point that has a prominent place on my wall. Why was it a trophy? Well my Father-in-Law and I were hunting and we hiked over a mile into the woods in the mud to hunt one morning. As we went our own way he half kiddingly said unless it is a trophy don't shoot one...we do not want to have to haul it out of here. 15 minutes later I shot this deer. My Father-in-Law had just got to the area he was going to hunt. As soon as I shot he came over to see what I had got and then it started to rain on us. So we had to gut it and then carry it over a mile in the ran and mud . He was giving me crap the whole way. At times I wasn't sure if he was serious or not...heck I do not think he knew if he was being serious or not... I still never let him forget all the help he gave me that day. :D

I have better racks on the wall but none mean as much to me as that one but each has their story and I get a smile on my face when I think of each. Again it is not the size of the rack but the hunt that makes it a trophy to me. Perhaps it is because I do not have a giant trophy whitetail on the wall...but I believe that even if I did it would not replace the deer that I have killed while hunting with my Father-in-law as the biggest trophies I have on the wall.
 
Trophy

My best trophy ever was a small basket rack 8-point. I was with my father when he shot the deer. For him this small 8-pointer was a real trophy. I think it was one of the happiest days in his life. He shot the deer when he was 84, and we lost him early the next year. This deer was definitely a trophy. Tom.
 
My best trophy deer have been the ones that I worked hardest to get regardless of antler size. Some of the best trophy hunts I've ever been on have been for does. To me the reward is in the hunt more than the deer. Don't get me wrong I'll put antlers on the wall to remind me of the hunt, but they are not the reason I hunt.
 
Trophy to me is a mature buck, however you interpret that. I wish I had stories as touching as those above, but I don't have anything that cool yet. My thought is just that if I wouldn't want to pay the money for the mount or think it's worth some bragging, he's walking and I'm shooting does. Maybe that'll change if anyone from my family starts hunting with me, but for now that's all I've got.
 
I greatest trophy was my first. A big doe taken with my FIL. I've been chasing them every season since. I'm not nuts about antler. I hope to take a real wallhanger some day, but I'll pass on the bucks until that giant comes around. Every one is a "trophy" in my book even though I dislike that term.
 
Deerhunter61,

Wow, my response is VERY similar to yours with a few exceptions.
Just substitute my brother in law for your father in law, my decent 8 point for your seven point and a 3 mile drag to your mile and my story is the same and that deer hangs on my wall and means more than the others.

My brother in law and I love to hunt together and we were hunting opening day in PA on state game lands ----hunting that is---walk in and walk out--no vehicles---no four wheelers.
It was a unusually warm day with no snow and sunshine.
I have a valley where I like to hunt and it is about a 3 mile hike in and we got into position just before day break--we posted about 1/4 mile apart.
About an hour after day break, I see two deer heading for me , a 8 pointer and a spike.
I shoot the 8 point and the spike runs off---about a minute later, I hear another shot and figured it was my brother in law.
About 10 minutes pass and he comes into view and asks if it was me that shot. I said yes and he said how big---I told him.
The look on his face was priceless when he told me he shot the spike---he KNEW what we had in store for us and what the drag would be like.
We were WAY down in a valley and it took us about an hour to drag the deer up to the game road and another two hours to get them to the truck.
When we got to the truck, it was all we could do to lift them in the bed---we were exhausted to say the least---I could not have done it without my brother in law ---he is 14 years younger than I am.
I hadn't been feeling well and almost decided not to hunt because I didn't feel right.
I had been going to the doctors for awhile and just felt like crap.
Anyway, come to find out I was diabetic and didn't know it---I had no energy and that drag almost killed me---really, when I got home, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack and was really kind of scared.
Wasn't long after that, that I was finally diagnosed with diabetes, got treatment and felt better.
Anyway, that 8 pointer is on the wall and when I think of all the hunts, that one just stands out---I joke about the one that almost killed ME!!
Dragging is sure alot easier in the snow!!
 
Dipper Great HUNT!

Thanks for sharing! That is a true TROPHY. To me this is what hunting is all about...

Another short story...I went to hunt on public land in E Tx and did a lot of pre season scouting. It can be pretty dangerous and my buddy could not get off work to hunt the first weekend so he was coming late Sunday night. I went to my Father-in-Laws over the weekend and we were going to meet up with my buddy to hunt Monday morning. Well once I got there we made it through Saturday but come Sunday morning we just could not wait any longer so we headed to the woods to hunt Sunday evening. With Luther's help, my father-in-law, I set up my tree stand and we left the area for a couple of hours to let things calm down. About three hours later we came back and I crawled up in my stand. Luther went on down the trail a couple hundreds yards and set up there. About 45 minutes before dark out comes the prettiest 8 point you ever saw. At the time it was the biggest Buck I had ever seen while hunting so my heart seemed like it was pounding out of my chest. I slowly raised my gun and fired. The buck staggered...then it headed right at me! I tried to load another round but was not having much success. He fell literally at the bottom of my stand. Not a foot from it. I just sat there for a while soaking in the experience...Then after dark Luther shows up...from afar he yells out where is he at...With the biggest grin I have ever had I pointed down at the bottom of my stand...He said why did you crawl back up in your stand? I said I didn't. He said well how did you get the deer to your stand? I said well Luther I'll tell you. When I saw him come out I eased up my rifle..Fired the shot and then I whistled at the deer and just motioned for him to come on to the stand and he did. Luther stood there in utter disbelief. He gave me crap for 30 minutes before I finally convinced him the deer did actually run to that spot and fall. Finally we loaded up the deer into the truck and headed off to the camp. For the rest of the trip I just enjoyed the company of my buddy and father-in-law while they tried to fill their tag. I have had a lot of great moments hunting with Luther and Barry, my buddy. I feel really blessed. Hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I did recalling it and telling it.
 
A trophy is what you make it. My first buck, a 4 pointer, was one of the best hunting days I've ever had. I had it mounted and still admire it. Granted, it's a 4 pointer (it's the biggest 4 pointer I've ever seen even to this day) but it wasn't the size that mattered. What mattered was it was my first buck. I worked hard to get it, was hunting with my best friend and is my best trophy. I guess that it always will be too.
 
I had a similar discussion with a taxidermist once. He said that any mature animal qualifies as a trophy if the hunt was memorable. At the time I daisagreed, but here I am years later saying that he was right. As long as the hunt was memorable, and yours certainly sounds memorable, it can be a trophy.
 
The mind trophy thing...

In South Africa a large kudu bull shall possibly always remain the one that any hunter at some time or other would like to take. Its sheer size and poise when strolling through the denser parts of the bush adds something to the value of the moment of the hunt, added to the value one attaches to the trophy measurements

Most of us shoot for the meat, mostly, so in that regard a cow is better quality, and cheaper too; Sometimes if you budget for meat and your bull measures out to meet Rowland Ward minimums you may find yourself with a rather different invoice by the landowner!

Of the many kudu that my 36 year old Musgrave in .308W has taken over its lifetime there was one that caused regret in my heart as I sat next to it, patting his rump, and unconsciously making a little knot in the tail hairs (I think to compensate for a knot I was finding none that easy to swallow down, for some reason or other.. but don' repeat that I've actually said that).

He was big and blue and beautiful, a really massive bull. (By the way, many trophy horns are found on animals who are rather slender in build).

I was coming out of the bush into the fire clearing next to the boundary fence, about 100 m to the north western corner of the 2 000 hectare property when he also came out into the open. He gave me that typical one second look look of contempt and I could see that he was about to jump the fence. A kudu gives you three seconds from sighting to shooting and then he's gone. At my shot he jumped and easily cleared the six feet boundary, and fell dead on the other side.

I shall not bore our readers with the explaining I had to do to my host when he came from another portion of the property after he had heard the shot and bullet smack, and seeing a shot kudu on the bordering property. Fortnately the tracks told it all, or for the planning and effort to get my bull through the taut wires that are six inches apart from ground level up to 1,50 m...

Even before I started skinning, the owner measured the horns. Three times. They just did not make RW, and saved me a good deal of money.

I do not shoot the real trophies. On our farm we did not slaughter our trophy breeding stock. This guy was in sheer size and thickness of neck and length and thickness of horns a MAN amongst men. That saddened me.
 
I only shoot Does for meat. Don't like those nasty tasting bucks in rut.

The only bucks I shoot are trophy bucks.
A trophy buck to me, is anything bigger than what I already have on my wall. I only see one of these every 4 or 5 years. (if I am lucky)
 
I have had "Trophy" hunts even when nothing got killed. Good friends in camp, close encounters that ended up with no shot, beautiful country. Especially elk hunting, where we are unsuccessful way more than successful.
 
The elusive 150

Up here in NE Wa frying pan trophy's are the most sought after by the locals but the quest is always on for a true 150 or better rack. I've taken a few over the course of 50 plus years in the woods but with ever increasing hunting pressure, loss of winter habitat from new mini ranch construction ventures and drastically curtailed rifle seasons really big racked bucks have become a rarity. Local papers report monster December road kills occasionally and I presume these would involve the very few mature bucks that reach the seven or eight year age bracket generally associated with trophy racks. Guess what's most important to me are the memories of hunting with my Dad in the 60's when there were lots of deer and little hunting pressure. Like the previous posts state, it wasn't the size of the buck but the unforgettable moments of the chase and the hours spent afield with my long lost hunting partner that determined the trophy status.
 
for me an older deer is better than a younger no matter the rack size and a closer deer is ALWAYS better than a longer shot. Sitting on the ground is always better than in a treestand and the more compact the rifle the better.

My best? a 120" sitting on a pop up stool under a holly bush w/ a 16"bbled 308 from 35 yards. in the misty rain at about 0730 thanksgiving day '07.

AR9ptcropped.jpg
 
ringworm

Nice Buck Ringworm.

I think based on most of the responses most agree that it is nice to have a big rack on a deer but much more important is the hunt itself. I am not sure any of the bucks I have taken to date are 120 class. I might have one. I do know that there is a story behind each and everyone of the deer I have hanging on the wall. And it is the story behind each that makes them trophys to me.

I am hoping that this year I will get a chance at a big atlered deer. I am hunting on what appears to be a very good lease with some great bucks on it. If I get one I will post the pic so you all can see.
 
Any deer I take is a trophy. Especially so if I get them with the bow. My first buck is the one I'll remember the most; I shot a doe and he walked right into her footsteps so I let him have it too. All by myself a mile from the car. By the time I got them both out it was dark, and a samaritan stopped and help me load them. I sent him a new Buck pocketknife. A co-worker laughed and asked me if I'd think about shooting 2 at once again, and I told him about as long as it took me to get the safety off. He doesn't hunt or own guns, so I had to make him think.
 
Real, measured trophies

I do not shoot the real trophies. On our farm we did not slaughter our trophy breeding stock.

Cattle, I mean. For the same reason I do not hunt trophy measurement game.
 
Trophy

My Trophy deer was my first deer I shot. He was a 6 point basket rack. Walked out my back door, 10 minutes to the woods. Almost set down, he walked up to 15 yards. I went back to the house and had coffee at 7:45 am. Since then I have shot a few bigger. I also relished each deer my kids have harvested probably moreso then mine own. I have taken several kids(first time hunters) along with us. Each has been great experinces for them as well as them. Monsters, I dont have any. I know a few guys who do. Personally after talking to them, they are never satisfied. Myself if I never shoot another buck I dont care. Its all about being there(in the woods) with the kids.
Lonny
 
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