Thread: What constitutes a trophy???

thought to kick this off HERE for honest discussion.


If I look at the stags heads hanging around my home and garage and tell the how and when then rank them for trophy value to me....well it might give a good place to start.
there is a nice even 10point red on euro shield that would score somewhere around 250ish??? first stag..shot with 30/30 solo hunt on carvers trig,central north island (at that time I held the lease on that bit of paradise)
next is a 15 score 274....mounted for me by parents
a ugly as sin heavy 7 shot with my son in tow and took a marathon effort to retrieve animal the next day.
little spindly 8,would not even make the grade as a sika...shot in north island on public land where my family have been hunting for 50 years,my only animal from there.
a even but small 12 red possibly go 230ish??? shot in a HUGE deer paddock late in roar,this boy had got in early in roar and held ALL the hinds...3-400 of them,the sire stags couldnt win a gun fight with only a knife so they were all sulking at other end of paddock2kms away...that paddock is probably 400ha in size,shot to give sire stags a chance,he had fence wire around its throat,cut through skin,jugular and laranx only days away from being cut,one ear sliced half way through,skinny as a rake,what a price for love.
runty wee fallow...my only fallow head at all
11 point even red shot in southland with great mates for company,I literally shot this stag with my pants down..nature called and I looked up to see him.
a spindly 7 shot on station with mate in tow...first deer hunt for him.easy harvest more than a "hunt"

the 10 first stag means the most
then tiny public land 8
11 from southland
15
the rest follow in no particular order

thinking about guided hunting brings up an interesting question...what about big game FISHING......its a chartered vessel,borrowed gear but does that make a 1000lb stripy any less of a trophy????not on ya nelly
if it was caught in a fish tank....lol...have to be a plurry big tank

for ME a trophy is as much about the how and when ,with whom than the number of points or score on someones system

I havent shot a rusa,samber of wapiti YET.....I will shoot a wap one day,probably wont be in fiordland,just an escapees prodgony but it will tick a box for me so I will be happy....the meat will taste just as good and wont be wasted.

I havent got any gamebirds mounted in my home.a photo in frame means as much to me...my avitar is one of the very very special memories for me...that dog was young,really young.it was his VERY first day in work...the two geese flew over top of us in the fog and dropped in shallow water,neither retrieve was more than 3 mtrs but the birds are bigger than dog...I made sur ehe didnt fail..took birds back to car then carried on shooting the mallards,no retrieve was more than 20 meters swim...the dog did the lot and was hooked.....he 12 now and blind...still my mate,still loves hooning in boat smelling geese n ducks. so that photo is more of a trophy than any stuffed goose could ever be.

There are little t trophies, kept items of significance or momentos, then there are big T Trophies, representative examples of heads that meet objective scoring criteria used to measure size or other physical characteristics, and the 2 should not be confused although a particular head can and often will be both.

The conditions of the of hunt constitute the trophy, my best trophy is a 6 pointer shot in the tararuas with my brother,it was the first roar stag we got together, we hard bush stalked all day and got him when he was with his hinds, he wasn't roaring we alerted his hinds with noise only,the wind was good and he came to investigate the noise after he pushed his hinds up the ridge,came right into within 8 metres in thick bush.
I have no interest in shooting huge head paddock animals a hind in the bush is more of a trophy for me.

Ive caught a Marlin. Got it mounted on my wall. Looks awesome. Not really that much of a trophy for me though. I was on a charter and just had to sit in a chair and wind.
I have gained much more satisfaction from catching good Snapper or Kingis on my own.
Deer hunting is a bit like that for me too. I have never paid for a hunt for myself but I would gain far more satisfaction shooting a smaller head on public land rather than paying for the privilege. I guess it comes down to the challenge for me. That and filling the freezer. Any bone is a bonus.

I guess the co-incidence of little t trophy and big T Trophy is where the magic happens. Having a great experience and shooting an objectively special animal.

The happy memories would do it for me. The land, people and what that moment in time was like are more important to me than flexing on the fudds with how big the head is.

Originally Posted by gimp

There are little t trophies, kept items of significance or momentos, then there are big T Trophies, representative examples of heads that meet objective scoring criteria used to measure size or other physical characteristics, and the 2 should not be confused although a particular head can and often will be both.

I really like this way of thinking.

Muntjac antlers that I got with my Audi A3
Couple Whitetail skins from my first trip to the island back in the 90s

A throw away line but, the Trophy is in the eye of the beholder. As Gimp was saying, prime example flew the old man up for his 60th. He shot a 9pt red in the Ruahines during the roar, it's not huge but it's a trophy to us, and serves as a reminder of an awesome trip.

The 3 spiker racks I have on the wall in the garage (Larry, Gary, and Barry) are nothing special.

Particularly Barry. He sucks as a showpeice pretty badly.

But they're the only 3 I have shot. (So Far) So they have great significance as trophies to me.

I took photos of trophy heads on the walls at Moritzburg Castle in Saxony going back to the 1600's. There are some great heads but also some unusual deformed antlers, oddball stuff all are still kept as trophies and equally revered. To take an unusual head is harder than a normal one

Only got one set of antlers, the one's left on my avatar 8 point Red, public land....roar bush hunt, i was shaking like a shitting dog after the shoot...

the memory of that hunt means the most to me, the adventure and the challenge i set myself when i started hunting at 55 y.o.a......

A great stalk onto a red stag during the roar can be retold again and again, doesn't really matter about how many points on the antlers.

But can't really say that when hunting velvet stags of any species - they are hunted before their prime? More and more people appear to target them saying they are after prime veni which is true but looking at FB seem to take the big velvet head out too - then ask what to do with it - is it worth getting mounted?? Can i sell it etc. How times have changed.

4 Days of sneaking around in the frost with my nephew before we came across this fallow. It's never going to win a trophy contest, getting the lad to take point for stalking in and picking the shooting position is worth it.
He will remember the hunt for a long time, that photo is worth more to me than a head.

Originally Posted by Hunteast

A great stalk onto a red stag during the roar can be retold again and again, doesn't really matter about how many points on the antlers.

But can't really say that when hunting velvet stags of any species - they are hunted before their prime? More and more people appear to target them saying they are after prime veni which is true but looking at FB seem to take the big velvet head out too - then ask what to do with it - is it worth getting mounted?? Can i sell it etc. How times have changed.

Fair one, I don't like soft velvet stags being shot as it's a bit of a waste. Hard velvet I have no issue and the Sika stags have beautiful capes that time of year.