Thread: What constitutes a trophy???

While I agree a trophy is in the eye of the beholder I do have an issue with people shooting every animals they see with antlers. After you have about 30 piddly little racks hanging up they don't mean the same as a few selected. Like the odd one might mean more due to the experience behind it but not all.

I don't like soft velvet stags shot but I get it although I think if you hunt any of the renowned herds it's a bit shit. I know you can do what you like here but we have no shortage of deer so females should be on the list for meat. It's more that by shooting the young stags it's not that you personally don't care its that it comes at the expense of others ability to gain their trophy. Im with Micky Duck that personally I don't feel good about shooting young animals now as it could be the old mature stag in a few years for myself or someone else.

To me my best nz trophies are my first solo public red stag which was a young 10 then I shot a slightly older 10 last year with my partner who was a vegetarian when we met. Those and my first chamois and the 10inch buck I took earlier this year as I worked my ass of for them. I have passed on easily 50 stags and quite a few bucks over the last year. To me now when I look for a trophy I look for an old animal but I'd struggle to not shoot a middle aged animal that would clearly be a pb. There are obviously standards for size (like a 10 Inch cham or 300" red) but I think a mature animal that's a good representation of the species is what I'm looking for.

While hunting in Montana this season knowing I only had one deer tag and one elk tag I was picky. I decided an elk meant a lot to me and I wanted a mature bull. I saw a monster opening bay but couldn't get close in a snow storm by the afternoon I had seen a few other 6 point bulls that were middle aged that I could have shot. The picture below is taken off my phone at 85 yards. But I had set myself a challenge. I ended up trying for a big mature 8 point that snapped one antler off mid beam so only had 3 point on that side because he was clearly mature and would have meant more to me than a younger more even 6. I ended up going home without a bull but with multiple opportunities on great bulls. The deer tag I wasn't as picky with and decided that I wanted the first mature buck I saw muley or whitetail and it happened to be a fairly nice whitetail buck that aged at 6 which in the US is fairly old. The whitetail is a huge trophy to me as it represents my 6 months overseas guiding and hunting in North America even though it was an elk I really wanted.

So in summary I think a trophy is dependent on the person but while I can't tell people what to do I like to see people take a first of any species without a care for maturity but then it's nice to see some selectivity as if you don't care about trophies be considerate of others that might and shoot some females or yearlings for meat and if you do care then those young animals (sometime miscalled scrubbers) are your big stags down the line they might not all end up big 300s but they do grow into impressive heavy antlers animals that I feel have a more prestigious presence in the Bush and on the wall.