What constitutes a trophy???

I 've never understood why a stag with huge antlers is more attractive to some hunters than one with mediocre ones..can somebody explain that to me? Is it an ego thing? I look back on 57 years of deerstalking and remember fondly deer I took which required huge physical effort, or one I shot 2 minutes after leaving the car, or shooting one 5 minutes before the ballot period closed, or the first deer taken after a very long spell out of the bush due to a chronic illness, but never for the size of the antlers. I realise we are all motivated by different values, but I just don't get the "trophy" thing..just saying.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ranger 888

I 've never understood why a stag with huge antlers is more attractive to some hunters than one with mediocre ones..can somebody explain that to me? Is it an ego thing? I look back on 57 years of deerstalking and remember fondly deer I took which required huge physical effort, or one I shot 2 minutes after leaving the car, or shooting one 5 minutes before the ballot period closed, or the first deer taken after a very long spell out of the bush due to a chronic illness, but never for the size of the antlers. I realise we are all motivated by different values, but I just don't get the "trophy" thing..just saying.

---

Assuming it's fair chase and on public land (that's important to me personally) then a larger/more mature stag theoretically means he's eluded more hunters over his time to get to that stage. Having said that, I mostly hunt Fiordland bush in the roar where the trophies aren't that flash. Over the last five years or so I've shot an 8, a 9, a 10, an 11 and a 13 pointer but all of those heads are far inferior to look at compared to the Otago 12 I have on the wall. My favourite trophy of is the ugly Fiordland 10 shot from 15m in thick bush after a tricky stalk because he was old (and in my mind cunning) and the stalk was a challenge.

Each to their own on this topic though I say.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ranger 888

I 've never understood why a stag with huge antlers is more attractive to some hunters than one with mediocre ones..can somebody explain that to me? Is it an ego thing? I look back on 57 years of deerstalking and remember fondly deer I took which required huge physical effort, or one I shot 2 minutes after leaving the car, or shooting one 5 minutes before the ballot period closed, or the first deer taken after a very long spell out of the bush due to a chronic illness, but never for the size of the antlers. I realise we are all motivated by different values, but I just don't get the "trophy" thing..just saying.

---

The antler are one of the few things that shine back to the traditional releases ie within reason each areas animals antlers once they mature typically follow a style of the place they came from. Ie the rakaia, pukter otago, wairapa etc so wanting a mature representative not only means it's survived lots of hunters but is a visual link back to the original history of the releases that brought them here. Also you will find it is changing from desire for juts bug antlers to mature animals. You won't find many guys here that want a high fence monster. They want the real cunning old stag from the back blocks. It creates a challenge to aim for that involves hard work and eventually the trophy represents not only that hunts but in some cases years of hunting and learning and trying new techniques to find that big cunning old boys that no one else could get.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NRT

Not all pigs taste good Hunter Hill pigs are dog tucker don't know what causes it but there bad ,smell funny to like a chemical.[emoji848]

Sent from my TA-1025 using Tapatalk

---

interesting comment that...IVE had three boars from up there over the years...2 about 140ish and one 120ish all were primo eating....maybe you struck them when they had been into pines and eating spanyard roots.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

interesting comment that...IVE had three boars from up there over the years...2 about 140ish and one 120ish all were primo eating....maybe you struck them when they had been into pines and eating spanyard roots.

---

Years ago when i hunted the sounds the pigs used to be crap eating. Skinny, rangey things that lived in fern and scrub and tasted like that only ate fern..
Never used to grow to a huge size, a 120lber down there used to be like catching a 150lber here. Its changed abit now from people gone by releasing pigs into the bush.
Taste better, fatter and grow bigger. Down murchison way the pigs can have 2 to 3 inches of fat on them!

A trophy to me consists of a number of things not only a head on the wall but the whole story in how it got there. Where it was taken from, what it was like to eat, process of mounting it etc (I’m a fan of doing my own euro mounts).

Good friend of mine in England has a trophy room full of heads from 40 years of stalking. He once showed me his collection of euro mounted roe deer heads and described each of the types from different parts of the UK. Really interesting to see the different formations and sizes from different areas. He has heads which are trophies from a particular area that would be unremarkable in another. He also has heads that remind him of great stalks, or outings with good friends, his son, or son’s son. He has some spectacular gold medal trophies, but his most treasured heads remind him of something he holds dear.

My euro mount heads of roe and muntjac deer are not trophy sized, but have something interesting about each. Great curl on muntjac antlers, or heavy pearling on roe heads for example.

I’m sure there are collections here which show typical formations from specific areas too?