What do you consider to be a trophy?

hello,

I have a question regarding , what some of you would consider being trophies. I am new to the forum so I have no idea where to place this.

Thank you .

IMHO a basic description of a trophy animal is an adult male with oustanding caracteristics, above average, a beautiful specimen.
But for us hunters the word TROPHY means something diferent, we identify with the animal as our kin, The conscious and deliberate humbling of the hunter to the level of the animal is virtually a religious rite. no hunter revels in the death of the animal. I belive for us Trophy means merit, value and deep emotions.

Any animal that I have a particular reason to want to remember is a trophy animal to me.

The story! The Experience.
The part of the hunt I take with me to remember, share and enjoy.
That may be through a symbol: a feather, a mount, photographs or just a piece of string that still holds my sling on my rifle.

Zoologist....

Welcome to the forum and may you have a great time...

Every animal you have the time to observe is a trophy waiting to happen...if not for you for another hunter at a later date...

Someone new to hunting a trophy could be and should be your first bird or animal taken...as you gain experience and the years go by and you refine your skills you will possible hunt a specific animal.

my 2 cents

zoologist said:

hello,

I have a question regarding , what some of you would consider being trophies. I am new to the forum so I have no idea where to place this.

Thank you .

Click to expand...

In terms of big game animals, I think what a person considers a "trophy" animal not only varies between each hunter, but changes as we gain hunting experience. For many of us, our first of any animal is a valued trophy to us when we kill it, however after 5 or 10 years of hunting those animals, we would probably hold out for a larger animal.

For example, my first mule deer was a 1 1/2 year old spike buck. I couldn't wait to get those antlers home and hang them on my bedroom wall. But now, after 45 years of deer hunting, I wouldn't consider shooting a spike buck, and the past few years I've passed on easy, makeable shots on many 5x5 whitetail bucks hoping I'd find one bigger.

Most of my hunting has been DIY. It wasn't until I hunted in Canada and Africa that I hunted with a guide or Professional Hunter. When you hunt with a guide or PH, they know the animals and they will tell you the trophy "quality" of the animals that you see.

After 3 trips to Africa, I've shot over 34 African animals and I've had a couple dozen of them mounted. And even though they all didn't qualify for SCI or Rowland Ward record books, because of the memories of those hunts, the beauty and uniqueness of those animals, they are trophies to me.

A trophy is an old mature animal in my book. I don't care if he scores in any book published. I'll enjoy the hunt for the hunt, and that is my trophy.

I find it disappointing when people get upset with an animal that didn't measure up to a certain inch mark!

On my last trip over, I didn't even see a tape measure the entire time we were hunting. That's my kind of hunt!!!

Trophy

Any animal I Harvest is a Trophy to me . I put in the time to try to out smart that animal. I have Book animals that I never intered in the records. It's not what drives me.

Fantastic attitude you gentleman are showing here towards hunting. Hats off to you.

Best Regards
Marius Goosen

To me, first of all, it has to be an old, mature animal.

If the trophy size is above average, all the better, but that s not the most important in the hunt, it is the hunt itself, which has to be challenging.

You have to deserve your trophy !

Yeah! I think a trophy needs to be judged by what the animal that you shot meant to you at the time you took it not the score it provides for the books. As others have related animals taken early on in our hunting carreers may be better trophy to us as individual than the B&C qualifier hanging on our walls now.

Personally I hunt mostly these days for trophies that score well but my first buck whitetail is probably the trophy that meant the most to me and therefore I consider it my best trophy. My Dad had just died days before the first Pesident's Day holiday and the neighbors graciously asked me to come along on their holiday hunt. In the afternoon a 6 point buck nearly ran me over me and I dumped him with a load of buckshot from my 20 ga. I remember the sight picture clear as day and that beautiful young buck plowing up the hardwood leaves as he skidded to his final resting spot 46 years ago. That buck will always be my best trophy.

Mark H. Young said:

Yeah! I think a trophy needs to be judged by what the animal that you shot meant to you at the time you took it not the score it provides for the books. As others have related animals taken early on in our hunting carreers may be better trophy to us as individual than the B&C qualifier hanging on our walls now.

Personally I hunt mostly these days for trophies that score well but my first buck whitetail is probably the trophy that meant the most to me and therefore I consider it my best trophy. My Dad had just died days before the first Pesident's Day holiday and the neighbors graciously asked me to come along on their holiday hunt. In the afternoon a 6 point buck nearly ran me over me and I dumped him with a load of buckshot from my 20 ga. I remember the sight picture clear as day and that beautiful young buck plowing up the hardwood leaves as he skidded to his final resting spot 46 years ago. That buck will always be my best trophy.

Click to expand...

Well said Mark. Personally the animals that took the most effort I take the most satisfaction in and therefore are my trophies. Since moving to Arizona, I have been quite taken with hunting Coues deer. Descriptions of a couple of hunts:

Hunt 1
I was fortunate enough a few years back to draw a December tag for Coues. This is a hard to come by tag as it's a rut hunt. Just after Christmas a buddy of mine and I left Phoenix about 2am to head to get to the hunting area and start up the hill before light. After glassing across a promising looking canyon for a couple of hours, it was apparent there were no deer in this particular spot. So I turned my binoculars to check out much further canyons. Pretty quickly I picked up some does at about 1100 yards. We watched them closely as they were acting pretty nervous and moving about a bit too much for typical Coues behavior. We figured there had to be a rutting buck causing this. Sure enough after about an hour a nice buck showed himself. The rest of that morning and into that afternoon we watched this comedy that is a full in rut dominant buck chasing around does and pushing the yearling spikes around. We also were glassing all around this area to determine a good spot to setup and how to get there as we hadn't been in that area before. After awhile the deer settled down and the buck after breeding a doe went and bedded down. We had our plan however for the next day. After a better and longer night's rest, we didn't head out until after light as again we weren't sure of how to get to the spot we picked out. But after hiking a pretty steep hill we found it. It was going to be a tough shot at about 400 yards, but it was as close as we could get. The area the does had been in is wide open and there just wasn't a better place. We spotted the does in about 30 minutes and soon thereafter the buck made his appearance. The only thing I can be certain about with the first shot was that it did not hit the buck and most likely landed somewhere in Arizona. But the second shot was true and dropped the buck in his tracks with the does he was tending in bewilderment. This is when the work began as we had to go first down this steep and deep canyon and then back up again to retrieve the deer. Then repeat the process with the deer in order to make it back to camp. Worn out to be sure when we made it back, but what a hunt.

Hunt 2
Not real far from where the hunt above took place. There's some work in this getting up a ridge, but once that's done, it's fairly easy walking. We spotted a buck that we started to put a stalk on when we got busted by some does on the other side of the canyon. The does ran right by another nice buck that was much closer and bedded down so that we didn't see him initially. He sprang up out of his bed not spooked. Even from 250 yards however it was evident that he was a very nice buck. A moment later he was mine. While it was great to get him, we essentially just stumbled on this guy and got lucky.

The buck from the first hunt scored I think around 92". The buck from the second hunt scored 106" green. It takes a Coues buck scoring 110" dried to make B&C book for reference. Obviously the latter buck is quite nice score wise and significantly bigger than the first. But guess which one means more to me?

BRICKBURN said:

The story! The Experience.
The part of the hunt I take with me to remember, share and enjoy.
That may be through a symbol: a feather, a mount, photographs or just a piece of string that still holds my sling on my rifle.

Click to expand...

Agreed !
I could'nt have said it better myself!

A trophy is in the eyes of the hunter. As previously said a memorable hunt or an above average animal. Nothing irritates me more when it's all about the score. out of all my trophies my Black Wildebeest which missed the book by 1/8" is my most treasured animal as it was the farthest shot i ever made, after hours of not getting any closer the PH talked me into the shot & I connected!!!

I have grown to appreciate old animals as trophy's. Just love the look of an old Buffalo or Lion est and it provides a great objective to look for with the added bonus of being conservation minded.

Very good answers fellas. My hat's off to you.

For me the true value of a "trophy" encompasses many things, but most of all it is the "memory". The full experience contributes to the "memory" and I take it with me everywhere and I can think about it any time I want and relive the hunt - regardless of the size of the animal. Sure, I can look at the mount on the wall, but I do that more out of "respect" for the animal, I hunt for the "memory".

nd

A trophy is the eye of the beholder! Mostly it about taking part in something you love doing! The memories from the hunt, the good or bad will last a lifetime. Most of my best "memories" are of hunts in days gone bye. And the best thing about "memories" is you can relive them over and over again!

There are many definitions of trophy. I beleive this Bushbuck embodies several.

Despite living right behind the lodge and always found in a small 50-70 acre area, he had been pursued extensively by several hunters over a several month period yet remained elusive only offering the occasional glimpse but no shot. We also pursued him several times unsuccessfully. On my last evening of hunting while trying to spotlight a Caracal or Jackal we saw him for the first time but shooting him in the light was just not something I was interested in, I never asked nor cared if my PH Chris would have allowed it. The next morning was supposed to be a sleep in, settle the bill, some tourist stuff and off to the airport. Instead I could not sleep and took a walk and found Chris hard at work preparing the financial end of things, a quick last walk for him was planned and he was found casually browsing leaves completely unaware and after watching for several long minutes he cleared the brush and offered a shot. This mature buck easily qualifies for Roland and Ward and is a great memory of a very worthy and hard hunted trophy.

Trophy for me is a mature animal which got a average size horns, tasks or special skin, or dimension. The rest are nontrophy animals.
Not to cofuse what is a etical trophy or hunt.
I hunt many doves or broken horns animals, feamals and nonmature also, It's all hunt in orther to keep healthy the population, the experiense is the same, but are not trophys.

Diamondhitch said:

There are many definitions of trophy. I beleive this Bushbuck embodies several.

View attachment 7335

Click to expand...

That is one excellent bushbuck!!! Congrats!