What is a trophy?

The urge to get out in the field became to great for me this week and I set out a couple of days early to do some bow hunting in south east Missouri - not an area known to be loaded with Booners but still full of deer none-the-less. I got to my parents house late and spent some time go over my trail camera pictures from my property with my dad and my brother and I was reminded of something that I think is something everyone should internally evaluate.

What is a trophy.

This is not to mean, what do the television stars tell you a trophy is, not even what the Pope and Young tell you a trophy is. I think it is important for everyone to evaluate what they consider a trophy.

What got me thinking about it is my brother made the comment, regarding my upcoming time in the Missouri woods, "Get ready to shoot a skinny antlered deer" - I am paraphrasing of course but that is the basic sentiment. On the other side of the conversation, my father is looking at the pictures of the young 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old bucks on my trail camera pictures and saying "man I bet those ones are going to be a lot tastier then the big ones you have pictures of".

I guess it is just a matter of perspective, to my brother, a younger hunter it seems that the big rack is the trophy, for my father (who admittedly has never had buck fever) it is all about the meat. I suppose for myself I certainly started with my brothers perspective, and over time I am evolving to my fathers perspective.

I do not necessarily need to shoot a monster Boone and Crockett buck, given the opportunity I sure as hell will not pass it up though. For me I am interested in the uniqueness of each buck that I harvest. I do not have a "hitlist" of deer rather I have a "wishlist" of deer. This list contains things like a buck with a split brow tine, a buck with double drop tines, a heavily palmated buck. These are all unique types of antlers sets that I am looking for, whether it comes in the form of a 125 inch eight pointer or 180 inch monster is irrelevant, what I am concerned with is the uniqueness.

I encourage you to look into what it is you are after, it can add an extra dimension to your hunt as well as what I feel is an extra satisfaction at the end of the hunt.