What defines a trophy hunt?

[bckklr]

what jph said

[JOEL]

I just hunt,the whole experience is important to me.the kill is anti climatic

[stumpsitter66]

I agree totally. Each buck is different. Great thread and great comments.

[adirondackhunter]

I don't have any trophy hunts, but i have great hunts.I start with scouting ,then finding the deer ,killing the the deer ,field dressing ,then dragging ,to cutting up my own deer and then the great memories.Even if i don't kill a deer that year i still enjoy knowing that i let smallers bucks go or maybe the "big one" out smarted me.

[Panman1949]

Every animal I take is a trophy to me in its own way.  Great responses.

[howhill1]

as i once stated in another post  at another time my most memorable kill was the nice fat doe i shot with my daughter present on her first trip to the deer woods. while i have many wonderfull memories of time afield with family and friends that one is the most prescious.

[passin through]

Really like this thread.....To me a trophy is in the eye of the beholder....the last buck I shot wasn't huge and was still 2 years from even being close to measurable but I think he was one of my greatest trophies.
He was a decent young 7 point buck and definitly a shooter to me and on my lease he about average for the age class but that was not what makes him so special..I shot him sitting on the ground at about 25 yards with a 12ga using #1 buckshot...exactly 20 years and one day after I shot my first deer hunting with my Grandmother---with the same shotgun, type of load and set up.  My Grandmother taught me how to still hunt for the most part and passed away in 1996.  I think that buck was a kind of anniversary present from her.  I will always treasure that experience and deer as one of my greatest trophies.

[vipermann7]

I have to say that what defines a "trophy hunt" and what defines a "trophy deer" are two entirely different things. And although I know what you meant when you wrote your post, I just wanted to use that distinction as a lead-in.

All hunts and all deer are "trophies" to me, including does. A hunt is special time away in the woods, with family, with friends, or alone. Even if I don't see a deer, every hunt is great and every hunt produces something. In that light, I also don't like to label hunts as "successful" just because I shot a deer and "unsuccessful" because I didn't. You will learn something about that stand and about those deer, just as much by seeing one as not seeing one.

But what makes a trophy animal really is all about what it is to each hunter. My first bow kill buck was a 95 inch 8 pointer I shot the second year I ever bow hunted. Probably will be the best trophy I ever take just based on the experience and the nestalgia of being the first buck, as I'm sure we all share. I shot a buck last year opening day that although is not the age or antler quality I usually aim for, was still a great deer and the trophy of the year for me. He was injured, hit by a car, and most definately going to crawl in the brush 50 yards past my stand and die. I elected to shoot him, which cost me some extremely large bucks later in November, but I never felt bad about that decision. One of the best hunts I ever had was a hunt I did with my brother late season. I shot a doe, and not many people mount a doe on the wall, but pictures of me and my brother next to that doe hang on the wall next to my antlers. We can get lost watching hunting shows and reading magazines, feeling like the only thing we can call a trophy is a boone and crocket entry. And I know most of you guys here on the website don't look at trophies that way, but I talk to too many people in every day life who think and feel that way about "trophy" bucks.

[vipermann7]

Hunts with the kids, some of the best kind. My kids can't hunt until they are 12 here in wisconsin, but my 5 year old will be in the ground blind with me this fall whenever I can take him. He was along when I shot my turkey this spring, best part of the whole hunt was HIS reaction to me shooting the turkey. I have two more daughters coming up behind my son, I'm even a little more excited to get them in the woods, just being girls and all, I'm glad to have a chance to introduce future women to the sport.

[Woods Walker]

I've been doing this for 44 years now, and for me, EVERY HUNT is a "success" simply by my being in the woods.
 
Above that, for me, what makes a particular animal that I've killed a "trophy" isn't necessarily the antler score...or even if it HAS any antlers, but HOW I hunted it.
 
This is not a "scoreable" benchmark that can be recorded and admired by others, but is a VERY personal prize that one will forever possess. What else makes this impossible to "score", is that many times THERE IS NO KILL. I guess you could call it (as the Native Americans did), "counting coup".