When I agree that it’s not good for hunting, I’m not saying that I don’t measure my bucks, because I do. I’m also not saying that counting inches is bad in and of itself. I am however saying that I think a vast number of people put so much emphasis on it that it ruins their hunting, AND that the idea of how many inches makes a trophy is really inflated by TV, magazines and social media. I try to shoot the biggest buck I see during the season, and if I do that, then I consider myself to have done really really well! How he compares to someone else’s buck is meaningless to me. I took the best buck that I could and that’s a huge success. I don’t take really young bucks unless they are spike whitetails in areas that are trying to reduce spikes(we have areas in TX that really encourage spike shooting) My preference is 3.5+ on whitetails, and 4.5+ on mule deer, but I shot a 3.5 yr old in TX this year because A) he was the best I’d seen, and B) I really liked his looks. After last season three really big mature bucks showed up, and one was pushing B&C really hard. Well by early summer they disappeared, and never showed back up. I found four carcasses over the summer while she’d hunting, but couldn’t tell for sure how they died or what their heads had looked like. I don’t know if we have a poaching problem or a predator problem, and I don’t know if they three mature bucks died or left. The way I look at it, either they’ll be back next season or they won’t be, and there’s no guarantee the one I shot would have lived till next season either way. Yes, I say “he’s young”, or “he’s not the biggest” if I show someone a picture. It’s not because I’m not proud of him, because I am, it’s a mixture of humility and showing that I’m aware that lots of bigger deer get killed each year and that I’m not showing off a baby deer that I think is a monster. Perhaps I should stop doing it though. Back on topic though, counting inches is fine if you can shoot a deer that you like and the number isn’t going to bring you down. If the number steals your joy, then counting inches is a problem. I’ve had a lot of thoughts on it over the last few days though.
A) A trophy is a trophy in its environment. I didn’t come up with this, but it’s appropriate. On an unlimited entry, long season tag, hunting public land that receives a lot of pressure, then a trophy of a lifetime might be have a measurement that most people would consider pretty pitiful, and that measurement should not take anything at all away from his trophy status. The same goes for different states and different parts of states. Some parts of Texas just don’t produce the same size racks as other parts of Texas. In fact, south Texas whitetails are known as some of the smallest bodied, largest racked deer in the state. The biggest deer killed in the piney woods of east Texas this year might be just as big as the biggest killed in the south Texas desert, but on average it’s not a remotely fair comparison. You can even break it down from one property to the next.
B) Adversity makes a trophy. Bad weather, bad luck, long hunts, last minute pay-offs, and grueling pack-outs have nothing to do with the inches on his head, but they have everything to do how hard you worked to earn it, and that makes a buck a trophy.
C) The experience makes a trophy. Being somewhere you’ve never been but always wanted to go. Being somewhere you always love going back to. Spending time with family or friends. The success of others, or loved ones sharing your success with you. Those memories are why we mount game heads in the first place. To have a visible reminder of those experiences so that we can go back and revisit those memories is why we mount our trophies.
D) Wall appeal can make a trophy. If you think it looks good, mount it! Maybe it’s weird, maybe it’s wide, maybe it has good mass etc. There are tons of great looking, big looking, cool looking, and weird look deer out there that don’t measure all that well. They’re still trophies.
E) Age is a trophy. I’ve seen some really old bucks with puney racks. I’ve seen a wide, tall, pencil thin 3x3 that had to be 7.5+. Those are trophies. Often times they only made it to 2.5 or 3.5 because they had terrible racks, but by the time a buck is mature, he is wise and craftey regardless of his antlers and that makes him a trophy.
F) What do asymmetry and non-typical points have to do with herd health? Do inches REALLY indicate health? Why would a typical 10pt mule deer with 10” of non-typical kickers resulting in a typical score of 160” indicate lower health than an almost identical typical mule deer who put all 170” of antler growth into a typical frame and therefore scored 170”? Why would a mule deer with 80” on his left and 80” on his right that loses 10” to symmetry variations from point to point indicate lower health than a “perfectly” symmetrical deer the same size? Some areas of the country have minerals and food types that grow more antler, but don’t have any impact on body size or health. Is the smaller rack in certain areas really indicative of malnutrition, disease or parasite load? What about genetics? I have a friend whose family has a high fenced game ranch and has dabbled in selective breeding. They even bought a semen straw from the previous non-typical breeder buck record(Goliath) and artificially inseminated a doe. The son she bore(one of many Goliath juniors) and his sons to follow, have the biggest antlers on the ranch by a wide margin, and that even includes the progeny of other breeder bucks they have purchased. All those deer eat the same food. The difference is genetics. The question is, are those genetics for antlers really indicative of improved health. Their Goliath junior died of old age at before he grew his eighth set of antlers, and his peak was at 5.5. There have been white tails live longer than that.
Below is the grandson of “Junior”, or great grandson of the doe and the semen straw, at 5.5. Also his peak.
No offense to my friend and his family. They are wonderfully kind and generous people. To me, their deer are not trophies to the hunter. Trophies for the breeder and ranch manager perhaps. They know I want a nice whitetail, and have offered to let me shoot a cull. Their culls would double or triple the size of my biggest whitetail, but to me, it is not hunting. It is the killing of livestock. The counting of inches has lead many of our busier and wealthier people to seek an opportunity to insure “success” and put a “trophy” on their wall. The result is that my friend’s family and many people like them, can sell “hunts” for MANY thousands of dollars so that a client can sit in an elevated blind over a feeder and a food plot and pick their “trophy” shortly after the dinner bell goes off. They also buy neglected and overgrown land, bulldoze trails for trucks and quads, thin the trees and eliminate everything bud hardwoods, install stock tanks and food plots, put up high fences and sell the property for a nice profit. I don’t begrudge them their business. They are simply meeting a demand. I do however wish that there was not so much demand for such a thing. You can not compare the inches of your public land deer, or low fence private land deer to a selectively bred deer that eats high protein feed year round, and cannot leave, or be killed by a predator, or be poached. I still do not take away the right to enjoy hunting the high fenced buck. I love to fish the tank in the picture. It’s easy to catch monster bass. I’ve caught many over 5lbs there. I’ve never caught a 5lb bass in a public water. It does not take away from the enjoyment of catching the monsters in that little tank. I might feel different about mounting one though.
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