OutdoorMissouri.com

Where is the line that distinguishes a trophy buck from a sammich?

125?
130?
140?

Where is the line in your opinion?

Depends on who killed it and how much chit ya wanna give'em.

I think it's a matter of "to each his own."

I'm not going to hang one unless it's a 160 typical. The down side of this decision is that I may never have a head on the wall.

There are some pretty 120-130's out there.

2B and I discussed this a couple of weeks back. First of all, any deer over 120" is a great deer. Especially with a bow. 125" deer are true trophies in my opinion. Now, that being said, I wouldn't even bother bringing anything that I didn't think would score 140" to the deer classic to have it measured. From my experiences there, you have 140" deer coming in left and right. Then, someone brings a 110-120" deer in and it leaves a guy wondering what the heck is going on in his head. Now, that sounds terrible and it is. But, that is just the way some folks think. Not that there is anything wrong with the deer in the first place. That is why, unfortunately, most of my deer stay at home on the wall. My dads best bow buck is ~110". But, he was dang happy with that buck as he killed it on Mingo at the age of 58 years.

Congrats to Dad. That is a heck of a feat. Especially down that way I figure.

When I took my best buck to get measured, I was all cocky, thinking it was a monster, untill I walked in the room and saw all of the other bucks I wasn't too impressed with my kill after that. Of all the racks in there mine was somewhere in the middle. Anyway a giant for one guys is just another deer for some.

Bucks start getting aweful interesting at around 130" when I'm bowhunting. I try to hold out for a 140" class buck with a gun, so I get buck tag soup most years.

Last year I shot a 100" 8pt the last bow hunt before gun season, and I wanted to kick my own Donkey when I walked up on him. A moment of weakness, heck, even my wife made fun of me on that one. It'll be a long time before that will happen again.

If someone else shoots a buck, it's a sammich; if I shoot one, it's a trophy.

@ SF.

It is all relative. I think for younger more inexperienced hunters, the definition of a trophy could even be a doe, it is all in the eye of the beholder. My first deer with a bow was a basket racked 8 pointer, to me it was trophy, and still is, why? Because to me it was a right of passage into being a successful bowhunter. I also feel that geography has a lot do do with it. I have hunted for years in the Ft. Leonard Wood area, and can tell you that the definition of a trophy down there is not the same as a trophy up in Poisonsnake's neck of the woods. I have seen a grand total of 5 bucks from a treestand that I know would make 125 or better down in that area. We have been on our farm down there for 12 years now, and have only taken 2 deer over 125, yet I alone have taken 4 deer between 105 and 120, and to me, for that area all of those deer are trophies. I know a lot of guys in here will see more deer of that size and bigger in a single season, or even a week. So to me it is a relative term. It depends on the hunter, and the area he/she is hunting.

Limbshot,

Well said.

It's a matter of opinion, pure and simple. No one has the right to tell a fellow hunter that his/her deer is not a " trophy ".

The person that snuffs the beast is the only one qualified to make that distinction.

I myself don't care for the taste of and will give the mount to whomever wants it. I don't want the hide either.
Now I will argue over how much meat I get off one because I yea beleive it or not that is what I like to eat is all I need from the goat.

Now if I could shoot a really big duck.......

Duck Me Runnin said:
No one has the right to tell a fellow hunter that his/her deer is not a " trophy ".

DMR, I agree, unless of course it's PS, then all bets are off.