Hunting for meat vs trophy

[Jimmy]

Yeah it's illegal to leave the meat behind. It's either eaten or given to someone else to be eaten.

 

[Socalman]

The term "trophy hunting" is largely made up by people who don't hunt and have no knowledge of the habits of most hunters.

Animals with impressive head gear usually have more meat than smaller animals.

If you take a destination trip, it's probably not about acquiring meat because it's often very expensive. The "trophy" on the wall is a reminder of the entire experience.

Thinking of hunting in terms of "sport" is just acknowledging the reality of modern life. Very few people actually need the meat for sustenance. When I drive two hours each way to go duck hunting, it would definitely be cheaper to buy a steak at the grocery store. We do it because it is enjoyable. If I drive a couple hours and kill a cow elk, you could justify that... If you don't count how much I spent on gear for the endeavor.

I happily shoot does, cows, young bucks/bulls, but I certainly appreciate a big set of antlers. Most people I know have a similar outlook.

All in, it's a really complex relationship that's hard to explain to people who haven't immersed themselves in it.

No one cares more about wild animals than hunters. Given that some don't really care, but the majority do. Think about this, a hunter cares what the nesting conditions are in the prairie pothole region and what the winter snowpack is, we care about habitat loss and conservation, the management of invasive species, etcetera.

When is the last time you heard of a "humane society animal lover" giving any thought to winterkill in Wyoming? Or volunteering their time/donating to efforts that benefit wildlife?

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has preserved millions of acres for public access and millions more that is not accessible just for wildlife. An organization that is undoubtedly made up of and funded by hunters. Every one of those people dream of mature bull elk (i.e. big antlers) and they're all chipping in to make sure that elk (and all the other animals) have a place to keep being wild.


Assuming that the OP is from California... A state that banned hunting mountain lions because "trophy hunting" is now realizing that those same lions that are protected from hunting are killing too many of the desert bighorn sheep in the state. Food for thought...

yes indeed I’m new to hunting culture and am seeing new perspectives
Thanks for the response , very helpful

 

[Jon C]

Fried backstraps,venison heart sandwiches and venison potato sausage have all been on the menu this week. Have loved every meal. I don’t love deer burger unless bacon or pork shoulder is added. Probably because I love all the whole meat cuts so my grind suffers. I’ve had other peoples venison from basically inedible to fantastic. Really depends how you cook. But nothing wrong with donating to those less fortunate. But im sure at the least you could have it made into brats and summer sausage and love it. And backstraps are hard to believe you wouldn’t like if you like red meat. One of my favorites with them is leave whole,salt and pepper and bacon wrap and grill till they hit 125 temp.

 

[intunegp]

Indeed what I was referring to; sounds like it’s more infrequent than I had believed

Based on a quick Google/AI response, New York is the only state without SOME variation of wanton waste laws pertaining to big game hunting. In 49 states, if you are intentionally letting large portions of edible meat go to waste, you are in violation of laws and considered a poacher. Referring to poachers as trophy hunters just muddies the waters about what is legal, generally acceptable, frowned upon by the general public, etc.

 

[Jimmy]

I think man has always saved antlers due to their value in being turned into tools and stuff like that. You could argue that it is because of tradition for thousands of years that mankind has seen value and meaning in the antlers.

 

[AKsam]

To each their own, within the law. But, paying tens of thousands of dollars to go on an Alaskan moose drop hunt, taking a "trophy" bull, then "donating" all but the backstrap and loin and taking the headgear home to mount on your wall, that is trophy hunting. I'm not saying that is wrong. And I don't see why someone who trophy hunts would be ashamed to admit that's what they're doing.

 

[IronNoggin]

They say we go through fazes in our hunting time. Young
/new hunter, shoot anything and build confidence and fill tags.
Next we have been successful and want a bigger challenge, holding out for larger animals and comfortable eating tags sometimes. Then, we are old and have hopefully had a lot of fun and now want to enjoy the minutia of the hunt, maybe more than the killing.

I'd concur with that.

When I was young, I killed damn near anything that was legal.

Then progressed to becoming a hard core dedicated trophy hunter.
Managed to do rather well at that game.

Now I am more concerned with putting meat in the freezer.
But I always keep a tag in reserve simply so I can pass up opportunity after opportunity to drag the season out as long as possible.

Cheers

 

[hunt1up]

I just try to hunt for age, at least with deer. Some old deer don't ever get large antlers, but as a general rule, if I target mature deer they'll often tend to be larger antlered. Truth is, killing young bucks or does is not challenging at all. I like to be in the outdoors, I like to see animals. If I was purely a meat hunter I'd be done hunting in a weekend.

Shooting young animals is akin to fishing in a pond for bluegills. Yeah you're fishing, but it's not exactly a challenge. A 2 year old whitetail is not a stealthy or illusive animal. A 2 year old Mule deer buck might be the dumbest animal in North America. You can just drive past one and shoot it from the truck.

We eat almost exclusively wild game in our house. The freezer is well stocked with deer, antelope, and elk. But we enjoy the process of hunting too much to go hunting with the sole intent of gathering meat. Sure if the season is winding down and the meat supply is low, standards could change. But generally a hunter can enjoy the pursuit of larger/older animals while still procuring quality meat while they're at it.

 

[Choupique]

I dont get to hunt much right now so Im strictly an opportunity guy these days. Its just gotta be legal to get shot. Freezer still dries up on me way to early in the year.

Maybe in a few years I'll be able to get back to trying for the big ones.

 

[Bulldawg]

Big trophy elk are stinky gamey nasty beasts. Good for the wall, but no so good for the freezer. Meat is my primary motivator, but I also dont mind a nice euro mount of an animal I've harvested. 5x5 young bull is what I'm personally looking for.

So, hypothetically, you're go out hunting and come up on a 360" 7 year old bull within your killing range, are you going to pass that bull in order to find the 3 year old 5x5 that is over the next hill?
---Maybe you're worried that you're not going to find that 5x5 so you would shoot that old stanky bull so you will be sure to have some meat.

You walk up on that same bull, but feeding with him in the open meadow within killing range is that 5x5 3 year old bull, both broadside, feeding all the time in the world, which one of those are you going to shoot? I think there is not a human being on earth that would have a hard time believing that you would pass the big bull to shoot the small bull because the meat "will be tastier"

This next statement is not derogatory or demeaning because I find myself in this bucket many times to this day. Most people that say these kind of things are those that have not figured out how to hunt big animals and are hoping to just fill their tag, i.e. shooting the first legal animal they see. Absolutely nothing wrong with this, and I would say that is 90% of hunters out there in most areas. Hell, I was just telling my wife yesterday that I think that most moose hunts go this way but start with way different intentions. I have talked to more than a couple Shiras moose tag holders that have said the day before season they are holding out for a big bull because it's a once in a lifetime tag, they have all week to hunt etc. etc., then day 2 rolls around and they lay the smack down on a fork horn. Again, nothing wrong with that, it is very hard to pass up on an animal if you are not used to filing tags consistently and repeatably.

I have passed on animals, but I have also recently run into a string of bad luck when it comes to elk hunting for the last 3 tags and I will tell you that there is a strong likelyhood that the next 2 year old 4 point is in serious trouble next year, but if his granddaddy is standing next to him, he'll be safe lol.

 

[Chris in TN]

Arguing over *how* to hunt is hard enough. Digging down into *why* we hunt....ehhh, I try to avoid it.

At the end of the day it's about the memories you make in the process. It isn't about antlers, or even meat.

 

[Hnthrdr]

It’s a persons choice to fill a tag on whatever legal animal they want to when they have a tag. If someone chooses to be picky and hunt for a buck or bull with bigger antlers how is that any worse than shooting the first raghorn or forky they see? No different. It’s all personal choice and if it’s done legally there are 0 issues. I personally would rather extend my time afield and test myself by looking for bigger/ more mature animals because they yield so much more meat, which is the point right? For example most of the raghorns I’ve killer yield around 180-200lbs of quarters+ loose meat. Killed a decent 6x this year that gave me 270lbs, a few years back I killed a giant bull, both body and antlers that yeilded 360lbs of meats, now as a meat hunter which one should I kill? I know the one hanging on my wall provided almost 2x the meat as a bunch of the skull caps on my shed

 

[robtattoo]

Here's an easy way to tell if you are hunting for meat:

Take the sum of the total dollars you have spent for all of your gear and expenses involving hunting activity. Add this to your daily work wage multiplied by the number of days you have hunted. Divide this by the number of total pounds of meat you have harvested from game.

If your calculated figure is greater than about 7 or 8, you are not hunting for meat.

Don't do that math for Dove hunting, for gods sake.
I roughed it out once & came up with a figure of $8/Oz! Is probably significantly more than that, the longer I do it, but I'm crap with a shotgun

 

[Hnthrdr]

Ps trophy hunting has always been a thing

 

[Rich M]

I dunno why you want to understand - hunt as you see fit.

Most guys go for the biggest because they can pretty much kill stuff at will.

I don't get into just shooting stuff for shooting sake. Am older. Typically kill 1 deer/antelope/beef cow per year. Do enjoy hunting but once I've shot 1 it is pretty much done for the year.

Do what you want as long as it is legal.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

Let me begin by saying that I bring home and eat everything I kill when I am hunting. Saying that, I also don't consider it hunting when I'm shooting prairie dogs & such. Thats just eliminating vermin that are a problem.
I quit shooting geese because for me they are not the best table fare.
I'm not going to pass up a nice buck to look for a bigger one because we like venison. I am not going to shoot a real young buck just because it's legal, but a nice big 3x3 or an average 4x4 get put in my freezer.

 

[TaperPin]

It’s a deep question for a young guy to come to terms with ending animals and what is acceptable and what isn’t. I get questioned about the fun toddler Taper and I have killing sugar ants. We hunt them, look at good spots in the house where we’ve spotted them before - I point out where they like to hide, sometimes we sit and wait for one to come out, other times we sneak around with a flashlight. He knows these are varmints and we don’t kill everything that walks just to kill and torture things. It’s well documented psychopath adults usually did that as kids. Yeah, there are many animal snuff films that are more likely than not made by psychopaths, despite the claim it’s a family tradition.

The question gets deeper when shooting varmints that aren’t hurting anything, and never will. Like shooting field mice, or coyotes so far from civilization or calving grounds they have no real impact on anyone or anything. In many areas overrun with rabbits letting a coyote walk is doing more good than harm.

Being a young man or woman involves coming to terms with a lot of ethical issues and learning which are hard black and white issues and which are shades of gray, which are a result of the paradigm they came from and which are from the paradigm they surround themselves with. If every young adult thought long and hard about how they want to be remembered on their death bed, what personal values they find important (whatever those are), and what they want to look back on, and started living their lives to be congruent with that, we’d all be better off.

 

[Speaks]

Its complicated, and it depends.

Where I deer hunt now there are not a ton and I am doing it more for wanting fresh meat and enjoying the hunt. Even a shot at a doe is uncertain and I will take one every time. When I lived in IA the spot I hunted you could have a doe within an hour of opening morning nearly every time and I was looking for a buck.

I eat mid size fish and let trophy ones go and get a replica.

I love eating grouse and could shoot far more than I do. I rarely take more than one bird from any given cover in a year, generally only hunt each one once, if I know one had been hunted by others I often dont shoot a bird etc.... cant exactly articulate why but its just what I have found my self doing.

I will shoot a yote causing issues, I dont tend to go find yotes to shoot, I have zero problem with it I just dont like it.

Killing produces a mixed feeling..... its complicated and does not fit exactly into worlds or a logical framework I can walk someone through.

 

[CMF]

I have a harder time understanding hunting for the sport of it or to take a trophy to put on the wall. Taking a life for the sake of it feels unfair, especially with the advanced gear we have these days. I didn’t grow up in a hunting family or social circle, so my context on this may be limited / different from some of you

I think 95-99% of people are ultimately hunting for meat.

Hunting for a "trophy" or a particular animal and passing on others to me is a way to extend the experience, increase my time in the field, and improve my skills in the field.

I just hunted bighorn sheep with archery in August. I ultimately killed a 6yo ram that I could have killed on opening day. Instead, I spent 24 days on the mountain pursuing a larger ram unsuccessfully. The stories and memories of those days were amazing and would never have happened if I hadn't pursued a "trophy".

 

[Mule3006Elk]

For me it's not complicated b/c I'm not conflicted. It's legal and I don't waste any meat. My dogs get any scraps or undesirable meat. If it has a nice set of antlers, bonus. I don't trophy hunt per se, but, if my freezer is looking good I am 100% more selective. If my freezer is looking bleak I'm not as picky.

TBH, I feel worse eating beef. That cow never had a chance. I hunt the West and understand it's a lot of work and nothing is guaranteed. The animal more often than not wins. Any meat in the freezer I legit worked my ass off to get it off the mountain. We do our own processing. Public land big game hunting has rarely been easy for me.

Feeding the family organic meat, the hunt experience with my son (amazing bonding time), reloading, physical training, cardio training, doing our own processing, knowing no one but us touched the meat, talking about our hunt experiences for the rest of our lives, priceless.