Hunting for meat vs trophy

[iamthenick]

I hunt nw florida, not really any trophy bucks here, but I do "trophy hunt" more than meat hunt.
We are allowed 5 deer a year and I could have tagged out the in November and we are allowed to hunt through February.

I enjoy hunting more than I do killing and I usually kill 2 a year but I pass up on a handful of legal smaller bucks. I would imagine most people who go after the older bucks do the same.

 

[Tuf343]

Real talk from a guy who’s trophy hunted a bit and eaten everything


Most trophy hunters aren’t just killing for a wall decoration. They’re usually targeting older, mature animals big racks, past prime breeding that are already on the way out. Taking that animal

Opens resources for younger, healthier ones
Funds massive conservation tags, licenses, outfitters pay millions into habitat wildlife programs
Provides tons of meat most guys I know eat it all or donate

The sport part is the challenge fair chase, long hikes, reading sign, one clean shot. Modern gear levels the field, but the animal still has every advantage in its home turf most hunts end with tag soup.


It’s not taking a life for the sake of it it’s selective harvest with purpose. The mount is just a reminder of the experience, respect, and story, like photos from a trip.

If it still feels off to you, totally fair hunting’s personal. But for most trophy guys, it’s conservation challenge meat, not ego.

 

[Jethro]

I don’t use the term trophy hunting. IMO there is no such thing. It’s all just hunting. What historically was used as a slur from antis is now used by hunters to describe other hunters that choose to be selective in what they kill. Just the other day the trophy word was used to describe having an e/s tag and passing on cows to shoot a bull. I don’t buy it.

Possessing a tag earns you the right to decide how to legally fill it. If I have a tag, I get to decide what to shoot. If you have a tag, you get to decide.

 

[IAm_Not_Lost]

Short answer is that as hunters get more and more experienced they want to experience more and more exciting things.

You see it in every hobby or sport. As you get used to whatever you’re doing you want to up the ante over and over.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

My trophy days are well behind me, now it's just for the meat, so I only hunt cows anymore.

 

[Kauaihunter]

All I care about is getting out there and enjoying myself for as long as I can. Sharing the experiences with hunting buddies is the best part. Bagging some meat is a welcomed bonus. Seeing a young hunter you’ve mentored have success and the ear to ear grin is awesome.

 

[Gobihawk]

I had a triple bypass a couple of years ago. Doctors tell me I should eat beef once a week but I can eat venison every day of the week. Better quality of meat. Better quality of life. In the woods at first light and watch the outdoors come to life is priceless.

 

[ColPenguin]

You framed the whole premise as a false dichotomy that people either hunt for meat, or trophies, exclusively.

 

[butcherboy]

I’m a meat hunter. I become a trophy hunter if a trophy animal just happens to be available for a shot. I don’t target bigger animals or give them ridiculous names. I’m lucky to draw an elk tag every 4-5 years so I’m not picky. Haven’t killed a deer since 2000 because I can’t draw a tag. My goal is always meat first and trophy second.

 

[jyen]

I have eaten a few big bulls that were great and one that was bad, but the worst elk I’ve ever eaten was a spike shot in 15 degree weather, dropped immediately and gutted and skinned within 45 minutes. The other bull that was with it was a spike also and my uncle said it tased great..

 

[jolemons]

Trophy hunter here, but my family also relies on game meat. If I don't find a trophy that I want to use a tag on during the season, I'll take a cow for meat. I've hunted and guided enough that I'm pretty particular about what I will kill as a trophy.

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[Slickhill]

I don’t have any issue shooting does or cows for the freezer. I shoot raghorn bulls too because they’re what’s available most of the time in one place I hunt.

But when it comes to bucks if I’m hunting with a rifle I ain’t shooting any dinks. A: my season would be over in minutes B: I see no reason to smoke a forkie when I can shoot 4 does. When I occasionally draw a mule deer buck tag I have no reason to shoot a little buck as I have some good ones on the wall and I can shoot plenty of generally better eating whitetail does and cow elk back home.

During archery season my standards are lower. I hunt with single string bows off the ground. My personal effective range of 20 yards and in makes it much more challenging.

 

[Dmoua]

I just hunt. When an opportunity presents itself, I’ll decide in the moment if I want to kill it or continue hunting. I leave very little behind to waste when I do kill an animal.

Most hunters want to shoot big animals but that just doesn’t happen all the time.

 

[huntingfish83]

Person to person i guess. I eat everthing i kill. And the main reason i hunt is meat. I do "trophy hunt" through the season. If im lucky and get that trophy he ends up in the freezer too. If i didnt eat the meat i probably wouldnt hunt. More fishing i think.

 

[buffybr]

I didn't grow up in a hunting family, so I didn't go on my first hunt until I was in college and went deer hunting with one of my roommates. The deer that I shot was a spike buck and I proudly hung his antlers on my bedroom wall. We also enjoyed eating the little white packages of his venison that winter.

I hunted with that roommate again the next year and I shot my first elk. That bull gave us so much meat that we had to rent a meat locker, and his meat fed us for the rest of that school year. And I proudly hung his 5x5 antlers in our living room.

After college and 3 years with Uncle Sam, I came home, got married, and began my career working in the Colorado and then Montana mountains. For most of the next 40 some years I was able to put an elk in my freezer.

As my enjoyment of hunting grew, I shot my 1st balck bear and my 1st pronghorn antelope. My family enjoyed eating their meat, and those two animals started my taxidermy colllection which has grown to 80 mounts.

After moving to Montana my hunting opportunities really expanded. I have been lucky enough to have drawn tags and hunted all of Montana's big game animals, and have gone on a dozen Alaskan and other international hunts. Most of those hunts ended with me bringing home animal trophies to have mounted, but I have also brought home meat from the deer, caribou, sheep, moose, and muskox that I shot there.

On my paid hunts in Alaska and abroad, I seek the largest animal of the species that I am hunting, but as a Trophy Hunter, I have come home with just tag soup. On my Newfoundland moose and caribou hunt, we didn's see any caribou, and I turned down make able shots on 3 bull moose because they didn't have antlers as big as the Shiras bull moose that I had shot here in Montana.

On one of my Montana Unlimited bighorn sheep hunts I turned down 20 yard shots at standing legal rams beause I had shot a full curl ram the year before was hoping for a larger one. Bighorn sheep meat is some of the best wild meat that I have ever eaten.

Americans cannot legally bring home any meat from African hunts, but all of the meat from the trophy hunted game there is eaten in camp or by the local people. On the morning of the second day of my Leopard hunt in Mozambique I shot a baboon for bait. They put it in a plastic bucket in the back of the truck where it rode all day in 99* heat. We didn't put it out for bait that afternoon and I shot my Leopard that night, so my PH gave it to his staff. They cooked it, guts, feathers, and all the next day and ate it.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I follow revenge hunting. I feed the elk all summer in my hay fields. I put up with the mangled and broken bales. I sleep with a fan so I don't have to listen to the bugeling all night long.

When the season comes I take what is offered. I don't pass up anything.

 

[grfox92]

Hey y’all

I totally get the reasoning behind hunting to feed your family or others, getting closer to the food you eat, etc. Any meat I make or eat I always respect and honor the life that was taken to feed us.

I also understand taking life for ecosystem management (assuming we know what we’re doing, though there’s plenty of examples in history of humans messing up an ecosystem by introducing or removing species…)

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

Zero judgment, I’m just trying to educate myself / understand how you guys see the ethical considerations behind trophy hunting.

Thanks for your thoughts and honesty

What is your experience hunting? Have you hunted before, are you just getting into hunting? Why did you make an account here?

More red flags than a bull fight here.....

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[go_deep]

I hunt for trophy meat.

 

[Andrew12gauge]

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.

I’ll simplify your formula for you
$ spent on hunting license & tags+$ spent on fuel+$ spent on ammunition shot at game/lbs of game meat in the freezer

The gear is used over a lifetime, I enjoy shooting even if I wasn’t hunting and I get paid for my time away from work so none of those get included. I especially laugh when people say you have to include food costs for your hunting trip because I’m usually eating on venison chili(with beans) or venison stew in hunting camp and I’ve got news I eat when I’m at home or at work too


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[GSPHUNTER]

I’ll simplify your formula for you
$ spent on hunting license & tags+$ spent on fuel+$ spent on ammunition shot at game/lbs of game meat in the freezer

The gear is used over a lifetime, I enjoy shooting even if I wasn’t hunting and I get paid for my time away from work so none of those get included. I especially laugh when people say you have to include food costs for your hunting trip because I’m usually eating on venison chili(with beans) or venison stew in hunting camp and I’ve got news I eat when I’m at home or at work too


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Does the $$$$$ about really matter as long as you are enjoying the hunt. to me it matters not.