Again, there is nothing wrong with trophy hunting.....but if it comes at the expense of having fun then thats where I take issue with it. If the disappointment of not being able to connect on a trophy deer year after year (or ANY deer your after for that matter) starts to weigh on you or if you start to second guess yourkills then I suspect folks need to take a step back and re-evaluate why they started hunting in the first place. Hunting for me has never been a pissing contest and while I enjoy being involved in the hunting contest here on HNI it will never weigh on the type or sizeof deer I decide to kill. Sure I set goals each year as to what I'd like to kill but more often than not I end up killing what strikes my fancy at the moment of truth, when a deer presents itself. Sometimes it's a P&Y and sometimes it's not but make no mistake about it, both bring me happiness, joy and a sense of accomplishment and I've enjoyed myself to the utmost extreme......no matter what's laying in the bed of my truck.

This also applies to any type of animal I'm hunting with any type of weapon. I'll never consider myself as a "bow hunter" I would never want to be constricted to such a narrow moniker. I'm a hunter period. I hunt pretty much every game animal my state offers and then some out of state (time permitting). I have just as much (if not more) fun upland bird hunting or calling in Drakes or outsmarting Coyotes as I do bow hunting deer.

I hunt because I enjoy it and the challenges each different game animal and weaponpresents. The day it starts to no longer be fun due to the self imposed restrictions as to what I should kill is the day I stop hunting. As I've said before, I'm sure there a many here who enjoy trophy hunting immensely but I suspect there are far more thatbecome miserable and disenchanted with hunting because of it.