ORIGINAL: WestVirginiaBrent

"Trophy Hunting" is such a interpretable concept/term. To me it means someone that pays an outfitter to sit them in a shed over a pile of corn where they know a big one is and then they shoot it, cape it out for a mountand donate the rest of the meat to Hunters for the Homeless.

While I love a lot of hunting shows, I just roll my eyes that a lot of the published writers in the magazine are nothing more than point and shoot guided"hunters" with money and time on their hands.

I don't shoot little bucks any more, but I am far from a trophy hunter. I want 2.5+ year old deer, regardless of what their rack looks like. My largest to date is a 110" 10 pointer that I got this year, a trophy of a lifetime for where I hunt.

To me deer hunting involves everything that goes with shooting a deer, the drag, the butchering, the camraderie, the ribbing,the smoking/cooking, etc... I want to do it all because that is what it's about to me. I am amazed at the number of hunters that not only haven't ever processed their deer but don't even know how to do it. There is more to hunting than sitting in a tree, shooting it, then dropping it off at the local butcher shop. The work and pain in the ass factor is all part of the journey and ends up being a fond memory later or. Skinning a frozen deer with frozen hands in frozen conditions makes that meat that much tastier and rewarding.

As to why I don't shoot little ones, I am just not into it anymore. Call it elitism or just plain not rewarding to me anymore but I just feel like any one can do it where I hunt. If I needed some meat for jerky I would tag a doe in the final day or something. I hunt WV browse deer, on the ground, and our land is still unmanaged at the moment although I am not against food plots, I just haven't been able to do it.

As long as a hunter is happy with how they are doing it then they should keep on keeping on, to each his own. As for me, I'll put in all the work until I am unable to do it and hopefully I pass that ethic to my children. I never give a guy a hard time for shooting a little one and I wish I could say I don't feel some resentment from a few hunting friends for me holding out and bagging the larger bucks our area supports.