prairienights

I'm a brand new hunter. I fired my first rifle this year, I learned the difference between a bolt action and a lever action this year, I went on my first hunting trips, and I took my first doe fawn this year. I'm a newb, through and through. Nobody in my family ever hunted or ate game meat when I was growing up even though we live in beautiful Northern Wyoming. I finally took matters into my own hands this year and got myself out in the field.

I went on several hunting trips before I ever even thought about shooting my own deer. We saw several bucks, several does, and tons and tons of fawns. For every grown deer, we saw several fawns. On my first trip out when I was planning on actually hunting, I passed up a buck. He was probably a 6 or 8 pointer, a decent size especially for a first buck. I passed him up, he was just too big, too much meat, and I couldn't care less about antlers. When I finally shot my deer, I was set up and had the choice between two doe fawns and a doe. I took one of the fawns. It's just me who will be eating the venison, and I have limited freezer space. I'm a 125lb girl who maybe eats meat once a week, lol. The 31lbs of tender yummy fawn meat I got off my deer is plenty, and I couldn't be more thrilled with it.

Anyways, I'm just curious. I'm not sure if it's because I'm such a new hunter or if it's a common sentiment to be so apathetic about antlers. I was hunting for meat only. I truly think that if I was set up to take a massive trophy buck, I'd probably pass. For one, because I know somebody would be much more excited about taking him than me, and also, just too much meat. When I was looking at that buck that I passed up through my scope, all I could see was waaay too much meat for me, lol. I have no desire to keep a trophy, mount a trophy, or anything else.

In no way am I implying that antler/trophy hunters or meat hunters are more legitimate, I'm just curious to see if I'm the only hunter out there that truly honestly can't get myself to care about the antlers, lol.