Like beauty, trophies are in the eyes of the beholder. I killed my first deer when I was in college, and I proudly hung those spike antlers on my bedroom wall of our apartment. We also ate every bit of meat from that deer.

On the Alaska caribou hunt that I posted about earlier, I boned out all of the meat from that caribou and packed and froze it in waxed cardboard salmon boxes and brought it home. My family and I enjoyed eating that meat for several months and now that the meat is long gone, I still enjoy seeing that mounted bull on my wall. The logistics and costs of going to Alaska from the lower 48 do not economically justify that as a "meat hunt."

Although I couldn't eat all of the meat from the animals that I have shot in Africa, most of it was processed and utilized in the camps and by their staff. I also enjoyed the meals prepared from the animals that I shot there, and now every day that I'm home I enjoy seeing those mounts on my walls and remembering those hunts.

Alaska and Africa are both are great hunting destinations and I have wonderful memories from hunting both.