RE: Trophy or just a nice deer?
IMHO, If a deer is hunted ethically and fairly the manner of finally dispatching it should not matter. If our kids play football in High School (obviously not the hardest level), and win every game to we give them a Trophy for that, or just tell them nice season? What I am trying to say is the weapon used should not determine if a deer is a trophy or not. In that case, If I used a knife to hunt could I tell a bow-hunter nice deer, but still think my knife taken deer is a tropy. It would obviously take more "skill" to take a deer with a knife rather than a bow.
My first deer was a doe, and it is my most exciting deer hunt yet. That was my "trophy" and I used a gun. I don't think that using a gun is just like shooting deer in a barrel, but to say that it is a nice deer, not a trophy is making it sound that way. Just my opinion.