There are some great points made and great posts here.

However, based on my own personal experiences with most of the folks I know in MY area, "meat hunters" are just generally folks that can't hunt very well? Seriously, it seems to be a very good excuse for many folks to just drop the hammer on the first thing brown they see and then head home to brag about the deer they shot. We have also noticed that it is generally one with this "if it's brown, it's down" mentality that are just plain dangerous during the gun seasons around here! These are the folks that are generally involved in the rare hunting accidents that we hear about as well? They feel that they just have to get "their" deer. Like there are deer running around out there with their names on 'em and they just have to get their tag on one no matter what?

I have found that the vast majority of folks that call themselves "trophy hunters" are involved in the hunt, the experience, and overall love of whitetials that runs far deeper than most "meat hunters" could ever understand. I'm not saying that ALL meat hunters are like this but there are MANY! I do happen to know some great guys that will head to the woods every fall with the sole purpose of taking home some backstraps and that's exactly what they truly want to do, (just like some of the good guys in the posts above) BUT they are a rare breed. This is actually something I have heard talked about by many "trophy hunters" in this region. Overall, I just think the trophy hunter is a much more serious and intense sportsman! You see the same thing in fishing all the time. You've got the wanker on the bank with a stringer of bass and then you have the serious "sportsman" floating on the water in his bass rig releasing his fish!