RE: What's a trophy?
 

To answer the simple question....there are 2 types of trophies, absolutes and conditionals. Absolutes are easy they are the big book bucks, that are considered gigantic regardless of the areas they come from. Conditionals are trophies that for one reason or another are extremely special to the person who took them. Size, situation, experience, what ever the case may be.

Now I probably wouldn't turn down a free hunt from the king ranch, just for the experience itself. I don't think I'd feel very proud of the deer I took there, cause it just seems like you are picking thru the herd and eventually one of the right size walks by. You don't have to match wits or anything like that. I'm not such a glutton as to only want to kill big bucks on hard pressured public land, but somewhere in the middle is nice. Enough pressure to keep things honest, but not a slaughter before the deer get to show potential.

RE: What's a trophy?
 

I didn't read most of the posts in this thread because I don't want to get caught up in the same old argument. We seem to get into it right before season every year and it gets old.

Any legal deer is a trophy to me, antlers or no antlers.

RE: What's a trophy?
 

I stay away from public land due t othe amount of idiots that hunt it, i used to hunt a large farm that backed up to gov. land and it seemed all we did instead of hunting was hear truck doors slam, watch orange vests walk all over the place and run people off POSTED land. You cant control your boundaries as well being surrounded by public land than being surrounded by private land. Deer are alot more spooked also, IMOA ill take private land away from public land any day, thats hunting in the south though

RE: What's a trophy?
 

I've hunted public and private lands in the past and I'm exclusively on a private hunt club now. I've killed nice bucks on public land, but I've also have had many terrible public hunts because of the number of people there. Public land, at least in GA, just doesn't allow you to do the things that make a quality hunt. For instance, you can forget about patterning bucks because they are under so much pressure when the hunt is on, they're just busy trying to survive a few days. It's the truly lucky hunter that has success on a nice buck on GA public lands today. That's my experience and viewpoint yet I'm sure they are exceptions even in GA.

Public land does serve a purpose in that it allows those who can't afford a private club the opportunity to hunt. I still say when you can afford it, private land is the way to go. Now I'm not talking about pay hunts and high fences. Get your buddies together and lease a tract, put some effort into it and enjoy making it a great place to hunt.

RE: What's a trophy?
 

DEPENDING WHERE YOU HUNT PUBLIC OR PRIVATE LAND DEER POP. SOME HUNTERS NEVER GET A CHANCE TO SEE DEER ALL THE TIME. I FEEL IF YOU SHOOT A DEER WITH A BOW IT COULD BE A TROPHEY FOR ALL THE TIME THEY SPENT PRACTICING,SCOUTING, PROPER SAND PLACEMENT,IT PAYED OFF FOR ALL THEIR HARD WORK IN MY OPNION!!

RE: What's a trophy?
 

You people dont know cheat, please get your facts straight before you bad mouth something. The king ranch is NOT high fenced, but it does happen to be one of the largest private ranches in the world. It covers over 825,000 acres and is pretty much one continous peice of land. You cant get much more "Wide open spaces" then that. The king ranch makes more money off of oil and gas each year then the saudi royal family does so they probably dont really care what you think of them anyway, but please find out what your talking about before you speak.

RE: What's a trophy?
 

Charlie P:

Sense it was my quote that started this thread, I guess I can answer some of the questions that you contiue to ask.


Just because that deer has little hunting pressure, does not mean it is "tame" or easy to hunt. What is your defintion of "a good deal of human contact"?


Old mature deer are wild animals, it makes no difference if they live on heavily hunted land or land that recieves very little hunting. Deer are not going to lose there fear of humans just because they arent shot at every time they stick there head out of the brush. Deer ( along with all wild animals) have evolved to fear humans.


Why would you think that they arent any smarter then deer that live on heavily hunted public land? Your above question is pretty dumb, and it is clear that you dont have much experience in the topic that you are talking about. What is the big deal?? Belive it or not, any time a true trophy buck is taken (150"+) people are impressed with it. Old mature bucks are hard to hunt/kill no matter where you hunt.

On the ranches that I manage, alot of the old mature bucks are never seen. We have some truly huge bucks running around but the only time we see them is on trail camera pictures, during the rut, and/or when we do a helicopter survey. These deer have thousands of acres to roam and have little reason to step out of the thick brush, so the chances of them being seen is very slim.

I'll contiue..........

RE: What's a trophy?
 

Charlie P:


Your talking about 10,000 acres, that is alot of land, and the fact that only 6 guys hunt all of this land is what makes taking a big buck on it so special. There is such a huge area for these deer to roam and hide that it makes them pretty hard to find when there are only 12 eyeballs looking for them.

Look at it this way,

Lets say you take 10,000 acres of extremely heavily hunted public land in PA. You cant walk out in the woods with out seeing several other hunters. Every deer out there seems to get shot or atleast shot at. So what is the big deal if you shoot a deer out here?? The deer out here have very few areas to hide, and they are running from hill to hill dodging bullets. So what is so special about killing a 1 1/2 year old buck in this area, if you didnt somebody else would have.


People who hunt heavily hunted public land seem to hold a grudge against the hunters who hunt on private land. I find it quite funny when a public land hunter tries to degrade a buck that was taken off of private land. Honestly most private land hunters, myself included, could not care less what some guy from N.Y, P.A, or any other state for that matter, thinks of us or the areas we hunt.

You may never personally want to hunt a managed 10,000 acre private ranch, that is ok. I personally would never want to hunt a pressured piece of public land. I would give up hunting if it ever came to that.

RE: What's a trophy?
 

Rybo Hunter:

All I can do is laugh at that statement.

Lets say your riding with a king ranch guide, he opens your door, tells you to get out, drives off and leaves you in the middle of a 20,000 acre pasture. Do you think you would have to "match wits or anything like that" if you wanted to kill a nice deer?? Would you be proud of the buck you killed?? But I'm sure you wouldn't have much time to "pick thru the herd" because you would be to busy trying to find your way out of the brush. The border patrol might find you, if your lucky.

LOL some people just crack me up.......

RE: What's a trophy?
 

ok, so i had a wrong impression from reading everybody else's responses. I did not realize the magnitude of the ranches land area, or the style of hunting employed. My picture was sitting in a box blind watching buck after buck parade through the area of a much lesser expanse with a fence around it, just waiting to shoot one that is big enough.
I jumped the gun and opened my mouth too quick.

Just as you have a hard time understanding competing with dozens of other people who want to shoot every deer they see, I have a hard time understanding getting mad at a kid for shooting a buck before its time.

You still have to concede that consistently shooting a mature buck in a heavily hunted area is much more difficult than on a ranch that has dozens and dozens of them.