I am sure that we have all heard the phrase, “A trophy is in the eye of the beholder.” I believe this statement to be all too true when referring to whitetail deer. I have friends that will proudly take any opportunity at any deer that presents itself. They are happy to put some meat in the freezer. I have friends that are thrilled to be able to arrow anything over 120 inches. I also have friends that won’t even take their bow off the hanger if the deer is not going to at least gross boone. I myself fall somewhere in the middle, if I see a deer and it makes my heart pound and adrenaline rush, that deer becomes my trophy.
I want to propose that we are all trophy hunters, but not all of our trophies look the same. I have very respectable deer hanging on my wall that are great trophies to me. I also have a freezer full of meat off a big, corn-fed, Iowa doe that I killed last year. That too is a trophy in my book.
I remember the first deer I ever harvested just like it was yesterday. I was hunting with my family on a 300 acre farm in southwest Missouri. I had a spike buck stop in the timber about sixty yards from my stand. I carefully aimed through the iron sites of my .270 Savage rifle and slowly pulled the trigger. As the echo of the shot rang in my ears I watched my deer run off and then fall over dead. That deer was and is my first real hunting trophy.
In this short article I just want to encourage all hunters to enjoy what has been created for us. What constitutes a trophy? In my opinion a trophy cannot be measured in inches, but rather by the experience they produce and the memories they capture. A true trophy is able to bring you back to the exact place-and-time and allow you relive the experience over-and-over and to be able to share that memory with others; now that is the Trophy of a Lifetime.
