Obsession with horn size... ugh...

Does it bug anyone else when they are reading a magazine article and when they kill the animal, or in many cases before the even shoot it, the horns become a huge issue? Sometimes no regard at all is paid to the fact that a magnificant animal just got killed- it's all about the mass, symetry, brow tines, all that stuff. Or when an animal is described as excellent but they are not talking about the animal at all-only about it's horns. It could be a stringy, lame old buck with a festering sore on it's hip but it's 'excellent'.

To each their own... it just gets to me some times and I feel a little embarrassed to be associated with it as a hunter. I'll personally take a nice 3-year-old buck over a tired old buck with a big rack. You have to eat the thing after all. Or maybe that's it- maybe these professional writers aren't actually eating these deer they shoot on the private ranches and game farms anyway.

First off, I don't mean this personally. But, you feed the fires of the anti hunter group when you talk like that. This plays right into the argument that we only kill things for 'sport'. (Whatever that is about) Personally, I hunt animals for a variety of reasons, and among them is the seeking of trophy racks and the like. Typically, I spend the first part of a season trying for the biggest rack I can find, then, if I am unsuccessful, I bag the best meat animal I can find. Also, I have killed numerous elk and deer that were everything from calfs on up to almost toothless. I have found that the bigger, and older an animal is, the better the meat is. (With a couple of exceptions.) In fact, the worst meat I ever bagged was from calf elk, and I will pass one up entirely, even if it means not filling out my antlerless tag. I have only seen one animal killed in all my hunting that was too old to be good eating. I would also like to say, that I have personally met two of the most well known western hunting writers, and they don't seem like the candy-assed type that would kill only for a mount or a rack. In fact, they seem to take the actual hunting more seriously than the fame and career. Finally, and again, this is not to be too personal, but,.......... I find that people who talk like you about hunting for racks, or fishing for size, or bagging the limit, are typically the ones who haven't learned how to bag those elusive creatures, and are merely trying to console themselves as they use such arguments as a prop!! Is that you? If not, tell us what is wrong with wanting a certain level of achievement, or a goal, so to

Not at all. When an animal of that size etc.gets shot it means that he is at the peak of his vigor and will shortly begin to go downhill. He has already had the chance to pass on his superior genes to younger animals. In Europe, where every Forester knows his deer herd by their first names, they *harvest* them that way. Your three year old is just getting up to good breeding age. If you're meat hunting stick with the antlerless deer. But when properly field dressed, boned out, and cooked a 5x5 will be just as tasty. And you usually get more meat.

Bill Van Houten (USA Ret)

Thermopylae had it's messenger of defeat, COME AND GET THEM ! The Alamo had none.

I do have my issues with 'sport' hunting, such as varmint hunting done for no good reason other than to go blow something up. But that's a different issue.

As far as fueling the fires ... well... I don't talk like that often, just so you know. My wife had just scored me a batch of hunting mags at a library sale for pennies, and many of them were less about hunting that about spooging all over 'the rack'. I understand that in any human endeavor, a score will be kept, a scale created, a yardstick or whatever. Still... to read about these animals treated, in print anyway, as if their entire existance was reduced to their rack on a wall hits me wrong. I guess if the entire focus of the entire hunt is to find the right rack, then it makes sense to describe it that way when writing the story. Just reads funny to me. One story, about caribou hunting, was almost comical.

I do understand that deer/elk/whatever with large horns are less common and tend to be smarter, so they provide a natural place for more experienced hunters to go when smaller younger deer get too easy. But we both know it's not that simple and that the quest for large horns is somewhat...eh...'impure' in it's motives.

I hunt blacktail deer and it's true, I've never killed an old one- a 3 pt (western, 4x4 eastern) is the biggest. I did screw up on a biiig deer last year and I'd have shot him in a heartbeat, in fact I tried hard for a few more days but I think he'd blown out of the property I was hunting into an area I had no access to. Short story, I was trying to get my younger brother his first deer and I held off shooting until it was too late so HE could shoot, but he didn't have a shot/couldn't find it in his scope/etc. That hurt; I had him NAILED. But my point is, if I'd shot that deer, I would not have come to this group talking about the width of the 5th metatartoid point (I know that's not right) or the symmetry or spread- I'd have talked about what a grand old creature he was. It just bugs me that the obsession with the horns has reached the level it has, is all. Maybe, among hunters, it is IMPLIED and I just don't realize it- but it does not seem that way! Seems like a bunch of my-rack-is-bigger-than-your-rack stuff, and THAT adds fuel to the anti's IMHO.

Hunters need to talk about all aspects of hunting. The anti-hunters have all the ammunition they can make up, and are not concerned with facts or ethics. It's a fact that we do hunt for sport. My favorite hunting sport is bird hunting, just because there is a lot more fun associated with wing shooting all weekend, vs. shooting one deer and spending the rest of the day taking care of the carcass.

I think a lot of hunters have trouble understanding trophy hunting. Trophy hunting was historically the pursuit of the idle rich, and it is still a status symbol. To someone who comes from a food hunting background, the idea of dusting the meat with Boraxo while you are skinning your kill is as unthinkable as leaving the hide on and hauling the whole animal to a taxidermist.

I don't even carry a camera when I hunt. It would just be one more thing to haul around. I don't really mind guys playing Teddy Roosevelt, who want to shoot one of everything and mount the heads to prove it, but I have no interest in it either.

The last few years I will admit I have become somewhat obsessed with horn size. I have been really holding out for a nice mature mule deer buck. I don't really care what score he must score as far as P&Y or B&C but I have my own idea of what a trophy buck is and have been holding out for it. The fun part is passing on all the smaller bucks looking for 'the one'. The first couple decent bucks where kind of hard to pass but after a few it becomes easier and now for some reason it is very satisfying to me when I let one walk. I feel I have done more to help the deer herd by not shooting little bucks than any negatives there are for being a trophy hunter (and that defination of trophy is different for every person). Some areas around here most the smaller bucks get taken out on opening morning of the rifle hunt then hunters complain that there are no older class bucks around, if they would let some of those smaller bucks walk then there would be some bigger bucks.

Someone a whole lot wiser than me once observed that hunters typically go through three stages. First, and usually the youngest, are those who relate hunting ability to filling the bag the fullest. Next are those who have progressed past the 'more is better' stage to the 'bigger is better' stage. Finally, mostly the graybeard group, are those of us who are glad we are still able to get out into the woods - and if we do manage to outwit either the food and/or trophy, it is merely the icing on the cake.

I do know I am now perfectly happy when the bag only holds memories of a day spent in the field with a good friend - or even a so-so dog. But some precious memories are still to be found in those days when I am good (lucky) enough to have outwitted a long beard, old honker or 5x5 buck as well.

Skip

Skip & Christy Hensler THE ROCK GARDEN Newport, WA