What is a Trophy Deer?

There is a lot of hype in the deer hunting world about taking a trophy buck. Judging from the emails and pictures we receive at Moultrie it seems like there is no clear definition of a trophy buck. One hunter’s trophy is another hunter’s cull. Moultrie wants to know, what constitutes a trophy buck? Does it depend on where the deer is taken? On one hunting property in the country, a small basket-racked buck may be considered a trophy. While in a different part of the country, a deer would have to score over 200 to be considered a trophy deer. Is a deer a trophy if it is the biggest buck you have ever taken? If you ask a dozen hunters what a trophy buck is, you will probably get a dozen different answers. So let us know by leaving a comment: what does it take for a buck to be a trophy deer?

Comments

[Byron]

My dad always told me that if it's worth paying $250 to put it on the wall; it's a trophy buck. That was the rule we hunted by. We took it a step further, and as a hunting club decided only to take wall hangers and Does for population control. After 5 years of letting small basket bucks pass by, we were able to pick and choose which wall hangers we wanted to take.

[Matt lerminez]

Around our hunting camp, Trophy depends on the person that takes it. We might have someone taking thier first deer, or first with a bow, and a doe is a trophy to them. Where as others have taken hundreds of deer and they might call a trophy anything bigger than thier personal biggest. We hunt alot of public land that is hunted hard so if a buck getts bigg enough to be a cull buck on a show in TV most people in our camp would call them a trophy. In our area any buck that lives to be 3.5 or 4.5 years old has got a real good chance of being a trophy to anyone who hunts in that area. To me personaly in my mind in our area anything that carries ten points one inch or longer would be a trophy. As in our hunting group the largest 5 deer taken in the last 20 years have been 9 points. Larger deer are seen once every few years but never in anyones sights.

[Charles Mallett]

There was a time in the past in my area when there were not very many deer. If you was lucky enough to get a shot at a buck you had better take it, and what ever it was you was proud of it. As things have changed and we have learned to let our young bucks grow and control herd populations things have gotten better. Now a trophy would be a 8 point or better, with a spread of at least 18" or greater, with some mass, which would not be much of a trophy in some places. I have racks of all sizes that I consider trophys. Trophy status is in the eyes of the hunter.