During my last hunting trip while sitting in a Redneck blind waiting for that giant trophy whitetail to magically appear I got to thinking about what being a trophy hunter really means.  Over the years the name “trophy hunter” has been beaten up pretty badly.  Most of the hunting organizations, who are truly trophy hunters, try to stay low key and don’t even want to put the size of the animal harvested in print.  I remember the last big hullabaloo was when an American doctor shot a lion that was “according to the news” a pet.  I don’t remember all the details but it started out as a guided hunt in an open area but the lion ended up dying in a sanctuary.  They even gave the lion a name.  The anti-hunters and media made such a big deal out of it that most of us really don’t know what actually happened.  Stories like this, true or not, give all hunters a bad rap.  The same people that spread that story are now busy allowing monuments to be torn down, watching cities being burned and dictating what we can and cannot say.  WOKE is in and I guess I’m about the most UNWOKE person around.  The old white guy.  I can live with that but this craziness must stop.

No matter what group of hunters you associate with, meat hunters, causal hunters, subsistence hunters or trophy hunters we must all stick together.  Divided we will fall and that’s what the anti’s want.  They want to divide us.  We all should be against law breakers like poachers and unethical hunters.

There are many definitions for “Trophy Hunter.”  Mine is, “any hunter that is willing to pass up harvesting a legal or good representative of the specie that they’re hunting in hopes of harvesting a larger or an older animal - a selective hunter.”  I think the vast majority of hunters are that way.  Many people think trophy hunters don’t eat the meat.  I don’t believe that is true.  It is just secondary to harvesting a great representative of the species they are hunting.  When I was guiding most of my clients were trophy hunters.  If they weren’t, I tried to make them one by telling them to pass on the smaller animals.  I remember one bow hunter from PA that had won a donated free caribou hunt.  The first day we spotted a very small bull caribou that I called a “Dink”.  The hunter wanted to go after it.  I told him, no way.  He told me he had never passed on a legal animal.  I told him he was going to that day.  The next day the same thing happened and I made him pass again.  On the third day he harvested a beautiful 365-point P&Y caribou.  He was thrilled and thanked me for not letting him shoot the smaller caribou.

I think the main reason most guided hunters are trophy hunters is that they have a large amount of money invested in the hunt.  I also think it is easier to be a trophy hunter if you have enough cash to hunt more and to also hunt in different areas.  Because of finances some hunters are restricted to their local area so it is harder for them to pass hoping for something larger.

What is a trophy anyway?  It is said that a trophy is in the eye of the beholder.  So, it doesn’t have to be a record book animal for most hunters to call the kill a trophy.  A trophy is also a reward you receive when you win.  I feel hunting is like that as you are matching wits with the animal you are hunting.  Usually, the older animals are smarter.  That’s mainly the reasons it is harder to harvest the largest of the specie.   I have always told my bear hunting clients that bears don’t get big by being mean they get big by being smart.  I think it’s the challenge that most of us enjoy.  Chasing after that giant whitetail buck, that 40” ram or that 60” moose, is what gets us fired up.  The end result however, for a trophy hunter, is that they are not always successful.  But when they are, they want to honor that trophy.  That is why they have all the different record books.  That is part of the reward for all the hard work that goes into harvesting a great animal. 

Because of my assignment to Alaska, I became a trophy hunter at an early age. Alaska’s game rich land allowed me to harvest some wonderful animals.  I loved the challenge so after I harvested my first two rams, I decided I was going to get a 40 incher.  I did!  After that I wanted to take a ram with my little “Kodiak Magnum” recurve bow.  I did that also and that ram was at that time number 3 in the Pope and Young Record Book.  After that I hunted for five years with my bow looking for a ram that would score high enough to make it into the B&C Record Book and that score back then would have been the world record in the P&Y Record Book.  On the sixth year I took my rifle instead of my bow and harvested another 40” ram that scored 167 2/8 B&C.  Had I harvested that ram with my bow, he would have been the new P&Y world record and I truly believe I could have taken that ram with my bow.  My final ram was a 41 incher and then I began my guiding career.  That was 38 years ago and I haven’t harvested a sheep for myself since.

I did the same thing with the mountain goat.  I harvested two, then I went looking for a 9” “Billy.” I was successful, then I harvested my first one with my bow.  I shot my last and largest goat a 9 1/8” Billy with my “Kodiak Magnum” recurve.  It placed 12th in the P&Y Record Book.

For some reason when I started hunting brown bear, I set my expectations really high looking for a 10-footer and after four hunts and being in on six different kills with friends I ended up with a 9’2”.  I changed to hunting them with my bow and after five more hunts ending up shooting an 8’6” with my hunting partner Lyle Thompson’s rifle.  I think at the time I had only seen one 10’ brown bear.  Once I started guiding and became a partner in AAA Alaskan Outfitters, my first bear hunter harvested a 10’2” B&C brown bear.  Just my luck!

Now that I have retired from the guide business, I have started seriously hunting deer.  I think it is an animal that an old man may have a chance at harvesting a Boone & Crockett.  I planned on giving it a shot.  I have previously taken a beautiful 151 gross score whitetail in WY along with a 167 gross score mule deer with Dan Artery.  Both, I feel are great representatives of those two types of deer.  

In 2005 I harvested my first Sitka blacktail on Kodiak hunting out of my friend, Paul Chervenak’s, cabin in Zacker Bay.  I love hunting those little guys

I wanted a big 5x5 blacktail so I talked to another good friend, Dana Bertolini, who recommended a few good areas.  On that next hunt I shot a small 5x5 but my grandson, Jared, harvested a great 4x5 that net scored 96 B&C points and won him first place in the youth division in Boonedock’s Big Buck contest.  My goal then changed to taking a B&C Record Book buck.  Nine hunts later I harvested my next deer a beautiful 5x5 that gross scored 107 5/8.  That was the first morning of that hunt in a new area.  Finally, a great deer.  Not quite the 108 minimum net score required for the all-time B&C Record Book but a super buck.  Two years later I ended up with another super deer gross scoring 108.  Two great Sitka deer.

Now back to where I started this story about trophy hunting.  I have a good friend, Matt Caldwell, who has taken two B&C whitetail deer in one year and numerous deer in the 160 class.  He was born and raised in Illinois and hunts deer on his property every year.  He has invited me many times over the last 35 years to come down and hunt whitetails with him.  Matt and I met when he hunted with AAA Alaskan Outfitters and I guided him.  Four years ago, I decided to take him up on his offer.  I told him that I had taken a 151 B&C whitetail in WY and that I wasn’t planning on harvesting anything less than a record book deer.  That may have been too high of a standard.  My first hunt there was unbelievable.  You can read all the details in my post “Hunting Whitetail Deer.”  I saw a least 20 different good bucks and two that were close to B&C, at least 160.  Seventy-three yards was as close as they came to me.  Hunting with a Ten-point crossbow has its draw backs.  As a trophy hunter seeing a giant and taking a giant is two different things.  That is part of hunting.  On the evening of the third to the last day of the hunt I harvested a beautiful 150 class deer that I misjudged because of him having shorter G-2’s than his G-3’s.  He also had double brow which look great but don’t score well.  I was super pleased with him but he wasn’t the deer I wanted.  I went back the following year and did get to see one of the big deer that I spotted the year before with split G-2’s but he never came closer than 60 yards which again was too far for a good crossbow shot.  I left without a deer which was fine with me.  Matt of course really wanted me to take a deer.  As we all know they can only get bigger by letting them grow.

I told Matt I had given it two good tries and that I wasn’t going to come down the following year, 2020.  Because of the Covid restrictions I was glad that I hadn’t planned on going.  As I stated before, being a trophy hunter and not having unlimited access to the species that you are hunting limits your chance of taking a great buck.  However, for some reason I kept thinking about those big whitetails.  I love those guys and have become somewhat obsessed, reading stories and looking at any sites that have pictures of those beautiful giants.  I am fortunate to have a friend like Matt that has an area where there is a chance to harvest one of those super bucks.  

I called Matt again in the spring of ’21 and asked if I could come back down one more time that fall.  Being the generous guy he is, he said yes.  Illinois had an early spring and a great corn crop so I felt this was going to be the year!  But after eight and half days of sitting in the Redneck blind and seeing over 20 different bucks, two of them in the 140-150 class and both of them getting within 33 yards of me, and I passed and left again without a deer.  That’s trophy hunting at its best.  I had a blast taking photos of many deer including the two big ones.  I was even able to get a couple super photos of a bobcat hunting.  What a great time I had and many thanks to Matt and his wife Heather for their wonderful hospitality.  We have a plan.  If I’m still kicking at 80 and Matt is still doing food plots and hunting whitetails, I hope to join him one more time looking out of the Redneck blind for “My Booner.”