do you hunt for

No matter how long you cook them, horns are hard to chew.

Meat!!!

There should be a both option. But without it i voted for meat.

meat. the horns are fine. i love to see them hanging on my wall. but with that being said the kills that i treasure the absolute most had nothing to do with horns. in fact my biggest trophy is a 60lb yearling i killed this year with my bow. first bow kill. iv killed several bucks that scored between 130 and 160. but that yearling gave me more enjoyment, excitement and more tender meat. it meant more to me than any of the bucks.

meat AND horns, If it is rut time, I let the does walk in hopes for a biggun, any other time I go for the backstraps. I have killed some really nice bucks in my time, but it was mostly due to the fact that I used to hunt 50+ days during the season. nowadays, I get 10 days per season if I'm lucky. Dang family.lol

I mean, I ain't gonna turn down a 23" monster, but I've always been more about the meat and the actual experience in the field. The hunt is the main thing, any meat or mounts are the rewards of the hunt.

If you'd have had a choice of "hunt for the experience" or "to be with nature" or what not, that's really what it's about or me. I'll save you of any Nugent style rants, "mystical flight of the bullet", or whatever.

If presented with two bucks one a large spike and the other a small bodied 12 pointer I will shoot the 12 point.

BUT

I won't ever pass up on shooting any legal deer that crosses my path in order to save tags for a trophy later on.


I voted MEAT

I used to pass up a lot of good meat looking for a trophy. No more. Got plenty of trophies. Now hunting seems easier and more fun.

Horns smell like **** when you put them on the barbecue.

It feels really good to bring home a big racked buck. Anyone who disagrees must have never bagged a "wall hanger", and btw, a big buck is also made out of meat.

LOL

There are places where you pray you'll see a deer sometime during hunting season. Then, there are places where you pray you won't wreck your car hitting a deer on the way to the hunt.

This place is of the first variety.

No both option.. I fill the freezer then hunt trophies unless a trophy shows up early.

Not an acceptable choice. I suggest adding the option of "both". But even then, it is a no win vote. For example, if I'm in Mongolia hunting Argali, you can bet it's not for meat. But if I were to be lucky enough to draw a dadgum deer tag (hasn't happened in my state for 8 years), I'd likely be hunting the first legal buck, i.e., meat. If I drew a cow elk tag, obviously for meat. When I drew a Maine moose tag, it was obviously for horns.

So, you see, it's not that cut and dry a question.

You left out both. I try to hunt bucks with large headgear for several reasons (want to harvest a mature animal, looks good on the wall, harder to find/more exciting hunt, etc.) but I eat what I kill. If I can kill a meaty buck with quality headgear, I am happy as can be. You just can't beat deer flesh IMO.

If you're after meat only, you pick on the little guys, immature animals. That's natures way, they're easier to kill. Of course, for the natural predator, they offer less chance of getting hurt. I guess that doesn't apply to humans.

It feels really good to bring home a big racked buck. Anyone who disagrees must have never bagged a "wall hanger"

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I guess your right, I've never brought home a wall hanger.

The only trophy deer I have shot had its head down behind a bush and I never saw its rack until after the shot. For all I cared it was a large doe that was going to go in the freezer but it was a big buck that went to the same place and the antlers did go on the wall.

BOTH! november for horns, december for meat.

You might consider adding one more option. "just for the fun of it"
Just meat or horns is kinda restrictive and rules out the most typical response people tend to give me.

Used to be for meat, then went thru the trophy phase, now I hunt because I enjoy the experience. The journey means more to me than the destination . . .

Emphatically, Neither!

I hunt because I must. I hunt to feel alive! I hunt to fool with the dogs and to enjoy the company of close friends! I hunt because it brings back to me some of my youth. I hunt because of cold damp mornings and a pungent fire. To me, a missed attempt is every bit as memorable as a hit......sometimes more so!

Killing a deer for either meat or horns is truly a very secondary thing...........to me at least. The method, the time and the circumstances have to be very 'right' for me to touch the trigger.

I would not bother to drop a record class animal or even participate in some of the canned hunts I've seen filmed and I really have to ask just how someone could claim a trophy from what amounts to a barnyard kill.....Hell's fire, just go shoot that rooster that keeps waking you up...it amounts to as much.


If it ain't for real fella's.....it ain't real!

I hunt for the experience and the meat!!! but i'm not passing on a wall hanger

Around my place, "monster bucks" are FEW and far between. Maybe once every five or six years someone bags a huge 8 or 10 point. And in my experience, it's just as rewarding shooting a big doe than a big buck. But hey, that's just me.

Since I have yet to come across a bird, squirrel, or rabbit with horns I voted meat. The day I see a jackalope though I'll come back and post pictures of its mighty rack

If you'd have had a choice of "hunt for the experience" or "to be with nature" or what not, that's really what it's about for me.

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+1. I think the reason I like upland bird hunting so much is that even if you don't see any birds you still get to hike and talk with your friends and watch some dogs work. Shooting the birds and eating them is an added bonus, but not a necessity for a good time.