For me it would be one I could hang on the wall or the one that took me 10 hunts and uncounted hours to finally put on the ground.. and i hope this year it will be my 11 year old nephews first deer...

Good Luck shouldn't be hard. BTW Do you still have your job?

I don't hunt because I want to. I because I have to. Tom Kelly

To me, A trophy is anything that you earn and work hard for.. I could never see myself paying for a "trophy deer hunt" yea, you'll probably kill a wall hanger but what's to brag about paying to hunt on someone else's land, for them to show you where to go and call the deer to you? To each there own but it's just not my style... I would rather work at it and beat the deer at their own game.

My definition

A trophy is when my thought changes from there's a deer, turkey, coyotes, etc to I am going to kill that animal. Outside influences are ego driven and I don't hunt for ego.

To me a a trophy is all about the experience. Whether that experience is the time you killed your first deer with your dad or granddad or for the ones on here that have kids getting to experience your kid killing his first deer. Out of all the deer i have killed and had mounted my best trophy is a fox squirrel that i killed and had mounted from the last time i took my granddad hunting before his health deteriorated due to Alzheimer's. I even took a picture with him holding up the squirrel and laughing. That picture hangs beside the squirrel. Not trying to be all emotional because i am not an emotional person at all. But thats what a trophy is to me.

I feel the same way. I have come to realize that I have less hunting seasons ahead of me than behind me. It's time to make sure that my son , daughters and grandchildren have the memories that I have with my father and relatives to remember me by when I am gone.
This is a quote from cnc on another forum that has always left an impression on me. "For every hunter who has ever lived there comes a season which he will never see......Glory then in the seasons that are yours"

All in the eye of the beholder.

My favorite hunt of the year I wasn't even there. I could have shot 50 deer this year, but I didn't choose to pull the trigger. The last weekend of the season my grandson's girlfriend killed a nice buck on my land and it absolutely tickled the crap out of me. He called before they ever got out of the ladder stand.

That's me I kill just enough for meat and as I grow as a hunter my definition of what's a trophy gets harder to come by . I don't have to kill to enjoy the hunt . I can take a pic when they stroll by I don't have to pull the string .

calling every deer killed a trophy is just like "everybody gets a trophy"....

I have, when young, killed a truck load of does and small bucks. I never tried to label em trophies because they wern't.

I'm proud for every youngun that kills a spike. Including my younguns when they killed their first deer. Still don't make a spike into a trophy buck.

It varies , a old buck, a buck I have pics and/or a history with, something with serious wow factor. A buck from a memorable hunt.

My son killed a mid 120s 9 point a few years ago that was 7.5 YO. Even though not much head gear, that is indeed a trophy. Not too many 7 YO killed in our neck of the woods.

DONT FORCE UR MANIGMENT ON ME!

jk, I agree

I'd like to jump on the evrey one is bus, but to be honest they ain't. Each kill has great meaning for me. A trophy........... A first deer. Biggest doe. A first buck. First bow kill (any bow kill kinda). Best buck. For ME it is a mature buck with the hardware that goes with it, and I let more walk each year. If you can sit back and watch nice bucks walk it says two things. IMHO You have matured as a hunter and you have been blessed with a great area to hunt.

But if you care about any animal enough to put it on display for others then it is a trophy for sure.

Hearing my kids recount time spent in the woods on hunting trips. We rarely talk about kills

My sig sums it up for me especially the past 10 or so years.

Memories = trophies.

This^^^^

Where I hunt, a 4 year old buck, no matter the antler size will make me happy. That doesn't make it a wall hanger though.