Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Poll - Horns first Meat second, or Meat first Horns second

I'll have a cow tag in my pocket during this years elk hunt.

I've never killed what I'd call, or most would call, a true big a$$ed bruiser whitetail. I like to watch the deer more than anything, and when I stopped shooting the first legal deer I saw, I started learning so much about them, and enjoying my time afield. I guess technically, I hunt for horns, but really since I don't have places to hunt that I really have such a great chance of getting that big trophy, I hunt mostly to hunt. I might take one for meat, and I like the meat, but it's not a staple in my house. I give lots away when I do have meat. Maybe that's a fence straddling answer, I don't know.

i can say both where i hunt i can most years get 1 either sex/either secies tag(generally refered to as a buck tag) and usually up to 7 mule deer doe or whitetail doe tags or a mix of both....the whitetail being good over the large region of where i live, the mulies being limited to specific areas in the region.

when out hunting on a normal year provided i dont also have an elk tag im going to use or get a speed goat tag, i usually have one "buck" tag and two doe tags.......if the weather is cool and i find a doe close to the road im meat hunting(though given so few seem to hunt does, they dont tend to be very spooky so this is more shooting than hunting).....if i see a buck through the binocs i head after him and horn hunt. there are some years i fill both doe tags and not the buck tag cause i refuse to shoot a spike or 3 point just to say i shot a buck and fill the freezer instead of wall space..........weather conditions(i refuse to shoot a doe for meat at 60 plus degrees due to where i hunt and what it would take to cool it down) and what i find where determine weither im hunting horns or meat......nothing else

Horns - I hunt for challenge and to spend as much fall time in the woods. If I just wanted meat - my season would be over in 10 minutes.

hmmm one tag a year, buck only. Ussually around here the bigger the horns the bigger the body.

If I wanted the first legal buck I can drive the backroads an pop a forkedhorn from the window of my truck.

put me in with the horn hunters.

meat
BB

Spotshooter, I've hunter for over 50 years.
Usually bull elk, buck deer..and javelina and lion and bear have no antlers..:)Never shot a cow or doe.

IF I have the choice between a big branch bull elk or the raghorn pulling drag on the perimeter of the herd..I'll kill the big bull.
It's about the hunting and the meat..We don't et antlers or pictures..:) Jim

The only reason I look at antlers or horns is to determine if the buck is legal. I shoot the first legal one I see, period.

The first one that I saw some years ago was a stunning 6x6 mule deer. I dropped him. The antlers sat in my garage for a year, and them I gave them to a guy who makes buttons and knife handles.

But the buck ate real good.

Meat first.

Horns!!!!!
Meat always comes along with 'em.........

I'm primarily a meat hunter, but I've found big bull moose if taken care of properly are almost as good as the young ones.

I've never participated in the cow hunts they have right in my back yard, just ain't my gig, and I worry a bit the F&G don't have that scenario nailed down as well as they'd like us to believe.

caribou or sheep hunting, I'm hunting horns, I guess I might kill a legal Dall ram on the last day of a hunt just for the meat, but I might let him walk too, just depends upon my mood and the situation.

I ate too much caribou for awhile and just don't have a hankerin to have a freezer full, but am plannin on taking one or both of my boys on a trip to shoot one or two in the future, we'll probably be trophy hunting.

+1

Always meat for close on to forty years it has always been meat now I am thinking I should go for a couple nice trophys but, meat still comes first.

For the meat you can't eat the horns, but I'll let a spike go as I'm not looking for taking a canidate for german shepard of the year award. I'll also qualify that by saying if it's a trophy buck I wouldn't pass him up.

IF it's Elk it's the first legal Bull unless I've drawn a cow tag then it's a cow. But then again we get eight or nine damage control permits for cows so my cousin either gives them to family, friends, handicapped hunters or shoots a couple and gives the meat to senior's who arw handicapped and can't hunt anymore.

Since I am a trophy hunter first I would have to choose horns first, not just any horns either.....it has to meet my criteria before I trip the trigger, and secondly like I always say God created does so trophy hunters dont go home empty handed.

Trophy backstrap...grin...not gender specific...antlers are for making stuff and we still keep an ample supply in our quest for backstrap...

Meat, horns don't mean much to me.

bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. meat 1st legal animal, but will not shoot a yearling. afterwards i look for decent set of horns.

-ken

Deer - Horns
Elk - Meat

Meat