Dave, I feel I can speak of this issue for I am both a meat and trophy hunter. I "shoot" bears for meat and "hunt" everything else for trophy. To clarify, I don't hunt bears. I shoot problem bears at bee sites or in oats fields and put them in my freezer. Much to the farmers and bee keepers dissmay, I refuse to shoot a sow with cubs but I am not out there to "hunt", I'm just out there to shoot something to eat and I'm not choosy (not unlike most other meat hunters).
OTOH, I hunt deer selectively. call it trophy hunting but I will not shoot a deer that does not sport an impressive set of antlers. I too pass up MANY legal deer. Last year I had a fork muley so close, I would have almost had to take a step back to aim my 44" barrel rifle at it without touching it. I was just happy to stand and watch it. Most meat hunters would have killed it. I hunted about 6 weeks, saw lots of legal bucks and shot nothing. (and muley are on draw here) Two weeks ago I was out driving around and saw 4 nice muley bucks (I was fortunate enough to get drawn again this year). They were all shooters the largest one would have gone about 225-235 gross non-typical with about a 190 typical frame. They were 70 yards from the road standing broadside with not a care in the world. I had both my flint and my .270 with me and could have easily shot one of them from the window but getting a good buck is about "hunting" not just killing so I sat and waited for them to move on their way. The next day, I parked 2 1/2 miles SW of where they had been seen and walked to the field so I could aproach from down wind, the field was being combined so we hunted the east side and saw nothing. After hiking back to the truck, we drove around and decided to go down the road that passed the field and there they were again, this time 30 yards from the road. Again, i could have shot one from the truck but chose not to. We hunted that area for a week afterward and have yet to see these bucks again but that was a risk I was willing to take. To me, trophy or selective hunting is about "hunting" and meat hunting is about just killing something to fill the freezer. As far as trophy hunters eating a few steaks and throwing the rest awy a year later, I'm sure that that happens. However, I know meat hunters that shoot an elk, moose, mule deer and whitetail every year and I'm sure that the dogs get the lions share of all of that meat. Alot of people see meat hunting as noble and trophy hunting as dispicable. I have alot of respect for true trophy hunters. I'm talking about people that hunt on their own (not guided) and are very selective in what they shoot. They are usually very good "hunters". I don't know about the rest of the world, but around here you don't have to be much of a hunter to shoot the first thing you see and fill the freezer. Any twit can do that. I'm not trying to put down meat hunters and I do know that there are unethical "trophy hunters" that waste the meat, buy their trophies and so on. The point is that not all trophy hunters waste the meat but most trophy hunters are better hunters than the average meat hunter
Cody
