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John's Journal... Entry 169, Day 5

FINDING AND TAKING A TROPHY BUCK

The Enclosure Buck

EDITOR'S NOTE: We all have our own opinions about what makes a trophy buck, and each idea has validity. However, I don't feel I need an organization to define a trophy buck. Actually no one but me has any concerns about the size of my buck. I have to decide what makes a buck I take a trophy buck, and you may have different parameters to define a trophy buck.

I've taken a buck in a hunting enclosure before. On the day of my enclosure hunt, my guide explained, "The deer you're hunting is an older-age-class buck. He's 6- or 7-years old and has been a 7 point for the last three years. We need to cull him out of the herd. I'm pretty sure we can get on him, and you can expect about a 100-yard shot." Sure enough, before 10:00 a.m. that day, I bagged my buck. The deer had a nice rack and delicious meat. I also saw plenty of other big bucks in the enclosure. But I wondered, "If I paid the price to take one of those monster bucks, would he be the trophy that my first buck or my Coues deer was? Would he mean as much as the Montana monster had meant?" For me the answer was a definite "No."

Grandpa's Theory

My grandpa, John L. Phillips, Sr., and I last hunted deer together the year he turned 74. Our home state of Alabama didn't have many deer during Grandpa's teenage or adult years. Grandpa never had seen a deer in the wild. But he'd heard me, my dad and my brother talking about deer. Whenever Grandpa went hunting, he always carried two .20 gauge buckshot shells for his old double-barreled dove gun -- just in case he encountered a deer.

When we arrived at a dove field one year, we had a great day of wing shooting. After the shooting had stopped for about an hour, Grandpa spotted some deer coming into the edge of the field. Someone on that end of the field shot at a dove, spooking the deer, which started running straight toward Grandpa. Grandpa quickly took the 7 1/2-shot out of his .20 gauge and loaded the buckshot. The four deer in the small herd -- three does and a spike buck -- passed less than 20 yards from Grandpa. He opened fire on the buck. So shook up when we finally reached him that he talked fast and almost incoherently, Grandpa couldn't believe he'd really killed a buck deer with antlers.

After the hunt, my brother Archie took the deer herd and had it mounted for my grandpa, presenting it to Grandpa for a Christmas present. Until his death, my grandpa took every visitor to his home to show off his buck -- his trophy, the buck he'd taken with his family.

You can go to any trophy shop, buy a bowling trophy, set it on your mantle and hope someone notices it. You also can visit any hunting enclosure, pick a buck out of a book, pay the price to harvest it, have him mounted and hope you impress somebody with him. However, I believe a true trophy buck captures the memories of a meaningful hunt, reminds you of a great group of people and celebrates the accomplishment of a difficult task that you may have believed impossible. My philosophy doesn't make me right and others wrong. Everyone has a different way to define a trophy buck.

 

 

Check back each day this week for more FINDING AND TAKING A TROPHY BUCK ...

Day 1 - What Is A Trophy Buck?
Day 2 - My First Trophy Buck
Day 3 - No Pain, No Gain
Day 4 - The Bow Buck Trophies
Day 5 - The Enclosure Buck


John's Journal