It's easy to get caught up in the antler craze. It's easy to handle a nice set of antlers and ask the hunter who killed the deer, "What does this buck score?"
In reality, what a rack scores has little to do with whether or not it's a trophy. A trophy should be judged individually on its own merit.
One of the places I hunt -- the state forest of northcentral Pennsylvania, where deer herds are sparse and hunting pressure is heavy -- a trophy buck could simply mean a legal buck. In that particular management unit, a buck must have at least three points on a side to be legal. And when you think of big bucks, the mountains of Pennsylvania aren't the first to jump into mind. Big bucks are more synonymous with farm country where the primary foods are corn and soybean, not mountain country where the mainstay is browse.
Of course, there are many other factors that determine a trophy. What it all comes down to, I guess, is what the deer means to you. Hunting is a sport where effort usually equals reward. If you hunt hard and put in the time and effort to harvest a deer, don't let anyone tell you that you should've let the deer walk because it didn't score at least 150 inches or wasn't at least 5 years old.
I started bowhunting when I was 15. I hunted almost every day after school for the entire season. Eventually I killed an antlerless deer, but I really wanted a buck. I didn't get one in archery season. But I got one in rifle season. A spike. I'd logged a ton of hours in a tree stand by then, had many encounters with deer and had many frustrating moments that taught me valuable lessons about myself and what the outdoors means to me.
I still have those spike antlers. Every time I see those antlers I'm reminded of that first season learning to bow hunt. I've killed a lot of nice bucks with bow, rifle, and muzzleloader since then, but still those six-inch spikes hold a special place in my heart.
- Ralph Scherder
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