What trophy are you most proud of?

Kiwifire111 · Apr 12, 2025

My wifes trophy husband!! And, my 2024 Wildebeest.

DLSJR · Apr 13, 2025

After 57 seasons of hunting so much game in many places, it’s difficult to pick just one. Some that come to mind include…

My very first sheep hunt, an Alaska Range backpack sheep hunt in 1978, when I was 19 years old. My parents sent me as a high school graduation present. I spent 17 days with a backpack, missed a really good ram midway through my hunt and finally killed a rather small full curl ram on the 14th day. For a 19 year old kid on his first Alaskan hunt, it was a grand adventure. I enjoyed it so much I went on a horseback sheep & grizzly hunt 2 years later, also in the Alaska Range.

My first African hunt was in 1983, when I was 24 years old. It was a dream safari by any measure, wildly successful on all licenses with great quality animals, but a couple animals stand out above all others. My first dangerous game was a good buffalo bull that we stalked in very close to in very thick bush. We were crawling in on 2 big bulls when one turned and walked directly across the front of us. I was shooting a 458 and the bull stopped broadside at 13 yards, but I had no shot as a large mopane tree was covering his front shoulder. The bull was staring directly at us and finally broke to run and I sent a 500 grain Hornady soft point into his chest. Roy Vincent was my PH and he said “You Missed”. I told him I didn’t miss and we jumped up in pursuit, running after the buffalo. It ran about 100 yards and its head suddenly dropped and he went ass over teakettle, stone dead. A few days after the first Buffalo, we were on the edge of a large herd of elephants that contained a good bull that was in musth. We got chased a couple times by juvenile bulls, kept dogging the herd in an effort to get a shot at the bull and we eventually got more than we bargained for. The bull charged, silently with his ears pinned back flat and we both shot him at the same moment, stopping him at 9 yards! There was a lot more to that hunt than I’m describing here, but 42 years after that hunt, many of the memories are still vivid in my memory. BTW, that first buffalo was 41 1/2” and the elephant was a 58 liber. I also took a big leopard, a bigger 2nd buffalo and some Great Plains game over 24 days.

Finally, one of the most recent African animals I’ve taken means more to me than almost anything I’ve ever hunted. 14 months ago I was fortunate to take a wonderful, old Lord Derby Eland. I had no idea how significantly that animal would affect me. As Lord Derby hunts go, it wasn’t particularly difficult as we took the bull midday on the 2nd day. But for some reason I realize how fortunate I am to be able to hunt such a special and majestic animal. Hunting Lord Derby’s is a privilege, one I’m extremely grateful to have been able to experience.

EBaker · Saturday at 2:48 AM

I've killed a few decent whitetails and a good mule deer, but the one I'm most proud of has to be between these two. The first one is a little young 8 I shot in high school with a self bow. I had been shooting an hour a day 5 or 6 days a week for a few months to be confident shooting instinctive. The place we had at the time wasn't great and he was the only deer any of us saw that year. The 2nd one is a big 7 point I shot with my ruger 357 rem max revolver. I had been targeting him specifically from the beginning of archery season in October to mid November because he was interesting to me. I work week on week off and use all my vacation during deer season too, and I was either working or hunting, so I spent a ton of time hunting trying to get him specifically and passing on everything else. Side note: in my opinion the 357 maximum is the ideal hunting handgun cartridge for deer and similarly sized animals.

HankBuck · Saturday at 3:21 PM

EBaker said:
I've killed a few decent whitetails and a good mule deer, but the one I'm most proud of has to be between these two. The first one is a little young 8 I shot in high school with a self bow. I had been shooting an hour a day 5 or 6 days a week for a few months to be confident shooting instinctive. The place we had at the time wasn't great and he was the only deer any of us saw that year. The 2nd one is a big 7 point I shot with my ruger 357 rem max revolver. I had been targeting him specifically from the beginning of archery season in October to mid November because he was interesting to me. I work week on week off and use all my vacation during deer season too, and I was either working or hunting, so I spent a ton of time hunting trying to get him specifically and passing on everything else. Side note: in my opinion the 357 maximum is the ideal hunting handgun cartridge for deer and similarly sized animals.

@EBaker - good trophies with that “self bow” buck and later Handgun buck = impressive !
Why do you like the .357 Maximum Hangun so much for deer? It’s no doubt adequate but I haven’t heard of that cartraige Refered to as “ideal deer hunting” round the way .44 mag & .454 Casull (for those that can shoot them accurately) might be considered. I do Not include S&W hand cannons (460XVR & .500) because they have such limited applications - similar to the TC Contender single shots. I would guess one advantage the .357 Maximum might have is penetration with it’s high BC due to its narrow diameter and heavy bullet. Anyway - You’ve done very well with it, are confident and shoot it accurately —— that’s what matters most.

EBaker · Saturday at 8:24 PM

HankBuck said:
@EBaker - good trophies with that “self bow” buck and later Handgun buck = impressive !
Why do you like the .357 Maximum Hangun so much for deer? It’s no doubt adequate but I haven’t heard of that cartraige Refered to as “ideal deer hunting” round the way .44 mag & .454 Casull (for those that can shoot them accurately) might be considered. I do Not include S&W hand cannons (460XVR & .500) because they have such limited applications - similar to the TC Contender single shots. I would guess one advantage the .357 Maximum might have is penetration with it’s high BC due to its narrow diameter and heavy bullet. Anyway - You’ve done very well with it, are confident and shoot it accurately —— that’s what matters most.

The energy is about the same as 44 mag with my handloads. It's a 158 grain bullet at 1940 fps out of the 10.5" barrel. That velocity gives it what it needs to just drop deer and pigs shooting in the shoulder. I've killed deer with hot 44 mag and 480 ruger and a quite few other pistol cartridges and the 357 maximum is the only one that drops them in their tracks consistently with the same shot placement. I've even had deer go 30-40 yards with a 500 and a 45-70 pistol. It's also flatter shooting than almost all the relatively common handgun hunting cartridges so you can just hold poi anywhere inside 100 yards without an issue. This isn't a cartridge thing, but I also think the bullets designed for the 357 perform better on animals like deer that arent as tough as the bigger animals the bigger bore cartridges are good for. I've done a lot of shooting with that revolver and have got it down to about 4" at 100 yards. The lighter recoil is nice too. I like the cartridge so much I got a Dan Wesson chambered in it to go with my Ruger.

SCHUNTER73 · Saturday at 8:52 PM

This is a great thread. It is difficult to sort through my memory for the one animal or hunt that is most special to me.

HankBuck · 2025-04-27T05:16:47-0500

EBaker said:
The energy is about the same as 44 mag with my handloads. It's a 158 grain bullet at 1940 fps out of the 10.5" barrel. That velocity gives it what it needs to just drop deer and pigs shooting in the shoulder. I've killed deer with hot 44 mag and 480 ruger and a quite few other pistol cartridges and the 357 maximum is the only one that drops them in their tracks consistently with the same shot placement. I've even had deer go 30-40 yards with a 500 and a 45-70 pistol. It's also flatter shooting than almost all the relatively common handgun hunting cartridges so you can just hold poi anywhere inside 100 yards without an issue. This isn't a cartridge thing, but I also think the bullets designed for the 357 perform better on animals like deer that arent as tough as the bigger animals the bigger bore cartridges are good for. I've done a lot of shooting with that revolver and have got it down to about 4" at 100 yards. The lighter recoil is nice too. I like the cartridge so much I got a Dan Wesson chambered in it to go with my Ruger.

@EBaker you have a lot of experience and positive results from your handgun/bullet/load combo. I didn’t know you were using a 10” barrel and that must add a lot of velosity. I’ve only used an S&W 629 w/5” barrel, open sights, and Buffalo Bore .44mag w/255gr Keith hard cast. I am Not a serious handgun deer hunter (carry it when rifle hunting and take a deer only when easy-close opportunity presents itself). I have a S&W .460 w/10” barrel and hate it - it’s more of a rifle with Cut Off stock, power is ridiculous ! …makes shooting my .44 like popping off a .22lr and why I’ve only fired one Box thru it in 15 years (will likely sell it soon and get something I would enjoy/use more).
Good luck with your handgun hunting - you take it seriously and put the proper effort and planning into it AND your results are very good !

Bob Nelson 35Whelen · 2025-04-27T15:04:33-0500

KuduKiller said:
I grew up on a farm in Northern Kentucky and we raised tobacco. My dad got me into hunting at a very young age but didn’t get me into deer hunting until I was about 13. I’m assuming he didn’t get me into it earlier in life because he saw it as a “hunt alone” kind of hunt. I didn’t see it that way and started taking my sine deer hunting when he was 9 but anyway.

Back in the late 80’s if you saw a couple bucks in the 2 week season you were lucky on our farm. Let’s flash forward to around 2010. I had moved about 3 hours away to Bowling Green, Kentucky and was a police officer at the time. I would usually take the first week of deer season off and go to mom and dads to hunt all week.

Around this time a very good friend of mine, let’s call him Adam would come with me and by god we would have a big time! We would cook big dinners for my parents. Mom had had a pretty good stroke around this time and had some memory issues and dad had no teeth so I made sure to cook things he could “gum!” Dad would always ask me “what’s emmul cooking tonight?” Emiril Lagasse,, .

So one night Adam and I got to talking. Our farm (186 acres) by this time was almost completely surrounded on 3 sides by a higher end subdivision. Adam says “ let’s make a couple nice food plots, put some shooting houses on them and maybe the deer will come.” That next late spring we did! We picked a ridge we could get to through the back of one of our old tobacco fields and began cutting trees, bushhogging, plowing and running the disc. By around June we finished the plot and called it “the g spot” because they would come to it. We built around a 6X10 shooting house around 8’ off the ground towards the back of the plot that was around 80 yards long and 30 yards wide. We left a good sized cedar tree in the middle of the plot where we could put out corn or whatever BS attractant was the flavor of the month to try.

So it’s 2011 now. The first season Adam and I hunted together in the shooting house. Talk about good times! We sat from daylight to dark, brought in our lunch and snacks and a few pee jugs. Adam and I flipped a quarter on first shot. I flipped and magically I won, . Both Adam and I took “good bucks, both around 130” and a doe each the first week so it was a success! My son also took his first deer that year during youth season which was a doe.

I left my cameras in until probably March since it was a 3 hour drive and I rarely got up there anyway. I got home that spring and started reviewing the pics of what lived and passed through after we were done hunting and holy s$@t what a buck!!!! I had 2 pics of him in late November on the same day, wow! Yup, definitely putting more time in the woods this year! The pic is included.

Fall of 2012
So my dad had passed in June that year and my mom had several more silent strokes but luckily I had a sister that lived close to keep an eye her but I tried to come up as often as I could. I remember when dad passed, Adam came up and stayed at the farm with me to help out with various things and honestly, just to support me. We got in the plot the night of dad’s funeral, just sat by the tractor and shared my dad’s last PBR he had in the fridge. I was a soup sandwich that day.

So during youth season that year my son took his first buck. Adam and I hunted together again that year but we waited on the buck we had named “jackpot.” I had several pics of damn good deer that year that were 150”+ but since I won the coin toss, we waited! Again, I got a few pics of jackpot but they were at night and very few of them.

Fall 2013
I had pretty much given up hope of seeing jackpot on the hoof but I still had a fire to try. Kind of funny but not really, during early bow season I called Adam to see if he was bow hunting with me the following weekend. Upon answering, Adam was whispering and made the conversation short and I thought nothing of it. I then called my mom to check in her and she asked “why didn’t you come up to hunt with Adam?” Awww you f$&,er!!!! He knew I didn’t want him up there without me but given the help he gave and the support he showed my family when dad died I kept my mouth shut! I knew he was unable to hunt opening week with me that year anyway!

Opening weekend came and went but I stuck with it. Daylight to dark by myself. On that following Tuesday I took some study material with me because I was testing for KDFWR ( game warden) that Thursday and I knew I stood a good chance since I was already a LEO. It started raining late morning and it was a pretty good down pour but it wasn’t too cold. I decided to study in the shooting house. I had put a small corn pile behind the shooting house for my son to get a “chip shot” at a deer a few weeks earlier. While studying I kept my eyes moving as best I could. The rain let up and all of a sudden I got that feeling. Many of you know what I’m talking about, that “something is close” feeling! I looked in front of me to the cedar tree, nothing. I looked behind me out the back window and “oh s$&t” here’s a monster! I got my gun up “muzzle in the shooting house, not outside the window” and sent it! My ears rang for like 2 days! The buck fell dead. I was so tore up I opened the trap door, left my rifle in the shooting house and missed every damn step on the way down! Crap, my rifle! I went back up, got my rifle and came down correctly that time! At that point I realized “it’s jackpot”! I went to put an insurance shot into him, nothing! I had forgot to rack another round in but I figured it out!

Jackpot was so damn heavy I couldn’t get him on the 4 wheeler. I had to throw the cable over a limb to hoist him up the best I could but he kept lifting the front of my Polaris. I’d get him up a foot and have to jump on the front as more weight to the 4 wheeler. I finally was like “good enough”, got him strapped up and back to the house I went. I took several pics and sent them to Adam. “BS, you photo shopped that deer bro!” After a few more pics involving my middle finger Adam figured out that it was in fact jackpot!

Jackpot field dressed at 245 and scored 176 3/8”.

2014
My mom passed in May. I know I mentioned a sister earlier but I have/had 2. So, after my mom’s rounds of strokes she was declared incompetent and placed in assisted living prior to her death. Remember me saying she was declared incompetent? So that was in January and she passed in May. My parents last will and testament was made up in 1979 and it had my oldest sister taking care of me and “the good sister” until we hit 18, the farm was to be sold and divided 3 ways but a clause was in there that 2 siblings could buy out the other for the equal share and be kept. So at my mom’s passing I got a letter from a lawyer with a copy of the “newer will” that had been changed by my mom in April of that year? But wait, she was declared incompetent by a judge in January and my mom had a new will made up in April? Kind of odd as well but the good sister and I received nothing from our parents in the will, strange huh? The “good” sister was the one that got my mom into assisted living, made sure she was taken care of, had food, bills paid and had things taken care of but the oldest sister got everything and didn’t do anything for my mom? Hell, she was barely even around in my parents later years. Oh, forgot to mention, she hooked up with a guy that had just got out of the penitentiary for trafficking meth right around Christmas that year. Funny too, mom hadn’t been gone for a week and they moved into my parents house. Regardless, the story continued but that’s for another day and some adult beverages. Needless to say, my family farm was lost to me and my good sister but I hope my oldest sister and her “man” enjoy it.

The memory and story of Jackpot will live in my heart and mind until I leave this place. That story has been told many times to friends as it’s almost a bitter sweet story but it’s true. I wish things had been different and I could have passed that farm on to my son, his son and so on like it had been from my GG Grandfather. You know what they say, “it is what it is!” I know my dad was with me that day I took jackpot and I joke and tell people that my dad led him to me going “here, that’s for the hard work and dedication!” I hope you enjoyed my story.

View attachment 676974 View attachment 676975 View attachment 676976 View attachment 676977 View attachment 676978

@KuduKiller
Beautiful story mate .
Sorry to hear of your parents and farm.
When it comes to money and death family can turn into a bunch of pricks.
I feel your pain. At the passing of my mother,my brother ripped both my sister and I off. Said he wasn't going to abide by mums will.
Cut a long story short, karma is a beautiful thing.
When he retired he got a $250,000 tax bill because there was a bucket full of money in his super fund he couldn't account for so Mr tax man wanted his share. Life can be sweet at times.
Bob

Hunt anything · 2025-04-27T16:05:03-0500

@KuduKiller , tough story. My wife and her sister were shafted by a brother. My wife retired from her job early to take care of her aging parents and after both had passed we found out her brother had changed the will.

wvfred · 2025-04-27T18:47:19-0500

The trophy I'm most proud of was a small 4 point whitetail when I was hunting with my Dad.I was 15 at the time and deer were hard to come by then.........good times!

Hunt anything · 2025-04-27T20:11:14-0500

wvfred said:
The trophy I'm most proud of was a small 4 point whitetail when I was hunting with my Dad.I was 15 at the time and deer were hard to come by then.........good times!

@wvfred , that is special! I remembered my first buck like it was yesterday. Even though it was 55 years ago. My dad was watching from the other end of the wheat field and he really got a kick out of my antics as I jumped and danced round the spike!

WAB · 2025-04-27T20:54:39-0500

These were two tough hunts for very different reasons. Both were mentally and physically demanding, and both ended with clean, one shot kills.

NIGHTHAWK · 2025-04-27T21:23:04-0500

My PH asked me if I knew what I’d done… I said, yes, I made a great shot.

I had no idea how big this Waterbuck was until I saw it up close after it was on the ground. Very special animal for me.

Scott4030 · 2025-04-27T22:43:33-0500

I would say Mt Goat, Dall Sheep, Waterbuck, Stones Sheep in that order. I hunted My Goat in BC, east of Bella Coola. We would go out on a lake that was a 3000’ elevation and spot the goats on the ridge tops at 11000’. See the goat, beach the boat and start climbing through coastal rain forest. Brutal. It took about 3 hours to get up to where the goats were. You never knew if they would still be there. I got my goat on the 4th trip up. Definitely a young man’s hunt! The Dall I hunted in the Beaver Creek drainage in the Wrangell Mountains in Alaska with Ray McNutt. Horses and then climbing. I shot the sheep in a place they called F’ed Up Gulch. The sheep could see you coming for miles. It was boulder to boulder stalking with a final scree field that was about 1000’ high. Two steps up and one step back. The Stones was shot on the 18th day of a 21 day hunt on the Spatsizi Plateau. Also a brutal hunt. The Waterbuck I was hunting on foot with an old friend. All day through swampy ground. Just a grind. All good hunts and I look forward to more!

Scott CWO · 2025-04-27T23:53:14-0500

WAB said:
These were two tough hunts for very different reasons. Both were mentally and physically demanding, and both ended with clean, one shot kills.

Great elephant but wow, what a ram!!

Scott CWO · 2025-04-27T23:57:13-0500

Scott4030 said:
I would say Mt Goat, Dall Sheep, Waterbuck, Stones Sheep in that order. I hunted My Goat in BC, east of Bella Coola. We would go out on a lake that was a 3000’ elevation and spot the goats on the ridge tops at 11000’. See the goat, beach the boat and start climbing through coastal rain forest. Brutal. It took about 3 hours to get up to where the goats were. You never knew if they would still be there. I got my goat on the 4th trip up. Definitely a young man’s hunt! The Dall I hunted in the Beaver Creek drainage in the Wrangell Mountains in Alaska with Ray McNutt. Horses and then climbing. I shot the sheep in a place they called F’ed Up Gulch. The sheep could see you coming for miles. It was boulder to boulder stalking with a final scree field that was about 1000’ high. Two steps up and one step back. The Stones was shot on the 18th day of a 21 day hunt on the Spatsizi Plateau. Also a brutal hunt. The Waterbuck I was hunting on foot with an old friend. All day through swampy ground. Just a grind. All good hunts and I look forward to more!

View attachment 681552 View attachment 681554 View attachment 681555

Your Stone is incredible! Ray and Reg took some great rams but didn’t always advertise them because they didn’t want the attention.

HankBuck · 2025-04-28T03:33:39-0500

wvfred said:
The trophy I'm most proud of was a small 4 point whitetail when I was hunting with my Dad.I was 15 at the time and deer were hard to come by then.........good times!

@wvfred - I can relate (and agree) with how special hunting with your Dad is, it doesn’t last forever….or even Long-enough. The few hunts I did with my Dad are ALL “Trophy Memories” (and we never took anything bigger then a rabbit !). I’m fortunate Now to still be able to spend days hunting with my Son and I value every one of them - I want to get in everyday I can before that season closes too.

WAB · 2025-04-28T06:01:06-0500

Scott CWO said:
Great elephant but wow, what a ram!!

Thanks. We flew north out of town only to get turned back by weather twice. The third day we finally made it through the pass. A total white out blizzard dropped in on us during the stalk. Nothing like clinging to a mountainside covered in 2” of rime ice trying to get a shot at the ram of a lifetime! As you well know, hunts in Alaska have a tendency to turn into adventures in a hurry.

What trophy are you most proud of?

Kiwifire111

DLSJR

EBaker

Attachments

HankBuck

EBaker

Attachments

SCHUNTER73

HankBuck

Bob Nelson 35Whelen

Hunt anything

wvfred

Hunt anything

WAB

Attachments

NIGHTHAWK

Scott4030

Scott CWO

Scott CWO

HankBuck

WAB

Members online

Forum statistics

Proudly sponsored by

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

Share this page