I was bear hunting in Idaho last week (a two bear area - I took a sow for an eater and never saw the big boar I wanted) and had an interesting conversation with a member of the camp staff about hunting Elk up there. He says to me, "Let me show you the picture of the bull I killed 5 years ago". Well, this guy, who is a logger when not hunting, pulls a really ratty photo album out of an even rattier looking knapsack and opens it to the desired page. There I saw a photo of my new friend with what was generally agreed by all in the camp to easily be a 400 class 7 point bull. When I asked him where it was he said, "In a bar in Wisconsin . . . some guy offered me $1000 for the horns and cape before I even got of the mountain". When I asked him why he sold it his simple reply was "kids needed Christmas that year". Literally brought tears to my eyes.

JohnTheGreek

John, your new friend's sense of responsibility and family is a nice thing to take home from that hunt. Gotta cherish people like that.

Good man! More than likely his kids will grow up to be fine people also.

I have to agree. There is more to life than a big rack on the wall. He not only has great memories of a great hunt but him and his family have great memories of a great Christmas as well. The bull provided for his family in more ways than one.

John,

Way to put into perspective. Thanks!

He has the pics, he has the memories of the hunt, he knows where the trophy is, and his kids probably had a great Christmas. What a good feeling to have.

John, nice to see that there are still people in this world that have their priorities straight.

I think it depends a lot on the man.

There is a sort of man who takes a couple of weeks away from his desk job to go shoot a this-or-that on a guided hunt here-or-there. He enjoys his hunt, but he enjoys even more the cocktail talk the next month as his friends ogle and ooh over his taxidermist-fresh mount/hide/rack.
To that man, selling the spoils of a trophy animal is unfathomable, as the trophy is what it's all about to him.

But to the man who has been-there-done-that?
The man who isn't concerned too much with the bragging rights?
The guy who understands that the Elk/Moose/Bear/Buck you shot 5 years ago, no matter how big, isn't nearly as important as the one you might shoot tomorrow- to that guy, selling the cape and rack for a thousand bucks is a great deal. The trophy isn't worth that much to that man anyway. Sure- he wouldn't mind having it there. But it for sure isn't worth more than a thousand bucks to that man...

I only ever had one deer mounted, wouldn't really want to sell it, and wouldn't understand why anybody would want to buy it.

Tom

[ 07-04-2003, 10:28: Message edited by: TomP ]

He may have been thinking about the missus, too. Do you realise how much room a mounted seven point takes up in a house? I have a 6X7 European mount in the cabin here, that really takes up too much room. I have a friend with a shoulder mounted 7X7 in his house. The bottom is nearly on the floor, and the antlers are nearly to the ceiling. He had it mounted with the head turned sideways a bit, or it would have stuck out way too far into the living room. And you wouldn't want to go stumbling around in the dark in there!These are a large mount!

A responsible family man but he sold it too dam cheap!

Sounds a lot like my Dad. No matter how tough things got we always had a little something for Christmas.

I agree with leo. One that size would easily fetch $10,000. I don't personally understand why a guy would want to buy someone else's animal, but the market is there. To bad he didn't hold out a little. He could have produced the mother of all christmas's for his kids!

As long as he is happy with the deal he got then there isn't much else anyone can say about that. Sure he could have got more. He could probably find another one some day if he wanted to.

My Dad gave away a set of 340 elk sheds to the RMEF a couple weeks ago. Still not sure why he did that. Far from a trophy but still something nice to have around.