Louis;

I've shot some nice critters over the years but I cannot say I'm a "trophy hunter". We are pretty much meat hunters and like Daryl and RIPP {in his younger years! LOL} I have often shot the first eligible critter I've seen. Especially true with elk. Deer I've waited on from time to time. LOL.

But some European hunters {and deer hunters in the American Deep South} often do have something else going for them, and that is large bag limits.

Here in Idaho for example, basic tags are 1 deer, 1 elk, 1 bear. Then one might be able to apply for an additional one deer or sometimes elk, and in more rare cases, depredation tags are issued for culling crop damaging animals. And in recent years many units have allowed 2 bear. But basically it's 1 animal per species. Contrast this with some Southern states where the bag limits are 1 deer per day for 3 MONTHS. But then, in those areas, often there are limits on the number of bucks that can be taken and of course often they do not have the range of species we do in the Mountain West.

I have read that in many areas of Europe, the bag limits can be very large depending on the management plan of the lands on which the hunt takes place.

My wife's family are all German immigrants and settled in Michigan before WW1, between the Wars and then after WW2. First thing they did when they got off the boat was...get a job. And one of the first paychecks from that job got spent on a rifle and a hunting license! It was a BIG DEAL to them. Here, hunting is an "Everyman's sport". Our history of hunting flows from anti-monarchical concepts of egalitarianism and thus the laws and regulations and bag limits reflect that. In many states {this is changing!} it is also a relatively inexpensive hobby. Of course, now as land use practices have changed and in states like Texas, ACCESS to lands upon which one may hunt can be very expensive. In the American West, tho, there is still vast acreage where one can simply roam unmolested by private interests. This, too, is changing of course, and restrictions on vehicle use and whatnot comes into play.

But we do have it good in so many ways. As RIPP says: "NOW, just happy to just be out in the woods and enjoying the sights, sounds, smells of nature..IF Mr. Big comes along fine, if not, that's fine as well... "

Very true, especially where the vistas are vast and the sights glorious as they are where he hails from and where Daryl and I pull the trigger on the first buck that staggers into our sights!!

Bon chasse!!