So, it is all in the eye of the beholder. Who doesn't want to kill the record book trophy? The thing is at some point, a switch flips and it is no longer about the biggest but the hardest to hunt.
The Sable I took was not the biggest, could have killed a bigger one much younger. The one I did kill had been giving our PH the slip multiple times with multiple hunters. Much more of a challenge, that's what I will remember when I look at the mount.
The word trophy means different things to different people and it can mean one thing to us today and something different in 10 years from now.
I don't think in terms of record book at all - as a matter of fact, I very much dislike the record book as a means of competition between people. I like the record book for seeing what exceptional animals have existed, but have no use for it otherwise. A hunter's name need not be included in my opinion.
If you read between the lines, I think the whole scrum cap fascination (and it seems to be a relatively recent one) has been furthered as a way to change the concept of a trophy from size to age. I think this was necessary as too damn many hunters were killing too damn many young, breeding-age bulls that should have been left alone. I agree with the age > size shift, however, I think an old bull with very, very worn (but still present) horns, trumps in all cases a scrum cap. It's a strange thing among hunters that even when we agree to shift from one type of measurement (inches) to another (years), we seem to hyper-fetishize the new so that we can still compete.
In elephant terms, again, we know of many 100 lb single-tuskers, but I can't ever recall someone hunting a 55 year old no-tusker. Cows, yes, as cull hunts, but no one is paying 50K for a no-tusker - there's a reason for that.
Understand, I am not reducing an animal to his horns or tusk, but see them as part of his character - as I said above, his essence. Given the way both Buffalo and elephant rely on their horns/tusks, I think they know it too.
