Das Jagdmagazin mit Weitblick

Hunting trophies are far more than just antlers or horns. This article explores why trophies have been part of hunting culture since the Stone Age and why many hunters view the modern reduction of hunting to meat utilization, population control, and wildlife management with growing criticism. A search for the cultural soul of hunting.

When the last shot echoes across the ridgelines of Carinthia and the woods finally grow quiet, most hunters hang up their rifles and turn toward winter stories and shed antlers. For Eric Leitner, that’s when the real rush begins. Up on the Kreuzen above Paternion, Austria, trophies start arriving at his workshop—carefully wrapped capes, antlers still carrying the scent of the rut, birds frozen mid-wing. To the hunter, they are memories. To Leitner, they are responsibility.