Elk Rumors

[wastickslinger]

Washington is hosed, the pictures found there way to MM. The post is titled Oregon 466.  

We should start a new thread "how much will the Gov. tag go for next year" and see who is the closest.

I am going to put out the first number $85k.  

[wrangler]

looks like the same guy? maybe a year or 2 older, (and a lot richer) look at his hat brim. same tight curve. it's the same bull. book it.

[skynyr]

Yeah, he had more money than me, and he never even asked me how he should spend it.    I could just 

[bornforhorns]

Wow, that guys a good hunter.  Say I'm going on a high hunt soon...like to see him put a pack on and walk 22 miles and just try to out glass me with your useless expensive binoculars.  Oh, I forgot you get other people to do that. 

Money for a good cause or not...this whole thing makes me sick!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wrangler]

Hey guys, It's just an elk.  It's not the end of the world. I love how some of you just start bashing on someone because of the way they chose to hunt an animal.

were not bashing anyone for CHOOSING to hunt an animal in anyway. i think we're all a little tweaked because most of us don't consider flying in on a private jet for 2 days, being taken to a specific stump to rest our rifle on and waiting a few minutes for a specific record book animail to step out so we can shoot it, then taking the horns and cape back to the plane and getting the hell outa dodge is considered hunting. i don't at least. the way people CHOOSE to hunt an animal is single biggest factor in that persons character as an outdoorsman. i CHOOSE fair chase and applying skills iv learned from generations of hunters in my family as well as knowledge iv gained from other hunters like me. i CHOOSE not to use my social status or bank account nor would i choose to use my ability to seach the web for the biggest and best trophy animals for sale. i feel im in the majority on this one, but fear we're becoming the minority.

 

I'd laugh if he out hiked you for 22 miles,   and then had his helicoptor come pick him up.

on a different note... thats damn funny right there! LOL!

[Caseyd]

i feel im in the majority on this one, but fear we're becoming the minority.

I dont feel we are in the minority....we just hear about "big" hunts like this! When you really think about the number of hunters, then the number of hunters who hunt like this, is it is a small percentage.

I DO NOT agree with how this bull was taken but it was his choice. And as long as he or his hunting party did not break any laws then how can we really complain. At least the Bull generated money for the state..... Hey on a worse term basis it could of been poached. Alot of people had a general idea were this Bull was at. Think of the general area he was in....not the most internet savy area( well compared to alot of locations in the state)there was more people then just people with constant computer access. I have family from Waitsburg and Dayton and when i saw the threads a couple weeks back on this Bull i talked with some of them and they told me where the sheds were found and had a general idea of where he was at.

Im just sad cause my gramps has a big bull tag for that area and now he wont be able to get him        Like others have said....there are plenty of other big bulls in the Blues for the rest of us 

[Opportunist]

Congratulations to the SHOOTER! Good job by the guides for hunting up the bull and keeping track of him and organizing flight schedules to fit in when the bull would be in the open . Thanks for the $65,000 for our wildlife management although I believe most of the blue-collar hunters that pay for our wildlife management that created a bull of this calibur and wait decades to draw a tag would rather seen it shot by someone like us.

That is one truly unbelievable bull!

Congratulations to the hunters/conservationists of this state that paid for the management of this incredible bull to have it shot by some out of state rich guy who didn't do *censored* to deserve it. That for me is what pisses me the *censored* off. Pretty clear for me no gray area!

[SHANE(WA)]

If this guy chooses to hunt this way and its all legal in what he did then so be it, if he is satisfied and feels accomplished for what he got then good for him.My "opinion" is that doesnt float my boat or even get a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction from doing something like that.The hunt to me is everything you do to prepare up and till you go, the scouting, the maps, the gear and talking to people and then the time you spend afield and hoping your plan comes together.Anyways awesome bull, we all dream of shooting a big stinky like that one day maybe not his way.

[Opportunist]

These auction hunts have been a practice for the last ten years or so. Before that hunters hunted during the seasons set by game departments not 4 months and in some states yearround. Now our animals are pimped out to the highest bidder. If these auctioned hunts ended tommorrow game departments would go about business as usual, probably through a small increase in tag or license fees which if that would get rid of these rich man hunts I have no problem kicking it up in the fees.

And when I refer to "US", I refer to HUNTERS not SHOOTERS! If your not a hunter that is fine, then my inclusion does not refer to you.

I have no problem with out of state HUNTERS supporting our wildlife management. The legacy of our hunting is based on the traditions brought down by all of our families and that is the only thing keeping hunting alive. So purchasing my license every year and the licenses my dad has purchased since the 50's is what has kept hunting going. Along with every other HUNTERS families licenses and tags purchased. Auction hunts need to go! If you do the math a $1 increase on my elk tag I'm pretty sure surpasses the $65,000. I may be off a little on the numbers but the last I read we had 80,000 licensed elk hunters in the state. So for a few measly dollars which in my family between my sons, wife and myself is about $200 dollars WE do support OUR game department. I do support raffle ticket hunts at least everyone has a chance.

[JoeVon]

Wow...Amazing Bull.  Correct me if I'm wrong, But from the sounds of things, this wasn't an out of state hunter that got this bull.  I'm surprised by the amount of hate/bashing that anyone who hires a guide to whack an elk gets around here.

[DOUBLELUNG]

I personally HUGELY dislike auction permits, and think state Game agencies should not be funded that way.  It all started with the best of intentions, to raise much-needed money for bighorn sheep restoration.  I sure wish they would all go raffle.  

That said, I don't fault the hunter at all, for legally maximizing his own opportunities to the greatest extent possible.  Doesn't seem much different to me, other than scale, than paying to hunt private ground to get better harvest opportunities than on public, paying a horse packer to take you back further than the poorer SOBs carrying camps on their backs, paying a helicopter to carry out your damage hunt bulls from the hellhole you snowmobiled into, buying incredible glass, laser range finders, ultramagnum rifles with bullet drop compensator reticles etc.  It's also not much different than many of us paying more to hunt ID, MT, WA, CO - we do it because we can afford it.

It's also not much different, in my book, than Joe Hunters lobbying the Game department for permit opportunities to kill mule deer bucks on winter range, the few days of the year they are rut dumb and vulnerable when passing on their genes ... these harvests occur at the expense of the general hunting public's opportunity to take them.

I miss the days of people who trophy hunted by choice during the general season, understood it was a choice and reduced their chances to harvest as a result.  There are an awful lot of fat, out of shape, and/or lazy Joe Hunters who now equate the opportunity to "harvest" a trophy as the number of years they have to accrue points in drawings, in order to kill a rut-dumb buck or bull they are incapable - or uninterested - in hunting during a general season.  I think a LARGE percentage of us are just like this guy - if we had so much jingle we could drop it on an exclusive permit, and all the trappings, we would do the same.  

Some of this griping is legit.  There are still a lot of good hunters too, concerned about the road hunting is going down, and what this does to the future of our sport.  From my view, though, there's an awful lot of just plain jealousy.  Give many of us an extra $10 million or so of mad money, and we'll use that to enhance our own opportunities, including measures that exclude the less wealthy.  That's human nature.

For all you multimillionaires who choose to hunt general seasons on public land, my hat's off!

[Opportunist]

I've said my peace and am good with it.

[BLUEBULLS]

 I spent 5 days up there recently, the 30th to the 3rd. while scouting on the 31st, we saw a fleet of pickups, a few with oregon plates and a few with washington plates, parked along a road with spotting scopes on the hoods and men standing around drinking coffee.
I should have figured it out then but now I realize what they were doing. I know there was quite a bit of work that went into this on someones part. I'm sure it took a lot of time to keep track of this bull. I wish the guide could hang this bull on his wall since he is probably the only one deserving it.
as far as the hunting close to the road goes....that's where the bull was living and you have to hunt where they are.
congratulations to the guides on finding and staying on this bull.

I just hope everything was on the up and up.

[yelp]

What will be interesting is the frenzy that will be around this bull for the next year.  The most interesting will be the story...someone will ask... Tell me about the hunt!  Well it all started at an auction and I [paid 65K for the governors elk tag.  I hired a bunch of guys to find a bull whose sheds were found 2007.  They found the bull and called me on the satelite phone and I flew to Walla Walla in my Jet.  The guideds met me there and drove me to the spot where they last saw the elk.  We Hiked____miles and spotted the bull and I shot him.  We all high fived and took phots and pictures.  We packed elk out....That is how the story should read...but it will be tweaked to make it sound more dramatic to sell videos.  I am sure videos were present too.  Who knows.  It will be the next state record bull so we will be looking at it for a long time.  How it was taken isn't my idea of hunting...I would rather hunt my elk.  It is the Hunt I Love, not always the kill.  I also like to eat the buggers too.

[wastickslinger]

I think the bull was transplanted from Utah and exploited by DWF and then exploited to help the permit sales and bring up auction price. 

Like others have said, not my style of hunting. If everything was legit and that was just his preffered method (again not mine), I cant blame the guy. I agree that as long as they have this super tag we will have this kind of hunting(shooting) take place. All the others states deal witht the same controversy. I like the idea of adding another $1-2 to the elk tag and giving out one more raffle tag.