"Governor's Tag"

[JDHasty]

Given unlimited resources and the tag - how would you "spend it?" 

Would you research the biggest, badest bull Statewide that was legal and hire a conglomerate of guides and pay any access fee or would you use it that tag seek to "go it alone" with just you and your hunting partners to use your good fortune to challenge yourself to take a bull that would be your personal best on the bull's terms.  And if you did your research and are lucky enough, given that you have nearly half a year to accomplish your goal be up there among the top bulls ever taken?  Or would it be something in between?  Remember you have unlimited resources and could make arrangements for your "crew" to spend the entire time if you like the second option. 

I guess what I am getting at is what makes that hunting trophy hanging on your wall something extra special in your mind.   

[greenhead_killer]

I wouldn't pay the money for the tag unless I had a certain critter picked out that I have a little history with, or that a friend has history with. With a tag like that, I hope you are shooting for the moon. That's kind of the idea for me with these tags. I think I would know enough people to never have to pay a guide, although it's not out of the question. I think the 200" and 400" marks are attainable in this state and I would dedicate as much time as I could with out having my wife divorce me. Haha. I tried the solo route on a quality elk tag and ate it. I learned a lot about myself and how important it is to accept the help of others. I do t think you will hit those high marks on your own. They are special animals and take extra care to get there. I wouldn't settle for less even if it would be my best though. This would be an opportunity that you might never see again and I'd want to go big or go home. Just my 2 cents

[huntnphool]

 I see it the same as a buddy that often purchases one, it allows you to hunt until the end of the year, whenever you have time and feel like going hunting. Sure it gives a huge advantage to tag a real big trophy, but just being able to go whenever or where ever (almost) you want is real appealing to me.

[rtspring]

Buying the tickets is the CHEAP part!! Ask Coach how mych that raffle really costs you!

[2labs]

If I had the "doe"  I would ask Jay to clean my nether regions and go to Idaho. Ha!

[huntnphool]

Buying the tickets is the CHEAP part!! Ask Coach how mych that raffle really costs you!

 Raffle and Auction tags are completely different investments.

[JDHasty]

I used to raise chocolate Labrador retrievers and hung around the field trial game and during those years I saw men and women of unlimited means who trained and handled their own dogs.  I also saw many of the same individuals buy a dozen pups, place them with a puppy specialist, place them around the country with trainers and then sit back and watch a dog that does not recognize them as their owner. 

What I took away from that experience is the latter impressed me as participating as a means to an end.  Their contribution to the success was the ability to pay the bill. 

As in a trophy bull, a FT Champion itself demands respect for being an outstanding example and no one ever took anything away from the dog.  But it always impressed me that those who admired the owner were mostly there because they enjoyed "proximity to power."  Both they, and the men and women who trained and handled were respected by people in the FT game, but that respect was of a different nature.   

I never liked training dogs, I like to hunt, but when I was single I set out to breed chocolates that could be competitive in the FT arena, and I was wildly successful.  But my nature is such that I just never "warmed up" to being an acolyte of those who were the "big money men."  Even though I raised FC Abby's Little Cooper and at one time four of the living Chocolate FT Champions came out of my breeding program, I was always an outsider.  FTC Chocline's Spitfire and FTC Chocline's Cigar were two others and the last dog's name escapes me right now.

Abby's Little Cooper was staked in a Qual before she was two and won it and was staked in an Open a week after she aged out of the Derby.  She won that Open and two weeks later placed in an Open and was a FC at just over two years old and then racked up more Open points than any other Chocolate Bitch ever - running in Washington and Oregon against the toughest field anywhere.

At that juncture I was single and could have afforded to hand select pups and placed them with Gonia, Patopia or Danny Farmer and had them run them and become another "absentee owner" of a monster of a dog.  I had a dog that was looking like a monster of a dog with Gonia  and one day just stopped by and picked the dog up and hunted behind her for the next eleven years.  I did not need to add that dog to my dog pack that I hunted pheasant and chucker behind, I had six others.  I shoot behind flushing dogs and the six other dogs I had back then were working like a well oiled machine.  I just didn't get anything out of the accolades I was getting from others.  I wanted to enjoy hunting behind that dog in my crew.   That dog was FC Abby's Little Cooper's dam and one day she got on a rooster, in the fog, and ran it a quarter mile and when I put that rooster in my game bag I knew that is what I wanted.  No one saw it, I ate the bird, but the memory means more to me than the phone call I got when Abbey won an Open her first stake.

Funny thing, I set out to breed chocolates that could compete against the best in the world in field trials and I bred dogs that beat the best in the world.  Yea, none ever got a NFC title, but that is one ten day trial per year, but to win, place or show and do so convincingly and decisively, week in and week out in the Pacific Northwest... you do the math.

What I am getting at is:  Once I had proven TO MYSELF that I could breed chocolates that could compete at the highest levels... I really did not care who else knew.  I would not trade watching my dogs get hot, split into three groups and yell to my hunting partner to stay on Rudy's ass because I was going after the other two birds that split my way.  I knew without a doubt that there were three birds, my dogs don't lie about pheasant.  The score was three roosters and a man who could not believe what he had just seen.   Another time my dogs jumped a cock on the near side of a hedgerow, I knew I had a 50/50 chance of the bird coming out on the side I could shoot on.  There were tall evergreen trees in that hedgerow.  I decided the bird would most likely flush on the far side and busted through the hedgerow to the other side.  Annie broke off and went with me and we sprinted down in front of the other dogs with me and then went in and worked "the trap" on that sucker.   I misjudged and it came out the far side, but I bent at the waist and shot with my gun  two feet off the ground and the rib toward the ground and we got that bird.  I have a stack of FT ribbons at home and in comparison to these and a hundred other experiences testing my self and my dogs in the field these ribbons shrink to insignificance.   

Call me a romantic if you will, but given the opportunity I would hope that I would choose to test myself if fortune were to ever shine on me and allow me the opportunity of unlimited big game access.               

         

 

[JDHasty]

I wouldn't pay the money for the tag unless I had a certain critter picked out that I have a little history with, or that a friend has history with. With a tag like that, I hope you are shooting for the moon. That's kind of the idea for me with these tags. I think I would know enough people to never have to pay a guide, although it's not out of the question. I think the 200" and 400" marks are attainable in this state and I would dedicate as much time as I could with out having my wife divorce me. Haha. I tried the solo route on a quality elk tag and ate it. I learned a lot about myself and how important it is to accept the help of others. I do t think you will hit those high marks on your own. They are special animals and take extra care to get there. I wouldn't settle for less even if it would be my best though. This would be an opportunity that you might never see again and I'd want to go big or go home. Just my 2 cents

Good points you make.

Funny thing you mention "having the wife divorce you," one year a buddy and I hunted 52 days (I know because his significant other was keeping track) and in late January an elk hunt opened up and I called and she threatened me with bodily harm.   

[JDHasty]

I see it the same as a buddy that often purchases one, it allows you to hunt until the end of the year, whenever you have time and feel like going hunting. Sure it gives a huge advantage to tag a real big trophy, but just being able to go whenever or where ever (almost) you want is real appealing to me.

I think that is how I feel. 

[idahohuntr]

I see it the same as a buddy that often purchases one, it allows you to hunt until the end of the year, whenever you have time and feel like going hunting. Sure it gives a huge advantage to tag a real big trophy, but just being able to go whenever or where ever (almost) you want is real appealing to me.

That would be my approach.  I wouldn't set a mark and I wouldn't pay for or seek out info on any specific animals...that would just add too much pressure and to me the fun would be gone at that point.

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[JDHasty]

I see it the same as a buddy that often purchases one, it allows you to hunt until the end of the year, whenever you have time and feel like going hunting. Sure it gives a huge advantage to tag a real big trophy, but just being able to go whenever or where ever (almost) you want is real appealing to me.

That would be my approach.  I wouldn't set a mark and I wouldn't pay for or seek out info on any specific animals...that would just add too much pressure and to me the fun would be gone at that point.

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Seeking out a "specific animal" does add another degree of challenge.  I can accept that as rationale for some, especially those who have a whole wall of trophy heads.  If that were your situation would it change the way you would proceed?   Or would you just like to "savor the good fortune, knowing you have a half a year to get er' done" with a real nice trophy bull at the end of it?

I would like to think that I would opt for the "self guided hunt" if the alternative involved paying for an army of guides, to reconnoiter the entire area in "battalion strength," to find him and then call you on your cell phone to come in and close the deal. 

   

[coachcw]

Having been involved  with two raffle hunts in the last  four years, I can give this perspective.   TAG JUSTICE....... As Rt said it's not the cost of the tag if your worried about that it's probably  not the game to be in . If you want to have real odds to win a raffle  you have to be willing  to donate to the cause . I personally  believe in supporting  wildlife through direct  donation. Two three or five thousand is really not much for such a opportunity  in my mind . Some guys buy a pack or two a day or stop at the bar for a cold  one nightly. To me thats a waste. Once the tag or tags are in your hand the work starts ... set your goals and be realistic  and  give it hell.. I  was able to meet a good buddy and hunt 40 plus days on his three tag raffle . Then  I knew I was hooked . I made a plan and after two years connected . 92 days I the field later with countless memories with buddy's I had regrets . Ironically  I passed a 380 bull on day  one and after 75 plus bulls and 200 plus miles of boot leather I harvested a bull right of a road  that was in the 380 class , two close calls with 400 class animals that didn't  play out .. what a opportunity.  My sheep tag was a short hunt I knew  what the units had to offer and harvested on day one of that hunt , though  I ended up being the most physically demand pack out of my life alone on the mountain. A good friend had found a 180 class buck in velvet  and I choose to wait till he rubbed out. Having passed on a 170 buck in sept we went after Mr big sure enough he broke a main beam . Hi hi to wtf. These hunts can have it all . In the end another good representative had been tagged. As far as the auction tag ..... I believe it just guys that are in different places financially that can afford to play the game. I believe that the pressure involved can change the game for  some . Maybe it's the lack of physical ability or the competition  these men have is what causes lines to be crossed . I just hope some day I can answer that from experiance. Having held a raffle tag I can say it's a addiction be careful  not a day goes by that I don't dream of another .

[JDHasty]

That is good insight. 

[Buckjunkie]

With unlimited resources, I would still hunt with friends and try to have some fun. I have been in on a few of these and what is most frustrating is guys trying to sell information, locations and sometimes outright lying to make a buck. The toughest thing is sifting through all the bs from people that couldn't tell a giant from an average animal.  I know, I know, most could care less, but there is a lot of misinformation out there. We have even had guys steal photos from another state off the internet and say they took the pic and offer to sell you the location.

If you ever are in on one of these hunts, do yourself a favor. Only hunt with your friends. Do your own homework. Confirm everything. Learn to dissect a photo to find its origin. And try to have fun. My most prized trophies are the ones I worked the hardest for. Not necessarily my highest scoring animals.

[snake]

will someone post a picture of the Gov Tag elk from this year, the one everyone is crying about?  Thanks.