Other Activities > Shed Hunting
Shed hunters shot at.
dilleytech:
--- Quote from: pianoman9701 on April 13, 2024, 01:45:01 PM ---Banning the sale of antlers and hides/capes does nothing to stop idiots from being idiots. When collected responsibly, both are a resource. If you ban hides and cape sales, then that will just be wasted and thrown away by most. Antlers are renewable. I agree with setting dates and strictly enforcing existing laws. I don't agree with additional fees or bans. :twocents:
--- End quote ---
Banning the sale of antlers would decrease people’s interest in getting as many sheds out of the field as possible. Most of us would still shed hunt but it would certainly decrease effort and competition. It would cut out a lot of those guys who take 2 months off every spring to just shed hunt for profit.
Feathernfurr:
This is a tough one. I’m not sure how it is here in Washington, but I can speak for Idaho and Wyoming and tell you that the ban of antler sales would definitely make an impact. We have a lot of winter range that’s closed to human entry, and regularly see people chasing huge herds of elk and muleys with snowmachines. All of our openers have roads lined with trucks buying horn, and you watch guys deposit everything they pick up the second they come off the hill. It’s nothing but a money grab for them.
Granted these people are outlaws, that I think to some degree do it for the thrill. You see them go to great extents to not get caught. The ones that get caught are repeat offenders, sometimes accruing thousands in fines that don’t seem to deter them. So the ban of sales would, in my head, just drive the market underground so to speak. It would take a federal effort that would be incredibly difficult to coordinate and enforce.
I’ll tell you though, states are starting to put laws into place to protect their resources, often times at the downfall of their neighboring states. Wyoming has shut down their first week of season to non residents. Meanwhile Wyoming residents are raping Idaho closures, with too little law enforcement manpower across areas of multi agency land to enforce the laws. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve watched a timber sled, snow machine, or tracked side by side drive in on an opener, and leave 15 minutes later with 50 plus horns in a bundle.
Regardless of how any of us feel about it, and how the government attempts to manage it, I think we’re all in for a rude awakening in the next decade as to the state of shed hunting. I don’t see a future where our children will get to enjoy it the way we do, unless they’re willing to break the law, or can afford the luxury equipment to make it happen. The shoe lace express can’t keep up with the horses and machines that the money shed hunters will use to over consume.
CarbonHunter:
Sounds to me like a safety issue and our game commission only has one answer for safety. Make the person holding the gun wear orange or pink.
Problem solved.
chukardogs:
If they're chasing animals in the late winter/early spring with a snowmobile, give em a 10,000 dollar fine, take their snowmobile and vehicle and toss their butt in jail for a month or until the animals have headed for their summer range.
bigtex:
An Idaho resident just got sentenced to a $6,000 fine, a felony conviction, and a public lands ban for the removal of, and attempted sale of $18,000 worth of sheds removed from a National Wildlife Refuge and National Forest in Wyoming.
https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/idaho-antler-poacher-sentenced/
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