Possible record bull?

[blackveltbowhunter]

I think some of the issues with this conversation, and others I often see on the site, is the quickness to let everything snowball into a mudslinging competition. There’s something to be said for civilized discourse. This doesn’t have to be a this vs that thing. This bull can be amazing regardless of the circumstances, the hunter can be a great guy/skilled hunter who is still very privileged to hunt places where hunting is easier. The harvest can be legal/ethical but in questionable taste. Auction tags can still raise millions for conservation knowing they’ll target trophy animals, while making hunters look bad in the eyes of the non-hunting community. Other hunters can be critical, without being jealous. We as hunters have a duty to hold one another accountable, but also to support one another. As iron sharpens iron. All of the things discussed in this thread are complex in their own ways and there isn’t necessarily a hardline right & wrong.

This x1000.... thats why I attempted to start the other thread. Both the big bull threads this year got away from being success threads.

Hunters need to encourage the discussions that occured.

[2MANY]

Remember when hunters kept secrets instead of bragging?
Me too.

[Feathernfurr]

I’m not sure there has ever been a time that hunters didn’t brag. They were definitely more tight lipped in the past. But there’s a historical collection of books, photos, newspaper articles, events, and tall tales to support that hunters and fisherman have always liked to brag 😂.

[Skillet]

I’m not sure there has ever been a time that hunters didn’t brag. They were definitely more tight lipped in the past. But there’s a historical collection of books, photos, newspaper articles, events, and tall tales to support that hunters and fisherman have always liked to brag 😂.

"Bragging may not bring happiness, but no man having caught a large fish goes home through an alley."
 ~Confucious, probably

[NOCK NOCK]

Sad bc I won’t be able to tell my kids they have a chance competing with a millionaire for the same tag just bc we aren’t higher on the financial scale of life. And also sad seeing our “conservation” groups auction clearly trophy tags. As sportsmen we vow a cow is worth a bull when correct management is being upheld. I don’t see him holding a cow with his tag…. Just sayin. We better start practicing what we preach. We a bunch of antler hunters trying to break books, cool. Then say it like it is. We a bunch of people paying for high end tags not available to those who can’t pay, cool.. say it like it is. This whole “I’m a sportsmen for conservation” bs with the same people buying the tags year after trying to break the next record? It just proves the anti hunters right. It’s all about the trophy and we can’t do anything but back it up with the auction tags. Those buying the tags are buying a chance at a trophy. They truly aren’t there to help conserve at all, they can just afford to dump cash

What’s being done with the cash they dump? Clearly them killing a bull or Billy or a giant buck has nothing to do with conservation. But what about the cash they spend? Where are we gonna replace that with?

Cash they spend supports WILDLIFE.  Griz reintroduction, wolf recovery, cougar population health, coyotes, black bears, bobcats, northern/southern purple toothbeaked frog, etc.......You know, wildlife. 

*Insert next comment from the HW elite*......."Money from single species auction/raffle goes directly to THAT species" 

No one can prove that, and with the track record of our states wildlife/game management I find it really unbelievable that anyone of you actually believe this to be true.


So are these big money hunters doing it for the meat???    Thats alot of critters to eat.





Thats why I do it, along with its fun. 

[kentrek]

Remember when hunters kept secrets instead of bragging?
Me too.

Plenty of secrets out there....always been braggers

Nothing has chnaged except the format

[CarbonHunter]

Remember when hunters kept secrets instead of bragging?
Me too.

Plenty of secrets out there....always been braggers

Nothing has chnaged except the format

There is definitely still a silent majority in the hunting community.

But then there are others who want to be known far and wide for their accomplishments and when you do it will always come from multiple directions.

[The scout]

  Bragging to your buddies around a fire and putting it on the internet so thousands of people you don’t know can see are 2 very different things.

[kentrek]

Bragging to your buddies around a fire and putting it on the internet so thousands of people you don’t know can see are 2 very different things.

How about sending an article into a magazine ? Fred bear vids ? Caveman paintings ?

Its same same different day

[The scout]

Bragging to your buddies around a fire and putting it on the internet so thousands of people you don’t know can see are 2 very different things.

How about sending an article into a magazine ? Fred bear vids ? Caveman paintings ?

Its same same different day

You’re right, I guess it just feels different being on social media. Reaches way more people.

[JDHasty]

This is an article about my good friend Jim Tonkin’s sheep hunt:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19910922&id=gENWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mOoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6525,5192645&hl=en

My cousin’s wife drew a Slippery Ann tag a while back.  She grew up in Winnett and knows every inch of that Unit and everyone who ranches in Philips County personally.  They were out hunting and got a call saying the massive seven point bull was next to the hay shed if she wanted to shoot it.  She said:  No, we want to make a hunt of it. 

Her late son finally drew that tag last year.  He had stage four cancer and could have just waited for a phone call and then gone and shot a way up in the record book bull.  He turned down the opportunity and they hunted from the truck and ORVs. 

Both got really respectable bulls, but not the top record book bulls, but monsters nonetheless.  They could have had they accepted the offers. 

My good friend drew an Elkhorn tag two years ago, finally.  He is in his 80’s and suffered from COPD.  Had offers to shoot elk on ranches the hands had spotted and could have taken him right to on a four wheeler.  He thanked them, but said he came to hunt, not shoot an elk someone else had done the work on.  He could only hunt for half a day out of every three days.  Didn’t fill the tag. 

Ronny Jenkins who knows more about sheep and hunting all over the world than practically anyone told me that without a doubt Jim, who is the hunter in the story linked to above would have shot the number one ram if he had not insisted on making a hunt out of it. 

What I object to, and vehemently and unabashedly so, is others who claim that I have no right to hold and express the opinion that others who would have not only jumped at the opportunity to take a bigger animal, they would have financially compensated anyone who enabled them in doing so, don’t belong in the same class and/or that their achievement deserves to be viewed in the same light. 

What I also have a big problem with is the proposition “We all need to stick together.”  In the first place I don’t care to have the royal we lump me in with individuals who I do not care to be associated with.  Irrespective of claims by others who I recognize as having standards I find beneath me, whenever that statement has been brought up, more likely than not, it impresses me as being brought up out of concern for excusing questionable conduct than out of any concern for what is in the best interest of the sport of hunting in general. 

Whenever I have heard it, I’m immediately reminded of the words of Samuel Johnson regarding the last refuge of a scoundrel. 
In 1774, Samuel Johnson printed The Patriot, a critique of what he viewed as false patriotism. On the evening of 7 April 1775, he made a famous statement: "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."  The line was not, as is widely believed, about patriotism in general but rather what Johnson saw as the false use of the term "patriotism" by William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (the patriot minister) and his supporters. Johnson opposed most "self-professed patriots" in general but valued what he considered "true" patriotism.

[2MANY]

Bragging to your buddies around a fire and putting it on the internet so thousands of people you don’t know can see are 2 very different things.

How about sending an article into a magazine ? Fred bear vids ? Caveman paintings ?

Its same same different day

You’re right, I guess it just feels different being on social media. Reaches way more people.

And people can comment.

[2MANY]

This is an article about my good friend Jim Tonkin’s sheep hunt:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19910922&id=gENWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mOoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6525,5192645&hl=en

My cousin’s wife drew a Slippery Ann tag a while back.  She grew up in Winnett and knows every inch of that Unit and everyone who ranches in Philips County personally.  They were out hunting and got a call saying the massive seven point bull was next to the hay shed if she wanted to shoot it.  She said:  No, we want to make a hunt of it. 

Her late son finally drew that tag last year.  He had stage four cancer and could have just waited for a phone call and then gone and shot a way up in the record book bull.  He turned down the opportunity and they hunted from the truck and ORVs. 

Both got really respectable bulls, but not the top record book bulls, but monsters nonetheless.  They could have had they accepted the offers. 

My good friend drew an Elkhorn tag two years ago, finally.  He is in his 80’s and suffered from COPD.  Had offers to shoot elk on ranches the hands had spotted and could have taken him right to on a four wheeler.  He thanked them, but said he came to hunt, not shoot an elk someone else had done the work on.  He could only hunt for half a day out of every three days.  Didn’t fill the tag. 

Ronny Jenkins who knows more about sheep and hunting all over the world than practically anyone told me that without a doubt Jim, who is the hunter in the story linked to above would have shot the number one ram if he had not insisted on making a hunt out of it. 

What I object to, and vehemently and unabashedly so, is others who claim that I have no right to hold and express the opinion that others who would have not only jumped at the opportunity to take a bigger animal, they would have financially compensated anyone who enabled them in doing so, don’t belong in the same class and/or that their achievement deserves to be viewed in the same light. 

What I also have a big problem with is the proposition “We all need to stick together.”  In the first place I don’t care to have the royal we lump me in with individuals who I do not care to be associated with.  Irrespective of claims by others who I recognize as having standards I find beneath me, whenever that statement has been brought up, more likely than not, it impresses me as being brought up out of concern for excusing questionable conduct than out of any concern for what is in the best interest of the sport of hunting in general. 

I 100% agree and cool article.
Hunting should be hunting.

[jrebel]

We are inching closer every day to reaching the same page count as the BIGFOOT THREAD..... 

[Boss .300 winmag]

We are inching closer every day to reaching the same page count as the BIGFOOT THREAD..... 

Not even close, I really thought this one would have been locked by now.🤣