Auctioned big game or hunting tags

NVPete · Mar 17, 2018

Thoughts on this> I know the money goes towards various wildlife habitat or guzzler projects, but I am amazed at how high winning bids can get to. At the local wildlife organization's banquet, a donated Land Owner mule deer tag went for 13k dollars, rocky mountain elk for 105k dollars, and a turkey tag for $1200.WOW!

buckhorn · Mar 18, 2018

That is a lot to pay for tags but if I had that kind of extra money that's what I would spend it on.
My guess is the folks bidding that high are probably members of the organizations that are raffling the tags.
Depending on the hunt unit, those tags could probably be purchased for much less but those folks are probably looking at it as a donation to the various causes you mentioned. However there seems to be a Lotta folks with that kind of extra money.
We all know how difficult it can be to get a premium tag in the regular draw.
You mentioned the deer tag was a land owner donated tag. Was the elk tag a landowner tag or a state wide auction tag?
I believe those landowner tags are unit specific. So for instance area 6 has several different units so if a landowner is in unit 066 that tag is only good for that unit not all of the units in area 6. Is that correct?
For someone to pay that much for an elk tag I would have to guess it was a state wide type tag.

ByeByeObamas · Mar 18, 2018

I wonder if they write it off somehow...

13 k for deer seems less than what i would expect.

GONHUNTIN · Mar 18, 2018

Donations are a tax write off

Soj51hopeful · Mar 18, 2018

I know a few small business owners that go to all the nra, mdf, rmef, etc. banquets and spend way more than me and write it all off as charity or something. They also win guns and stuff all the time.

Bowhunter05 · Mar 19, 2018

No way in hell myself or the average Joe can afford 105000 for an elk tag! Thats insane. This is why I don't bother with any kind of raffle or auction for any state I hunt in. Arizona for instance makes thier raffle sound pretty enticing but when u figure it takes 5 dollars to buy a single raffle ticket and you have some old guy who regularly hunts dall sheep in Alaska because he has an endless budget buys 20000 of them your chances of winning basically went out the window. I like that the money goes to various wildlife projects but I don't like that the average Joe doesn't stand a chance in an auction or raffle.

rambopup4 · Mar 19, 2018

This is exactly why the tags need to be available on a raffle only basis wherein the # of tickets sold, 1,5,10, whatever, is limited per individual. And the total # of tickets in the raffle needs to be revealed to the purchasers.

Auctions of these tags to the highest bidder is contrary to the North American model of wildlife conservation which holds that the states own their wildlife for the benefit, enjoyment, and conservation for all their citizens regardless of wealth, power, social status, or land ownership. Remember feudal England from high school world history class?

Sadly we have evolved into exactly what an article 20 years ago in Sports Afield opined:

"Are we moving to a two tier hunting society wherein the bucks and bulls are reserved for the most wealthy of society and the does and leftovers are available for the rest?"

Of course the likes of UTAH SFW, Don Peay, Carl Malone, and the Spider Bull/Antelope Island mule deer guy from Idaho don't see it that way!

Robiland · Mar 19, 2018

Come to utah and see them auction off hundreds of tags every year to the highest bidder. They have aver 500 tags a year they do this to in Utah. Then they have the landowner tags, and the CWMU tags. An archery deer tag on the Paunsaguant sold for $32,000 this year. Elk tags are going ot 50-75 + K$$$. Millions are sold every year. Its a slipper slope that the DWR sees. Once they go down, they keep going.

NVBighorn · Mar 19, 2018

Nevada Silver State Tag
Nevada Dream Tag

rambopup4 · Mar 19, 2018

Yep - Utah DWR sold their soul many years ago to UTAH SFW and Don Peay.

Robiland - you are correct about Utah. That's why Utah SFW hired an attorney as a lobbyist and why they've never agreed to an outside audit of their finances by an independent accounting firm. Gotta love Utah and the self serving Mormons! "But Don Peay is a good man."

Not far removed are some private landowners in Nevada with 160 acres of land who summon NDOW personnel to "verify/examine" the damage deer and elk are doing to their 160 acres during winter so they can qualify for a landowner permit which can be sold for thousands of dollars.

About four years ago I hunted elk with a well established outfitter from Caliente, Nevada. He educated me about NDOW landowner permits via his repeat mule deer hunter from Las Vegas who owns a large car dealership. His hunter buys a mule deer landowner permit or auction permit annually for about $10,000 or more and could care less if he shoots the type of mule deer he wants. The outfitter said his hunter just buys another permit the next year and does not even blink or bat an eye so to speak.

Yes Sir, the North American model of wildlife conservation is alive and well in America!

hossblur · Mar 28, 2018

>Come to utah and see them
>auction off hundreds of tags
>every year to the highest
>bidder. They have aver
>500 tags a year they
>do this to in Utah.
> Then they have the
>landowner tags, and the CWMU
>tags. An archery deer
>tag on the Paunsaguant sold
>for $32,000 this year.
>Elk tags are going ot
>50-75 + K$$$. Millions
>are sold every year.
>Its a slipper slope that
>the DWR sees. Once
>they go down, they keep
>going.

Yup+111

But so does the legislature, gov, and non hunting public.

From the party of HUNTIN, FISHIN, PUBLIC LAND.