D
doodah
Guest
the following article appeared in the outdoor section of the Sunday (Nov 9th) Oregonian:
RECORD SPIDER BULL ELK GENERATES CONCERN ABOUT COMMERCIALIZATION
"The pending world record elk, shot in Utah in September, is raising eyebrows for its size as well as concerns for the direction of trophy hunting, Rich Landers of the (Spokane) Spokesman Review writes.
Known as the "spider bull", the elk taken in Utah's Monroe Mountain unit - one of the state's most coveted trophy units - had a green score of just more than 500 points of antler mass on the Boone and Crockett scale.
The bull was killed by Denny Austad of Ammon, Idaho, who invested nearly $170,000 in a Utah Governor's tag, which allows the holder to hunt with any weapon in any open unit in the state.
A Washington record bull elk was taken in the Blue Mountains in September by a hunter who paid $65,000 for the Governor's tag. States auction these special tags in fundraisers for elk management.
"The Spider Bull represents a troubling trend," said Andrew McKean, hunting editor for Outdoor Life magazine.
Wildlife is becoming commercialized in high-bid auctions and programs that give landowners and outfitters the rights to sell tags for hunting trophies on their property, McKean wrote in his blog on the magazine's Web site.
"Austad had the help of a profit-minded outfitter and a heap of pay-rolled guides," he said, suggesting that the record books should make distinctions. "I will argue until I die that his achievement is less remarkable than a do-it-yourself hunter who invests a season hunting hard." END
IMO, this is the first year that I'm aware of in the last 10 years in the western United States, where any Governor's tag hunter has killed a world record elk or deer. These Governor's tags(auction and raffle) have raised over $4,000,000 in Arizona alone since 2000 and not one of those tag holders has yet to kill a world record elk or deer.
According to the most recent issue of Hunting Illustrated, there are over 700,000 elk hunters in the U.S. who spend over $915,000,000 annually on elk hunting. So much for the motives of the evil profit-minded folks who sell elk hunters everything from pick-ups to ammo to horse feed. Maybe if we could just get every elk hunter to build his own rifle or make his own bow or invent his own optics, we could really makes these hunts DIY's. And most of the DIY hunters I know usually have what I call a DIYWFand/orF...Do it yourself with family and/or friends.
Congrats to Denny Austad, the Mossback crew and all those other profit-minded outfitters with pay-rolled guides who assist thousands of elk and deer hunters every year to adhieve their dream hunt, wherever and whatever it may be.
RECORD SPIDER BULL ELK GENERATES CONCERN ABOUT COMMERCIALIZATION
"The pending world record elk, shot in Utah in September, is raising eyebrows for its size as well as concerns for the direction of trophy hunting, Rich Landers of the (Spokane) Spokesman Review writes.
Known as the "spider bull", the elk taken in Utah's Monroe Mountain unit - one of the state's most coveted trophy units - had a green score of just more than 500 points of antler mass on the Boone and Crockett scale.
The bull was killed by Denny Austad of Ammon, Idaho, who invested nearly $170,000 in a Utah Governor's tag, which allows the holder to hunt with any weapon in any open unit in the state.
A Washington record bull elk was taken in the Blue Mountains in September by a hunter who paid $65,000 for the Governor's tag. States auction these special tags in fundraisers for elk management.
"The Spider Bull represents a troubling trend," said Andrew McKean, hunting editor for Outdoor Life magazine.
Wildlife is becoming commercialized in high-bid auctions and programs that give landowners and outfitters the rights to sell tags for hunting trophies on their property, McKean wrote in his blog on the magazine's Web site.
"Austad had the help of a profit-minded outfitter and a heap of pay-rolled guides," he said, suggesting that the record books should make distinctions. "I will argue until I die that his achievement is less remarkable than a do-it-yourself hunter who invests a season hunting hard." END
IMO, this is the first year that I'm aware of in the last 10 years in the western United States, where any Governor's tag hunter has killed a world record elk or deer. These Governor's tags(auction and raffle) have raised over $4,000,000 in Arizona alone since 2000 and not one of those tag holders has yet to kill a world record elk or deer.
According to the most recent issue of Hunting Illustrated, there are over 700,000 elk hunters in the U.S. who spend over $915,000,000 annually on elk hunting. So much for the motives of the evil profit-minded folks who sell elk hunters everything from pick-ups to ammo to horse feed. Maybe if we could just get every elk hunter to build his own rifle or make his own bow or invent his own optics, we could really makes these hunts DIY's. And most of the DIY hunters I know usually have what I call a DIYWFand/orF...Do it yourself with family and/or friends.
Congrats to Denny Austad, the Mossback crew and all those other profit-minded outfitters with pay-rolled guides who assist thousands of elk and deer hunters every year to adhieve their dream hunt, wherever and whatever it may be.