navajo nation elk scam

STOMPER

Active Member
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438
this post is intended to aid anyone in the future who is looking to hunt the navajo nation for elk and deer.

over the past several years i have purchased auction tags and have purchased the best tags the rez has to offer. most commonly i purchase what is the equivalent of the governor tag. this allows me to hunt anywhere on the rez. there is a catch. the navajos have a ranch called the padre mesa ranch that noone knows about. i was told this year i would be given access to it as i was about to quit purchasing tags to such a corrupt area. well at the last moment the navajos pulled the plug on the ranch and told me that only michael wadel with his tv crew was allowed to hunt on it. they need him to kill a giant bull thats never seen pressure so that they can advertise a giant 428" bull being killed on the navajo. the purpose of this is to display these pictures at auction and get top dollar for their special elk permits. the sad thing is that the navajo is extremely void of elk and i usually hunt 3 straight weeks until i find one or two bulls over 340. theres not many but their out there. how would a guy feel thinking he was going to hunt a rez with giant 400" bulls only to find out the area with those bulls is off limits to every single person except the guys with tv shows and great advertisement abilities.

i will leave this post at this. depending on the repercussions i get depends on how much more i post.

heres this years padre mesa bull harvested by the bone collectors t-bone. nice guy and awesome bull and a big congrats goes out to him. but to all of those who dare hunt the navajo beware. U WILL NOT BE HUNTING THESE BULLS!!!
8286image.jpg
 
wow, that is a scam. can't believe jason wasn't able to get you on the property. how was your hunt otherwise. yellow horse killed that other giant 410+ typical. was that on the padre? were you hunting him? good luck. the rez is a gamble and they usually will undercut you if they can regardless..
 
my bad. it was chris ashley. jason and i were chasing 2 other 400" bulls but they were in unit 16 and all the other guides know 16 is where u go so there was a very small area with a ton of pressure and the bulls did like they do every year and go to the arizona state land. u would think the navajos would be smart enough to take pressure off the trophy areas so that they were true trophy areas but they dont. so after hunting 2 solid weeks i dissapeared to an area i know on the boundary of the navajo and found two more bulls pushing 400". i kiled one that scores between 391 and 395.

the other bull ron killed was legit. i was actually huning that bull with darryl begaye but it was on a general season unit and i really wanted to go check my hotspot so i hunted it a day and left. that bull was killed close to gallup and was a very young bull with freak genetics. it was just one of those chance bulls that every unit in the west pops up with once every hundred years but he was legit and not a padre mesa bull.
 
The amount of big bulls will keep dropping there until it no longer a Big bull factory, They do have a great thing going, hope they decide to quit screwing it up by take too many out at one time. That small of a area can only take so much.
How many 400's or close to it was taken already this year.

Tony have you seen a few of those Bulls around Ft Wingate that are on Navajo land, Got some great genetic going for them.

"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".
>[Font][Font color = "green"]Life member of
>the MM green signature club.[font/]
 
i do have a lot of money to blow on auction tags and im extremely addicted to hunting. im honestly not trying to brag or offend anyone here. however for $5k u can buy a trophy archery elk tag. the padre mesa is on the trophy unit area and one might think they could hunt those big bulls but they cant. the problem with the navajos is that they have a new biologist calling the shots. he has it in his head that the numbers of cows needs dropped. i hunted for three weeks and i only saw around 40 cows in the entire upper north east 1/4 of the state of arizona. how do u justify the numbers of cows they kill? then the carizo hill in unit 12 is a giant buck mecca. 6 years ago it would rival the jicarilla. then the genius biologist limited cougar tags and issued a kill order on does. the area is now nearly void of deer and on that trophy hunt last year we saw two cougars in daylight hours and only a handful of deer. just the extreme mismanagement going on in the rez is mind boggling. the guides association came up with several habitat and water programs to help the animals. they had all the money and simply needed approval. they were denied and this is a regular occurence.

but in this case they are show casing bulls as standard bulls u will be hunting on the navajo when in actuality it is a giant lie. its false advertisement in the worst case.

i hunted 2 straight weeks this year. i didnt stay in a hotel. i slept in my truck or under the stars following the elk. ur typical rich trophy hunter isnt going to hunt as hardcore as i did and it took every ounce of energy i had to locate and down the 395" bull i got. it was a friggin tough hunt. how much is that tag worth when the rich guys know its a real hunt just to find the elk and that there is no truck hunting. 15 miles a day walking. packing all u need to live is a requirement and baths are going to be weeks apart. i personally loved the hunt and the challenge but i also know i have a very slim chance at a 400 and i know that. however i can get away from the popular areas and have a solitude hunt which is why i do it. i was just really frustrated to find out the indians lied AGAIN.

anyone on here know about the tag scandal last year? well supposedly over the counter sales of the trophy tags were to occur at sci in vegas only! well there were over a dozen guys fly in and stand in line waiting to purchase tags when sales started at 9. well gloria and jeff cole decided to work a back door deal with their buddies the night before and sales were also permitted at the window rock nm office. only the first guy in line in vegas got a trophy deer permit. everything else was sold in window rock. those guys who traveled all that way got burned big time. this is just the tip of the iceberg with the navajo. if a guy goes to the navajo to hunt and hes expecting 400" bulls, top notch guides that actually hunt etc then they will be blown away at the ignored game laws and lack of common sense hunting and management practices they see on the rez. where i hunt the land is of the old days. if the rains dont come im screwed. theres no water points etc and last year i burned my gov tag. the elk just werent there. however the pictures and stories they might tell u are different. the padre mesa is a hush hush thing. if u ask the game and fish they will go silent immediately. theres a lot of under table stuff going on there and they simply dont want anyone knowing. just know that u will never hunt there and thats their only big bull place. its jeff coles personal secret and its his private deal to do what he wishes with. and theres a good chance i will get banned from the navajo for mentioning his name but its ok. the public needs to know and this time im not writing the navajo apologizing for exposing them on monster muleys.
 
It sounds like a messed up system with some crooked stuff going on.

I am a little confused though; in your first post you say "the sad thing is that the navajo is extremely void of elk and i usually hunt 3 straight weeks until i find one or two bulls over 340" Then in your second post you tell us that you chased 2 400" bulls and then later you found two more bulls pushing 400". That is night and day difference between the two post.

Nonetheless, that's a crock that they did a 180 and denied you the padre mesa. Sounds like you really worked you butt off and connected on a monster. Congrats for sticking with it so long. Please post a pic of your hard earned bull.
 
That is very unfortunate and it's too bad you got screwed over. However, as far as promotions go......every guide service in the world puts their biggest animals on the front page to promote the experience. It's the first thing a person sees. That is just marketing 101.

When you see the Carl's Jr commercial with Paris Hilton in her Bikini eating a 2 pound burger, do you think that's what you are actually going to get?

I'm not saying you weren't screwed on the whole deal, but it shouldn't have anything to do with the way they promote the hunts. If a guy is serious about hunting the ranch, he probably won't sign up based on the pictures alone. He should get the harvest and success rates first along with the age class and type of bulls they harvest. That will tell the real story.
 
Stomper, you said "over the past several years i have purchased auction tags and have purchased the best tags the rez has to offer".

I would love to see a pic of each of those animal that were harvested on the Navajo rez. using those auction tags.

That would give us a much better perspective of your concerns.
 
That really sucks but that sure is a nice bull above.... Hopefully they get their act together
 
So why keep supporting a corrupt system? If money is no object, I'm sure there are plenty other places with huge bulls and good honest people you could hunt with.
 
It must be nice to shoot a 390+ bull and still be dissatisfied with a hunt. At least that's what I'm getting from this rant... If you don't like it don't buy a tag.
 
>It must be nice to shoot
>a 390+ bull and still
>be dissatisfied with a hunt.
>At least that's what I'm
>getting from this rant... If
>you don't like it don't
>buy a tag.


Sounds like to me he is warning others so they don't get ripped off and lied to...
 
Jealous haters will always be jealous haters. I appreciate the heads-up Stomper. I've never bought one of these types of tags. But if I ever do, I'll stay away from Navajo.
 
LAST EDITED ON Oct-12-14 AT 11:01AM (MST)[p]I think it's sickening what people will do for a dollar in the hunting industry. If I had the money I would definitely buy some hunts it makes sense less pressure better quality hunt. But I would never give my money to someone who gets money from the govt. the past is the past I think the money needs to be cut off. And of this is what they've done to you I'm sure they've done alot more. And I hate biologists that operate dishonestly we've seen enough of that in Yellowstones ecosystem.
 
You think the Navajo are bad?????? Don't get me started on the San Carlos or white mtn apache. It's no secret that the indian nations are very corrupt. I had an assistant from the Navajo who explained how the corruption and nepotism works. She had to get out. That's why the people never progress the leadership keeps their people down. Drugs and Alcohol are where many turn. The guides are every bit as bad as the game departments. So go into any reservation hunt with eyes wide open. It is never what it seems on the res. I still have a guide who took my money on the San Carlos reservation and never showed up for the hunt. Fish and game said they just couldn't do anything about it. If you don't want to deal with dishonesty and corruption, DON"T HUNT THE RES.!

T
 
T-Bone is a fat ass that cant walk more than 100yds from the pickup truck, Michael Waddell has a little problem with drinking and driving, and from the looks of it Chris Ashley couldn't shot his way out of a paper bag. These guys aren't hunters, they are pathetic! They just show up, ride around in the truck until their guide takes them to their 400" bull and usually cant even do the one thing that is asked of them, "make a good ethical shot". Trophy bulls are meant to be earned, not bought!
 
I AGREE........THAT WHOLE BONE COLLECTOR CLAN IS NOTHING BUT A SOUTHERN CESSPOOL OF HUNTING TRIPS THAT HAVE GONE BAD. WADDELL HAS BEEN IS HIS SHARE OF TIGHT SPOTS IF YOU KNOW SOME OF HIS HUNTING/ SOCIAL HISTORY. THEY NEED TO GO GET REAL JOBS, I WONT WATCH ANY OF HIS TV CRAP OR BUY HIS PRODUCTS EITHER.,,,,,,,,YD.
 
Flip em an extra 10k next time stomper. That'll probably get u into a honey hole u don't even know about yet. $ makes the world go round. I doubt I'll ever pay to hunt, but good info for guys that will.
 
I have never understood the popularity of "The Bone Collector" show.
I guess if you live in the SE and never get out west you relate to those guys. Ridge Reaper is by far my favorite, because that type of hunting is what I can relate to (unfortunately not the quality they shoot).

Tony, ironically Rez hunting is the purest capitalistic hunting there is. Why would it surprise you that if they see more $ with a certain client they will hold out on you.
That being said, the Rez's manager for quality because that equals more money. Still your best bet to get over 400" if that is what you want. Even your negative post on here is good advertising for them.
 
A good friend of mine was hired by the S. C. tribe to film some elk hunts for a DVD they were wanting to make a number of years ago. Some of the natives didn't really care to have some whiteys hunting their spots so they flattened his trailer tires. When they saw he was still there they put a few bullet holes in it. The third time they just said f it and burned it to the ground. He got the hint.
I've never really had an urge to hunt on a res after that.
 
I agree - this happens with all areas and all outfitters. I've been lucky to hunt some private, un-quided land. I was strictly told I couldn't arrive early. 4 wheeler tracks on the property when I got there. I guarantee they circle through the place prior to me getting there and make sure nothing was in there hanging flat footed that was big. This particular deal I was on was a 9 day season, I was only allowed the last 5 days.
 
Here is a picture. I hope it is okay with Stomper to post it.
I am really proud of the shot he made. He felt really bad about taking 13 -27 bullets to bring an animal down so he has been practicing. This is gonna look good on his wall. Damn Indians
47132012_campfire_&_my_small_bull_005.jpg
.
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-01-14 AT 11:06PM (MST)[p]That beast was a 400" bull before he shot off most of the rack.
 
So now you are telling me that you have to be rich and famous to recieve preferential treatment. Whats America coming to that just the rich aren't treated better than the rest of us.
 
>So now you are telling me
>that you have to be
>rich and famous to recieve
>preferential treatment. Whats America coming
>to that just the rich
>aren't treated better than the
>rest of us.


Not true in CA or Obama's America. It's just the opposite.
 
With all that money, Stomper might want to think about a lesson in proper writing. I.E. grammar..hard to read all this governors tag bickering.







Smoked a bit..Turbo lit..and that was it..
 
>With all that money, Stomper might
>want to think about a
>lesson in proper writing. I.E.
>grammar..hard to read all this
>governors tag bickering.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Smoked a bit..Turbo lit..and that was
>it..

Governor's tag, not Governors tag
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-04-14 AT 01:17PM (MST)[p]Smart people on here..lol




Smoked a bit..Turbo lit..and that was it..
 
Goes to show you; the more $$ you have, the more problems you have. Wish I could afford some of these problems...
 
im simply trying to paint a system that is really messed up and warn all those in the future.

lets give another story. a friend purchases a troph deer permit. he paid his guide to scout snd find a buck. said guide finds a typical 190" muley. the day before the hunt a game and fish officer rolls up with michael wadell and smokes the buck before anyone else has a chance. so happens michael wanted to deer hunt and had time so the game and fish printed him a tag that was never figured in the tag allotment. they instruct game wardens to take michael to their trophy area and get him a big muley for tv. that was the best muley in that area that year. people on tv watch the episode and think the navajo is the next jicarilla and in actuality theres very few deer on it and even fewer big bucks.

however i could have imagined being that hunter that had his dreams destroyed by a corrupt game and fish.


as for me, i have honey holes that i knew about for years from hunting the borders of the rez. i left the trophy areas this year and went to one of those honey holes. i ghosted a large group of elk for a week and finally got my bull around september 23. he was 47" inside spread with 59" mass 24" swords, 16" 5ths etc. he scored 394" by my score and 399" by the taxi score. he had an inline 7th and 8th on his right side that added 5" to his score and since i dont like non typicals i didnt add that to the score. last year i passed a 380 bull and the year before i shot a 389 6x6 and teo years before that i shot a 360 straight 6. not saying there arent big bulls but the guys who normally afford these tags arent mobile and they would be hard pressed to take a 340" bull. i load down with lots of food and water and follow the elk for days. its a tough hunt and i enjoy it but it just puts a bad tast in your mouth when u see the rampant abuse of the system and it really is upsetting to see all the crooked deals that go down continually. i do enjoy my hunts there but i just dont know if i will keep bidding up these tags and help to line the pockets of the corrupt.
 
Have never liked Waddell since he broke away from Realtree and just sounds like a high-schooler now with all his silly "freak-nasty" and other immature euphemisms. I like him even less now.
 

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