Antler auction

There is a set I am going to be trying to get, if its in the auction. They had it in the poachers hall of shame trailer for a couple years and its was no longer in the trailer at the expo this year.

Its a big 5x5 I hunted that got poached before I got a crack at him. If you went to the expo in '19, or '20 and checked out the DWR trailer you seen it.

Will probably go for more then I am willing to pay for it but we will see.
 
Don't understand how they expect to sell hides for top dollar when they are frozen. Preview the day before. Then all auction is online the next day. So my guess they will be sitting out rotting. They should have just thrown them away the last 6 years and saved on the power bill. Oh, and don't forget the 13% buyers fee and sales tax on top of the winning bid.
 
The DWR should screen every person who purchase any antlers with a lie detector test. Ask if they've ever poached an animal, or if they're buying for someone who has.

Let's say you've been watching a bull before the late rifle hunt and it never left the same canyon for weeks along with 4 other bulls. Then opening morning the bull isn't there, but the 4 other bulls are. It never shows up through the entire hunt. A year later another person who was also watching that bull posts about a deadhead he found and it turns out to be the same bull. DWR is called and they investigate. The bull was shot but they can't prove who shot it, so it ends up at auction where the same person buys the bull back. Oh, and this person has a few friends who are convicted poachers. I'm not saying this person poached the bull, but I'm willing to bet he knows who did.

Does the DWR incentivize poaching when they sell antlers back to the poachers? Think about it, now the poachers don't need to worry about hiding anything.
 
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The DWR should screen every person who purchase any antlers with a lie detector test. Ask if they've ever poached an animal, or if they're buying for someone who has.

Let's say you've been watching a bull before the late rifle hunt and it never left the same canyon for weeks along with 4 other bulls. Then opening morning the bull isn't there, but the 4 other bulls are. It never shows up through the entire hunt. A year later another person who was also watching that bull posts about a deadhead he found and it turns out to be the same bull. DWR is called and they investigate. The bull was shot but they can't prove who shot it, so it ends up at auction where the same person buys the bull back. Oh, and this person has a few friends who are convicted poachers. I'm not saying this person poached the bull, but I'm willing to bet he knows who did.

Does the DWR incentivize poaching when they sell antlers back to the poachers? Think about it, now the poachers don't need to worry about hiding anything.
I have a 9mm that was bought at a police auction. I always wondered what it’s story was. I don’t know if they even do that anymore.
 
DBLung- I like where your head is at. I think restrictions would have to be limited to convicted poachers. Online registration could weed out convicted individuals, but other than that, I'm not sure much more could be done. We would at least have records of convictions.
 
Hey Packout- what about a trade system with other states? The antlers and heads could remain intact, but trade with poached animals from other states so Utahans wouldn't have opportunity at them, unless they somehow visited all other state's auctions as well.? Then their beauty would be preserved...?
 
This is the best thing at the auction. Isn’t this The rabbi buck ?
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Yes, a couple friends and I like to go look at the big stuff. It's kind of depressing at how many animals are actually killed each year from idiot people. We heard a story from a guy guarding a bull he'd wounded and never found. Thing is he'd shot two others after that before he tagged out. Not something you should be bragging/telling people about.
 
You can tell it’s personal with some of the bid prices people are throwing out there for most of the stuff that in all honesty, is garbage. There’s only a handful of things worth some of these prices. The $2000+ bids for a pile of $300 elk antlers is what kills me.

I can’t believe they are finally selling the rabbi buck. Wonder if Rueckert is the one with the leading bid so far?
 
Yes, a couple friends and I like to go look at the big stuff. It's kind of depressing at how many animals are actually killed each year from idiot people. We heard a story from a guy guarding a bull he'd wounded and never found. Thing is he'd shot two others after that before he tagged out. Not something you should be bragging/telling people about.
You need to clearly tell him that he's a dumb azz.
 
It's crazy to me how much people pay for someone else's animal.

No doubt there are some awesome animals in there, but man...I would need to have a TON more money than I do to spend $1,000 antlers and/or a head from someone else's animal, let alone $23,000.

Hopefully all this money can be put to use catching more poachers.
 
Yes, a couple friends and I like to go look at the big stuff. It's kind of depressing at how many animals are actually killed each year from idiot people. We heard a story from a guy guarding a bull he'd wounded and never found. Thing is he'd shot two others after that before he tagged out. Not something you should be bragging/telling people about.
I heard similar storys on two different occasions there. Wonder if they bought them back?
One guy was looking for a set, each antler was found in different piles. Would've cost him about 7K to get his bull back that was "wrongly" killed and confiscated on private property.
 
I have heard from several people that these big money racks are usually bought back by the same people convicted of poaching them! It has supposedly gone on for years in other states at their auctions as well. Why are these people allowed to buy the animal they poached back?
 
No I was actually wondering how they were able to have tnt auction off the tags and didn’t need a middle man.Wonder if they could just do that with tags???
Wouldn’t TNT be considered the middle man in this situation??
 
Hey Packout- what about a trade system with other states? The antlers and heads could remain intact, but trade with poached animals from other states so Utahans wouldn't have opportunity at them, unless they somehow visited all other state's auctions as well.? Then their beauty would be preserved...?
what other state would have nearly enough to trade with Utah??
 
Wouldn’t TNT be considered the middle man in this situation??
I’d like to think of them as a contractor, I bet you’d be able to find out how much they profited from selling all of these fine items.
 
Wonder why these "sportsman groups" don't do the same... Auction public tags and nobody has a clue what they're taking off the top.
They do, I believe it's 10% the other 90% goes to a fund that has to he used for wildlife related projects.

The fee at this auction was 13%, plus a 7.75% state tax, and another 3% fee if you paid with a credit card. So essentially 23% that's not going to help wildlife rather then the sportsman's org's 10% they took a hell of alot more then the sportsman's organizations do.

Not to mention a lot of times some of that 10% goes to wildlife as well, they can spend it on whatever they want.
 
So JakeH?

Did You Go?

And Did You See/Buy Them?


There is a set I am going to be trying to get, if its in the auction. They had it in the poachers hall of shame trailer for a couple years and its was no longer in the trailer at the expo this year.

Its a big 5x5 I hunted that got poached before I got a crack at him. If you went to the expo in '19, or '20 and checked out the DWR trailer you seen it.

Will probably go for more then I am willing to pay for it but we will see.
 
The piles of elk horns went for a chunk, most went between 2,000 and 3,000, and thats not including the fees adding up to 23.75% funny part was I happened to be at the office when one of the known antler buyers was up there trying to get all the stuff he bought sorted out.

They handed him a sheet of paper and I'm pretty sure I herd them say there was 30+ lots on his paper and they hadn't processed all of his buys yet. The look on his face when he seen the cost of what he had in his hands made me laugh. Then he says "this isn't $80,000 worth" I'm not sure if he just didn't understand how much the fees was gonna be or what, but he seemed a little shocked at the price and they wasn't done with him yet.

The piles of elk horns were bigger in person then they looked online, but I know a few of them went for way more then they was worth if you was just buying poundage.

They said in the wildlife board meeting today that they brought in over $300,000 from the auction.
 
All auction companies do that. It’s not an interesting concept. Have you ever bought anything and not known the price?
Ummmmm....I'd never buy something and not know the price...especially if I am naming the price. Is this a normal thing that happens in Alaska?
 
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