Obvious Poaching Problem In Wyoming?

slamdunk

slamdunk

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So while in unit 100, region W west of Baggs, I keep stumbling onto numerous old deer skeletons with either the skulls missing and or antlers sawed off with skull plate as you'd do for taxidermy.
Coincidence that the majority of these skeletons are marked with orange ribbon on the cedar trees next to them? I think not.
I found 8 in just one little draw ?‍♂️
 
A wounded buck antelope I found that the fish and game came out and finished off they ended up wrapping orange tape around the legs. Not saying they wasn't poached but F&G has used it also. Have heard of them doing that for dead heads on the winter range too.
 
Wyo_Roadhunter said:
A wounded buck antelope I found that the fish and game came out and finished off they ended up wrapping orange tape around the legs. Not saying they wasn't poached but F&G has used it also. Have heard of them doing that for dead heads on the winter range too.
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Could be i suppose, but so many in two draws i have been poking around in.
I named one "The Graveyard" and the other "The Cemetery". I have never seen so many old skeletons in my life, anywhere......and most are taped and skull plates missing.
 
Simple answer would be to call the local warden and ask him if that’s how he handles those cases. Or we could just speculate back and forth for a few days. ?
 
I"m too lazy to look it up, but Wyoming seems pretty lax about pick-ups. I've seen several guides saw antlers off wolf kills and other hunters openly talk about hauling out whole found skulls.

dunno about the tape angle, but I think there's a better than even chance any rando could walk off with the antlers in WY
 
I found a wash by the side of a road in Utah that has a bunch of skeletons dumped in it. Seemed weird so I reported it to the DWR. Turns out that is what the game warden does with all the road kill he finds, just dumps them all in that wash. I asked about a couple that still had antlers attached. The DWR person said that he should have removed all the antlers and she would tell him to go back out and get them.
 
I think there is a higher likely hood that there was a bad winter kill in the area, and the heads were picked up. Orange tape may have something to do with the DWR officer marking them for reference to keep track of what he has already looked at / investigated.

That area had a really hard winter a couple years ago I think.
 
Unit 100 is down over 60% on deer. The numbers are horrible. I run over a dozen cameras in the unit and most years I can find 5-6 shooter bucks. This year in 2 1/2 months with 14 cameras out I found 3 bucks total and only one was a barely legal 4x4. Cameras that normally catch 15-20 deer were only catching 2-3 and some holes had no deer at all.

The majority of animals left look like this…. Ribs backbones etc. I spent 40 days in 100 this year and never saw a decent buck.

The dead head rule allows you to take heads antler when you get permission from Kim. She ask that you mark the location. I usually can send here way points but some others may only giver her a location and a flag.

I can say this the ATV use and abuse in the area is absolutely sickening. Both during the season and during the shed hunt.

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Elks96
I am seeing ridiculous amounts of elk out here.
I tried counting the bulls in just one massive herd and lost count at 50.
Then a second herd joined them that had another 20 bulls and all screaming and rutting hard......it was quite a sight seeing close to 150-200 elk in one massive herd.
All looked healthy from what I could see.
 
slamdunk said:
Elks96
I am seeing ridiculous amounts of elk out here.
I tried counting the bulls in just one massive herd and lost count at 50.
Then a second herd joined them that had another 20 bulls and all screaming and rutting hard......it was quite a sight seeing close to 150-200 elk in one massive herd.
All looked healthy from what I could see.
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Yeah in the last 3 years I have found a bunch of elk in places I had never seen them in the last 20. I think a good amount shifted north out of Colorado unit 2 and ended up in WY. This year I found elk in 7 née areas where I had never seen the elk.

I would also suggest mentioning it contacting Kim and letting her know about your head funds. Always good as they might be looking already for something.
 
slamdunk said:
Elks96
I am seeing ridiculous amounts of elk out here.
I tried counting the bulls in just one massive herd and lost count at 50.
Then a second herd joined them that had another 20 bulls and all screaming and rutting hard......it was quite a sight seeing close to 150-200 elk in one massive herd.
All looked healthy from what I could see.
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Well you are in one of the best elk units in the state
 
This 100 side is going to suffer another bad winter kill.
Even if it's a light winter, the habitat is completely burned up from the hot dry summer.
I have never seen bitter brush look so bad anywhere.
I'm sure it'll take a toll on pregnant does as well.
It's going to be rough.
 
slamdunk said:
This 100 side is going to suffer another bad winter kill.
Even if it's a light winter, the habitat is completely burned up from the hot dry summer.
I have never seen bitter brush look so bad anywhere.
I'm sure it'll take a toll on pregnant does as well.
It's going to be rough.
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C'mon Slam are you going to show us the real trophy? ;)
 
Highly doubtful it’s poaching, especially if it’s all marked up as that’s likely the Game Warden left that tape or a shed hunter took a dead head and taped it up as directed by the warden. There has been some bad winter kills in 2017 and 2019 and likely they just died in a herd in that wash area where you found them. The best thing now to improve deer herds are funding water guzzlers and water projects with this massive drought. They need to issue a whole lot more cow elk licenses for those Desert herds, direct Winter range competition.
 
highfastflyer said:
Highly doubtful it’s poaching, especially if it’s all marked up as that’s likely the Game Warden left that tape or a shed hunter took a dead head and taped it up as directed by the warden. There has been some bad winter kills in 2017 and 2019 and likely they just died in a herd in that wash area where you found them. The best thing now to improve deer herds are funding water guzzlers and water projects with this massive drought. They need to issue a whole lot more cow elk licenses for those Desert herds, direct Winter range competition.
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Haha. You obviously don’t know the area. There is lots of water holes. Lack of water is not the issue. But since you are so gun go, the only water for wildlife project in the area has been dry and has not held water for years.

There is enough water that the animals can go anywhere, just not enough water for good growth.

Oh and just to point out, there are lots of water projects that have been done and never required 80 tags to be given to elites, with no accounting of how those tags actually help…
 
elks96 said:
Haha. You obviously don’t know the area. There is lots of water holes. Lack of water is not the issue. But since you are so gun go, the only water for wildlife project in the area has been dry and has not held water for years.

There is enough water that the animals can go anywhere, just not enough water for good growth.

Oh and just to point out, there are lots of water projects that have been done and never required 80 tags to be given to elites, with no accounting of how those tags actually help…
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WRONG. Shows how little you know of the area. There are 4 completed projects, some with multiple guzzlers. The Biologist said this about water and the drought, “Much of this unit is composed of semi-arid sage brush plains. The southern and western edges of this area have badlands characterized by broken terrain with sporadic juniper, mountain mahogany, sage brush, and gardners saltbush. Vegetation and forage for deer is significantly limited to folds and aspects of terrain which hold moisture from infrequent rainfall or snow melt. Hunters should seek out the few remaining water sources and cover areas available.”

I was hunting that country before you were even born. How is that editorial letter working out for you? I hear they had one of the most successful Hunts on record this year with plenty of women and veterans teams. https://county10.com/triple-b-team-wins-2021-one-shot-antelope-hunt/
 
elks96 said:
Haha. You obviously don’t know the area. There is lots of water holes. Lack of water is not the issue. But since you are so gun go, the only water for wildlife project in the area has been dry and has not held water for years.

There is enough water that the animals can go anywhere, just not enough water for good growth.

Oh and just to point out, there are lots of water projects that have been done and never required 80 tags to be given to elites, with no accounting of how those tags actually help…
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We can build all the guzzlers we want, but when the habitat is dead and dry as corn flakes, that water isn't going to help grow deer as much as we need.
 
highfastflyer said:
WRONG. Shows how little you know of the area. There are 4 completed projects, some with multiple guzzlers. The Biologist said this about water and the drought, “Much of this unit is composed of semi-arid sage brush plains. The southern and western edges of this area have badlands characterized by broken terrain with sporadic juniper, mountain mahogany, sage brush, and gardners saltbush. Vegetation and forage for deer is significantly limited to folds and aspects of terrain which hold moisture from infrequent rainfall or snow melt. Hunters should seek out the few remaining water sources and cover areas available.”

I was hunting that country before you were even born. How is that editorial letter working out for you? I hear they had one of the most successful Hunts on record this year with plenty of women and veterans teams. https://county10.com/triple-b-team-wins-2021-one-shot-antelope-hunt/
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They need water in the ground more than water in tanks....both would be ideal. That unit is in really bad shape.
82 in the higher country looked significantly better, bitter brush was green versus orange and brown on 100.
 
slamdunk said:
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They need water in the ground more than water in tanks....both would be ideal. That unit is in really bad shape.
82 in the higher country looked significantly better, bitter brush was green versus orange and brown on 100.
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Not all water projects are just for drinking, many are habitat enhancers. Some of the ponds constructed are amazing wildlife magnets.
 

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