Gangly

in Texas, those vehicles get towed or trashed

CAelknuts

Bigcountry, that's stealthy's own estimate of what the hunt cost. He's been whining about this concept for years over on bowsite. Mr. Austad did apparently pay $170,000 for the governor's tag, which of course if a huge donation to the Utah Department of Wildlife; and in turn he got a special tag that allows him to hunt longer than anyone else. He can afford it, he hunted hard and long to get this bull, and I congratulate him. Stealthy is devastated because somebody else has opportunities that he never made for himself.

npaden

Wow, so the $200,000 estimate sounds low to me then. That's about what I was thinking, but I was thinking the governor's tag was only around $75k or so. I was thinking that keeping the mossback crew with you for a full month would be pushing close to $100k based on what it costs to hire 1 guide on a 1x1 week long hunt. Multiply that by 6 on the mossback crew and a full month and you get into some major bucks.

It is an unbelievable bull, and I have no doubt that it did take some serious effort to close the deal, but that was one expensive elk!! Imagine how it would have turned out if he hunted him for a month and he took off and ran in front of some no-name local guy who took the week off work to go out hunting on his own or with a friend and he shot him instead!

millagerobert

While the big money spent on special tags such as this and the sheep tags in Idaho go a long ways towards filling the coffers of the game departments, I hate seeing the big money = big horns side of hunting, I worry it does more harm than good for the hunting community as a whole. I guess its just an opinion coming from someone who was raised around a culture where hunting was about filling the freezer and racks were left on the mountain. I admit to being a horn nut the same as the next guy, but I like big effort = big horns hunting. I guess from the sound of it these guys did put in the effort, so for that I applaud them.

stealthycat II

wasn't that gov tag $140,000 ? or was it $170,000 ? and how much do you think he paid his Mossback buddies for 30 days of hounding that bull ?

CAelknuts you're funny ....... I can kill a big bull for $$$ too ........ there is no hunting involved. Notice the other kills Austad made ... other big bulls, a whopper mule deer, all with Mossback finding the animals and Austad shooting them.

I got no jealousy towards buying an animal and shooting it, no hunter does - make no mistake, there was no hunting here by the shooter, all the hunting was done by a bunch

How much of the hunt did Austad do vs the Mossback guides?



I mean c'mon, they poured dozens of people into finding..... HOUNDING... that bull until the GPS coordinates and radio's finally matched the bull up with the shooter


and yeah, I'm not calling him a hunter ..... its my opinion he paid $200,000 for horn porn, and he did pull the trigger but did he HUNT this bull, I mean REALLY HUNT IT ?


I'm saying no from everything I've read

bigcountry

Well if this is indeed the case, I can kinda see brad's point.

npaden

I waffle back and forth on this issue. I've never hired an outfitter but I will probably have to if I ever want to shoot a Moose as there aren't a lot of Moose in Texas last I checked. I did look into moose hunting a little and it looks like you can line up a hunt in Eastern Canada for around $5k and have a decent chance at a 50" moose or you can spend $20k and go to the Yukon with Jim Shockey and have almost a guarantee on a 60" moose. Which would mean that I was a better hunter?

I connected on an elk this year, but I had a friend who showed me his special spots and did the bugling when the elk came in so does that make me less of a hunter? Probably to some extent, although I hung around and hunted hard with them for the rest of the week trying to close the deal on another elk for them. Living in Texas I sure didn't have the opportunity to find a few good elk hunting spots in the wilderness in Wyoming. Once I was there I felt that I was as good at keeping quiet and scent free and spoting sign and listening and looking for elk as they were though.

It is a very difficult line to draw for me. I respect the guy who shot the spider bull ALOT more than the guys that go up to a high fenced place in Saskatewan and close the deal on one that they pick out based on how much they can afford. This WAS a public land bull and several other folks did have a chance to kill him if they could have found him first. He was by no means guaranteed to kill that bull, it sounded like it took them a while to close the deal to me, help or no help. He could have spent that same $200k and ended up with nothing.

hillbillyhunter1

As I've already posted, I would have liked for some newbie to have killed this one and I think if the mossback guys pulled any chicanery (blocking roads, etc) in order to eliminate competition, then shame on them.

What I don't understand "stealthy", is your overall objection. What's the difference between this type of deal and a guy who pays $5 or 6000 for a regular guided Elk hunt??? In either case the guides are doing much of the work, it's just that in this case EVERYTHING is amplified to the nth degree, but it's all really the same isn't it...just more of it???

What exactly do you disgree with?? The fact that there are these type of "special tags"???That some dude has the resources to employ a small army (as opposed to just a couple of people...like a normal fully guided trip)??? Obviously the guides see this guy as a meal ticket, but don't most guides see clients in that light???...the ones I know do.

If you were in this guys den and saw that huge Elk and he told you the story, wouldn't any hunter realize that it wasn't through his hunting abilities, for the most part,that hebagged this animal?? (althoughhe may have some ability...I don't know).

As long as nothing illegal was done here (and no bs was pulled by the guides)...it's still a fair chase animal that could have been killed by anyone. I know you have a point, I'm just not sure what it is, and don't know if it applies just to this situation or could be applied in a broader scope...and if that's the case then it may be a slippery slope.

RedRiverHntr

His money...his hunt. If he's happy then it tickles the shiite out of me!

BUT....I have no way of knowing the particulars. As there are 6 others in the picture and their website congratulates "team Mossback", I assume there were multiple guides involved. And if indeed they have had a group up there basically "marking" this bull for the lastcouple ofmonths, then in my book, no different than going to some game ranch and having them put you on one. Same thing. Is it legal, apparently.
Did it give this guy satisfaction, apparently.He doesn't haveto suit me in any way and doesn't give a rats arse what I think. Though for me personally, I would get no satisfaction from such an endeavor.
My guess is that he does. So more power to him.
I will tell you that when he looks up at that bull on his wall or floor, he won't get one more ounce of pride or satisfactionthan I get looking at anything I have ever killed. To each his own.

BareBack Jack

Red River,
I couldnot of said it better.
To me it is no diffrent between this bull and that huge monster killed last year that was a high fenced bull.This elk is the same as a 4-H steer,groomed and proccesed.

CAElknuts,
I assume you are from California by your handle,then I geuss that explaines it.Deeker is not the only one talking about their tactics.

For all you others who enjoy the true art of "Fair-chase" good luck and be safe,kill a big'un!!!!

BBJ