World Record Elk (high fence?) in Idaho 545"
 

http://www.utahelkhunt.com/2010-world-record-elk.html


I guess I don't really see the point of high fence/well fed operations like this?

I'm sure some unlucky elk hunters would like to take a 300"+ elk, but couldn't you buy an elk and feed it for 10years and essentially do the same thing? I guess it's like hunting livestock sorta...

wild to see what genetic potential could be I suppose.

Curious what "negotiable price" this client paid though, usually after 380 or something they say "negotiable"

maybe B&C should have a "public land" and "DIY" column added to their lists. What do you think?

I think your argument is pretty valid. It'd be interesting to see the differences recorded. I voted to show the different records.

Records should be kept for fair chase only. Anything else is just farming and not hunting. I personally don't care about a record for a huge beef cow and look at a huge fam raised elk as the same thing. Great elk though and to each his own. I have been on guided hunts where mandatory due to laws but give me a choice I like DIY. I have shot 5 elk in 7 years all DIY and am still looking for a 300". A trophy is in the eye of the beholder.

I thought the records were for fair chase?

Boone and Crocket and Pope and young ARE fair chase only. If it is proved they were taken behind a high fence, they can not be entered. So I see no need for the designation. If it was taken fair chase, then I have no problem with taking it on private ground (with no high fence) and whether or not you had a guide.

If you started limiting records based on public land and not hiring a guide, you might have to weed out all limited entry hunts too.

Anytime you see something scored SCI, you can count on it being taken from behind high fence. That bull can never be listed as a world record in anything but SCI and everyone knows it was fed high protein diets and locked up in the fence until it go big enough to shoot (not hunt)

I am for high fenced hunts if that is what an individual wants as long as everything is legal. I book some high fenced hunts as long as the ranches are big enough. I do not promote records including animals taken from high fence ranches except for SCI records. To be honest though I am not fond of record books in the first place.

I think records should be separated fair chase vs private/high fenced. That's a controlled environment hunt. But then again the guy who kills a record book animal on 160 acres of non high fenced land that borders public land is not really considered a huge advantage. There's a ton of exceptions.

We have a ton of "expert hunters" in my area. You know those guys that have lots of time and money to do the AKA trophy hunts for record book animals. Some of them are good hunters some of them have the money to make the appearance of being good hunters. I'll take public land any day. The so called book animals that I have on my wall came from blood, sweat and more miles than most could even dream of. I do measure out the bigger of the animals just to compare size but alas they are just nice looking specimens. I would not want to kill that bull in the picture just for bragging rights. Now if I was in the wilderness and I had put a nice stalk on him and got that bull I'd glow like radiation.

I don't care squat about records, but if you want respect from the hunting community. Records should be public land unguided hunts.

If you're going to claim a record. You should have done the hunt yourself. Having a guide do the whole hunt for you, and all you do is take the shot, is not doing the hunt.

I thought B& C recorded any animal regardless how taken (car accident, etc.) so long as its a truly wild animal (i.e., not high fence / farm raised) to preserve scientific data about the herd.

Just my 2 cents.
 

If you pay to hunt on private land, high fenced or not you should not be able to register that animal in B & C or P & Y. I cannot afford to do it so you are basically paying for an animal that I can't afford to pay to kill. Doesn't seem fair to me and it is happening all over this country for lots of species. Basically turning hunting into a rich man's game.