Can your hunting rights be bought?

[El Jason]

I LOVE the idea of taking the anti's money, then going and shooting a bear anyway.
I wonder whether or not any "agreement" can really prevent you from using a government issued tag.

I would hope anyone who took the money would have the integrity to honor their end of the bargain. Otherwise, you’re just a thief regardless of where you stand on bear hunting.

 

[Treeshark]

Hey now - youre gonna get us residents hooked on the idea of transferable tags. Thats like double of what we pay for a mule deer doe tag, especially considering midwestern sin tax.

Are we talking 3’s or 6ers?

 

[Ben Lamb]

If you’re talking Spearmint, it’s a deal.

Is Braunschweiger flavor.

Better. Ladies will be after you if you smell like processed liver. Smells like man and beef. Women can't resist.

 

[Hem]

Bears are meh.
Make the topic interesting.
If you drew a Bighorn sheep tag and could sell it, say for something similar to the money generated by State raffles, would it raise an eyebrow?

 

[MTLabrador]

I’m about to start a petition with @520 Road Sow to get this organization active in the beartooths. They’d be doing the Lord’s work if they kept the quota open for more than 3 business days.

 

[NoWiser]

Is Braunschweiger flavor.

Better. Ladies will be after you if you smell like processed liver. Smells like man and beef. Women can't resist.

Wish I knew this trick in college!! I love liverwurst.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Wish I knew this trick in college!! I love liverwurst.

trick from old country. It's how we get women to stay once the romance and beets wear off.

 

[gouch]

The article said a bunch of anti-hunters applied for and received permits for the hunt. I wonder how many of the 20 people who took the $2000 not to hunt were actually anti hunters.

You're an anti-hunter and you save a bear by drawing a tag, then and on top of that you get $2000. That sounds like a win-win to me.

 

[cgasner1]

I’ve already been accused of being bought and paid for. So ya I’m now accepting Bitcoin

 

[geetar]

Bears are meh.
Make the topic interesting.
If you drew a Bighorn sheep tag and could sell it, say for something similar to the money generated by State raffles, would it raise an eyebrow?

Not a chance. I'm going sheep hunting.

 

[buckbull]

When illinois opened bobcat season there was 500 permits available. $5 to put into the draw. A bunch of antis put into the draw and won a few permits. Quota raised to 2000. Like several have mentioned, agencies will just raise quotas.

 

[Forkyfinder]

Man i could sell my tags every year.

Considering i dont braggart a post together about how i awesome i am shooting raghorns off a ranch - clearly i never fill tags.

 

[Mallardsx2]

Give me $100,000 and I wont even fish in my own pond for a year.....

 

[seeth07]

Here is my take after reading a few good thoughts on this already.

I want to look at this from the perspective that the contract is to just simply have me tear up my hard tag I received in the mail with agreement to not get another. I'm also going to assume that this anti paying me to not fill my tag isn't going to drastically change the following years quota. There are a few examples I can think of but I want to explore the idea that I draw a Yellowstone Bison tag and while out there on the hunt a group protesting interrupts my hunt and offers me $x to have me tear my tag up.

What is that $ amount? Decade of applying has costs, the time and effort to get the tag and plan for it has costs. Time and costs for researching and scouting. Traveling and time off of work has costs. So just from a financial personal investment standpoint, there is a lot that has gone into this.

A lot of folks on here talk about and mention how there is so much more to a hunt than the kill and as I get older I feel like I understand it more and more. Claims of the research and scouting being fun. Claims of being with family and friends. Claims of being outside in the mountains and the woods resonating with the soul.

So for me this topic had got me really thinking about why we even get the tag in the first place if the kill isn't the important part? Why am I not deciding right now to just do everything to plan a trip to hunt bison next year and just go and do it without carrying the rifle? Why am I not planning a trip to hunt the Arizona strip? Why am I not planning to hunt the Beaver in late September for bugling bulls? Why am I not planning to hunt bighorn sheep at 12k in CO?

I guess the fun of still killing something and getting those antlers/horns to hang on the wall still mean something for me. It's not the meat, I have the best tasting freezing fillers in my backyard - 20 of them were feeding in my cornfield last night and heavy cornfed whitetails are sure as tasty as beef. I'm not ashamed that I want the headgear. I love what it represents and the stories it tells as people walk into my house. I don't have socials besides here so I'm not posting and gloating about them - 2 bucks didn't even make it on here this year and one wasn't a bad buck just didn't have a story worth telling.

So that anti would have to offer me life altering amounts of money for me to tear that tag up. I'm in a solid financial situation with no kids and less than 10 years from retiring so the amount of money would have to basically shave years off to get to retirement so I could do what I love even more resulting in an absolutely horrible end deal for that anti. Each 100k probably shaves a year off and gets me another hunting season without work so that is my price.

 

[TX Trophy Hunter]

I’d sell almost any over the counter non predator tag for a $500 profit. I’m against unlimited opportunity big game hunting so wouldn’t be selling out on my values.

 

[Hammsolo]

If I won the lottery I would consider paying people to not shoot immature bucks and does! Lord knows how this would work, but I’d love someone to figure it out.

Maybe pay hunters to shoot mature deer! “The Big Buck Bonus” Maybe pay hunters to haze does and forkies off the road? Blasting shotguns with wads at them? Maybe have deer human resource meetings about the risks of roadside romance? I’m a dull knife, so first step would be to pay you brilliant people to formulate the whole system.

 

[Nick87]

 

[TOGIE]

Here is my take after reading a few good thoughts on this already.

I want to look at this from the perspective that the contract is to just simply have me tear up my hard tag I received in the mail with agreement to not get another. I'm also going to assume that this anti paying me to not fill my tag isn't going to drastically change the following years quota. There are a few examples I can think of but I want to explore the idea that I draw a Yellowstone Bison tag and while out there on the hunt a group protesting interrupts my hunt and offers me $x to have me tear my tag up.

What is that $ amount? Decade of applying has costs, the time and effort to get the tag and plan for it has costs. Time and costs for researching and scouting. Traveling and time off of work has costs. So just from a financial personal investment standpoint, there is a lot that has gone into this.

A lot of folks on here talk about and mention how there is so much more to a hunt than the kill and as I get older I feel like I understand it more and more. Claims of the research and scouting being fun. Claims of being with family and friends. Claims of being outside in the mountains and the woods resonating with the soul.

So for me this topic had got me really thinking about why we even get the tag in the first place if the kill isn't the important part? Why am I not deciding right now to just do everything to plan a trip to hunt bison next year and just go and do it without carrying the rifle? Why am I not planning a trip to hunt the Arizona strip? Why am I not planning to hunt the Beaver in late September for bugling bulls? Why am I not planning to hunt bighorn sheep at 12k in CO?

I guess the fun of still killing something and getting those antlers/horns to hang on the wall still mean something for me. It's not the meat, I have the best tasting freezing fillers in my backyard - 20 of them were feeding in my cornfield last night and heavy cornfed whitetails are sure as tasty as beef. I'm not ashamed that I want the headgear. I love what it represents and the stories it tells as people walk into my house. I don't have socials besides here so I'm not posting and gloating about them - 2 bucks didn't even make it on here this year and one wasn't a bad buck just didn't have a story worth telling.

So that anti would have to offer me life altering amounts of money for me to tear that tag up. I'm in a solid financial situation with no kids and less than 10 years from retiring so the amount of money would have to basically shave years off to get to retirement so I could do what I love even more resulting in an absolutely horrible end deal for that anti. Each 100k probably shaves a year off and gets me another hunting season without work so that is my price.

You can't replicate the inherent agency. You can't replicate the anticipation, surprise, and exceeded expectation. At least not the way a rifle in hand and a tag in pocket produces. You can't truly describe it to people who haven't hunted before, especially the world of western large landscape public land hunting.

Hunting takes you places you'd never have the ability to think about going otherwise. It forces a type of exploration on you.

It's been one of the elemental, biological driving forces of our human nature to explore.

So when you say "it's not the meat" I agree. But that doesn't make it the headgear either.

Folks opposed to hunting will claim you can commune just as spiritually with nature without drawing blood and, to a degree, they're right. But, they're also not - there is an element missing from that equation that simply cannot be replicated and I would argue is part of our humanity.

And frankly, without offense, cannot be fully replicated by shooting cornfield deer.

 

[520 Road Sow]

The anti's are........

 

[seeth07]

You can't replicate the inherent agency. You can't replicate the anticipation, surprise, and exceeded expectation. At least not the way a rifle in hand and a tag in pocket produces. You can't truly describe it to people who haven't hunted before, especially the world of western large landscape public land hunting.

Hunting takes you places you'd never have the ability to think about going otherwise. It forces a type of exploration on you.

It's been one of the elemental, biological driving forces of our human nature to explore.

So when you say "it's not the meat" I agree. But that doesn't make it the headgear either.

Folks opposed to hunting will claim you can commune just as spiritually with nature without drawing blood and, to a degree, they're right. But, they're also not - there is an element missing from that equation that simply cannot be replicated and I would argue is part of our humanity.

And frankly, without offense, cannot be fully replicated by shooting cornfield deer.

Nicely said and couldn't agree more.

No offense taken what so ever. Shooting a deer from my deck is work, not hunting. Even if I bow hunt from one of my stands, same sediment. The thought in my head when I draw back is "man this now means some work" rather than an adrenaline rush like it should. It is absolutely why I explore elsewhere.