“I don’t want you hunting this outfit.”

[Big Sky Guy]

People are crazy.

Watch: A Landowner Stole My Buddy’s Public-Land Elk to Deter Us from ‘Hunting This Outfit’

While elk hunting on public land in Wyoming, a few buddies noticed a rancher running off with one of their skulls. So they tracked him down.

www.outdoorlife.com

 

[Nameless Range]

Wild. Highlighting Randy's contribution to the article because it's a good message:

“I fear something like what you experienced could be construed by some hunters as ‘all ranchers are bad,’” he observed. “Our communities are getting so divided and polarized that something like this could be a wedge to further divide us. But just like we keep saying that not all the hunting community is a monolith, I think it’s important to stress that the ranching community isn’t a monolith. This was just one unfortunate incident.”

Glad that incident didn't end in violence, because I could see it going there.

 

[Big Sky Guy]

Wild. Highlighting Randy's contribution to the article because it's a good message:

“I fear something like what you experienced could be construed by some hunters as ‘all ranchers are bad,’” he observed. “Our communities are getting so divided and polarized that something like this could be a wedge to further divide us. But just like we keep saying that not all the hunting community is a monolith, I think it’s important to stress that the ranching community isn’t a monolith. This was just one unfortunate incident.”

Glad that incident didn't end in violence, because I could see it going there.

Good point. I often hunt solo and think having the group of them definitely worked to their advantage in de-escalating the situation. Had it been one scrawny solo hunter such as myself I’m not sure the rancher would have been as cooperative. I’m also not sure I would have even confronted him by myself. People make me nervous. Maybe would have depended if he had a firearm or not. I would like to think I would just try and get photos and then get in touch with warden and hope for the best, but easy to say that just reading an article and not being in the there and now of the situation.

Thanks for highlighting that quote from Randy, I somehow read past his name when reading the article and thought that was Andrew’s thoughts.

 

[TheTone]

They handled it better than some would have. I’d kind of love it if they had grounds to sue him into having to sell the ranch to a public entity

 

[Big Sky Guy]

They handled it better than some would have. I’d kind of love it if they had grounds to sue him into having to sell the ranch to a public entity

Boy wouldn’t that be the irony of ironies after the corner crossing fiasco lol. Perhaps if they had a legitimate fear for life I think lawsuit could get traction.

 

[Mallardsx2]

Ya.............Lets go ahead and give them landowners tags to sell too!!!!! HAHAHAHA

Rancher greed at it finest.

 

[Elky Welky]

This is pretty fascinating for another reason too: these are not your typical hunters.

There's no judgment here, but they had the time, equipment, and money to go in as a group on a helicopter to hunt this property. I'm not using this in a pejorative way, but that makes them pretty elite. A common-man hunter probably would never find themself in this position, because they can't get there either.

In a sense, both these hunters and the landowner have "exclusive" access to this public land. One for owning the property around it, the other for having the resources to get to it.

I don't know how I feel about that, really. Just has me thinking.

 

[seeth07]

but they had the time, equipment, and money to go in as a group on a helicopter to hunt this property

Less than 8k a person though right? Otherwise they would have just paid for that access across the private. Its not quite the same.

I can't imagine the prices for a helo ride are more expensive than the rates in AK flying bush planes due to the logistics, location and risk/insurance costs. With that said, I think I can comfortably assume that they paid somewhere in the range of 2k-4k per person for the flight which would put it quite a bit cheaper than the private land access route and not at all too far out of "your typical hunters" as people pay these prices all the time to hunt in Alaska. They are paying for those flights typically to hunt quality animals in an exclusive place - no different than this hunt

 

[Wind Gypsy]

This is pretty fascinating for another reason too: these are not your typical hunters.

There's no judgment here, but they had the time, equipment, and money to go in as a group on a helicopter to hunt this property. I'm not using this in a pejorative way, but that makes them pretty elite. A common-man hunter probably would never find themself in this position, because they can't get there either.

In a sense, both these hunters and the landowner have "exclusive" access to this public land. One for owning the property around it, the other for having the resources to get to it.

I don't know how I feel about that, really. Just has me thinking.

Sounds kind of like judgement to me.

When would a hunter not be "elite"? Is being able to afford to own and care for horses elite? What about renting llamas? Afford to pay for a new pair of kennetreks and a nice pack?

Hell a Special WY elk tag costs $2k itself.