Cav1
Well-known member
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the congratulations and likes when I finally drew a Montana mountain goat tag after putting in for Special Tags out for about 26 years.
In the past (after that twinge of envy) I have always been genuinely happy for fellow Hunt-Talkers who managed to draw a Special Tag. I may have struck out, but at least I knew the person who had drawn the tag would appreciate and treasure it as much as I would and enjoy it for what it really is; a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.
Back in the day, when FWP made you pony up the full cost of the Special Tags ahead of time and then gave you a refund if you didn’t draw, I admit I found it rather inconvenient. Looking back now, I really appreciate the old system. It “culled the herd” so to speak, it weeded out the sick, lame, and lazy so that only true hunters who really wanted the hunt applied for the tags.
Now that the new system is nothing more than a $5 lottery scratch ticket it seems like everybody and his dog just say, “It’s only five bucks. What the hell…I’ll put in for moose, goat and sheep.” Yeah, FWP makes more money apparently, but I suspect a painfully large percentage of these precious tags now end being unappreciated at best to outright wasted at worst.
A few years back, an older guy my wife knew from the workplace had a daughter-in-law who drew one of the three precious moose tags for the district we live in. Knowing how much hunting my wife and I do, the guy from work apparently gave them our phone number.
Not knowing any of this, I answered the phone one night to have a near total stranger ask me where to take his wife out in our area to shoot a moose. This call occurred the night before season opener and, to that point, the entire extent of their "scouting" had been to dial my number.
I guess getting hit by all this out of the blue threw me off balance a bit since, as my wife pointed out later, my initial response was “less than tactful.” I don’t recall my exact words, but it went something like, “Holy bleep! If I had drawn that gosh-darned tag I would have been knocking on the door of every ranch house in the entire country every weekend for the past four months!”
After a minute, I did give them a few places to go where I remembered having frequently seen moose. And at least the tag wasn’t actually wasted. The gal was utterly thrilled and delighted when she got a young immature bull with antlers like ping pong paddles on the most heavily used Block Management Area in the district.
I just have to wonder how many people toss five bucks into the ol’ tag kitty without ever giving a thought to what the actual hunt will involve or require. I once ran into a woman in Livingston who drew a coveted tag for one of the limited bighorn sheep districts. Impressed, I asked how the hunt was. The response: “Oh, it snowed the week we planned to hunt, so we never actually went.”
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
So, rest assured I’m taking my tag very seriously and intend to squeeze every last drop of enjoyment out of this once-in-a-lifetime hunt. It’s never too early (in fact, it’s probably already too late) to try to get in shape to tackle the Beartooths, so I grabbed our dog Sax and took off early for a good hike today. We got in a good five miles up and down a 1,200 foot ridge. Well, that’s about what I did anyway. Sax is a Viszla not yet a year old and going by his “muzzle velocity” alone I’m thinking he logged more like 50 miles on the same trip.
On the way back, about a half a mile from the truck, we had to hunker down in the timber for a few minutes as pea-sized hail came down and then the rain got steadily harder for the rest of the trip. But that’s all part of preparing for the big hunt.
As they say in the Infantry, “If it ain’t raining, we ain’t training!”
I hope to be able to share some photos and a good goat story this fall. And the best of luck next time to everyone who came up dry this go-round.
In the past (after that twinge of envy) I have always been genuinely happy for fellow Hunt-Talkers who managed to draw a Special Tag. I may have struck out, but at least I knew the person who had drawn the tag would appreciate and treasure it as much as I would and enjoy it for what it really is; a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.
Back in the day, when FWP made you pony up the full cost of the Special Tags ahead of time and then gave you a refund if you didn’t draw, I admit I found it rather inconvenient. Looking back now, I really appreciate the old system. It “culled the herd” so to speak, it weeded out the sick, lame, and lazy so that only true hunters who really wanted the hunt applied for the tags.
Now that the new system is nothing more than a $5 lottery scratch ticket it seems like everybody and his dog just say, “It’s only five bucks. What the hell…I’ll put in for moose, goat and sheep.” Yeah, FWP makes more money apparently, but I suspect a painfully large percentage of these precious tags now end being unappreciated at best to outright wasted at worst.
A few years back, an older guy my wife knew from the workplace had a daughter-in-law who drew one of the three precious moose tags for the district we live in. Knowing how much hunting my wife and I do, the guy from work apparently gave them our phone number.
Not knowing any of this, I answered the phone one night to have a near total stranger ask me where to take his wife out in our area to shoot a moose. This call occurred the night before season opener and, to that point, the entire extent of their "scouting" had been to dial my number.
I guess getting hit by all this out of the blue threw me off balance a bit since, as my wife pointed out later, my initial response was “less than tactful.” I don’t recall my exact words, but it went something like, “Holy bleep! If I had drawn that gosh-darned tag I would have been knocking on the door of every ranch house in the entire country every weekend for the past four months!”
After a minute, I did give them a few places to go where I remembered having frequently seen moose. And at least the tag wasn’t actually wasted. The gal was utterly thrilled and delighted when she got a young immature bull with antlers like ping pong paddles on the most heavily used Block Management Area in the district.
I just have to wonder how many people toss five bucks into the ol’ tag kitty without ever giving a thought to what the actual hunt will involve or require. I once ran into a woman in Livingston who drew a coveted tag for one of the limited bighorn sheep districts. Impressed, I asked how the hunt was. The response: “Oh, it snowed the week we planned to hunt, so we never actually went.”
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
So, rest assured I’m taking my tag very seriously and intend to squeeze every last drop of enjoyment out of this once-in-a-lifetime hunt. It’s never too early (in fact, it’s probably already too late) to try to get in shape to tackle the Beartooths, so I grabbed our dog Sax and took off early for a good hike today. We got in a good five miles up and down a 1,200 foot ridge. Well, that’s about what I did anyway. Sax is a Viszla not yet a year old and going by his “muzzle velocity” alone I’m thinking he logged more like 50 miles on the same trip.
On the way back, about a half a mile from the truck, we had to hunker down in the timber for a few minutes as pea-sized hail came down and then the rain got steadily harder for the rest of the trip. But that’s all part of preparing for the big hunt.
As they say in the Infantry, “If it ain’t raining, we ain’t training!”
I hope to be able to share some photos and a good goat story this fall. And the best of luck next time to everyone who came up dry this go-round.
Congrats again on an awesome tag buddy. I’d say after 27 years you deserved it.
