BuzzH
Well-known member
Compared to most years, Don Peay and crew were pretty quiet. I usually see Don strutting around the expo at least 2-3 times. I never saw him once. I did see Rossi in the hotel lobby, talking a bunch of crap to perhaps the only 2-3 people that are still his friend.
The MTSFW booth may as well have been the "lets condone poaching booth". Pathetic isnt strong enough to describe that abortion.
I also walked straight up to the WYSFW booth and introduced myself to Bob Wharff, the Executive Director of WYSFW, as "Buzz Hettick, the guy that busts your balls on Monster Muleys all the time".
Mr. Wharff and I had a spirited 2 hour conversation about SFW and some bills that are going to be brought up in the next couple weeks in Wyoming. I will say that Bob is pretty well up to speed on the issues and is at least well versed in Wyomings issues. I believe he's not right on many of them, but he thinks the same about my stances on some as well. I also talked with another guy from the group, who seemed like a decent enough guy, but I ran circles around him with facts. Its pretty embarrassing when a WYSFW rep doesnt even know how many hunters and anglers there are in the state of Wyoming (he claimed there were only "around 15,000 hunters in Wyoming". He also thought the biggest reason that hunters were losing interest in hunting was because, "It costs too much"...
Then...and this one is big IMO. I talked with some dirtbag from Casper that is going to start a SFW branch in Nevada within the next year. He flat told me he was going to make a run at snagging and getting as many commissioner and governors tags as he could in Nevada. He also stated that he is going to use as much of the money as he can for bounties on coyotes. He is also going to push for lions to be moved to predator status with "shoot on sight" status and hopefully no limits or licenses required. You can only imagine how that conversation went between he and I. I wished him luck and told him he'd need it as I would do everything in my power to see him fail in Nevada...and thats a promise he'll find out I'm a little serious about. He was also totally against the RMEF and MDF and said both groups were worthless to issues in Nevada and had never done anything but take money from Nevada Sportsmen. Real quality guy.
While Wharff and his 2 buddies were there I also told them that the North American Model and the public having equal access to wildlife is important enough to me that I would figuratively, and if (backed into a corner), literally, bloody noses and loosen teeth over...and that I wasnt afraid of having my nose bloodied or teeth loosened either.
I also talked quite a while with a group I recently joined, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and met 3 of their board members from AK, CO, and UT. Seems to be a great group that gets the value of public access, land eithics and DIY hunting.
Also met some interesting characters like Jim Baichtal who hunted muskox last year in the same place I'm going this week. Turns out I also know his neighbor...small world.
Also got a chance to meet up with some of the riff-raff from hunttalk as well. It was great to see all the people that stopped by Randy's booth and almost every conversation started with, "I really like your show, you hunt how I hunt"......and then it was off to the races with stories of public land DIY hunting. I'm sure Randy has to know that his efforts are panning out every single time he heard that.
Even though I oppose the reason for that expo, oppose SFW/BGF, I still go to exchange information and learn what I can. There is value in letting them talk themselves in circles...just push their buttons a little and you'll find out plenty.
Thats my take.
The MTSFW booth may as well have been the "lets condone poaching booth". Pathetic isnt strong enough to describe that abortion.
I also walked straight up to the WYSFW booth and introduced myself to Bob Wharff, the Executive Director of WYSFW, as "Buzz Hettick, the guy that busts your balls on Monster Muleys all the time".
Mr. Wharff and I had a spirited 2 hour conversation about SFW and some bills that are going to be brought up in the next couple weeks in Wyoming. I will say that Bob is pretty well up to speed on the issues and is at least well versed in Wyomings issues. I believe he's not right on many of them, but he thinks the same about my stances on some as well. I also talked with another guy from the group, who seemed like a decent enough guy, but I ran circles around him with facts. Its pretty embarrassing when a WYSFW rep doesnt even know how many hunters and anglers there are in the state of Wyoming (he claimed there were only "around 15,000 hunters in Wyoming". He also thought the biggest reason that hunters were losing interest in hunting was because, "It costs too much"...
Then...and this one is big IMO. I talked with some dirtbag from Casper that is going to start a SFW branch in Nevada within the next year. He flat told me he was going to make a run at snagging and getting as many commissioner and governors tags as he could in Nevada. He also stated that he is going to use as much of the money as he can for bounties on coyotes. He is also going to push for lions to be moved to predator status with "shoot on sight" status and hopefully no limits or licenses required. You can only imagine how that conversation went between he and I. I wished him luck and told him he'd need it as I would do everything in my power to see him fail in Nevada...and thats a promise he'll find out I'm a little serious about. He was also totally against the RMEF and MDF and said both groups were worthless to issues in Nevada and had never done anything but take money from Nevada Sportsmen. Real quality guy.
While Wharff and his 2 buddies were there I also told them that the North American Model and the public having equal access to wildlife is important enough to me that I would figuratively, and if (backed into a corner), literally, bloody noses and loosen teeth over...and that I wasnt afraid of having my nose bloodied or teeth loosened either.
I also talked quite a while with a group I recently joined, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and met 3 of their board members from AK, CO, and UT. Seems to be a great group that gets the value of public access, land eithics and DIY hunting.
Also met some interesting characters like Jim Baichtal who hunted muskox last year in the same place I'm going this week. Turns out I also know his neighbor...small world.
Also got a chance to meet up with some of the riff-raff from hunttalk as well. It was great to see all the people that stopped by Randy's booth and almost every conversation started with, "I really like your show, you hunt how I hunt"......and then it was off to the races with stories of public land DIY hunting. I'm sure Randy has to know that his efforts are panning out every single time he heard that.
Even though I oppose the reason for that expo, oppose SFW/BGF, I still go to exchange information and learn what I can. There is value in letting them talk themselves in circles...just push their buttons a little and you'll find out plenty.
Thats my take.
Last edited: