Trophy Wildlife Auction Set for Great Falls

[THWAK1]

I found this on the FWP website (news).

Has anyone ever gone to one of these auctions? Do many people attend? Do other regions hold these auctions also? Are there ever any good deals or does it get quite pricey?

A statewide trophy wildlife auction will take place Sept. 8 at Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 4 headquarters in Great Falls.

The event starts with registration at 10 a.m., followed by the auction, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The R4 headquarters is located at 4600 Giant Springs Road.

Heads, horns and hides from wildlife, including deer, elk, bighorn sheep, black bears and mountain lions will be sold by Burows Auction Service. Photos of the items can be viewed at www.burowsauction.com. Click on the upcoming auctions link.

The sale will be for trophy items only; no game meat will be sold.

For more information call FWP R4 in Great Falls at 454-5840.

Black bears
Mountain lions
Elk & deer antlers
Sheep horns
Antelope horns
Smaller antlers in groups
Items are being brought in from regions across Montana

 

[2rocky]

seized items from poaching arrests?

 

[hornart]

auction

I bought some elk antlers from Colorado fish and wildlife a few years back in an auction,,it had quite a big response from people

 

[spook12]

Surely these are all road kills and dead heads. I cant imagine anyone in MT. would poach.

 

[THWAK1]

seized items from poaching arrests?

That would be my guess...poached or antlers picked prior to WMA's opening. Not for sure though, never heard of one of these.

The pics on the auctioneers site show what looks like a cooler full of mountain lions and a bear or two. Also, lots of antlers.

If I'm not elk hunting, I might have to take a trip over there and check it out.

 

[THWAK1]

Quite a few views on this thread but not many replies... Hmmmm...? I wonder if it's kinda been a secret in the past and people don't want others to know about it?! Just might have to check it out now...and let some of my friends know. But for now, I'm going out for an evening elk hunt.

 

[mixedbag]

They have them here and they are poached animals and some roadkill.Its mainly attended by taxidermists so they have extras in case they make a mistake or for their showrooms
My friend ,who's a taxidermist, goes to these,and uses it to have extra hides in case the tannery messes something up.Craft people go too for making clothes,furniture,lights ect..
not sure how cheap the stuff goes for though.I think antlers would be expensive,esp. if its something with size

 

[hornart]

Those that I bought from Colorado were all poached bull elk and I bought 6 sets of antlers for around $100.00,, but they also had the same stuff this auction has

 

[Big Fin]

I wonder if there will be two bighorn ram heads for sale that some TV show guys found in 2009. One supposedly scoring in the 199" range and the other just a smidge over 200". What I wouldn't give to have those as matching bookends on pedestals in my office.

 

[bjtc_brian]

The website shows one ram head, but not a second.

 

[mtlion]

I spoke to a region 2 warden after a similar, recent sale here. He said at that one there were several ram heads and they were going at bargain prices. I'm sure none were 199 inchers though.

 

[JCS]

I have been to 1 sale many years ago. Everything was expensive. For me, I cannot see putting any game animal on my wall that someone else has shot/poached or anything else.

Maybe in Fin's case I might make an exception.

 

[THWAK1]

Well, I didn't make it to the auction.

My afternoon elk hunt turned into a 2 1/2 day affair. The weather was good, the elk were noisy, and the gf was out of town, so I stayed on the mountain. I had brought my packable rain gear, a light jacket, and lots of water and food along with all my normal survival gear. So, 4 miles from the truck, I found a cozy spot on a ridge and slept under a space blanket and used my backpack and game bags as a pillow (with all my extra clothes and rain gear on, I still got cold). I didn't take very many pics, but I did get a lot of HDD video and GoPro video. Got elk sparring, tearing up a tree, tearing up a wallow, coming in to my calls, sunrises, and coyotes and elk making a hell of a racket in the pitch black!

My gf wants to see me shoot an elk with my bow this year, so since she was out of town I told her I wouldn't shoot a bull unless he was a nice one (I already have 2 that gross over 350"), meaning no small 6's or rags. If she is with me, that'll be another story though! I did pass up 7 bulls but none were big enough, 4 of which were rag horns that filed past me at less than 40 yards.

One of my friends went to the auction with his wife though. He said stuff was going cheap until the sheep heads came up for sale (there were 10 of them). Some guy came up from AZ and bought a bunch of horns to take back and sell, one guy showed up with a U-Haul trailer and filled it with elk horns, and a bear cub went for $300. Lots of frozen mountain lions too I guess. They bought a 5' cinnamon tanned bear hide for $145. His wife said since he can't shoot one, she had to buy one. OUCH! They left when the sheep heads started with the first one going for $1000! So I don't know how much the other 9 went for. I guess a local news crew was there so it should be on the news tonight.

Here a a few pics; 2 of an elk that I got within 60 yards of after I scoped him out and 1 of my mountain bed.

 

[Big Fin]

Looks like you found a far better use of time, Thwak. Hope you get an arrow in one of those. Seems you are in them and have put forth effort needed.

 

[THWAK1]

Thanks BigFin. What I have put into my elk hunting this year pales in comparison to what you've done, and have yet to do, just for your Alaska trip! I wish you the best of luck on a great and bountiful hunt and am eargerly awaiting your updates, not to mention the episode a year away!

 

[Big Sky]

I had two friends go to the auction today. They both said the prices were just stupid low. If a guy would have had some expendable cash he could have made a pretty hefty sum of money reselling things on taxidermy.net and ebay. Heck, a guy could have just bought shed antlers alone and turned around and sold them to Pacific Steel for nearly 3X what they went for at the auction. Nothing went for big $$$ from what they told me.