[Wyoming] Legislator Proposes All-You-Can-Kill Elk Permits For Ranchers

[Rack Daniels]

You mean let the peasants hunt elk on their property? Are you insane?

What we need is to get some good, honorable paying clients to help these poor landowners out. Maybe we should get them enrolled in Land Trust or some other leasing system.

I know it’s satire, but unfortunately it’s the reality…

 

[TheTone]

“Allemand introduced the idea of issuing unlimited “lethal take” permits to ranchers, which they could either use themselves or hand off to people of their choosing.”

Interesting. I wonder how they would choose?

They would choose based one who would pay for them is my guess. Easy start to privatizing wildlife; starts with a few problem cows and the door is open

 

[manitou1]

Any reason these private landowners can’t just let cow hunters on? I’m constantly dumbfounded by the private landowners inability to come up with a solution. Makes me pretty suspicious if it’s actually a problem

Because the outfitters and hunters they sell to want bulls.
This is about $$$ to sell more hunts.

 

[antlerradar]

Any reason these private landowners can’t just let cow hunters on? I’m constantly dumbfounded by the private landowners inability to come up with a solution. Makes me pretty suspicious if it’s actually a problem

I can think of a few.
Politics, Not the D vs R kind but small town and internal family politics. Never fun when you have family and neighbors pissed at you because they didn't get first shot at the elk.

@Eric Albus, said it best. " hunters want a hunt, landowners want a harvest". When it comes to Cows and does that means drive or walk to the hay field and shoot one at daylight. end of hunt. I can understand wanting to make a hunt out of the harvest, but hiking the hills, passing on animals because you want a dry cow, is just taking up my time or the space of some one else that will harvest.

Many hunters are just not the quality of hunters on HT, can not be quite, can not see game, CAN NOT SHOOT. Best case they might harvest something, mostly they just spook the elk, worst case they cripple one and it end up on the neighbors. I just don't have time for this.

My biggest fear with just letting people hunt is not that gate will be left open, cows will be shot, but that the hunters will stray onto the neighbors. OnX has helped a lot with this but it is still an issue.

 

[rogerthat]

I can think of a few.
Politics, Not the D vs R kind but small town and internal family politics. Never fun when you have family and neighbors pissed at you because they didn't get first shot at the elk.

@Eric Albus, said it best. " hunters want a hunt, landowners want a harvest". When it comes to Cows and does that means drive or walk to the hay field and shoot one at daylight. end of hunt. I can understand wanting to make a hunt out of the harvest, but hiking the hills, passing on animals because you want a dry cow, is just taking up my time or the space of some one else that will harvest.

Many hunters are just not the quality of hunters on HT, can not be quite, can not see game, CAN NOT SHOOT. Best case they might harvest something, mostly they just spook the elk, worst case they cripple one and it end up on the neighbors. I just don't have time for this.

My biggest fear with just letting people hunt is not that gate will be left open, cows will be shot, but that the hunters will stray onto the neighbors. OnX has helped allot with this but it is still an issue.

But landowners like you and @Eric Albus are not the ones asking for others to solve your elk problems. You guys know what needs to happen and figure it out with the regs and tags available. The game and fish has made the tags available. A lot of these units in south east-south central wyoming have had big tag increases and very liberal cow tags. Unit 7 for example has had a giant increase if we go back 20 years. I think if these landowners were serious about getting the elk off their land it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out. Walk in only access from parking areas like type 2 bma here in montana and Guaranteed the elk would be blown off in a season. As you know the elk get habituated to the hunting pressure. They need a change to their habits. “Oh this isn’t a safety zone anymore!”

The real issue is they can’t figure out how to keep the trophy bulls for their clients/rich buddies while addressing the cows. It’s really a business decision a landowner has to make. Do I want boat loads of elk so I can smash trophy bulls or do I want the elk numbers addressed for depredation? The actual problem is unrational thinking by the landowners thinking they can have both. That’s the way I see it. I would love to have the “problems” these landowners have.

 

[wytex]

Easy peasy, open her up to youth hunts, ranches get no say. Problem solved.

Not sure what you're saying unless you mean just let youth hunters on private land and the LO have no say in that? Not going to happen that way, private property rights and all of that. If you were saying something else, my apologies.

I would simply ask every rancher complaining to show their hunter numbers for the season. Hard to ask for such concessions when you don't give adequate access.

 

[rogerthat]

I can think of a few.
Politics, Not the D vs R kind but small town and internal family politics. Never fun when you have family and neighbors pissed at you because they didn't get first shot at the elk.

@Eric Albus, said it best. " hunters want a hunt, landowners want a harvest". When it comes to Cows and does that means drive or walk to the hay field and shoot one at daylight. end of hunt. I can understand wanting to make a hunt out of the harvest, but hiking the hills, passing on animals because you want a dry cow, is just taking up my time or the space of some one else that will harvest.

Many hunters are just not the quality of hunters on HT, can not be quite, can not see game, CAN NOT SHOOT. Best case they might harvest something, mostly they just spook the elk, worst case they cripple one and it end up on the neighbors. I just don't have time for this.

My biggest fear with just letting people hunt is not that gate will be left open, cows will be shot, but that the hunters will stray onto the neighbors. OnX has helped allot with this but it is still an issue.

I also acknowledge it’s not as simple and idealistic as I made it seem due to neighbors and their management decisions and those effects.

 

[antlerradar]

But landowners like you and @Eric Albus are not the ones asking for others to solve your elk problems. You guys know what needs to happen and figure it out with the regs and tags available. The game and fish has made the tags available. A lot of these units in south east-south central wyoming have had big tag increases and very liberal cow tags. Unit 7 for example has had a giant increase if we go back 20 years. I think if these landowners were serious about getting the elk off their land it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out. Walk in only access from parking areas like type 2 bma here in montana and Guaranteed the elk would be blown off in a season. As you know the elk get habituated to the hunting pressure. They need a change to their habits. “Oh this isn’t a safety zone anymore!”

The real issue is they can’t figure out how to keep the trophy bulls for their clients/rich buddies while addressing the cows. It’s really a business decision a landowner has to make. Do I want boat loads of elk so I can smash trophy bulls or do I want the elk numbers addressed for depredation? The actual problem is unrational thinking by the landowners thinking they can have both. That’s the way I see it. I would love to have the “problems” these landowners have.

yup, plenty of people are just not shooting straight when it comes to their end goal.