Elk hunt

[Leadmelter]

I saw an anouncement that the Dept. of the Interior is sponsoring a bison hunt to cull the herd.
That is all the info I have.
Leaadmelter

[Oklahoma Rebel]

that would be so much fun, so that could be any state?

[swheeler]

Elk- Bison? They are not the same animal:kidding:

[Oklahoma Rebel]

true dat-lol I didn't notice the change

[Kestrel4k]

So that explains why I keep getting those violation citations from the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

[runfiverun]

nooo, that's cause you ain't getting them out of the pen fast enough.

I hate to break your heart but we have buffalo and Elk hunts all the time out here.

[lightman]

Either one would be fun! Would love to harvest a Bison with a cast boolit from my 45-70.

[Leadmelter]

Sorry for my faux pas.
We even have elk hunts here in MI
Leadmelter
MI

[swheeler]

I've shot both and both are good eatin', buffy might be a little closer to beef though.

[ShooterAZ]

It's happening at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, here in AZ. They are in the National Park, and have been tearing stuff up. I may have to go get me one.

[dondiego]

They cull 100 to 200 elk every year in Michigan. Getting a tag is the hard part. A friend got a 7x7 bull just a few miles from my place near Vanderbilt, MI. Elk tracks are all over my property!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Where's the link to this?

Randy

[Smoke4320]

http://www.npr.org/2017/04/16/524242247/slaughter-of-yellowstone-bison-at-the-center-of-culture-war

[W.R.Buchanan]

OK, that was an emotional plea for allowing a resource to be wasted so some emotional people can drive there and watch these creatures once or twice in their lifetimes at the expense of everyone who lives there and tries to make a living and the animals themselves.

Anytime a situation like the Bison occurs, things change to fill the void, and usually those things are economic in nature. People find ways to make money in the space that was once occupied by the thing that was eliminated.

It is really hard to go back.

Bison are the thing we are talking about here, but the space has already been taken over by Domestic Cattle, and the needs of man will always trump the needs of beasts.

However the Bison resource can be managed just like all other Game Animals and also be made to pay for themselves and survive better. Jim Shockey talks about this in every single episode of "Jim Shockey's Hunting Adventures" and shows how it is happening in his series "Uncharted." His Uncharted Series is the best outdoor program on TV IMHO.

He is constantly promoting SCI as the main source for injecting Hunter Dollars into wildlife management. And I personally think it might be a better Idea to farm this out to the private sector.

Only uninformed fools think that they can return places that have moved on, back to their original state. It is naïve at best, and dangerous in the worst cases, to mess with evolution.

Another example of this short sighted interference was the Santa Rosa Island Elk Herd.

Santa Rosa Island is one of the Channel Islands located off the cost of California near Santa Barbara. This island was essentially bare with some small native wildlife, some goats, sheep and some native Foxes with really big ears! I think they got them classified as Endangered Species. (An abused topic for another time..)

The Private Owners of the Island decided to raise cattle there in the 1800's and also decided it might be a good idea to have some game animals there to hunt for food so they wouldn't cut into the profits from eating the cattle, so they introduces Elk to the Island. Just so you know, this island is about 25 miles long and 10-15 miles wide. Plenty of room for everybody.

Prior to them the Chumash Indians had lived there on and off for hundreds of years but since there was no significant source of food there they moved out and now have a Casino in Santa Ynez CA and make money hand over fist. Perfect example of how capitalism works for everybody.

The Elk Herd grew to be spectacular! and Hunters were allowed to pay to hunt there and it wasn't cheap. Everything was fine.

Then comes along some Idealistic Liberal Group from within the Audubon Society (The actual source of most Gun Control Legislation in this state) and since the Island is now owned by the state, they want to return it to what it was like in the 1700's before civilized man came along. Dianne Feinstein agreed with them and almost got the Elk Herd Slaughtered. Luckily the Courts stopped them because the previous owners had stipulated that the Elk be part of the island wildlife in perpetuity before they sold the land back to the state. Besides that,,, who cares about what the island looked like before 1700? THERE WAS NOTHING THERE!

The state still has not set up tagged hunting for elk on that island yet. A money making resource that has gone unused and would generate significant funds to manage the heard even better than it is now.

But NO! Instead they slapped a Gas tax of 20-30 cents per gallon on us supposedly to go for road work. Except Brown got it put into the General Fund so now we are funding the Defense of Illegals by Eric Holder, instead of rebuilding our crumbling roads.

A perfect example of how Liberal policies destroy whatever they touch, Nevermind Chicago, Baltimore, etc. etc. and every other place controlled by Democrats.,,, ad nauseum! They screw up everything they touch and that should be a basic Axiom of Existence.

The Tejon Range on the Grapevine off I 5 North of LA has a large Roosevelt Elk Herd on their private land. They pay for the management of that heard by dollars from hunters and it costs $10K to shoot an Elk on their property and they sell every single tag the state allows them several years in advance. They also charge $20K to shoot a Herd Bull! You are pretty much guaranteed success as the guides know where every animal is at all times. They also have hog hunts there which are more reasonably priced, and if you want to shoot ground squirrels with your pellet gun you are welcome just about any time for free. Oh you will have to use lead free bullets to hunt there cuz of the Condors which are not native but imported from the Andes when the native ones here went extinct in the 60's.

These people are perfect examples of how Hunting pays for the management of animals that would either be poached for meat or left to deteriorate into squalor, and examples of how idiots never get it right.

Beware the Useful Idiots!

Time marches on.

Randy

[jerry6stl]

- While Bison are good to eat, and do need some "herd thinning', I think it is hard to consider shooting a standing Bison to be "HUNTING." They are mostly a docile animal most interested in simple grazing. They just stand around -- no pursuit, no tracking, you just drive up to within 50 yards on an ATV and shoot the beast. The real work is in the hauling and butchering. Not much sport involved.

[Yodogsandman]

That isn't allowed on this hunt. Hunters are strictly monitored and they don't even get the meat.