White Gulch Montana Elk Massacre
Elk
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Hard to believe so much could go wrong. Trespassing, herding, herd shooting, etc, etc. In Billings Gazette.
What a mess. Only three citations? The wardens had to be overwhelmed.
I've watched wardens on outdoor channel . I would never want to go rifle hunting up there that's crazy stuff. Lol
http://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/recreation/citations-issued-ethical-concerns-raised-over-hunting-in-white-gulch/article_9bbddbbd-6818-5e6b-981e-0136681aa750.html
"its a drain with 3 of us up here all day" says one warden.. isn't that your job?
michael
Aubs8's Link
Aubs8's Link
The warden's point was that the three of them could not handle the chaos, kind of like a riot. Seems like the Outfitter had some sense.
Feddes said. “It’s a drain with three of us up there all day long tying us all down.”
With the resources required to monitor the hunting near White Gulch, wardens were unable to patrol the rest of their territory, he said, which had them concerned about what else might be going on in other areas.
Yes it's their job, he never said it wasn't. What he is saying is it drains their resources so other areas are not patrolled and protected.
So maybe bring in some more CO's on the opener...
There aren't more. There are about 70 for the whole state.
It would be nice if we could afford more C.O's. Maybe that would help reduce the violating and poaching form the law abiding hunters. Lost a 150 ten pointer Saturday. Not caught as of yet.
Wow, can't help but feel sorry for the elk on this one.. Horrible
"Bring in more Cos...." Like it's just that easy.
We're critically low in Kansas. CRITICALLY and no, it's just not as easy as saying, "Maybe go hire more wardens."
why isn't it as easy as hiring more cos?you can't tell me they couldn't skimp on something else and find money to hire another 50% even another 35 officers
Well let's see, since the DNR in most states is self funded all we need to do is double or triple the cost of licenses and then we can hire more CO's. Nothing to it right?
The problem was not a lack of wardens, it was a total disrespect of game and game laws by Montana hunters.
Thirty, (YES, THIRTY), dead elk, and others wounded due to herd shooting. Please do not pin that one on the wardens.
midwest's Link
Absolutely pathetic. These are not hunters, they are bottom feeders.
totally agree with you on the pathetic hunters, but with so few wardens they are allowed to get away with it. there is no way mt cant scratch up some $$ for more wardens when mn has one in almost every city. maybe we sell more licenses so they get the $$ from that, I don't know.
They shoukd scadder the gun pressure by a thinning the number if hunters.
How about deputizing folks for the short rifle season?
We are kind of in the same situation in South Dakota with a shortage of game wardens. The county I live in is over 1.7 million acres and we do not have a permanent game warden. Sure is a bad thing that happened and hope they get the maximum sentence. It could happen here just as easily.
That's crazy. Hard to believe people would do this.
I'm going to go contrarian a little bit on this (based on the limited amount I read in that one article). 30 dead elk, 1 (ONE) spike shot and left, the rest presumably tagged and legal, all the citations were for trespassing. Could have been worse. Aside from the spike, the other 29 animals were apparently tagged.
Not my cup of tea, and if I read that other animals ran off wounded, or that guys were shooting multiple animals, then it definitely is well over the line. But I haven't read that.
The article seems a bit over-hyped when you parse out the facts.
There was a herd of elk. Legally licensed hunters killed a bunch (no number given) lawfully on public land. Three people trespassed on private ground and were cited including one who killed a 5x5. One spike elk was killed but not recovered by the shooter.
The rest is overblown news media drama because someone didn't like to see some rifle hunters get a ridiculously easy hunt. They claim "herd shooting" but the evidence is to the contrary. There was only one untagged elk found dead. That's unfortunate but that isn't herd shooting. That's one guy not finding his elk and we all know that can happen sometimes.
They claim "herding the elk with vehicles" but no one was cited for even driving off the road, or shooting from the road, or shooting from a vehicle or chasing them down. It's not illegal for a rifle hunter to drive down a road legally to get to where the elk are. And if the herd moves and the hunter again drives down the road legally to where they went it may look like chasing but from the hunters perspective he's just following the movement of the herd. When you see a number of vehicles do it I suppose it might look like herding or chasing but there is nothing illegal about it. Which is why no citations were issued.
This being an archery forum, it is understandable that we don't think much of this approach to elk hunting. It's pretty much the opposite of an archery hunt. I wouldn't enjoy it one bit. It wouldn't feel like hunting at all and I couldn't take pride in getting an elk that way. But everything besides the 3 trespassers in this instance seems to have been legal. And I don't know how you go about outlawing easy hunts like this. If elk congregate in large numbers near roads in public land during rifle season then this type of event will happen.