New record bighorn

[Greybeard]

My buddy e-mailed that a new record bighorn was taken in Montana, green score 205. If so, apparently this will be the largest in recorded history for North America. Greybeard/

[Deerslayer]

If it is this one then there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding it. Although I think this one was taken last year and scored a bit over 204.

Record Bighorn

[swamp]

Originally Posted by Deerslayer

If it is this one then there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding it. Although I think this one was taken last year and scored a bit over 204.

Record Bighorn

This is an outrage... I hope all the newspapers in Montana carried the story...
Montana's game and fish dept definitely needs to be cleaned up.

[GF.]

The columnist did a nice job of positioning it as such, Swamp, but I can't agree with you.

Evidently, the primary target of the operation was somebody who definitely needed stopping, so what were the options? Should the state have poured resources into round-the-clock surveillance of this guy, or was a sting operation a whole lot more cost-effective?

And it's a false premise that allowing the agent to take the ram somehow cost the state any money or cost any hunter a tag, because there are the management goals and then there was an exception made - one animal sacrificed - in order to stop someone who was evidently very good at getting sheep hunters onto very big sheep - legally or not. Point being, this one poacher was assisting in the removal of multiple big sheep year after year.

So what's better for the state, the hunters, and the sheep program? One more sheep down, or letting the bad actor go about his business? It's too bad that it was this nice a ram, but them's the breaks...

JMO, if the agent had shot a barely-legal ram, the same writer would probably be thrilled to death that the poaching had been stopped. Complaining about the agent being 'above the law'? WTH? Don't undercover cops buy drugs all the time? Law-'breaking' by law enforcement in order to make a solid case is (IMO) a pretty necessary tool. If he hadn't shot the sheep, that agent would've had his cover blown, which could very well have proven fatal. "Poor guy just fell off of a cliff, but hey, that's sheep hunting for ya...." You can't even prosecute on a "he said/they said" basis if "he" is telling no tales for "them" to refute....

Too, without the sheep there was no physical evidence of a crime and of course, there is the matter of the guy buying the skull from the 'hunter', which may well have set him up on trafficking charges.

FWIW - I don't think that this ram being taken will have any adverse impacts on the going rate for the Governor's Tags, any more than a great trophy shot in a brochure drives down the price that any guide/outfitter/deer farm can charge for their services.

And frankly, if a sheep tag is worth more only because somebody thinks they can buy themselves a spot in a record book, then it's being sold to somebody who has a mighty sketchy sense of what hunting is About...