Flatlander

As a kid I can remember visiting my grandparents and cousins in Idaho and Montana. We'd all be outside eating homemade ice cream and reminiscing about old times when the conversation would inevitably turn to the time Grandma got chased up a tree by a moose, or when one got a tire swing stuck on its antlers at the cabin in Island Park, or when one chased my cousin Brian home after he fell off the snowmobile. Still today at just about every family gathering just when things start to quiet down someone will call out in his direction "MOOOOSE!" These experiences and many others shaped my admiration of the largest member of the deer family. When we would spend summers at the family property in Clancy, MT, the most prized of all sightings was a bull moose. Their huge black bodies, contrasted by wide flat, white palms in the creek bottoms or black timber are mesmerizing. While attending college in Rexburg, ID I spent as many hours as possible exploring the Big Hole mountains just outside of town. I hunted elk and deer there but was always distracted when an 8' ungulate would cross my path. One day in November while looking for a cow elk I watched a behemoth bull moose peruse the timber apparently roaming for a second cycle cow and I promised myself that one day when I had the time and money I would be back for one of the beasts. Those lean college years didn't allow me the opportunity to trophy hunt, let alone do justice to a once-in-a-lifetime venture. But I took note of the favorable draw odds, especially for residents, and committed that the day would come. Before leaving my native born state again I scrounged up the few hundred dollars to purchase a lifetime license ensuring that the NR cap for such a tag would never become a barrier to entry. So this year, 10 years removed from my post-collegiate departure, I decided the time had come to begin the process of grinding away at the 18% draw odds. I figured that even without a point system in Idaho the expectation was that I would draw a tag within 5 years. So imagine my surprise last Friday when I was greeted by this

Clay Goldman / Mogollon Taxidermy

He was in St Anthony. A little bit of a drive, but worth it. Idaho doesn't have any CWD cases yet but AZ doesn't allow bones or head tissue from any state.

Always knew that about you . . .

Its superb. Pretty exciting about that hunt. If you need any tips about the taxidermist I used to clean my skull and salt my cape or anything else just let me know. I'd be happy to help anyway possible.

How many nephews you got? Every time I look on here you are taking one of them to kill something. My mom kissed a fish before she threw it back once, can I claim nephew status?

Awesome glass. Way better than most anything Vortex. Great price for some reliable durable 15’s.

Relax . . . no one is implementing this before your muzzy bull hunt.

Honestly, that could be one season. A pivoting hammer, exposed primer and iron sites isn't that much more effective than a recurve.

Had to move into a new house so we could have big mounts

Brought him to his forever home yesterday

Yeah this makes me nervous

Yes, a decline in opportunity for the current generation. That’s what concerns me.

Freezer wrap and paper is pretty cheap. Works good too.

Nice buck Tony. The year was sort of random... 1965 was the year my dad turned 17, so the last year he would have been eligible for youth permits (had they existed and had he lived in AZ). It was basically just a way to distinguish between opportunity available to his generation and that available to our current youth. Its eye opening when you realize how much opportunity has declined in such a short period of time.

Ok, ok relax I was just rattling your chain Bob. I would be through the roof excited if we killed a buck like yours. No TV stars or trophy hunters in this house. Just a bunch of average, meat hunting, shmucks. Heck everyone knows I killed a dink on my 3C archery hunt.

In 1965 how many bp’s did it take to draw a Kaibab tag? Late coues? 6A early rifle bull? Do we really need to stack the deck for old dudes to have more opportunity...

We’ll be there.

Hey Bob, I’ll send you a pic from the Bab this November😉 I bet my 11 year old won’t spend the whole hunt in a NyQuil induced coma battling pneumonia. Another reason we shouldn’t give old people tags.

This gets my vote for worst post of the year. Grandparent transfer: The number of tags grandparents can donate to a kid in their 8 years of eligibility is minuscule when looking at the total number of applicants. Looking for ways to limit child/youth tags is a pretty selfish and short sighted way to try and get yourself a little ahead in the draw. Waiting periods will make almost no impact on draw odds in the current scenario and even less if we are ever dumb enough to square bonus points. Squaring bonus points only helps the people at the very top of the point pile and does marginally at the expense of the vast majority of applicants who are below max. What gives me a superior right to hunt an animal than someone who was introduced to hunting just last year? What about a kid who just turned ten? Why don’t they have an equal right to hunt the strip? Just because they were born later, what does that have to do with it? What value does it add to hunting if we make it an old man’s sport and no one gets to hunt while they are young enough to enjoy it? Continuing to tip the scales in favor of a tiny minority who apparently don’t like to go hunting all that much cause they are fine waiting 20 years just doesn’t make sense. Someone brought up preference points. This is the worst idea in the history of hunting. Once it goes this way, it will just cut the legs out of any hunter recruitment. What’s the point of starting something if there is literally no hope of ever being able to achieve your goal? Eventually western hunters are going to have to accept that there is more demand than supply. And we will have to take a long look in the mirror to assess whether it’s wise to continually prioritize opportunity for one small group of people at the expense of all others and every future generation to come. Why should the draw favor those who have applied longer? Does that somehow make them more deserving? In actuality the more we complicate the system by adding provisions: bonus points, preference points, point guard, tag transfer, etc. The more opportunity for exploitation we create and the more the system favors the few at the expense of the mass. Someday we will have to bite the bullet or lose our future. It’s just a matter of time.

My 99 sportsman idle screw Is accessible by reaching in directly above the shroud for the pull start.

Better a walk in than sold to a developer buddy of your local corrupt republican rep

I thought those were different Owens' . . .

The fires haven’t been nearly as tough on the unit as the 1200 tags they issue for coues deer.

Well our family has made some good memories the past few years. In 2017 I took my first archery bull in 3C. Last year my son Hunter lived up to his name by taking his first antelope in unit 10. I drew a once in a lifetime Idaho Shiras moose permit that I put on a 40" bull. This year Hunter has his own OIL tag as we head up to the Kaibab for a cow bison hunt later this month. I am headed to MT for my first ever archery elk hunt in that state. And to top it off Hunter's little brother Nash will be hunting Mule Deer in 12AW during the late hunt. Yup, we are living in the good ole days . . .