Jimmy John kills potential new state record sheep in NM

[ddd-shooter]

I dream of going on a sheep hunt (and a goat) and envious of him. Love to be in a position to buy any tag I want, and go hunt what state and animal I wanted to. It's a luxury he's built to do.

The mount of money that single tag went for will do more good for the sheep herds overall then some random Joe blow will with his $1500 tag. Including more funding or maybe more funding towards the Rocky Mountain sheep foundation, by getting more interest into sheep, which in return has increased sheep herds throughout the Lower 48.

Hunts like this put money in organizations pockets that put more sheep on the mountain for all of us..


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This is what people need to remember with these tags. They pay for way more than my measly license and app $$.


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I sure could see an animal lover using the same rationale to eliminate “Joe blow’s” tag in favor of just one auction tag.
More money raised, less sheep killed.
A win for the hunters and the antis.

I’m not near experienced enough to comment, but I think fair allocation of tags is a pillar of North American conservation that needs a little guarding.
Idk if this is the place for it or not.

 

[Poser]

I once had a conversation with a guy who I imagine is much like Jimmy John. I was at a mountaineer's lodge and there was a guy who appeared to be wealthy and powerful, with people around him catering to his every need, taking his calls and consulting with him as needed. He was on a fully guided expedition with seemingly no expense spared, I was DIYing. We had a bit of a conversation about hunting, though he wasn't particularly interested in much I had to say about hunting. He had hunted sheep and other animals all over the world and, if memory serves, he essentially waited on phone calls from various outfitters when they had an animal that may have been of interest to him. I can't say we had much of anything in common and he was probably the least interesting hunter I've ever met. He seemed only interested in the quality of the animal and showed little to no interest in the experience/adventure etc. Surely there was something in the life experience itself of travelling all over the world and going to great lengths to do things, including climb mountains, apparently, but his use of language to articulate any of that sure fell short in favor of quality of animal. Its a weird thing, weird obsession, weird way to spend millions of dollars. You can't say it does not still require effort as he's still getting up at 2:30 in the morning and pushing himself through the elements, same as me. Its just that the process itself seemed to be an inconvenience that one tolerates on the road to achievement vs. focus on the process itself.

Its a whole different thing than what most of us do.

 

[intunegp]

I once had a conversation with a guy who I imagine is much like Jimmy John. I was at a mountaineer's lodge and there was a guy who appeared to be wealthy and powerful, with people around him catering to his every need, taking his calls and consulting with him as needed. He was on a fully guided expedition with seemingly no expense spared, I was DIYing. We had a bit of a conversation about hunting, though he wasn't particularly interested in much I had to say about hunting. He had hunted sheep and other animals all over the world and, if memory serves, he essentially waited on phone calls from various outfitters when they had an animal that may have been of interest to him. I can't say we had much of anything in common and he was probably the least interesting hunter I've ever met. He seemed only interested in the quality of the animal and showed little to no interest in the experience/adventure etc. Surely there was something in the life experience itself of travelling all over the world and going to great lengths to do things, including climb mountains, apparently, but his use of language to articulate any of that sure fell short in favor of quality of animal. Its a weird thing, weird obsession, weird way to spend millions of dollars. You can't say it does not still require effort as he's still getting up at 2:30 in the morning and pushing himself through the elements, same as me. Its just that the process itself seemed to be an inconvenience that one tolerates on the road to achievement vs. focus on the process itself.

Its a whole different thing than what most of us do.

This forum would get pretty boring pretty fast if we all had the same motivations, experiences, pursuits, and philosophies about hunting. Everyone approaches it a little differently, and for different reasons. Some have the means to do it the way you described while others scrape together change from the couch to make a DIY hunt happen. We can't expect one to fully understand or appreciate what the other gets from it.

 

[ODB]

the notion that it is tags like this that are what keep any animals on any mountain anywhere describes a failure, not an overall success.

I’ve noticed over time that most things that become relegated to the domain of only the rich are often ruined for the average person.

 

[Ross]

Great sheep, his money, no personal interest in this kind of hunt/show up pull trigger. To each their own.

 

[WV Mountaineer]

I’m m confused about the notion that he owes hunting anything. He’s just like us. He puts his pants on the same way. The only difference is he has loads of money to spend on stuff like this.







He didn’t make the rules for govener tags. He just bought one. He isn’t driving up the market on average Joe hunters either. Had he not bought it, someone else would have. ETC….







It boils down to its Jimmy Jon. People don’t like Jimmy because he’s rich. They’ll tell you it’s this or that optic. Blah, blah, blah. It’s BS. It his money. The same money that sees him buying easy tags for massive animals. It has nothing to do with optics, the affect on hunting it has, or anything at all except his money. That’s why he’s there and exactly why we aren’t.

 

[highcountrymuley]

He made a lot of money through his own hard work. Now he spends it on hunting. Like said above, he didn't make the rules on Governor's tags. He just pays and plays. Not how many of us like to play the hunting game. The experience is just as important as the trophy to most of us regular guys.

Seems the idea of fair chase is getting stretched thin here : 365 days of hunting with a rifle, with a large posse of paid guides... I don't care about my name in record books but if you did and were #2 to this guy it might burn a little.

 

[TimberDoodle]

Our Ministers tag here in Alberta bothers me because the season is one entire calendar year. There is one tag for residents and one for whoever wants to pay the most. I wish they restricted the season to what everyone else gets. Essentially this is "buying a sheep". One can look at this as good ,for the funds provided if they help wildlife management. I personally think that it lessens the overall accomplishment when someone has multiple guides and help on every drainage finding the biggest sheep so they can kill it. Kind of takes "fair chase" right out of the equation.

Agree 100%. If we do allow the ultra rich to jump ahead in line, at a minimum, the tag should only be for the legal hunting season. Last year or the year before, I saw Pat Garret posted in Feb/March that they were out on a hunt for a ram on winter range. Makes it difficult to say that hunters limit seasons to give the animals a chance to survive the winter, then have guys out chasing them when they are most vulnerable.

 

[Mike D Texas]

Maybe it is because the funds from this one tag go to the betterment of the species and habitat while the high fence monies go to the scumbag that own the pen.

The funds from the raffles do not compare to the funds from the auction no matter how so many feel they do. The object is to take ONE tag and maximize the funds coming from that. The raffles do not do that and that has been proven universally for 20 plus years.

lol, ok. You’d rather the money go to more government bureaucrats than a private entrepreneur.


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[Mike D Texas]

here you go. How many did either of you buy this year?

2024 NM Bighorn Raffle Information – New Mexico Chapter of the Wild Sheep Foundation

www.nmwildsheep.org

most sheep hunts are 100% success regardless of diy or outfitted.

I didn’t buy any because I’m not interested in hunting sheep.


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[TenRing]

lol, ok. You’d rather the money go to more government bureaucrats than a private entrepreneur.


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I can only speak for Nevada. But here the funds raised from Heritage Tag auctions, aka gov tags, go into the heritage grant fund. The funds from this grant are only used for habitat improvements, transplants, water sources, etc... They are not used for adding another rig to the Fish & Game fleet or adding more staff for the department. We also raffle off the same tags, one entry per person $25 per entry. the funds from the raffle go into the same Grand Fund. And the Auction tags seem to always out raise the draw tags.

 

[BBob]

I can only speak for Nevada. But here the funds raised from Heritage Tag auctions, aka gov tags, go into the heritage grant fund. The funds from this grant are only used for habitat improvements, transplants, water sources, etc... They are not used for adding another rig to the Fish & Game fleet or adding more staff for the department. We also raffle off the same tags, one entry per person $25 per entry. the funds from the raffle go into the same Grand Fund. And the Auction tags seem to always out raise the draw tags.

Similar system in AZ.

 

[TenRing]

You obviously did read I said cap the raffle tags one per person. Don't allow unlimited purchases or you are correct that the rich just buy a bunch of raffle tickets and that just makes average hunters un interested. Everyone on the same playing field will get more hunters interested and maybe more hunters advocating for wild sheep. Vs seeing someone pay 600k for a tag then pay outfitters and buddies to go scout for him to kill a sheep.

Do you have anything to show the difference between the amount of advertising that idaho does for the raffle tag vs the auction tags you are referring to or is that just your opinion. Because I have never seen one advertisement from idaho about raffle tags.

It's funny how with a raffle alot claim you cants make as much money for sheep probabaly just trying to keep it like the European model rich guys buy kill tags and claim they are helping the sheep population when most areas have been on the decline for years. Sheep need advocates more then the money from auction tags More advocates will result in more money

In AZ where a person can buy multiple super raffle tickets, they never seem to raise as much as the auctions do. The sheep tag alone went for $280k at auction and they sold $80k worth of raffle tickets. In Nevada they have the draw/raffle Silver State Tags which are the same tag as the gov tags. They all cost $25 each to apply, one chance per person. There are 4 tags in the drawings, Mule Deer, Elk, Antelope and Desert Sheep. If you combine all the revenue from each of those raffles in 2023 it was $1,042,605 in funds raised. There was about 12k people applying for elk and deer and 7-9k for antelope and sheep. The auction tags this year in Nevada raised $1,360,000. I'm sure you'll say that 300k isn't much of a difference for the auction tags. But do you believe that one could make up that $1,360,000 in funds raised if they got rid of auction tags? We have 60-70k applicants in Nevada annually and only a small percentage of total applicants apply for a silver state tags at $25. Even if they took away the auction tags, and put them all in separate drawings, would they make up for the loss of that revenue? In reality there seems to be a breaking point when it comes to people putting in for raffles these days, and to lose that auction revenue would have a negative effect on habitat improvements and big game out west. Lets not forget the funds raises at these auctions and by the SS tags gets a 3:1 match from federal funds, so that 1.3 mill is actually quite a bit more in the big picture.

 

[KurtR]

I can only speak for Nevada. But here the funds raised from Heritage Tag auctions, aka gov tags, go into the heritage grant fund. The funds from this grant are only used for habitat improvements, transplants, water sources, etc... They are not used for adding another rig to the Fish & Game fleet or adding more staff for the department. We also raffle off the same tags, one entry per person $25 per entry. the funds from the raffle go into the same Grand Fund. And the Auction tags seem to always out raise the draw tags.

South Dakota the sheep auction tag goes 100 % to just sheep. So it seems a lot of states use the money as intended.

 

[mtmiller]

South Dakota the sheep auction tag goes 100 % to just sheep. So it seems a lot of states use the money as intended.

Not true. Noem decided to take some of those bhs $$$ for her Second Century Initiative for pheasant habitat and predator control.

Noem, GF&P banking on big bucks for wildlife habitat by auctioning off high-value bighorn sheep permit

South Dakota Public Broadcasting produces commercial-free TV, Radio, and Internet programs and provides valuable community education outreach and resources.

wwwsdpborg.bento3-qa-live.pbs.org

 

[Archer86]

In AZ where a person can buy multiple super raffle tickets, they never seem to raise as much as the auctions do. The sheep tag alone went for $280k at auction and they sold $80k worth of raffle tickets

You example below proves the point that when you limit the raffles to one purchase per person it gets more people involved? Then advertise and a well run raffle tag will provide more money for the tag then a auction and it will get more hunters involved how can that be bad for a species

at the end of the day most think it's just money provided that matters most Even if a raffle tag produced slightly less money but provided more advocates for the species I would take that any day of the week.

. In Nevada they have the draw/raffle Silver State Tags which are the same tag as the gov tags. They all cost $25 each to apply, one chance per person. There are 4 tags in the drawings, Mule Deer, Elk, Antelope and Desert Sheep. If you combine all the revenue from each of those raffles in 2023 it was $1,042,605 in funds raised. There was about 12k people applying for elk and deer and 7-9k for antelope and sheep. The auction tags this year in Nevada raised $1,360,000. I'm sure you'll say that 300k isn't much of a difference for the auction tags. But do you believe that one could make up that $1,360,000 in funds raised if they got rid of auction tags? We have 60-70k applicants in Nevada annually and only a small percentage of total applicants apply for a silver state tags at $25.

How many of the 60 to 70 thousand applicants in Nevada even know about the silver state tags I bet a large chunk are not award of the opportunity that falls on who is promoting the tags they are leaving alot of money on the table for those species

 

[IdahoElk]

Hunters like this remind me of the wealthy that climb Everest for bragging rights but fail to acknowledge or thank the team of Sherpa's that carried him up the mountain and really made it possible.

 

[schmalzy]

Hunters like this remind me of the wealthy that climb Everest for bragging rights but fail to acknowledge or thank the team of Sherpa's that carried him up the mountain and really made it possible.

By all accounts everything I’ve heard is that he is super grateful and praises his team/guides/etc.

I personally not into the hiring of such a huge group of guys to hunt, but I don’t think he withholds praise and thanks.


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[Wyo_hntr]

We should all thank Jimmy Juan and all the guys that made this harvest possible, it's for the sheep, man.

 

[IdahoElk]

By all accounts everything I’ve heard is that he is super grateful and praises his team/guides/etc.

I personally not into the hiring of such a huge group of guys to hunt, but I don’t think he withholds praise and thanks.


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I don't know anything about the hunt, good for him, glad to hear that.