RickyAT
FNG
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2023
First of all, thank you to everybody who contributed to this thread constructively. Much appreciated! And a special thanks to Mojave for his assistance!
There is a pretty simple reason why I didn't start the thread myself. I signed up to the forum quite a while ago. But I got banned for spam without ever having posted. This is the message I kept receiving for the past few months: "Oops! We ran into some problems. You have been banned for the following reason: Spam. Please contact the administrator if this was done in error.."
Probably, this issue was related to my location in Europe. I did send 2 messages to rokslide, but that didn't change anything, so I gave up. Recently, I mentioned this to Mojave, and he got me unbanned just a few hours ago.
I won't respond to some hateful messages in detail. I am very grateful for the fact, that the US allow overseas nonresidents to hunt in your beautiful country. So the last thing I want is to fight with the local hunters. However, I do find it questionable that one person wrongly accused me of wanton waste (while I am doing the very opposite by caring for and donating the meat) and even wished me a traffic accident.
Anyhow, I would like to address some misunderstandings or incorrect presumptions and answer a few questions.
Why I am doing this? I have a great passion for DIY backcountry hunts. I am in pursuit of the adventure rather than anything else in hunting. While I do appreciate the trophy, trophy size is of secondary importance on this kind of hunts. It's about the adventure, the physical challenge, getting to know new countries, enjoying new landscapes, experiencing new game species, having a memorable time, and taking home a ton of pictures and a few (often small) trophies to remember these adventures by.
That is why I applied for the bighorn ewe and some tags that can be considered opportunity hunts requiring few points. I drew all Colorado and Wyoming hunts with 2 to 4 points, so I didn't aim for any high quality hunts. The Idaho moose was dumb luck, obviously.
I started planning this hunt in 2018, buying my first points and getting a US hunter ed certificate in 2019 and spending hundreds (probably thousands) of hours on research. So a lot of preparation and work went into this upcoming trip, and I am very grateful for how everything has turned out so far.
I have accomplished a decent number of similar hunts in New Zealand, Australia and Norway in previous years. Even though I got a few nice trophies on these hunts, most animals taken cannot be considered a trophy. Nevertheless, I am prouder of the tiniest nanny tahr or calf reindeer harvested in remote wilderness than I would be of the biggest trophy shot without any effort.
These DIY backcountry hunts on public lands come with an incredible amount of freedom. You might take this for granted, but I hope you consider yourself very lucky to have this opportunity. We have nothing like that in most European countries. This freedom also comes with some responsibilities, that I take very seriously, out of respect for the country and the local hunters. In the US, one of these responsibilities is using the meat, so I put a lot of effort into finding the ideal solution.
Why don't I take the meat back home? There is just no legal/practical way to bring meat into the EU, unfortunately. I will enjoy some meat while in the US, but I hate that I can't take the meat back home.
Why didn't I return any tags? Actually, I did surrender a Colorado bear tag as it would have been too much to handle timewise. I contemplated withdrawing my Wyoming antelope application (also discussed that with Mojave), but finally figured that it should work out. I never planned on taking any meat home (not legally possible), so was planning on donating it from the very beginning. However, I don't want to hold tags if I end up lacking the time to hunt them, while other hunters would definitely enjoy that hunt.
Why didn't I arrange meat donations earlier? I had some arrangements (including food banks and Mojave's family) that finally didn't seem to turn out ideal. I didn't arrange more details since I didn't know which tags I would draw. It doesn't make sense to arrange something in Wyoming and then not draw in Wyoming, for instance. There is plenty of time between the draw and the hunt, so no need to arrange everything before the draw.
I should also mention that food banks didn't seem to accept other meat than deer, elk, pronghorn and moose. And CPW was not allowed to share contact details of food banks, they said. So I was stuck with what I found through google. That was a less-than-ideal solution, so I was very happy when Morave offered help last year.
How much time have I set aside for this trip? A total of 61 days, including travel days and pre-season scouting.
I am happy to post a report after the trip. Have done the same in a New Zealand hunting forum after my first New Zealand trip.
There is a pretty simple reason why I didn't start the thread myself. I signed up to the forum quite a while ago. But I got banned for spam without ever having posted. This is the message I kept receiving for the past few months: "Oops! We ran into some problems. You have been banned for the following reason: Spam. Please contact the administrator if this was done in error.."
Probably, this issue was related to my location in Europe. I did send 2 messages to rokslide, but that didn't change anything, so I gave up. Recently, I mentioned this to Mojave, and he got me unbanned just a few hours ago.
I won't respond to some hateful messages in detail. I am very grateful for the fact, that the US allow overseas nonresidents to hunt in your beautiful country. So the last thing I want is to fight with the local hunters. However, I do find it questionable that one person wrongly accused me of wanton waste (while I am doing the very opposite by caring for and donating the meat) and even wished me a traffic accident.
Anyhow, I would like to address some misunderstandings or incorrect presumptions and answer a few questions.
Why I am doing this? I have a great passion for DIY backcountry hunts. I am in pursuit of the adventure rather than anything else in hunting. While I do appreciate the trophy, trophy size is of secondary importance on this kind of hunts. It's about the adventure, the physical challenge, getting to know new countries, enjoying new landscapes, experiencing new game species, having a memorable time, and taking home a ton of pictures and a few (often small) trophies to remember these adventures by.
That is why I applied for the bighorn ewe and some tags that can be considered opportunity hunts requiring few points. I drew all Colorado and Wyoming hunts with 2 to 4 points, so I didn't aim for any high quality hunts. The Idaho moose was dumb luck, obviously.
I started planning this hunt in 2018, buying my first points and getting a US hunter ed certificate in 2019 and spending hundreds (probably thousands) of hours on research. So a lot of preparation and work went into this upcoming trip, and I am very grateful for how everything has turned out so far.
I have accomplished a decent number of similar hunts in New Zealand, Australia and Norway in previous years. Even though I got a few nice trophies on these hunts, most animals taken cannot be considered a trophy. Nevertheless, I am prouder of the tiniest nanny tahr or calf reindeer harvested in remote wilderness than I would be of the biggest trophy shot without any effort.
These DIY backcountry hunts on public lands come with an incredible amount of freedom. You might take this for granted, but I hope you consider yourself very lucky to have this opportunity. We have nothing like that in most European countries. This freedom also comes with some responsibilities, that I take very seriously, out of respect for the country and the local hunters. In the US, one of these responsibilities is using the meat, so I put a lot of effort into finding the ideal solution.
Why don't I take the meat back home? There is just no legal/practical way to bring meat into the EU, unfortunately. I will enjoy some meat while in the US, but I hate that I can't take the meat back home.
Why didn't I return any tags? Actually, I did surrender a Colorado bear tag as it would have been too much to handle timewise. I contemplated withdrawing my Wyoming antelope application (also discussed that with Mojave), but finally figured that it should work out. I never planned on taking any meat home (not legally possible), so was planning on donating it from the very beginning. However, I don't want to hold tags if I end up lacking the time to hunt them, while other hunters would definitely enjoy that hunt.
Why didn't I arrange meat donations earlier? I had some arrangements (including food banks and Mojave's family) that finally didn't seem to turn out ideal. I didn't arrange more details since I didn't know which tags I would draw. It doesn't make sense to arrange something in Wyoming and then not draw in Wyoming, for instance. There is plenty of time between the draw and the hunt, so no need to arrange everything before the draw.
I should also mention that food banks didn't seem to accept other meat than deer, elk, pronghorn and moose. And CPW was not allowed to share contact details of food banks, they said. So I was stuck with what I found through google. That was a less-than-ideal solution, so I was very happy when Morave offered help last year.
How much time have I set aside for this trip? A total of 61 days, including travel days and pre-season scouting.
I am happy to post a report after the trip. Have done the same in a New Zealand hunting forum after my first New Zealand trip.
