This week is focused on Montana related news with a quick legislative update.
Multiple bills are attempting to redistribute funds that are supposed to go to Habitat Montana. Significant tax revenue from the legalization of marijuana was supposed to be directed to a fund in that is used to purchase high quality wildlife habitat and conservation easements but instead lawmakers are trying to redirect it to other projects.
A few bills related to easements have been stopped but it sounds like there will likely be continued attacks on conservation easements in the state so we’ve been cautioned to stay alert.
The Montana Wild Sheep Foundation held their annual fundraising event where they gave an update on the “State of the Sheep” where we heard updates on various sheep projects along with the current status of many herds.
Some encouraging new research is on the horizon as a significant amount of funding has been secured specifically for bighorn sheep research in Montana.
A presentation from Working Dogs for Conservation was extremely exciting and sheep advocates are optimistic that dogs will be able to smell diseased bighorn sheep which would expedite the sampling process and allow managers to make quick decisions.
For the Deeper Dive we get an update from Randy’s surgery and then we discuss shed antler hunting and how timing of antler hunting coincides with one of the most crucial times of the year for wintering wildlife and added stress can be significant to wildlife populations.
00:00 Intro
00:21 Montana Legislative Update
04:46 MT Wild Sheep Foundation – State of the Sheep
09:21 Deeper Dive – Shed Antler Hunting
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Great information gang! So that is why Randy hangs them up in the trees, that can be some strong medicine buddy. I love the conversation about shed hunting with Marcus having pronghorn antlers sticking up like he is wearing them! Love the fresh tracks weekly
My brother in law in Montana, buys a new gun or bow with his shed horn money every year. The amount of gas money and time away from his family doesn't seem worth it to me. His wife has feet problems and can't hike much and his son just isn't interested. It's sad when people get that obsessed over anything.
Idaho had the same issue of taking very expensive bighorn sheep and feeding them to cougars on a new mountain range. Now they intensively kill the lions before reintroduction allowing the sheep a chance to establish themselves before the predation becomes enough to wipe the new population out.
I’m so happy to hear someone talk about this finally.
Shed hunting makes me so indignantly angry. It makes zero sense. There are so many people in the woods during off seasons. Hikers, birders, mushroom hunters, hunters scouting before the season, and now shed “hunters”. I look at these people as lower on the food chain than hikers. Hikers at least stay on a path and ideally leave things how they find them. Mushroom hunters are actually bringing food back home. Shed hunting does nothing but negatively impact wildlife. It’s another group of people bumping deer from beds, keeping them from eating, keeping them moving and wasting calories. All for a meaningless trophy.
The 482 side of the breaks lost almost all it's ewe tags this year and 25% reduction in ram tags, I frequent the area and numbers have been reduced a ton hopefully they're getting the transplants from the north side in 680 before the fwp does more unnecessary damage.
Corey Jacobsen funds his hunting applications and travel costs with money made from shed hunting. I think demonetizing sheds will have a huge impact on the number of interested shed hunters
You know how some state deer regulations have an "earn a buck" rule requiring one to shoot a doe prior to killing a buck? Make shed hunting an earn a shed program. You have to kill a bear or wolf before you can take out antlers. Your completed checked predator tag would become your license to shed hunt.
I enjoyed the podcast . Nice change hearing about more of your background.
I don't think it should cost you to hunt sheds how much more rules do we need taking our rights a little by little colorado is becoming the same way
Thanx
When you take salmon out of Alaska it affects the ecosystem. Bears leaving salmon remains is essential. What is the impact of removing the needed minerals in sheds? Each action of humans has a reaction on our planet. I’m not opposed to shed hunting but the extreme humans take it to. I’m of the opinion of others in that it’s gotten out of control.
Good to hear the surgery was mostly successful. Take it easy and give those tendons and ligaments lots of time to heal. Don't get impatient. Good talk about sheds, those are an important form of calcium for the small critters that chew on them.
So a question comes up because of your conversation about social media people… are they being required to pay the permitting required that you guys pay for filming permits on public, where they are monetizing off of the video footage of them collecting antlers on public land. Second, what accounting is being done related to the income being derived from sales and trading of shed antlers, and the taxation of sales of a product collected off of public lands, a-la picking pine nuts, cutting firewood, rock-hounds and mining, etc? As a business owner, I have to have a business license and sales tax number, along with a federal tax license for any contractor or employee, or any transaction involving the purchase or sale of a commodity or good…and I am required to track those sales and there are excise taxes that go to help wildlife and agencies. What is being required of these "antler buyers" and antler collectors, and dog chew cottage businesses….
I have commented on the past pod cast and how quiet everyone besides Marcus and Randy were and how low energy it was. Absolutely loved this one lots of great participation and more up beat the whole conversation. Keep this up, what you all discuss is important to our community. Absolutely great podcast.
Good luck with your recovery Randy!
Since all of Randy's gang are hunters why are any of you pressuring the wildlife at vulnerable times? I think you can have influence here Randy.
Marcus!!!! You should probably move that speed goat behind you!!! It’s like bunny ears but better!! 🤣😂
When he said that making it illegal to shed hunt would only remove a small sliver of horn hunters. I beg to differ, most people I know, including myself these past few years only keep a small amount of sheds found, and sell the majority. If there was no money in it, people wouldn’t/couldn’t spend the gas money to get there in most cases. Of the many horn hunters I know, only a couple would continue to horn hunting if there was no money to made. And eventually most would stop because how can you even store all of them you find? That was pretty much the only reason I sold a couple years ago, I had no more room so I got rid of a bunch to make room for the new!
Thank you Marcus for the great information. Randy get well we have you in are prayers. God's Blessings to you all
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this talk and I admire greatly all of this group for being honest and brave enough to talk about the subject.
I have one more "thought" to throw in. And it is from many,many years of working in the forest on various timber jobs and like Randy,many, many years of being in the outdoors.
With that being said, the one thing I ALWAYS found exciting was finding a whole antler,untouched in the outdoors.
To clarify that, I'm talking about finding one that was not chewed on by any animals from the rodent/squirrel family.
So why am I mentioning this ? Just like you mentioned in your talk,shed hunting has graduated from a "wow,look what I found" while hunting into a huge amount of people out there every year.
I've been wanting to ask this question to my fellow hunters for a very long time ; What is the affect on rodent and squirrel population?
These sheds are a big source of their calcium intake.
My theory on Montana nonresident preference point system: The 25% of combination tags allotted to applicants with zero points encourages applicants to not purchase points. As the nonresidents who elect to hunt with an outfitter can buy two preference points a year, the current system pretty much guarantees clients of outfitters get a tag every year. I suspect this could be a work around for the old system that provided separate outfitter tags. This old system was discontinued with a state referendum by state voters seven or eight years ago. It feels like a work around by politicians to pander to the outfitting industry and ignore the wishes of the general public.
Glad to hear you are on the mind Randy. Since the last FTW episode, I managed to fall on the ice at work and tear my Rotator Cuff and awaiting surgery myself. So looks like we both will be "good" patients the next few months in order to heal faster and properly. Great topics and FYI Marcus (15:09) AZ is covered in snow right now… I wish AZ would follow the other state (sorry sheddies) and make a season so animals aren't harassed in the winter/early spring when resources are scarce. Truth be told, most people out there are selling a resource if you think about it, so make it a season like everything else. Can't wait for the next FTW and hear Michael's stories about his trip.