What Did The Auction Tags Go For?
January 25th, 2007 David King - King's Outdoor World
Last Saturday night at the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo, there was a special banquet program. During this banquet there were some great presentations and speeches (some a little too long). I really enjoyed Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the NRA and his keynote speech showcasing some notes and video clips from his recent debate against the head of PETA from the UK.
But the main draw to this banquet was the auction. I thought I would give a rundown of what each auction tag went for at this banquet. Let’s just say that this was not an auction that you wanted to accidentally raise your hand to swat a fly away.
Utah statewide elk: $100,000 (I seemed to sense that they were hoping for a little more than this)
Utah statewide Rocky Mountain Bighorn: $75,000
Utah statewide Desert Bighorn: $80,000
Pahvant elk permit (Utah): $50,000
San Juan elk permit (Utah): $40,000
Kluane First Nation Dall Sheep permit: $170,000
Utah mule deer permit: $137,000
Utah Governors Mountain Goat permit: $30,000
Arizona’s Governor’s mule deer permit: $100,000
Utah Henry Mountain mule deer permit: $67,500
Entry Filed under: News and Stuff
12 Comments Add your own
1. NATHAN | January 25th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Prime tags going to the highest bidder, now that’s what hunting is all about
. I hate to read stories about people hunting with their wallets, whether it be someone paying a huge price to shoot a monster penned up bull elk, or much desired tags going up for auction. Unfortunately like everything else in this world our sport is begining to boil down to one thing, the all mighty $$$. It sometimes makes it very difficult and frustrating for the average hunter to harvest decent trophy animals because a large amount of prime hunting areas are reserved for people with 7 figures in their check book. I am still very young, have only been a hunter for about 15 years now, but have seen many changes in our sport and fear that it may not be around for another 15 years for the common man. Hunting was once a sport of kings and it seems to be returning to that. Just my 2 cents though.
2. Stephen | January 25th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
It is becoming the same way in the area that I hunt. There is a lot of land that is least or that the out of state rich have bought, and will not let anyone else hunt. They dont understand that if they would let msome of us local hunters hunt on there land that they would have more acess to better hunting. Some of us still have land to hunt that the land owenes let us hunt that is very good hunting ground.
3. Alex | January 26th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Keep in mind Nathan, that this money will be put to good use by these states. I agree with you to a certain degree, but this is an annual event to raise money, and it looks like it worked very well. No you and I will probably never be able to buy one of these, but we will benfit from the dollars these guys spent. You have to find the good in everything and remain positive.
4. Tracy Watt | January 29th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Don’t forget the 200 tags that people only had to pay $5 to get a chance to win! I’m glad these groups, while raising tons of $$ for conservation from those who can afford it, aren’t forgetting about the average joes who just love to hunt.
5. Ron Dodson | February 2nd, 2007 at 12:44 am
I sure hate to beleive it, but I do beleive it is defenity heading in the direction of the dollar. I dream of taking a great hunt. But then I am getting older and now live on an ssi check and so those dreams are slipping ou the window. I don’t look for all this raffle to make many changes for the general public.Throwing money at problems never seems to solve them.Unless we get dedicated wildlife peole who don’t care about the money,but problems thing won’t get any better. There is plenty of money avalible if people in power cared. The sfw is about the only group who have got it right, they go after the politicians. If I were younger and they were in my state i’d join. Oh well at least I got to hunt back in the day.
6. Kaid | February 2nd, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Ya i agree with nathan hunting is getting to depend alot more on money and the common man is having to spend alot more money to get a decent tag
7. Cade' | February 13th, 2007 at 11:52 am
thats all it is,its the rich mans sport you got money you got a tag you dont got money you have a slim chance of drawing heck my first two years huntin i didnt even draw its all about the money in Utah
8. Russ Long | February 14th, 2007 at 2:42 am
It’s a shame that the sport of hunting has become a rich mans sport.
9. d muley | February 16th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
utah needs to quit catering to the rich man and start listening to the regular hunter. this governers tag stuff is getting out of control in this state every conservation organization that wants one gets one to auction off at their banquet there needs to be two statewide tags period.(the sportsmans tag and the governors tag)
10. jake | February 19th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
ya thats to bad that the sport is getting to be rich man sport, here in idaho the waterfowl is ridicolous to hunt so many clubs and such, and a lot of rich outfitters are comeing and buying land in really good deer hunting places and then closeing it off to the public here pretty soon its going to be hard to hunt anywhere its to bad
11. Kevin C. Paulson | March 13th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Over 210 tags were donated and raffled and auctioned to hunters from all walks of life. The money raised in this particular auction goes directly to habitat and wildlife conservation. I applaud the men who bought these tags and the rest of the tags sold at auction in the past several months. The realities of the world we live in is that we need habitat and wildlife conservation to continue to have great places to go hunt, or all of the great land to hunt on will get bought, developed, closed off to the public or locked away!
Upset that this is a rich mans game, then go out and do something about it by joining one of the many conservation organizations or start your own. Join a committee and raise some money to buy land and open it up to all hunters and apply for hunts and maybe you can get lucky.
I hear hunters all the time saying that they wish they could go elk hunting or moose hunting or whatever. Well life is going to pass you by quick, so you better get out there and do something NOW!
Kevin
12. public auction | July 9th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
I am not upset at the the fact this is an elite sport, but dont you think that it kind of takes the sport out of it?
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