Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting $265,000.00 Utah Deer Tag

While I myself would never pay that much for any hunt, I'm glad some people are willing to shell out that kind of money. People who pay big $$$ for those tags probably keep my tag costs down.

It is hard to imagine our hunting opportunities will be any cheaper, in both effort and dollars, in the future.

This especially applies to any form of �Trophy Hunting�. Just the way it is and the way it has always been. Limited resource and increasing demand.

I wouldnt say its always been like that....this buck was killed by my dad back in the early 60's. The rack layed on top of our garage outside for many years. When I was in junior high, I grabbed it and got it restored somewhat and eventually got it mounted.This buck would easily qualify for B&C even afetr being in the elements for a long time. Not too many people payed much attention to big stuff back then like they do now. I tried to give this buck back to dad after I got it mounted and he wasnt interested. He said in his younger days that he shot lots of buck like this and many he said were bigger...much bigger.

A guy I know got a a UT Conservation Expo tag for a bighorn sheep tag; it cost him $5 to enter. The same tag sold at lottery for $58k. I wonder who will enjoy their hunt more?

Utah708

How would we measure who enjoyed their more? I hope both guys have a great hunt.

Pat,

My point was trophies in the future are going to cost more than they have in the past, in both sweat and treasure.

In the 60s very few guys had any idea about how the Boone and Crockett scoring system worked but now days a good percentage of hunter understand how deep forks on mulies affect score and how important the 3rds are on a big bull.

I think you dad�s deer is a great example of how hunters have changed over the years, to him it is just another buck but to me it could be the buck of a lifetime, and the trend is big trophies are much more in demand now than in the past.

I think it is safe to say big trophies will be more in demand in the future.

It boggles my mind that how deep the forks are on a buck matters so much to people, but I guess the world is full of people keeping score of everything from pedicures to the car one drives to the size of their peckers.

Not a shot at you or anyone here, John. Just an observation on humanity.

I sure hope that "trophyism" doesn't permeate the sport any deeper than it has already. It's poisonous IMHO.

Guess my bid of $265,001.00 never made it there in the mail...

darn it!!!

Jeff,

�Trophyism� only is a problem if you also want big trophies and wish there was less competition.

In my opinion a lot of hunting opportunities open up for guys who really just want to hunt and don�t care about horns. Getting access to hunt doe deer or antelope or even cow elk is pretty easy around here but if you want a big set of horns to go with your meat things change pretty quickly.

Seems like a lot of guys want to get the big horns but then complain because the increased demand they are a part of makes the cost go sky high.

If you really don�t care about trophies then I think the hunting is great and only going to get better and maybe cheaper.

If you want that big mulie (and you have said you are going to use some points for a good tag) then accept the fact quite a few other guys want it to and there is going to be some competition, of which you are a part, and most likely it will increase in the future.

I remember when I got back home from Idaho after killing my first B&C mule deer and drove over to dad's to let him have a look....the first thing he said "Geez, you drove all the way to Idaho just to hunt mule deer?" I handed him the antlers and all he could ask was how much meat I got off him....laffin! A 218" buck didnt mean as much to him as how he was going to "eat". It was a different era...

Your dad sounds like a man after my own heart. How many tender vittles will this critter make

I've not problems with single tags being sold.... it does the state agencies a world of good monetary wise to be able to do more good... but I sure hope somewhere in there its limited to one tag for each species per year basically.

I like our state option better though... a grand tag so to speak, and its done by lottery tickets basically... for a few bucks anyone can have a shot at a 300K tag so to speak.... though I'm sure the lottery doesn't bring in as much.

As to whether its hunting or not, thats off topic and a can of worms... as long as its legal and you can sleep with yourself at night, I could care less....thats actually what ethics are.... your call at whats fair or not...as long as its legal.

And I thought the $85,000.00 winning bid for a Desert Bighorn Tag here was crazy high a couple of years back. Sounds like a bargin now, since I've shot a nice Mulie and haven't ever shot a Desert Bighorn.

I dont care how much $$ a person has.
Thats STUPID.

Plus ONE.. as the old saying goes.. a fool and his money are quickly parted....

If you didn't have a wife you could probably afford a $265,000 tag

Really? They were all in bidding processes, where at least two people bid for them. Eventually one person won each one, over howevermany else were bidding. It was a fair competetion amongst adults, in other words. Don't suspect that puts it in anyone else's business...

There are plenty of other tags at Mule Deer Foundation, Elk Foundation, and others that you can pay a (very) small price to enter the drawings. Friend of mine got one that way this time -- a grand event coming up this fall.

This has been going on for 20 or 30 years...it's nothing new. At the first RMEF national meeting I went to, in 1991, I watched a fellow who owned a string of magazines buy an elk hunt in AZ for over $300,000. That was a long time ago... .

Dennis

Sho' are some jealous dudes around the fire. That's a lotta bucks that will go a long ways to improving hunting for us poor folks.

Jeff: Then why on earth would you bother with that special unit mule deer tag? There are a million places in the west that you can go and easily knock off a forkhorn...I'd back off and let someone pull the tag who will appreciated it.Just trying to understand the contradiction.

Yep, I don't understand the frustration here...or should I say jealously. If a guy can afford that kind of $hit than more power to him. If I could afford it, I would do it DIY, but that's just me.

There is an almost an unlimited demand for some of the most coveted mulie tags in ID and MT (among other states), but truth be told, if it was just a drop in YOUR bucket, I'll bet that most everyone here would pay to do it at least once. Maybe not the whole 20 guys watching it all summer thing, but the hunt itself, which might be what the bidder has in mind. Who knows till it happens...

I'm thinkin a fella who can afford to cut a quarter million dollar check for 'recreation' is probably not too big a fool. Likely all but the actual cost of the deer tag itself will be deductable, non-profit donations. It's not a hunt/shoot I'd enjoy much, but I won't condemn someone else who might.



At least the money is staying in the wildlife management end of things, hopefully.

Maybe Utah will drop their non-resident elk tag a few bucks now..............bwaaahaaaahaaaahaaaa