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

I'm glad there are people that have that kind of excess to pump into conservation and its smart of Utah to be able to take advantage of it. Congrats to him and whoever else was bidding with/against him. None of my business what his motivation is. Thanks for the contribution.

There are some people for whom 300000 dollars is like a cup of coffee that I buy at Dunkin Donuts. So Fish and Game auction a tag to raise revenue. It seems to me that we all don't like were prices are going for licenses and tags. Yet we want the Fish and Game folks to make sure we have plenty of game to shoot and fish to catch. It costs money to chase down poachers, and Stock trout in steams. What I find interesting is that in a very down economy, there are people that can pony up that kind of cash. To put 300000 in your pocket to spent you would have had to have a gross of at least 500000 K a year depending on where you live, and people who make that kind of money work in places were I would not want to live.

I've seen some pics of 40+" bucks on Antelope Island from a couple of years ago. My boss has some connections and was allowed to photograph there under strict guidelines. He has all the good gear and brought back some amazing pictures of truly HOG class bucks. He was there in the early fall and really struggled to get close to the big bucks. Contrary to what you might think, they are WILD and wary on there. It isn't a "fish in a barrel" hunt...and it will be a hunt. They won't let a pile of guides on there to "guide" the hunter. It is highly regulated. There are other critters hunted on there and the game doesn't like people. There isn't ONE person here that would turn down the tag if given to them, nor if they got it for a reasonable price. It is an amazing sanctuary and you will see more and more hunting on there. They have finally realized the money potential it can generate. Same with the land around Kennecott Copper Mine. They gave a tag to an employee last fall for the first time. They had a company drawing for it. If I remember right, it was a 38" 7x9 buck. Flinch

The most "difficult" aspect of this hunt will be picking out the deer you want to kill. If you compare the deer on the island to other bucks of the same age in heavily hunted areas your comparing apples to oranges



Not one? I'm not trying to be argumentative in any way, shape or form but an Antelope Island tag wouldn't interest me at all and I am absolutely addicted to big mule deer. Arizona Strip or Henries Mountain and I'd take as many tags as I could get



Employees of the mine have been given tags for over a decade now. They give employees more than one tag a year. No employee killed a buck this year like the one you described.

I have been thinking about this for a few days because I have been conflicted about it. If a guy up and gives 265,000 to the state of Utah for land conservation/game management we would call him a hero and name something in his honor. If he gets to hunt huge deer because of it we ridicule him or hate him. For me I have decided to say thank you and good luck - hope you kill a big one.

first of all the state parks people that run antelope island are A holes, they view the island as their SANCTUARY, which means don't bother them and most of all don't make them have to do any extra work.

a few years back they were going to open the island to hunting and the state parks people flipped out and got the media all whipped into a frenzy. for one thing the island isn't exactly small and I wouldn't say the hunting is going to be like shooting fish in a rain barrel. I am surprised the state is even allowing hunting there. The parks department is idiotic in their rules out there and will not even allow people to shed hunt out there. much of the island is closed to access its all a bunch of BS and frankly I think the state should just sell the darn thing. the state parks is run by a bunch of tree hugging a holes, as if there is any other type of tree hugger.

the other topic is the conservation tags give at the expo this is another joke. utah took 15% of its tags and gave them to the SFW mule deer foundation and a few other groups, this took the tags OUT of the draw. this was supposed to raise money for the wildlife, the only problem is the hunting continues to suck more and get worse every year, the once prestigious wasatch limited entry bull elk unit is a joke now compared to 7 or 8 years ago, and every year they just issue more tags. since the expo tags started being given out I have seen my hunting experience and satisfaction go down, not to mention all the people still in the draw that would have drawn and been on the waiting period.

You have to excuse flinch, he's consistently full of chit.

And cummins, the Wasatch produced some of its biggest bulls last year..

I've only ever read one post of his and I had that figured out