Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting high fence freak shot in Idaho

So this dude just dropped well over $100K? I'd like to think that if I had that kind of money to blow I'd do something more memorable.

Makes two of us

Make that 3.

Ironically (well, maybe ironically), those captive deer came from game farms in Minnesota and Saskatchewan. This occurred in the early 60’s. To this day they have never determined if the deer arrived with the prions present in them or if they contracted it from wild deer on the other side of the fence. The facility bordered public and private ground that is still open space where both muleys and white tails are present.

A small herd of bighorns that were also at the facility at the time ended up with CWD.

The post grad student who was studying the deer at the time eventually identified the disease and the prions present in the deer. The existence of prions and their connection to CWD and all forms of TSE’s were only discovered in the early 60’s.

At the time it was a big deal for the post grad student to discover the presence of prions in wild ungulantes (in this case captive deer) because nobody understood what the disease was when it had been encountered in the wild previously. Only later it was understood to be what has become to be known as CWD.

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It may still happen. It is speculated (emphasis on speculation) by biologists that TSE's in the wild tends to run in cycles. It is also speculated that warmer weather/climate may enhance the transmission of the disease from one individual to another. There is evidence that ungulates crowded onto ever smaller winter range is making the disease more prevalent.

I’ll take the experience, memories, and overall charm of my small freak elk over that one any day. Fair chase…so fair in fact…my guide and I waded across the Williams Fork River(8” deeper than my boots at the time)to get a shot opportunity at him. Got a nice cow about 20 minutes later just before dark that day as well. Not a record freak elk…but damn sure a trophy to me, and I smile every time I look at the antlers on the wall. If that’s what that fella feels, then good deal for him. 😎

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The easy answer is critters behind a 6ft fence, ostensibly elk proof (or any other game critter proof).

In the case of Rulon Jones and most other of these kind of operations, those elk are raised in pastures--might be 10 acres, might be a 100 acres--fed lots of high nutrition diets, then released into larger enclosures--might be a few hundred acres, might be 1500 acres--a few days before the "hunters" show up. Those elk are the proverbial "Babes In The Woods" when it comes to survival. A few may be wily enough to give a guy a short run for his money, but the learning curve is exceedingly short......

There are varying degrees of that scenario, and yes, there are the large Texas game farms where exotic critters are inside of 10,000 acre enclosures and roam freely year round, and even though those critters can give a guy a challenge I still consider that unethical to some degree.

A guy's first clue he is entering a game farm or Jurassic Park is when he passes through the 6 foot high gate--electrified or not.....

Gotcha. I knew those elk on Rulon Jones's place and many other similar operations are pen raised and then released into a fenced area, whether the day before the hunt or months beforehand. No desire here regardless, under any of those circumstances.

I have changed my tune considering high fence areas somewhat though as one of the most difficult animals I have ever hunted was fallow deer in Argentina behind a fence that was several thousand acres and had several areas where pigs and whatnot had dug holes under it. Those critters came and went as they pleased and as far as I knew, the fallow there were free breeding. I didn't see a deer for 4-5 days and finally got a young buck that was as skittish as any whitetail I have hunted. There are plenty of wild deer or islands in SE AK that are smaller than those enclosures and while deer do swim, they often don't leave whatever island they're on even if hunted.

By contrast about the easiest hunt I have ever been on was caribou 100 miles from any road. That was like shooting cattle that were being driven. Assuming you got in front of where they wanted to go there was zero challenge to it. Same with musk ox in Greenland. I wouldn't doubt the bull in the OP was more of a challenge than those hairy beasts were, other than the travel and weather extremes.

It is all perspective, I guess.

There's another theory that scrapie, which was being studied at the same CSU facility prior to the deer study, was able to cross the species barrier.

This operation is just down the road. Not for me. No respect for those who do it but like others say it’s legal so whatever floats your boat. Not a hell of a lot of difference than shooting a Texas whitetail at a feeder

That isn't hunting. That's paying for an assassination. The shooter" is a POS with $.

He is just a different version of Roundoak.

i guess i will pose this. how big of an area does it require to be fair chase? a 10,000 Acre fenced in area would be unfathomable to truly understand to a guy who has spent all his life hunting the same 100 acres

They weren't studying scrapie because it wasn't specifically known at that time. Scrapie is another form of TSE specific to sheep. CWD is a form of TSE specific to cervids. BSE is a form of TSE specific to bovines. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is a form of TSE specific to humans. And so on. The general name for these diseases are known as TSE's--Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (I dare ya to pronounce it quickly). The prion that causes TSE was not discovered until shortly before the deer at CSU arrived. And it was more than a year after they arrived the deer became obviously sick. Prions can be present in a critter or human for years before the disease becomes apparent.

It has been only more recently discovered Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease was prevalent in the Russian Czar family possibly going back 500 years. We just thought they were crazy.......

T Inman,
I know, as I said the line can get blurrier and blurrier. I think what bothers me the most about Rulon Jones that it is not clearly stated the circumstances of the hunt, many people from back east are not aware it is high fence--our very own Pugs and Jorge for example. There was a new member here a couple years ago from back east who breathlessly announced his wife had purchased a hunt on Broadmouth. He clearly did not understand it was a high fence hunt.

Whoever wrote the info on the Broadmouth literature and website is really, really good at being deceptive without being legally deceptive.

Understood, and agree for the most part.

I do not remember that new member talking about it but Pugs and his crew made it clear they knew what they were doing and never tried to hide it or be deceitful. If I remember right it was in the very first sentence of that thread.

I may have not remembered it all correctly, but I do recall teasing Jorge about it.....

The public sees that kind of hunting and equates it with fair chase sport hunting, to me that's the danger.

Caveat emptor.

If you find a purposefully vague website, charging mid-five-figures on private ground, and a guaranteed animal, that's a livestock business. I can't quite imagine the person who wouldn't understand that, unless they chose to be intentionally oblivious, or they inherited all that cash. Technically, it fits a definition of hunting. It's also commerce.

I understand guys who pay for land use, or who pay for guide services. But paying for an animal is buying livestock.

I'm glad I brought up CWD, quite the discussion!

The day you find me hunting an animal in an enclosure is well.............never, the entire concept is sick to me, and the ramifications to wild animals has been devastating.

That's what you get for designing a Frankenstein Elk for some rich dude to shoot and playing with nature, CWD, just like us humans custom designed Covid.

Leave nature alone, Let God design the genetics, he does a way better job!