NOT a World Record Elk

[FirstFreedom]

This has been making the rounds:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/hunting/bigelk.asp

Snopes says it was shot with bow last month in Selway-Bitteroot, but that it doesn't qualify for B&C because it was raised in a high fenced area in Quebec - so WTH? It was raised in Quebec and then transported & *released* in Idaho? Doesn't make any sense - anyone know the fully story? Do peeps actually release "farm-raised" animals into the wild? If so, how do they keep track which is which?

P.S. What a bruiser!

P.P.S. Sidebar - doesn't deserve it's own thread, but what I learned this weekend:

-raingear, schmaingear, you're gonna get wet in an all-day soaking rain.
-but deer DO move around a lot in the rain
-USE LOCTITE on your broadhead inserts - after walking around awhile, looked down, all I had was a blunt tip - well actually an "inny" tip - might have killed a field mouse.

[mete]

They raise them in a fenced area and breed them genetically and nutritionally optimum so they get record sized. They're pretty tame so it's hardly a real hunt !! They spend lots of money to "hunt" a tame animal then brag about their huge trophy ! And they have the balls to call themselves hunters .:mad:

[FirstFreedom]

oops.

[springmom]

That's an obscenity. I'm glad B&C disallowed it. Maybe when enough of these "hunters" have spent $20,000+ for hunt and then lose the right to records, there will be pressure on these "high fence" breed lots to stop.

I can't imagine how that poor animal held its head up. 79" across???

Springmom

[rem33]

I didn't read the story but you cannot release elk here in Idaho. Permits can be had to raise elk but not to turn lose much less from another state or country. Pen raised elk got lose a few weeks ago in the eastern part of the state. I didn't read all the particulars but guys were out hunting them with state permission. Fish and game wanted them killed. It has to do with genetics and deceases they don't want wild elk exposed to also I think.

Ok read it and I don't believe that is a true story, but I am no expert. Just seriously doubt it is true.
I agree it isn't hunting at all and should be outlawed.

[Rangefinder]

Yah, something smells--and I know it's nothing I stepped in. Some of the biggest bulls I've ever seen taken were over in the Gardener area of Montana (just north of Yellowstone Park). Several of those were record bulls, and nowhere NEAR that size. Not sure about the "import from Quebec" part, but it's just a bit too big for a Montana native elk. Not that it couldn't happen naturally, but there's no way they took that bull naturally from the area mentioned in the article. Those two guys need a size-12 enima--and so does whoever sold 'em that bull to "hunt".

[woodeckt]

Agree that is just obscene. That is not hunting any more than if you were to fish in a aquarium.

[Jack O'Conner]

I've hunted exotics on ranches with high fences. Purpose is to keep predators out and the animals inside. The larger ranches offer a great hunting experiance. The small places offer anything but genuine hunting. These small places give the whole hunting industry a bad name. This is unfair to the large outfits.
Jack

[biglabsrule]

I think it was a couple years back that some deer got out of captivity and were later found to have the cronik wasting disease... now you have to take a sample of brain to a station if you hunt in that area, so far they think the ones that got out didnt have it.

P.S.~ thats one hell of a rack, kinda scarry to have face that thing down, I think I'd hunt them at a distance or in a stand..

[ZeroJunk]

If they did actually release the Elk into a wilderness area the wildlife authority having jurisdiction would lock them up.More likely they shot him as soon as the trailer got out of the photo.