Montana Outfitter Fined $20K for Selling Trophy Ram’s Testicles 🍒

ven•a•tic: fond of or living by hunting

NORTH AMERICA’S MOST-READ OUTDOOR NEWSLETTER

I’m currently at the “it’s Thursday already?” phase of the workweek and am unsure as to whether or not that is a good thing as of yet.

With that in mind, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get this Thursday morning dispatch out the door.

Here's what's worth reading about today:

A “BALLSY” OPERATION
MONTANA OUTFITTER FINED $20K FOR SELLING TROPHY RAM’S TESTICLES INTO “FRANKENSHEEP” BREEDING SCHEME

While most of us tend to size bighorn rams by the curl of their horns, some men end up in federal court over being fixated on something located considerably further south. Such is the story surrounding 66-year-old John Edward Lewton of Belgrade, Montana who got himself embroiled in a testicular selling scheme that reached into the nether regions of an illegal oversized hybrid sheep breeding operation.

The origins of this ballsy tale date all the way back to a legal hunt that took place in October of 2019. It was then that, with help from Lewton as a guide, a client downed a trophy-sized ram on Bureau of Land Management ground in the Missouri River Breaks. Afterward, Lewton collected the animal’s testicles and sold them the next day to a man by the name of Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, who just so happened to run an alternative livestock facility near Vaughn, for a tidy sum of $400…

🕵️‍♀️ Standing Rock Officials Seek Tips in Poaching of Two Bull Elk Near Kenel, South Dakota. Officials with Standing Rock Game and Fish are seeking the public’s help identifying those responsible for the unlawful killing and waste of two bull elk near Kenel, South Dakota. Tribal Rangers were notified of the incident on November 1, 2026, according to a public service announcement from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The department is encouraging anyone with information to come forward, noting that tips can remain anonymous.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Ranger Garry Weasel at (701) 301-1315 or the Standing Rock Game and Fish Department at (701) 854-7236.

😵 Greater Yellowstone Grizzly Deaths Hit Record 81 in 2026, With Livestock Conflicts Leading the Toll. It’s been a deadly year for the Greater Yellowstone grizzly population according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. According to their data, Greater Yellowstone grizzly deaths have hit a modern record of 81 confirmed fatalities so far in 2026, surpassing the previous high of 75 in 2024.

With bears still active into November, the total could climb higher before denning. According to the report, livestock conflicts remain the leading cause (27 bears killed for attacking livestock), followed by cases still under investigation (16), other human-related deaths (10), natural causes (12, mostly killed by other bears), and vehicle strikes (10). A pair of drownings were also reported, including ongoing issues with the Heart Mountain Canal.

Wildlife advocates, including Humane World for Animals, argue the real number is substantially higher, citing studies that suggest that up to 80% of grizzly deaths go unreported, and point to poaching and hunter encounters (self-defense or mistaken identity) as major factors. Montana grizzly biologist Cecily Costello of Fish, Wildlife & Parks counters that the trend is largely a function of a larger, denser population in parts of the ecosystem; overall numbers remain stable at roughly 1,000 bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and managers already account for undocumented mortality when assessing population health. The debate continues over whether current numbers are sufficient for long-term viability and potential delisting from the Endangered Species Act, with advocates calling for more preventative measures such as range riders, electric fencing, and carcass removal to continue to help reduce conflicts.

🐻 Texas Proposes Tripling Alligator Season in Core Counties as Populations Rise and Harvests Decline. Texas officials are proposing to more than triple the alligator hunting season in the state’s 22 core Southeast Texas counties, expanding it from the current 20-day window of Sept. 10–30 to a new 61-day season running Sept. 1 through Oct. 31.

The proposal, discussed at yesterday’s Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting, would also allow nighttime hunting on private property and private waters and expand legal methods statewide to include snatch hooks for capture and bang sticks for dispatching alligators already caught on legal gear.

The changes respond to rising alligator populations supported by increasing nest counts, nighttime surveys, and more nuisance complaints, while annual wild harvests have cratered to between 2,000–3,000 animals, down sharply from more than 10,000 per year during the commercial market peak of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The proposal still requires a public comment period and final commission approval before taking effect.

🦅 There’s a lot more going on here than just an eagle trying to fly. As most of us are aware, eagles love to dine on fish, but in this case, this fella has a small mammal in his talons and is using the water to subdue his prey.

A partial drowning to make things a bit more digestible once on shore…

🐓 Free Range Kids…And Chickens: The era of the “free-range” kid peaked during the heyday of the Reagan Era. This nostalgic childhood designation encompassed those lads that would gather together and disappear into and beyond the neighborhood for hours on end. It was a time when permission to roam wasn’t asked, it was merely an announcement, “I’m going out! Be back later!” It was all parents needed. Mothers and fathers had no idea where their kids were going and what they were doing, and somehow that was fine.

I was one of those eighties kids that ran “wild.” It was a lifestyle born of innocence in a world without smartphones or GPS. We negotiated our own social rules and treated our enclave like a massive, live video game. Kids rode bikes across town, through “forbidden” shortcuts, and down unfamiliar streets without helmets. We disappeared into neighborhoods, yards, back alleys, parks, vacant lots, and woods. Read the full story.

🐕‍🦺 Earning the Meal:  Early in my quest to learn how to hunt what I cook, I realized there are as many ways to hunt food as there are to cook it.

This has been especially true for upland game birds. I’ve walked the bowl of the Guadalupe River with English setters and pointers and Brittany spaniels weaving in and out of bluestem grass, the red rows a swirl of dogs, their bodies embroidering the grass, until in the last iridescent trickles of afternoon light a chukar crossed my path in a diagonal leap skyward.

I’ve spent mornings in the English countryside with shots ringing out in the misty air, ancient double-barreled side-by-sides lined up in orderly fashion, waiting to see how the woodcock and pigeon fall. And there were the still, shimmering plains of Montana, running up and down the fingers of the hills, grass undulating under a sky that felt so low. Read the full story.

🐺 🐻 Wolf and the Bear: The rain had ended sometime in the early morning. Before the rain it had been freezing sleet around midnight. I had woken once to hear the icy droplets shattering on the roof of the cabin. The weather— caught between two minds during the prior days —had kept changing from sun and clouds, to rain, sleet, and snow. But it was May high in the mountains of northwest Canada, farther north than I had ever been before and they said this was par for the course. Despite the weather, the spring days were long, the sunlight here pushing well into what I would typically call night.

This meant we could hunt black bears until nearly 10pm. Read the full story.

Oh, and one more thing…