Pair accused of snaring Monterey deer, killing buck with knives and sticks 🔪

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 DIFFERENT TYPE OF NIGHT HUNTING
PAIR ACCUSED OF SNARING MONTEREY DEER, KILLING BUCK WITH KNIVES AND STICKS

In July, California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers spent two nights sitting on a patch of ground in the Monterey area looking to make good on a tip that someone was out there running snares on deer. In what is an, albeit quiet way to take deer, the method is unconventional to say the least. On their initial pass they found cable snares strung from a tree along with remnants of what the tipster had described including a blood trail, drag marks and evidence that a deer had already been killed and hauled out.

On the second night, officers hit the jackpot and managed to catch two people servicing the traps…

🐮 Wyoming Ranch Manager Accused of Rustling Cattle and Pocketing Elk Hunt Fees. A longtime Sublette County ranch manager is up against 10 felony theft counts after investigators say he rustled cattle and siphoned more than $300,000 from Twin Eagle Ranch, including cash from private elk hunts. Robert “Bob” James Griffith, 58, managed the nearly 15,000-acre Green River ranch from 2014 until October 2023. Authorities say 57 cows carrying the Seneca Industries brand ended up in his name with no bill of sale, and they traced grazing fees, gravel sales, equipment, and hunt payments to Griffith or his company, Dodge Butte LLC with no record of it ever showing up in ranch accounts.

A hunter told investigators he paid Griffith $5,500 in 2021 for a bull elk hunt on Twin Eagle, writing the check to “Bob Griffith” with “Elk Hunt” on the memo line. He came back the next year for a cow elk and paid another $1,500, that time to Dodge Butte. Those hunt payments, plus $21,000 for gravel, totaled $28,000 that never reached the ranch. Add roughly $241,000 in pasture fees and $31,580 from selling a ranch bale stacker and livestock stalls, and investigators put the traced take at a hair over $300,000. Griffith was arrested in mid-August, posted $50,000 bond, and now faces up to 10 years per count and up to 100 years behind bars if convicted on all 10.

🙅 Judge Denies Last-Minute Halt on Catalina Island Deer Removal. In what was a last-ditch effort to thwart the annihilation of Catalina Island’s mule deer population, an LA County judge has denied a request for a preliminary injunction that would have paused the planned removal of the roughly 2,000 deer. With presumably not a lot of tricks left up anyone else’s sleeves, this ruling now lets the Catalina Island Conservancy move ahead under a California Department of Fish and Wildlife permit while opponents keep pressing for a broader lawsuit.

The Conservancy maintains their position, saying the deer, which were introduced nearly a century ago as a game species, are over-browsing native plants and undermining the island’s ecosystem. Opponents, including a number of hunting groups and the Coalition to Save Catalina Island Deer, call the plan unnecessarily lethal and would rather non-lethal or managed-population alternatives considered first.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn has separately asked Gov. Gavin Newsom to intervene before animals are killed…but we all know how fast that fella works. The court found no irreparable harm in allowing work to start because the first phase is a pre-removal assessment, with the main eradication effort not scheduled until mid-2027. The challenging coalition said it will continue the case despite Tuesday’s setback.

🙏 21-Year Old Hiker Found Dead Near Granite Peak After Two-State Search. A 21-year-old from Connecticut was found dead Thursday near Montana’s Granite Peak, ending a nearly three-day search that pulled in rescue crews, aircraft, and military resources from both Montana and Wyoming. Jackson Gregory Slimak apparently fell in the steep, boulder-strewn terrain around the state’s highest summit. Searchers located him around 11:45 a.m.; authorities found no sign of foul play and called the death accidental.

The call came in the evening of Aug. 24 after Slimak was reported overdue in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, only about 10 miles north of the Wyoming line. Crews from five Montana counties plus Park and Big Horn counties in Wyoming joined the Montana Army National Guard, U.S. Air Force, and civilian helicopters. Wyoming rescuers even flew a helicopter-mounted device that hunts for cellphone and smartwatch signals over the summit, though it was other ground crews who found him.

🐻 Learning from the best. Watch as two cubs participate in the taking down of a moose calf in what looks to be the middle of an aggregate site.

📍 Eagle River, Alaska

🫏 Escaping Crocodiles and the Cannibal King: The single-engine plane sputtered as it fired up. Although it had been sitting for quite some time, everything looked in working order. There would be no radioing the tower and certainly no announcing their departure from Bangui. The man in the cockpit, Alfred von Ausberg, wore many hats: white hunter, tennis instructor, womanizer, socialite, and Austrian prince. Today he was wearing the hat of pilot in a daring escape for his life. Alfred floored it down the runway, then pointed his nose to the sky. As the two men felt the wheels raise from terra firma, they knew that they were all but home.

“We’ve got company!” alerted passenger Jens Hessel.

As Alfred looked back, he could see that they were being tailed by the entire Airforce of the Central African Empire. Fortunately, that only consisted of a single DC-3.

“Let’s shake him!” Alfred cried out before climbing into the clouds and losing their pursuers. Read the full story.

🕰️ Three O’Clock:  I’m staring at a drilling rig. I’ve never been so close to one let alone fished around one. It’s for natural gas and it’s impossible to ignore. I’m so intrigued by the massive machine on stilts in the middle of Mobile Bay, Alabama that I startle when Glassy hollers, “Three o’clock!” I haven’t had second breakfast yet so I know it’s not three o’ clock. It’s nowhere near noon let alone afternoon.

Glassy turns right and accelerates, his flats boat spraying the stilts with saltwater like dust billowing behind my truck on dirt roads back home. I’m from Idaho. Wild West runs rough through my blood, bones and brain. I suspect the South does the same with Glassy. His comforts of home come with more humidity and drawl than I’m used to, but his obsession with a local fishery is something l can relate to even when he doesn’t know what time it is.  Read the full story.

🎣 Monarch of the Zselics: The stag understood who he was. He stood next to a tree line in Hungary’s Zselic Mountains where his hinds could admire him and the smaller stags hidden in the forest would know they were trespassing. The stag’s head was crowned with heavy antlers that stretched out 18 points, all rubbed white from use. 

The stag was old and proud, wise and wary. Even from our small, wooden ground blind some 400 yards away, I could make out the gray rings around his eyes. His survival had been a considerable accomplishment, and a testament to Hungary’s excellent management of game and hunting areas. In this country, only mature, strong animals are hunted.  Read the full story.

Oh, and one more thing…