With the help of a helicopter, non-residents were able to poach a pair of nice Utah bulls 🚁

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

NORTH AMERICA’S MOST-READ OUTDOOR NEWSLETTER

As we continue to slowly but surely inch back towards the weekend, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get into what this beautiful Tuesday has to offer.

Here's what's worth reading about so far this week:

ANOTHER ROTOR-RELATED INCIDENT
NON-RESIDENTS CONVICTED AFTER FLYING HELICOPTER ONTO UTAH CWMU, ILLEGALLY KILLING TWO BULL ELK

In yet another story of jet-setting hunters finding their way aboard private choppers in search of sacred elk ground, a pair of out-of-staters are facing possible license suspension in Utah after authorities allege they landed in the wrong spot.

According to Utah DNR Law Enforcement, the two unnamed individuals flew into a remote patch of land in eastern Utah, skipped the locked gates everyone else has to live with, and killed two bull elk on land their tags did not cover…

😮 Pennsylvania Archer Takes Potential Record Bull on 40th Birthday Hunt. A Port Matilda man was fortunate enough, not only to draw one of only 15 Pennsylvania bull archery tags this year, but to then go ahead and put one on the ground. Celebrating his 40th birthday on September 15th, Michael Skvarla headed out on a guided hunt with Mike Conaway of Trophy Rack Lodge in search of bull worthy of one of his arrows. Under the guidance of Conaway, Skvarla passed on a couple decent-sized bulls before the massive 8×8 stepped out and offered him a perfect shot at about 42 yards. After letting the arrow fly from his crossbow, the bull hit the dirt about 100 yards away.

Conaway green-scored the rack at 428 inches and said that after the 60-day dry and deductions he expects a total score of about 394–395, which would top Christopher Sebulsky’s 381.1-inch typical archery record from 2021 (also a Conaway-guided hunt).

Bull tags in the state of Pennsylvania are once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and it looks like Skvarla made good on that label with this impressive specimen. Game Commission elk biologist Jeremy Banfield said it was the largest bull reported so far in the Sept. 12–27 archery season, with six of 15 archery bull hunters already tagged out. Official score is expected following the mandated drying period.

💰 UW Pegs Value of Wyoming’s Elk, Deer, and Antelope at Nearly $6 Billion. While that number still might be shy of the value of Jerry’s Cowboys, it dwarfs valuations of many other professional sports franchises. In looking to attach a dollar value to Wyoming’s “natural wealth”, University of Wyoming economist Jake Hochard’s research treats herds like assets that pay annual returns. Those returns (hunting, viewing, ecosystem services), when offset against costs like Game and Fish budgets and vehicle collisions, he says, value the state’s elk, mule deer and pronghorn in the neighborhood of $6 billion.

Split by species, that’s about $3.9 billion for elk, $1.2 billion for mule deer, and $916 million for pronghorn. He argues this is different from the usual “hunting spends X billion a year” studies, which count activity but skip the costs and the long-term value of the animals still on the ground.

Hochard says overall values have held up better than head counts, pointing to the fact that while mule deer numbers have dropped by more than half in a recent stretch, their estimated value fell only about 6 percent. The Jackson Elk Herd shrank 32 percent over roughly two decades, yet he says its assigned value rose 25 percent, from $104 million to $131 million. His staggering research is capturing attention nationwide and he is planning on introducing these valuations to a broad audience at the National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses conference in Oklahoma City later this year.

🙏 Woman Killed While Walking With Children After Hunter Fires From Ground Blind. A 74-year-old Maryland man has been charged with manslaughter after Delaware State Police say he shot and killed Santos Maria Chilel Soto, 39, of Georgetown, on the evening of Sept. 18 in an open field near Ellendale. According to police, Soto was walking with a man and two children when Moorhead let a round go from his scoped rifle at what he believed to be a deer. Soto suffered serious injuries from the gun shot and was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Moorhead stayed on scene while police recovered the rifle from the blind and took him into custody. In addition to the manslaughter charge, he is also facing possession of a firearm during a felony and three counts of first-degree reckless endangerment. He posted $43,000 cash bond. Court papers and later reporting say he was hunting under a crop-damage permit, as regular rifle deer season had not yet opened in Delaware. A preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 25.

🦭 Smooth criminal at Fisherman’s Wharf. This group just returned from an ‘unforgettable’ charter and just as they were ready for their grip and grins, a local bandit robbed one of them.

They had a great sense of humor about it…

Oh, and one more thing…