Wyoming’s 8-Year Poaching Sting Brings Down False Residency Scam 👮

Welcome to the Wednesday edition of the newsletter. If you’re still with us, that means you’ve made it to the middle of yet another week.

With that said, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey and get this mid-week dispatch out the door.

Here's what's worth reading about this morning:

IT ALL STARTED WITH A TIP
WYOMING’S 8-YEAR POACHING STING BRINGS DOWN OUTFITTER’S FALSE RESIDENCY SCAM

After an eight-year investigation that stretched across four states, Wyoming wildlife officials have brought down one of their state’s most audacious poaching and residency fraud operations. At its center was Sean Thomas, a Farson outfitter who, along with his family and a circle of out-of-state clients, spent years faking Wyoming residency to secure cheap hunting tags and illegally take elk, deer, pronghorn, black bears, and more.

The case ended quietly but firmly last month, when Sean Thomas received the final sentence in a Sweetwater County courtroom. In all, ten people were convicted, paying more than $30,000 in fines and $33,300 in restitution, while losing hunting privileges for a combined total of over half a century—including a 20-year ban for their fearless ringleader….

General Deer and Elk Hunting Season Opens Strong in Northwest Montana: Montana’s general deer and elk hunting season opened Oct. 25 with nearly 2,000 hunters stopping at mandatory check stations in northwest Montana over the weekend, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) officials.  Read the full story. 

Officers watch for evidence of poaching during prime Utah hunting season: According to officers with the Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of Law Enforcement, some hunters recently went onto private property in Southeastern Utah and shot a large buck, taking the head and best parts of the deer while leaving behind the rest to rot. Read the full story.

New law restricts drones in Kentucky hunting, fishing: As of Oct. 16, the new regulation, 301 KAR 3:140, makes it unlawful to use an aircraft or unmanned aircraft in the taking of fish or wildlife. Read the full story.

Routt County deputy fulfills lifelong dream with bighorn sheep hunt: When Caughey drew his once-in-a-lifetime archery bighorn sheep tag in spring 2025, it marked the culmination of decades of dreams and anticipation that began in childhood. He hunted blacktails on the California coast, mule deer and elk in the Rockies, sitka black tails on Kodiak Island and Coues deer in the deserts of Arizona. But this tag was different. Read the full story.

Third Wyoming hunt area in past month tests positive for CWD: Yesterday, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department confirmed that a hunter-harvested mule deer buck tested positive for CWD in Mule Deer Hunt Area 153 in the Pinedale Region, located in the western part of the state. Read the full story.

Pennsylvania hunters get more than 1,100 black bears, one hunter gets fourth with recurve: So far this fall, Pennsylvania hunters have harvested more than 1,100 black bears and one man has bagged his fourth bear in six years all using a primitive style bow. Read the full story.

🫎 When you’re an Alaskan fisherman, you make some odd friends. Watch as this young fella makes friends with the humans up on the Last Frontier.

I feel like this friendship will only last a year or two…

It’s easy. Copy your link below and send it to your friends. If they sign up, you get free stuff.

Now, do it. (Please).

Oh, and one more thing…