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2014 Alaska Moose

Hmmmm hit a little too close to home for you?

Not a lawyer but I do have lawyers in the family. Just a commercial fisherman who lived and hunted in Alaska for over 30 years.

I'm a member of the Alaska Outdoor forums in good standing and of good repute, under this same nic, and you're welcome to check it out. I've been hunting longer than most of you have been alive. 52nd season this year. Just because this was my first post here doesn't make me a newby.

I guarantee you my sentiments are shared by a good any Alaskan resident hunters.

As for Mr Shankster, I hope he does jail time and looses his Alaska hunting and guiding privileges for good. There are too many who operate like he does and worse. I'm certainly not an apologist for him
 
twodux said:
Hmmmm hit a little too close to home for you?

Not a lawyer but I do have lawyers in the family. Just a commercial fisherman who lived and hunted in Alaska for over 30 years.

I'm a member of the Alaska Outdoor forums in good standing and of good repute, under this same nic, and you're welcome to check it out. I've been hunting longer than most of you have been alive. 52nd season this year. Just because this was my first post here doesn't make me a newby.

I guarantee you my sentiments are shared by a good any Alaskan resident hunters.

As for Mr Shankster, I hope he does jail time and looses his Alaska hunting and guiding privileges for good. There are too many who operate like he does and worse. I'm certainly not an apologist for him
Click to expand...

Actually, I couldn't agree more with you in a lot of what you said. I think it happens all too often that guys are able to pawn off their meat to an outfitter/transporter with the out of sight out of mind mentality. Likely, it is very much abused, as I witnessed that abuse first hand on my trip. Outfitters and transporters should have accountability that the animals they take in have a paper trail on exactly where and what happened to all the meat. Moreso, any hunter making a trip and planning on harvesting an animal, should also have a plan for the meat. Where you have completely gone wrong on your assumptions, is that we (Harold and I) are the type of hunters who didn't have that plan. You couldn't be more wrong. We had a game plan from the start, a good plan, the only part of the plan that failed was using the guy we did. Plain and simple.

I just finished processing 430 lbs of prime wild game meat. My family of 6 depends on it. I had an opportunity to help my family in anchorage with this donation, which would have been a huge blessing for them.

So, although I agree with you on your point of view that all to often in AK, the abuse of meat waste runs rampid, I can tell you that Harold and I are two guys that won't even consider the waste of an animal in any part, in any way.

I'm sure your sentiments on the general abuse is shared by many Alaskans, and for good reason. It should be shared by any good sportsman, in any state. Your 52nd season of hunting doesn't make it any less of a jackass move to just make assumptions that you don't completely know about and try to shred credibility of good people.
 
twodux said:
Hmmmm hit a little too close to home for you?

Not a lawyer but I do have lawyers in the family. Just a commercial fisherman who lived and hunted in Alaska for over 30 years.

I'm a member of the Alaska Outdoor forums in good standing and of good repute, under this same nic, and you're welcome to check it out. I've been hunting longer than most of you have been alive. 52nd season this year. Just because this was my first post here doesn't make me a newby.

I guarantee you my sentiments are shared by a good any Alaskan resident hunters.

As for Mr Shankster, I hope he does jail time and looses his Alaska hunting and guiding privileges for good. There are too many who operate like he does and worse. I'm certainly not an apologist for him
Click to expand...

No not really, but after 47,000+ views I am so glad you are here to get everyone straight...
 
matt meat.jpg

I don't think these pictures represent someone who is trying to avoid the salvaging of meat. Harold also being a guide for a top tier outfitter wouldn't dare risk his nor his employers reputation by not doing that which is right and lawful either in My opinion.
 
AK Wildlife Troopers

AK14075385

Location: McGrath
Type: Unlawful Acts Guide
Dispatch Text:

On 12/23/15, the Office of Special Prosecutions, Fish and Game Unit, Charged Master Guide Thomas G. Shankster, 60 of Aurora CO, with eight counts of Unlawful Acts while acting as a Big Game guide in Game Management Unit (GMU) 19. This investigation began during the fall of 2014, where the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, McGrath Post, accomplished an investigation regarding Shankster and his guiding business “Alaska Trophy Hunts” (ATH) which is primarily based near the Mouth of the Dillinger River and substantiated that Shankster had committed the crime of Wanton Waste on at least five occasions (both Moose and Caribou), failed to report two known violations by his assistant guides (sub-legal sheep and antlers before meat), and committed Unsworn Falsification on at least one Hunt Record showing that meat had been salvaged when in fact it hadn’t. Spoiled meat samples were collected from three caribou and three moose and three sets of caribou antlers, three sets of moose antlers, and a sub legal set of sheep horns were seized as part of the investigation. The scope of this investigation was substantial, requiring extensive asset usage, including both fixed-wing and helicopter, and involved intensive man-power (nearly 1,000 hours) from nine Alaska Wildlife Troopers. At least 41 separate witness and/or suspect interviews were conducted for the investigation in addition to essential evidentiary compilation and a lengthy report documenting the illegal acts. Shankster is to be arraigned in the Aniak District Court on January 20, 2016.

Mike
 
Guess we won't be hearing from him or his guide anymore on this thread.Unreal to risk your livelihood over being lazy it seems.I've been on 2 fly out hunts and pilots have a book of excuses it seems.I had a little trouble on my trip this year for moose as well and it was all due to transporter and his guides at the town camp and not prepping my meat properly for flight out to fairbanks.They didn't wrap it very well and as dripping some blood so airline wouldn't fly it till they repacked it.This took 3 extra days due to laziness and cost me alot of spoiled meat.
 
twodux said:
Hmmmm hit a little too close to home for you?

Not a lawyer but I do have lawyers in the family. Just a commercial fisherman who lived and hunted in Alaska for over 30 years.

I'm a member of the Alaska Outdoor forums in good standing and of good repute, under this same nic, and you're welcome to check it out. I've been hunting longer than most of you have been alive. 52nd season this year. Just because this was my first post here doesn't make me a newby.

I guarantee you my sentiments are shared by a good any Alaskan resident hunters.

As for Mr Shankster, I hope he does jail time and looses his Alaska hunting and guiding privileges for good. There are too many who operate like he does and worse. I'm certainly not an apologist for him
Click to expand...

Not to pick on you Twodux, but a lot of people leave the Alaska Outdoors Forum because of all of the second guessing that goes on there. If you had more time and had read this thread more carefully, some of your questions would have been answered without Critter having to respond directly.

And it gets a little old hearing about the indignation of the Alaska resident hunters over the practices of non-resident hunters. Those aren't non-residents who are acting like yahoos during the Denali Highway subsistence and Tier hunts. I have family in Alaska, and I'm pretty sure I take better care of my game meat than any of them.

48 years in the field, not as many as you but a passel nonetheless. May you enjoy the next 20 years even more than the first 50-some.

Michael
 
thecrittergitter said:
If you got that feeling from watching the show, you should see what its like actually there. They took hundreds of hours of footage to cut to 22 minutes...........guaranteed you barely caught the tip of the iceberg;)

I must not get the channel, I keep missing the show. I actually helped build that cabin, not to help Tom, but to help one of his hired hands that was struggling by himself.
Click to expand...
We just got that series in the UK, i don't think you should watch it, if your blood pressure is ok now i doubt it would after listening to how the narrator describes Mr Shankster!
Cheers
Richard
 
Tom Shankster was to be arraigned Jan 2016 (post #265 of this thread). Does anyone know what has happened to this outfitter?
 
Been postponed a number of times. The way this state is currently being managed, I would bet he gets off. The judge will probaby just toss it due to lack of time and funds to spend on a trial. Fenoly (class C) charges here are now a probation offence.

Recently an open and shut case was tossed for this reason. A NR was caught hunting sheep as a resident, falsifying records, applying and receiving resident tags etc. Apparently a large doner to WSF, ironically. Not that it matters. The judge tossed it because it was a "wildlife" crime and not worth spending the money/time on.

The investigating Trooper was not happy.
 
Unfortunately, that pattern is not unique to Alaska. Wyoming is consistently one of the few states that does justice to wildlife violations.
 
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