PreHunt has made it's debut on Social Media

LopeHunter said:

The blowback on the deer location service was the person at the time was not licensed for commercial activity to provide services for compensation in that state and was not obtaining permits required to conduct commercial activity on Federal land. Get the paperwork in order, pay your taxes and I have no heartburn over bounty scouters anymore than do for guides or outfitters or application services or unit recaps or maps with prior year harvests or trespass fees or equipment rental companies or trail cams or ATVs. All those things make it more likely to obtain a tag or once a tag is in hand to have a successful outcome of the hunter's goal. Some of us like the added challenge of one hunter solo entering into the wilderness carrying camp on our back. Other hunters would not hunt if that was their only option. I am not sure how fair chase is impacted by this. I am not sure how tag allocation equity is impacted. I am not sure how the NA game management model is impacted.

Different strokes for different folks.

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The problem with this is the non hunting crowd will view it in a negative light. And when hunting is viewed negatively by non hunters who can and will decide what and when the hunting public can do, then we all lose and the North American big game model is affected severely. It's not good for the image of hunting and could affect tag allocation if rut hunts are shut down due to this or any number of potential outcomes that could chip away at the edges of hunting opportunities.

How is this different from guiding and outfitting?

375H&H said:

Isn't the best part of hunting actually being outside and finding things on your own or with friends? If the trends continue people will be paying for animal locations, driving no closer than 1 mile to shoot from their truck, and having the team america chopper come in and take the carcass directly to the processor via a large net. Paper maps, open sights, and hard work are sounding pretty good right now...

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To many people the "hunting" part doesn't matter anymore. Only the pulling of the trigger.

wyoboypt said:

How is this different from guiding and outfitting?

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It depends on the angle you're looking at it from.

To some, its not different, and therefore these people need to be licensed just the same.

Others feel that since you're not physically walking with someone, you aren't truly guiding them.

I wonder if these come in 10-1/2?

This "service" pretty much sums up a problem I have been dealing with over the past several years. IMO there are two things that can ruin hunting or at least put the hunting community in a bad light. EGO and Money.
Ego may drive an individual to do everything right. Wake up earlier, go farther, stay longer, train, practice, SCOUT, read, study, learn, share, set goals, and possibly accept defeat. On the other hand I've seen otherwise honest people lie, cheat, steal and break the law to fulfill their ego with the glory pic to post on Facebook, Intagram or even a TV show.
Now Money, another quandary. I think most can agree a hard working outfitter, guide, or land owner should be rightfully compensated. Then you have businesses built on selling individual animals to highest bidders, hiring "crews" of guys to keep other hunters away, or generally ripping off hunters with only profit in mind. Governor tags to highest bidder?
Then the grey area like where to draw the line with technology. I love OnXmaps but say for example they started selling very specific info like up to the minute herd locations or live streaming trail cams.
This company is an easy one for me to disapprove, I only wish they were all this black and white.

I know that the Muley Fanatic Foundation is working with lawmakers and outfitters on legislation to ban this practice in Wyoming...

http://blog.eastmans.com/sell-soul-buck/

Sell Your Soul For A Buck???
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Posted September 4, 2017 by Schuyler Watt in General

A new bill proposed may make it illegal to sell the coordinates of an animal that you locate during the hunting season. A bill recently passed out of the Wyoming House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee would ban just that. Jim Allen, State Representative for District #33, chairs the committee.

Allen, who works as an outfitter and rancher, was quoted by KCWY 13 saying, “We thought by our vote that it was an unfair advantage given to some hunters and not others, and so we’ll see what the bill does when it gets to the budget session in February, but right now we passed the bill out of committee that prohibits that practice.”

The draft bill includes language that reads, “No person shall provide to a hunter for remuneration the location information of any previously scouted big or trophy game animal for the purpose of aiding the hunter in the taking of the big or trophy game animal.”

The bill defines “location information” as either GPS coordinates or a map, drawing, illustration, or another document which shows the animal’s location.
The bill would not apply to licensed outfitting or professional guide services. It would also not apply to governmental agencies who were performing lawful duties.
The punishment for a violation of the proposed statute could include up to a $10,000 fine and one year in state prison.

KCWY also quoted WGFD Chief Warden Brian Nesvik as explaining, “Folks are spending quite a bit of time scouting for big trophy class animals in remote areas, and then taking the locations of those animals and selling services to people, helping them to find those animals during the hunting season.”

Locating mature mule deer on public land is an intensive process that few will ever truly master. Purchasing GPS coordinates of a big buck might sound like an appealing option to those who don’t have the time or patience to develop their scouting and glassing skills. A mature mule deer buck tends to have a small summer and fall home range, so purchasing the coordinates for a big buck could vastly increase a hunters chances of success.
However, making trophy animals into a commodity to be bought and sold certainly leaves a bad taste in the mouth of many hunters. Even further, it furthers the anti-hunting narrative that hunters are only concerned with giants racks. In truth, almost all hunters do it for the challenge, the quality time spent with friends, for the awe inspiring feeling of time spent in the wilderness, and to feed our families.

What do you guys think? Is Wyoming on the right track with this law? Let me know in the comments.

Wyoming is on the right track, but this bill needs work, if its even necessary at all.

For starters, WYOGA needs to stop running to the legislature every time they have a problem.

This should have been taken to the commission and dealt with in Chapter 44 regulation before ever seeing the legislature.

Secondly, the current bill actually legitimizes the selling of coordinates via the only requirement of having to be done by a licensed outfitter, or done through an outfitter.

The regulation should make the practice of selling coordinates, etc. against the law for everyone, including outfitters.

Outfitters, as per always, want their cake and eat it too...that isn't going to fly. I think the best move is to kill the legislation this year, then work through the commission on regulation. If that doesn't get traction or the commission wont act on it, then go to the legislature with a bill. Sportsmen need to have a voice in this, not just WYOGA and Muley Fanatics.

Zach said:

He said on a public internet hunting forum...

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Great point and I plead guilty.

In a perfect world, guides and outfitters would not exist. Neither would tag auctions or the ability to outright purchase tags without a draw or raffle. Take the money out of hunting and you would see big changes. Eventually, money will be the only thing that matters like European hunting.

It’s no different than the fat ass who pays $20K to shoot some monster behind a high fence. Lots of lazy people who want just want to kill things, hang it on their wall, and make up some, “no shit, so there I was,” story.

Bulldog0156 said:

How much do you think the track of a bull so big his balls drag in the snow is worth?

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Tracking that sounds like a much more entertaining way to break in a new hunter than taking them “ snipe hunting “

Gr8bawana said:

To many people the "hunting" part doesn't matter anymore. Only the pulling of the trigger.

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Actually even the trigger pulling part is only the "means" to the social media glory "end".

At this point I'm not sure which is this the largest breach of ethics- the idiot that is willing to sell what he has seen in the woods or the idiot that appears to lack the skills to find something on his own and is so desperate that they are willing to pay for the knowledge or the access. All looks like prostitution to me in one form or another. The high fence program has its value if only to keep these idiots out of the woods.