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Trumps Harvest Two Kentucky Public Land Bulls

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BluegrassBilly

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It appears that Donald, Jr. and Donald III took back to back bull elk on permits issued to Booth Energy under a public access program. Junior got one last year, too, that word has it was a a very nice bull.

Good for them, but I wish Junior would be a stronger advocate for public lands for those of us without means and connections.
 
The Kentucky tag lotto is probably crooked as a dog's hind leg. I still put in for it every year though :W: If you got the money, you could hunt one of those tags every year too. I'm not a fan of it, and I wish they would issue those tags in the public draw, but oh well. It's like most of the hunting here in Ohio anymore - money buys privilege in the form of high-dollar leases. The state can't even provide access to the public lands that are available. "Budgetary" constraints. Sure as heck doesn't stop them from blowing the money elsewhere. The general public is just plain screwed when it comes to hunting here. Sorry to rant, bad day :eek:
 
dcopas78 said:
The Kentucky tag lotto is probably crooked as a dog's hind leg. I still put in for it every year though :W: If you got the money, you could hunt one of those tags every year too. I'm not a fan of it, and I wish they would issue those tags in the public draw, but oh well. It's like most of the hunting here in Ohio anymore - money buys privilege in the form of high-dollar leases. The state can't even provide access to the public lands that are available. "Budgetary" constraints. Sure as heck doesn't stop them from blowing the money elsewhere. The general public is just plain screwed when it comes to hunting here. Sorry to rant, bad day :eek:
Click to expand...

Could be worse. You could live in Illinois!
 
Dave N said:
Could be worse. You could live in Illinois!
Click to expand...

I hear that! I did manage to round up a small parcel of private this past week, but I'm only allowed to shoot a few does for freezer-fillers. Better than nothin' though.
 
dcopas78 said:
The Kentucky tag lotto is probably crooked as a dog's hind leg. I still put in for it every year though :W: If you got the money, you could hunt one of those tags every year too. I'm not a fan of it, and I wish they would issue those tags in the public draw, but oh well. It's like most of the hunting here in Ohio anymore - money buys privilege in the form of high-dollar leases. The state can't even provide access to the public lands that are available. "Budgetary" constraints. Sure as heck doesn't stop them from blowing the money elsewhere. The general public is just plain screwed when it comes to hunting here. Sorry to rant, bad day :eek:
Click to expand...

I disagree that the tag lotto is crooked. It may have been at one point - but I have confidence in the way it's managed now.

As to the special tags, there are three types: (1) Commission permits, (2) Landowner Access permits, and (3) Voucher Cooperator permits. Each has there place, especially in an elk zone that is >85% private.

The Landowner tags are issued for each 5,000 acres of land enrolled in a public access program. This is what Trump has used (by my count four times now). Kentucky Fish & Wildlife has done a better job of ensuring that the land is appropriately sized and actually open to the public, but I still think a better job could be done of enrolling land that is actually accessible and huntable. Another problem is that these large tracts are in Limited Entry Areas that require a second lotto - kind of like lightening striking twice. So while they're technically open to the public, its not wide open. For example, the Trump's unit is just over 15,000 acres that is limited to 1 bull archery, 2 cow archery, 2 bull firearm, 6 cow firearm, and 1 youth hunters, and most of the property is not open for any other hunting. So for land open to 12 public elk hunters (with a 100% success rate), they get 3 tags a year.

There are 10 commission permits issued each year to non-profits to used to raise funds to support Kentucky conservation projects.

The Voucher program is my favorite. It rewards private landowners who allow drawn hunters to be matched to their land, and is point-based. They don't get a tag until ten elk have been harvested on their property through the program. This seems to me to actually incentive productive hunting property.
 
BluegrassBilly said:
I disagree that the tag lotto is crooked. It may have been at one point - but I have confidence in the way it's managed now.

As to the special tags, there are three types: (1) Commission permits, (2) Landowner Access permits, and (3) Voucher Cooperator permits. Each has there place, especially in an elk zone that is >85% private.

The Landowner tags are issued for each 5,000 acres of land enrolled in a public access program. This is what Trump has used (by my count four times now). Kentucky Fish & Wildlife has done a better job of ensuring that the land is appropriately sized and actually open to the public, but I still think a better job could be done of enrolling land that is actually accessible and huntable. Another problem is that these large tracts are in Limited Entry Areas that require a second lotto - kind of like lightening striking twice. So while they're technically open to the public, its not wide open. For example, the Trump's unit is just over 15,000 acres that is limited to 1 bull archery, 2 cow archery, 2 bull firearm, 6 cow firearm, and 1 youth hunters, and most of the property is not open for any other hunting. So for land open to 12 public elk hunters (with a 100% success rate), they get 3 tags a year.

There are 10 commission permits issued each year to non-profits to used to raise funds to support Kentucky conservation projects.

The Voucher program is my favorite. It rewards private landowners who allow drawn hunters to be matched to their land, and is point-based. They don't get a tag until ten elk have been harvested on their property through the program. This seems to me to actually incentive productive hunting property.
Click to expand...

Good info....
 
Sounds like Kentucky has a great idea with the "let 10 public tag holders hunt and get 1 tag" approach for heavily private land habitat.

Colorado on the other hand faced a similar dilemma with bighorn sheep and a private land owner so negotiated what is closer to a 1 to 1 ratio. I think Texas and New Mexico have private land sheep tags and is more like 1 to 1 like Colorado. At 1:1 ratio the implication is the wildlife do not belong to the state. At 1:10 HARVESTED, you also remove the shenanigans that happen when landowners have their own paying hunters so steer public hunters to less productive sections of land. You now want the public hunters to harvest rather than merely access. I had a NM ranch provide a crappy map so they could steer me to a small part of the ranch while the hunters holding tags they bought from the rancher were tagged out opening morning of a very short season. I have heard of things like this in Utah on the draw tags that include access to private land. New Mexico and Colorado landowner tags where the landowner tries to push the hunters to public parts of the unit rather than the ranch. On and on.
 
socialish said:
Man...I just did some googling on Booth Energy and James H. Booth. Sounds like quite a company town there in Inez.
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It would be interesting to see the dots connected between these tags to Jr & campaign contributions to the trump folks. Kinda sounds like a way to succor favor with a campaign while not having to report the donation.
 
BluegrassBilly said:
I


The Voucher program is my favorite. It rewards private landowners who allow drawn hunters to be matched to their land, and is point-based. They don't get a tag until ten elk have been harvested on their property through the program. This seems to me to actually incentive productive hunting property.
Click to expand...

Now that is an interesting way to do tags for landowners.
 
Ben Lamb said:
It would be interesting to see the dots connected between these tags to Jr & campaign contributions to the trump folks. Kinda sounds like a way to succor favor with a campaign while not having to report the donation.
Click to expand...

I'd like to see too, one way or the other. Otherwise some draw conclusions based on nothing.
 
Zach said:
I'd like to see too, one way or the other. Otherwise some draw conclusions based on nothing.
Click to expand...

Yep.

Right now, my only conclusion is that once again, the wealthy & privileged get to cut in line ahead of working stiffs like us. ;)
 
BluegrassBilly said:
I disagree that the tag lotto is crooked. It may have been at one point - but I have confidence in the way it's managed now.

As to the special tags, there are three types: (1) Commission permits, (2) Landowner Access permits, and (3) Voucher Cooperator permits. Each has there place, especially in an elk zone that is >85% private.

The Landowner tags are issued for each 5,000 acres of land enrolled in a public access program. This is what Trump has used (by my count four times now). Kentucky Fish & Wildlife has done a better job of ensuring that the land is appropriately sized and actually open to the public, but I still think a better job could be done of enrolling land that is actually accessible and huntable. Another problem is that these large tracts are in Limited Entry Areas that require a second lotto - kind of like lightening striking twice. So while they're technically open to the public, its not wide open. For example, the Trump's unit is just over 15,000 acres that is limited to 1 bull archery, 2 cow archery, 2 bull firearm, 6 cow firearm, and 1 youth hunters, and most of the property is not open for any other hunting. So for land open to 12 public elk hunters (with a 100% success rate), they get 3 tags a year.

There are 10 commission permits issued each year to non-profits to used to raise funds to support Kentucky conservation projects.

The Voucher program is my favorite. It rewards private landowners who allow drawn hunters to be matched to their land, and is point-based. They don't get a tag until ten elk have been harvested on their property through the program. This seems to me to actually incentive productive hunting property.
Click to expand...

I believe this is how Michael Waddel shot his KY Bull as well. Nothing wrong with it as far as I'm concerned, not much different than a guided hunt. Just buying a chance at a bull.
 
Did Rinnella draw his tag or was that a tag handed out by Kentucky tourism or whatever I don't recall how he ended up there, been a while since that episode aired and was just wondering if anyone knew.
 
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