The great elk hunter

How pathetically sad and disgusting. Watch the video in its entirety and read the comments.


https://youtu.be/Hf0JXZqzsyE

33 minute video.... holy smoke, how about some cliff notes. Life’s too short to watch a 33 minute video without any previews.

Yep, Rich fat guy with " Man Boobs" made a long range shot on an Elk.
All he did was pull the trigger then sat in the shade, not my kinda hunt.

For me it would have been me and 2 hunting buddies and it would have taken 2 days to get the bull out of that canyon.

I like you if we ever meet beer is on me sir

I'll take you up on that.

The comments speak for themselves. What a joke.

Yeah I had seen that video before. Jimmy Johns. Support them
If you like this kind of “hunting”

33 minute video was too long for me. I just skimmed through a little of it? What was the main thing that bothered everyone?

I'm not an elk hunter so maybe I'm missing something. What was the issue?

Rich dude paid a bunch of money and was able to have his outfitter convince locals not to shoot or hunt a specific elk he had scouted all year, so the rich dude came in and shot the elk from 1000 yards away and didn’t even go down to recover the animal because he was too out of shape and didn’t even want to help do anything with the elk once it was down.

FR, would have been as if Bill saw the deer you shot this year before you shot it in photos, and told you not to shoot it, brought in a high dollar client to shoot it from distance and then just let the hands recover the deer and didn’t help process it or anything. Then add to the fact that the elk was taken on public land not private land and run the same scenario above, that’s why it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

'Gives us all a bad name.

I only have two issues with this hunt:

1). The “strong discouragement” to the local hunter of not hunting it.
2) The sense that jimmy has never skinned, gutted, quartered or packed out an animal in his life. I kept asking myself.... this guy is a hunter? This is just the impression I got while watching it and maybe that’s an inaccurate assumption, if so I apologize. Clearly not my place to judge or throw stones, but that’s the impression I got. Sure he has physical limitations due to his obesity and needed assistance via horseback to navigate the mountains. However I felt like his actual drive to hunt and his hunting knowledge, at least what was portrayed in the video, struck me as lacking.

~ $300k for the tag and probably another $60-$100k for the scouting and procurement of 3 outfitters. No way I could/would spend that much on a tag but not a big deal as it does go back into the states wildlife funds so it’s a good cause.
- having one or multiple outfitters pre-scout an area to find a particular trophy....not a problem. Many of us do that just on a way smaller /individual and less expensive scale.

The poor local who was asked (cough...cough, strongly encouraged) to not go after it was going to fight a losing battle as he only had the regular units archery tag in his pocket and wasn’t able to put the bull to bed the night before the opener like Jimmy’s hired hands were/did. I felt bad for that local, however he is somewhat guilty as he showed his hands by sharing some pics of that bull earlier in the year ( I believe from the prior years hunt), and word got out. What’s the old saying... “keep your enemies close and your friends closer”. Sad, real sad.....but true.

........yet the Earth still spins.........

On the recover I've never seen that many people before, maybe 20 and one young boy.
You don't ever see that many at a crime/murder seen.

JJ said a couple of times in the video “I’m not a hunter.”

Just not a good look. I’m not saying it’s illegal or they couldn’t do it, but not my cup of tea by any means. I don’t care how much money you spent for the tag and guides, get down there and help process the animal. If you don’t know, you can learn.

I would love to go elk hunting. But I’m old and live at sea level and I have no business pretending I can hike up and down mountains with 100 lbs of meat, so I don’t go.

I am finding the "interpretations" of this video amusing. This pretty much sums it up - "Yep, Rich fat guy with " Man Boobs" made a long range shot on an Elk." Earth to whomever, when there are limited resources, luck, skill or money will take the day. Luck & skill benefit those who are so lucky or have trained and endured to be so skilled. In this here case here, "rich dude" bought all kinds of stuff on his journey to buying the governor's tag which helped every single hunter in the state of Arizona, made the shot and then people come on here to bash or diminish what was, after all, his experience.

My perception is this high roller probably helped more people than most on this forum would ever have the ability or inclination to do likewise. Might not have been his intent, but it is what happened.

Meh, I don't particularly care for shooting at such long distances, but to each his own. If you have the money, use it, you can't take it with you and the funding from the governor's tag is traditionally used for great causes and indirectly benefits a lot of people, as @hudbone above points out. Clearly this guy couldn't have gone on a traditional elk hunt where you hump all your gear all over elevation while glassing and sometimes results in having to bring a large amount of meat by hauling it back on packs, but I don't think the guy is portraying himself as a great hunter, he's even saying that repeatedly. He's a rich guy who bought a super expensive tag, spent a ton of money hiring hard working people who got well paid for their efforts, and enjoyed an experience that he otherwise wouldn't have. Now he has a fantastic mount to put up on his lodge somewhere and a story to tell the other rich guys over nice whiskey. Guys like this are the backbone of the high-end guiding industry, how many people can realistically drop $25K+ in pursuit of a trophy animal? Many of us save for years in hopes of having a similar experience, but in the meantime, rich guys are spending their money and enabling guides to survive and thrive. No heart-break on my part, my only grief on this video is the thought "man, I wish I'd drawn a tag and gotten to pursue an elk like that", but I have the same thought every time I see a monster buck on a TV show!

I didnt quite watch all of it, but my understanding was that the governors tag allowed him a 365 day season. Was the general archery or any other season actually open?

How is this any different then buying a white tail hunt on a managed ranch in south texas etc.?

Hit the nail on the head. Guy paid good money to have someone put him on an elk. Others pay good money to have someone set up a feeder on fenced property to have someone lure a deer into them. I don't agree with the shot, but the underlying principles are the same.

it's not in my opinion

The season was not open for everyone, not for archery elk at the time he took the shot. This was a public land elk, no HF feeder type situation, just paying the money to get a head start. The outfitter saw the elk on the guys YouTube channel and essentially had free scouting done, and even approached the guy and told him they were gonna take that elk so don’t do anything stupid.

It was about as far away from a south Texas big deer story as you can get. Free range, pre season, bully the guy who did the scouting and watching into not chasing the elk away.

Sadly most of that isn’t what chaps me, He did it legally and for me I have said in the past any legal means is ok in my book. What chaps me is he was simply after the shot. He didn’t want anything to do with the hunt. He is a shooter, not a hunter. To me, the thing that makes it fun is the hunt. I have no problem with outfitters, I have no problem with HF (given the correct conditions), but I do have a problem with shooters acting like they are hunters. To JJ’s credit, he says he isn’t a hunter, but even so, go check out the animal you shot and give it that much respect to see the process even if you don’t want to be part of it. He just wanted to say he shot it, and that’s all he did. He didn’t hunt that animal...and that’s what chaps me about it, and what chaps me about some HF shooting out there. Just not my cup Of tea.

I guess my coments towards the south texas hunting etc. it geared towards the people angry that he just paid for it and doesnt deserve it.

But like you say it is public land. Nobody owns that critter till their tag is on it.