Governor’s tag

Recently heard about these on a meat eater podcast episode. Very interesting concept for raising money for conservation. Whats your take on them? I dont know nearly enough to have a well informed opinion.

My brother snagged a MT mountain goat governor’s tag back in 2019 if I remember right. The stories, pics, and video sure made it look like an awesome hunt. He did it DIY, and made the most of it. He took many trips out there over the summer scouting as many units as he could to find the right goat. It paid off, and he now has giant full mount on the wall in his living room. He made the comment it’s a little more expensive, but he felt it was better to keep his money in the states than pay an outfitter in BC like my dad did back in the day.

I don’t think my pockets are deep enough for one. But if they raise money and the money is used for further outdoor stuff then that could be a good thing. But like you I am not well versed on governors tags

I cant imagine my pockets would ever be deep enough either. The tags are a basically a fundraiser for conservation efforts in the state. I believe these tags are all auctioned off and normally bought by the very wealthy at events like a SCI banquet. For the average person, at least in MT, they can buy entries towards a super tag which would give you the same experience of a any weapon state wide hunt. It’s pretty wild to think about someone paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for hunt. Here’s a article discussing the tags.

https://fwp.mt.gov/binaries/content/assets/fwp/montana-outdoors/2021/auctiontags.pdf

Long story short, but I’ve hunted elk a few times with Beau Brooks, whose dad Casey has killed over 80 bulls with a bow and a stack of them over 400. Their family is VERY well off, and he usually has a governers tag in his pocket each year for a various elky state out west. Absolutely insane lifestyle, and you should see the mounts in their house

The Wyoming bowhunters association raffles off a governors tag every year.
If I remember right tickets were limited to a couple hundred. I used to buy a couple tickets every year but never won.

Jimmy John has bought a few over the years. The latest was an Elk tag in Arizona that he spent a couple hundred grand on. The Arizona tag is good for a calendar year and usually the bull is shot in August just before archery season opens.

They were also touching on a new unit is going to be open in colorado for big horn sheep or mountain goat I dont remember. But basically in that unit there is a known World record that lives inside of it. So basically they will be auctioning off the ability to have a new world record animal. Seems crazy.