ElkShape EP 7 - Sonny and the Selway

ElkShape

Dan Staton

Fitness, Sports, Wilderness, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 618 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2018

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today's episode we sit-down with blue collar hunter Sonny Cloninger from Washington state. Sonny is in his sixties and has elk hunted the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness for over 40 years. We learn about his early days of backcountry DIY hunting and some of his wild stories from the 1970's and 1080's. Sonny hunts one of the last places on earth where you can hunt for elk in September with a rifle. His hunting area has faced adversity of the last ten years with wildfire and wolf introduction. We chat about the good old days and what its like packing in with stock in the backcountry and what it takes to be a tough backcountry hunter regardless of age. Sonny is a breath a fresh air, not too often do you get to chat with someone who has elk hunted longer than you have been alive. We talk about the wolf problem and how conservation and hunting is at a tipping point. This is a great discussion and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Selway Elk Zone LINK One of the rules we talked about in the episode about using your elk tag for a predator harvest... Idaho Fish and Game Regulations 2017-2018: "Nonresident Deer or Elk Tag for Black Bear, Mountain Lion or Gray Wolf Nonresident deer and elk tags, excluding Nonresident Junior Mentored/DAV deer or elk tags, are valid to take a black bear, mountain lion or gray wolf, if a general season is open for that species, instead of a deer or elk where and when the deer or elk tag is valid, and there is an open deer or elk season in that same unit. Hunters may buy other bear, lion or wolf tags, but after the deer or elk tag is used to harvest a deer, elk, black bear, mountain lion, or gray wolf, a second deer or elk tag may not be purchased – except by buying a leftover nonresident general season deer or elk tag when available." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Revik optics just launched the second generation of their popular ballistic range-finding binocular.
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0:26.9	For a limited time, get a $250 gift card with the purchase of the vinos to build your perfect
0:31.9	glassing setup.
0:33.2	Visit revicoptics.com today.
0:35.6	Elk-shaped podcast number seven. I just wanted to record an introduction
0:40.1	today because I had a guest come by earlier today and we sat down and recorded, albeit short and
0:46.4	brief, and my kids running in the background, it was gold as far as the content and the information
0:52.3	and the nostalgia and the history. My dad's friend of a friend
0:56.8	came over here from the other side of the state. I live in Washington. So it's probably a four,
1:00.7	four and a half hour drive. He drove all the way over to talking elk hunting with us today,
1:04.3	which was, I'm truly honored. His name's Sunny. He's in his 60s. He's a public land,
1:09.0	blue collar, elk hunter. I think he was a mechanic all his years until he just retired recently. He's in his 60s. He's a public land, blue collar, elk hunter. I think he was a mechanic all his years until he just retired recently.
1:14.6	He's been hunting the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness. If you don't know where that is central Idaho, close to Montana border and some of the most remote, pristine, rugged, beautiful elk country you've ever seen.
1:25.7	A place where so many elk should live,
1:27.5	they should just, they should thrive and they should be prevalent. But it's interesting to talk to
1:32.3	him today as you will listen and find out over the last 40 years. It's can change quite a bit.
1:37.0	This guy's been killing elk. I think he's shot almost 40 elk with a rifle in September.
1:41.6	That's right. This is one of the few places where you can still hunt with a rifle while elk or bugling
	...

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