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I truly believe the biggest issue facing American hunters in 2024 will be the Colorado ballot initiative to ban all mountain lion hunting. The animal rights activists earned a major victory in Colorado in 2020 when they won the ballot initiative to reintroduce wolves. This situation is eerily similar as they try to tug at the emotional heart strings of non hunters. The verbiage they’ve tried to use includes the term “trophy killing” and paints the picture that mountain lion harvest isn’t supported by the North American wildlife model of conservation.

Chris Tymeson – Safari Club International’s Western Liaison for Government Affairs joins the show to discuss whether or not he feels Colorado is a lost cause or if we as a hunting/conservation community still have a chance to make sure this bill doesn’t pass in 2024. SCI and partners won a minor battle on this front when they recently forced the proposed draft of the bill to remove the term “trophy” from the description. How does the mountain lion bill compare to the previous wolf reintroduction bill of 2020? Will history repeat itself or can we educate the public into voting for sound, scientific bases wildlife management at the ballot box?

If the animal rights activists come out on top in Colorado, I fear the precedent set will be one that they go back to over and over again in various other states regarding predator management.

Next we check in with my longtime friend and hunting buddy Sawyer Herndon. We actually recorded the visit sitting in a camper in a Sonora, Mexico deer camp last week. We spent 4 days chasing coues deer (smaller sub species of whitetail) through unique terrain where desert converges with small mountains. The hunting was challenging and required a lot time spent breaking down the landscape through a spotting scope. Sawyer talks about his passion for coues deer as well as some of his recent international hunting adventures such as chasing ibex in the mountains of Uzbekistan.