Montana SCI to Donate Bear Trap to Wildlife Services

Mike Curtis • Jul 24, 2019
The live trap, called a culvert trap, is being made by Teton Welding of Choteau, Montana.

The Montana Chapter of Safari Club International is proud to announce the lending /donation of a grizzly bear live trap to the U.S. Wildlife Service. The live trap will be used to help alleviate the rapidly increasing numbers of human/grizzly bear encounters over the past several years.

“One of the pillars of SCI’s foundation is wildlife conservation,” said Tex Janacek, President of the Montana SCI Chapter. “Grizzly bear/human encounters are escalating at a substantial rate, causing real problems for outdoor Montana residents and grizzly bears. Our goal with the donation of this culvert trap is to help reduce these conflicts.”

On May 13, 2019, during its annual Lobby Day on Capitol Hill, SCI members advocated support for two bills asking the Department of the Interior to reissue previous grizzly bear delisting orders. The bills, H.R. 1445 and S. 614, both titled the “Grizzly Bear State Management Act of 2019,” were introduced jointly by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) in the House, and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) in the Senate earlier this year.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed delisting grizzly bears in 2016, but the issue has become bogged down by lawsuits,” said Joe Mancuso, public relations chair for Montana SCI. “As Montanans helping other Montanans, we hope this stop-gap solution will help reduce grizzly/human conflicts as well as the dangers and complications that arise from these encounters.”

Grizzly bears were listed as an endangered species in 1975. Since then, their population in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem has increased by 400 percent. With grizzly bears now wintering on prairie river banks in Montana, the number of human/bear conflicts has skyrocketed while agency budgets remain largely unchanged. This leaves the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks strapped for resources. As population numbers increase, top apex predators like grizzly bears compete for food sources in a fixed-size environment. The adolescent and post prime animals end up ranging farther and farther out on the prairie; and into garages, barns and backyards.

A USDA Wildlife Services Wildlife Specialist with a sedated grizzly bear that was captured in a culvert trap (seen at right).

The live trap, called a culvert trap, is being made by Teton Welding of Choteau, Montana.

John Steuber is the Billings-based Montana Director and Supervisory Wildlife Biologist with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Inspection Service. “The portability is what makes this trap so useful,” he said. “We can transport it to wherever it’s needed.” Steuben said his office will transfer each trapped bear to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and the Montana office of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Those offices will decide the final disposition of the bear, either euthanasia or relocation.

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My hunting partner and I have kicked this idea around for quite some time, and it has serious merit. I get to shaking my head at the long-drawn-out communication that often occurs between spotters and shooters. Not only is the dialog long, but it is also confusing to the shooter and poor performance in the field is pretty much guaranteed! When Ernie Bishop and I shot the WTRC shoot in Wyoming, we had great dialog and our performance was evident, taking 2nd place two years in a row at this difficult cross-country shoot. But, as the saying goes: "THERE is ALWAYS room for IMPROVEMENT." So, grab a cold one from the fridge and listen up! For those of you who have been to my shooting school, you will remember the SHOOTER READY, SPOTTER READY technique that we teach. It works pretty well and is easy enough to teach. However, it takes most students a couple of days to get it down. They always want to ADD UNNECESSARY WORDS to the dialog: Boy Jonas, that was really close, I'd just come over a bit more and let's try-er again. You'll git-er this time. Aaarg! The dialog does nothing for the shooter, it wastes time, and is confusing as hell! What's close? How much is a bit more? Am I out vertically or horizontally? You get the picture! The NEW SYSTEM we've developed is far simpler and very concise. ( As the KIWI's would say) Let's have a "GO" at it. Let's begin by identifying the players. The Spotter is called ALPHA, the Shooter is called BRAVO, Hold is called CHARLIE and DELTA is the word for FIRE. Using the phonetic alphabet makes it very simple; there are no confusing words that interrupt the shooting sequence. Once the target is identified (more on this in another article) the spotter calls out ALPHA; when the shooter is on the target he calls BRAVO. Both spotter and shooter are now on target. The spotter's job is to call the wind and let the shooter know when to fire. CHARLIE is the word for "HOLD," and as the desired wind approaches he can say CHARLIE CHARLIE (prepping the shooter to get ready). When the wind is perfect DELTA is uttered and the shooter FIRES. Here it is in real-time: ALPHA... BRAVO... CHARLIE... CHARLIE-CHARLIE...DELTA! Upon impact, the spotter simply calls the correction NEEDED to hit the "X", not the amount the shooter missed by. There should be NO confusion as to what needs to be put in the rifle. UP/DOWN 2-MOA, LEFT/RIGHT .5 MOA. Always call the correction in MINUTES or a FRACTION of a MINUTE. There is a bit of leeway here in how the correction can be done. The shooter remains on the rifle after firing the shot and CYCLES THE BOLT. When he is back on target he calls BRAVO (letting the spotter know he has acquired the target and is ready for any necessary correction, or whether it is necessary to shoot again). The spotter should know the "CLICK VALUE" of the shooter's scope (i.e., .250 or .5 MOA, or whatever?). He can call the correction in MINUTES (allowing the shooter to do the math, converting minutes to "clicks") Or, the spotter can do the MATH and the shooter just counts/feels the tactile clicks in his/her scope to make the required correction. The latter is the better choice IMHO. While keeping the target in the scope, the shooter feels the "tactile clicks" and repeats the correction back to the spotter. Keep in mind the shooter stays on target and SHOULD KNOW the direction (clockwise/counterclockwise) his/her dials turn to elevate and adjust wind without breaking stock weld to look at the dials.
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