The poison of social media and the desire for hunting fame

— The kill big animals and post to social media right away trend

15 seconds of fame… that term is present in every facet of life. Hunting is no different.

Recently we caught wind of what looks like another one of the stories where someone is looking for their 15 seconds of fame... but are they stretching the truth? Jeremie Lewis (more famously known as @wyohighcountry on Instagram) claimed to have shot a giant bull from the backcountry of Wyoming in 2015. Everyone loves the bull... the mass, the beam length, the giant fourth point. This bull has it all. So fame around this bull was sure to follow.
 

The bull in question. Mr. T. taken by Jeremie Lewis. Photo credit: @wyohighcountry

Last night word got around that this bull was not taken on public land in Wyoming, but on a high fence ranch in Idaho. An Instagram page by the name of @highfencehunter was making the claim that this was a high fence bull and wanted the truth to be be heard. Three photos were posted last night on the page, they were removed after the comment section got heated and then a few hours later the page put the photos back up and explained more of the situation. A quote from the @highfencehunter page, "We all just want to keep it real for the honest and trustworthy DIY hunters who spend countless real hours hunt[ing] in the mountains. Nothing again[st] high fence elk hunting, just people to try and make those Bulls real public land Bulls."  

High fence hunting is not illegal, a few western states allow high fence elk hunts. The issue with this claim lies in morals... this hunter is potentially acting like a hard core do-it-yourself backcountry hunter when - potentially shot this farm raised bull behind a fence. Another can of worms would be opened up if this bull in question had been officially scored for the record books by Boone & Crockett. (We aren't sure if it has been officially scored. Looking into it.)

A little background on @wyohighcountry he seems to be a guy that takes great pride in hard work and dedication and also likes to promote those traits heavily through inspirational quotes on his photos of the Wyoming backcountry... but we thought you couldn't lie on social media?  

Here are the actual Instagram posts

This is a spoof off an actual logo that @wyohighcountry created for T-shirts that said, "Make shit happen or get off the mountain."

Through all of this, @wyohighcountry was leaning on what seemed to be a friend (@deadicatedhunter) to help in this situation, but that relationship has also seemed to unwind.

Edit: 7:45 am 1/7/16

@wyohighcountry removed all the photos and video of this bull and another bull off of his Instagram page.

Edit: 7:55 am 1/7/16

@wyohighcountry made his page private.

Edit: 9:15 am 1/7/16

Jeremie Lewis has turned off his Facebook profile page.

Edit: 1:54 pm 1/7/16

@wyohighcountry has removed his page from Instagram.

Edit 2:08 pm 1/7/16

YouTube link was sent to us and is now embedded below.

Edit 4:56 pm 1/7/16

Wyohighcountry.com website has been pulled down.

Edit 12:08 am 1/8/16

@highfencehunter has removed the content from his Instagram page and changed the name of the page. We have switched the embedded Instagram posts with screenshots.

Edit 8:56 pm 1/15/16

@wyohighcountry is back on Instagram

Edit 6:06 pm 1/19/16

@wyohighcountry has removed his page from Instagram

Edit 9:15 pm 1/31/16

Jeremie is back on Instagram at @heavenat10k