A Utah hunter has raised the value of big-game hunting with a record bid of $480,000 for a special Montana bighorn sheep permit. Selling coveted bighorn tags to the rich generates fallout from some hunters who’ve failed for decades to get a permit the regular-guy way – in a lottery drawing.

A drop-off in revenue from out-of-state residents coming to Idaho to hunt and fish is crimping funding at Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game.

HUNTING – Hunters have a chance to win one of nine 2013 special hunting permits if they report 2012 hunting activities for black bear, deer, elk or turkey to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife by Thursday. Hunters who file their mandatory reports by phone or online by the deadline will be included in a drawing for five deer permits and four elk permits in various areas of the state. Those permits will be valid Sept. 1-Dec. 31.

While Idaho sportsmen will be hunting for wolves again this season, hunters in both Idaho and Washington will be hunting with wolves in the area. Either way, wolves have changed the playing field for hunters in the Inland Northwest.

Weather, wolves, politics and the economy are slamming a quadruple whammy on the budgets of fish and game agencies in Idaho and Montana. Nonresidents are no longer clamoring for the quota of permits the states offer for their fabled deer and elk hunts despite the standout hunting opportunities.