Cadomin Mine, of course, is famous for the monster rams it has produced in the past, but it has been the subject of controversy since the Canadian Supreme Court granted Metis, persons of mixed Indian and French heritage, the right to hunt and fish for food in Alberta without restriction. A number of these hunters were known to have hunted the Cadomin Mine area and taken several rams there. The development put a damper on the bidding for the Minister's Permit at the FNAWS convention last year, with the tag initially selling for $150,000, down $10,000 from the 2004 price and $100,000 below 2002. Later, the winning bidder returned the permit to FNAWS when the Alberta Ministry of Sustainable Resource Development also issued nine permits that would allow resident hunters to hunt the Cadomin area before the winner of the Minister's Permit did. That's when Fiedeldey picked up the permit for significantly less during a second telephone auction conducted by FNAWS this past August.
We caught up with Fiedeldey, who hunted the first two weeks of December, and asked him about the hunt and the numbers and quality of sheep he saw. He says he and his guides watched the mine for a couple of days to determine what the situation was. Fiedeldey says they saw a number of good rams there, but only one that would approach the 200-inch mark, and he was encamped in the middle of the mine.
Fiedeldey says that after two days of watching the mine in 20-degree weather, he and his guides decided to go hunt in........(continued)
