Texas Poachers Caught by MT

kilowatt · Feb 28, 2007

Here are some pictures of my latest case. A guy and his wife had been coming up here for 25 years and only had tags half the time. Myself and one of our investigators flew down to Texas in January and brought back 13 deer head/racks, 12 elk racks, and a bighorn sheep. It only cost the guy $25,000 and they lost their privileges to huntin Montana and 23 other states for 14 years.

dslaughter · Feb 28, 2007

Its amazing to think about the impact of one case like this. And the scary part is to think how many others there are like this that haven't been discovered yet...
Do you work for Montana fish and wildlife?
Good job
ds

TFinalshot · Feb 28, 2007

LAST EDITED ON Mar-01-07 AT 08:32AM (MST)[p]Nice work boyzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!!

Weak punishment - especially the money side. $25k for all that? Some guys would say it's worth the risk. $25k? Wow, they should make them people put in hard every summer on habitat projects, digging water holes, building guzzlers, taking our trash or whatever but $25k, heck the Ram's worth more than that!!!!

Howcome those kind of people dont lose their hunting for EVER? Seriously, I dont get it. They obvioulsy are chronic affenders, and I'd be waiting for them to show up even without tags!

You guys did a great job, I'll bet you see these folks, or their friends again. . .

dslaughter · Feb 28, 2007

T, I think you make a good point. Someone with that much blatant disregard for the law would probably consider a suspension anywhere from a minor inconvenience to a liberation of sorts...

Roy · Mar 1, 2007

Great job! Congratulations on your hard work. Way to go Brian!

14 years is quite a while, should be more though and it should be all 50 states. One day we will live in a perfect world though and this won't exist!

UTROY
Proverbs 21:19 (why I hunt!)

rumproast · Mar 1, 2007

Good job, men. Too bad they'd already done so much damage, but it's good they got bounced.
Here in Gillette this past summer two shooters and a driver/ camera guy got picked up and convicted.
Out N.E. of town on Garner Lake Rd. there was a stretch with about forty dead animals stinkin' up the area.
The shooters got $10,000 fines and revoked hunting privs. for 20 years. Misdemeanors. The driver/film guy was a rabbit choker who got extradited back to S.D. for revocation of parole. He's felony material.

idabigbuck · Mar 1, 2007

LAST EDITED ON Mar-01-07 AT 08:34AM (MST)[p]Excuse my ignorance, "rabbit choker?"

Brian, awesome work, congratulations on a successful investigation!

ELKabong · Mar 1, 2007

Sorta what Ds said... liberation.
He's obviously very good at it, so now he jus' won't bother with a license.
He should spend some time in lock-down!
For a case as big and blatent as this, authorities should be able to confiscate everything used to obtaine them, 'an everything used to display them! (truck, weapons, house...)

Nice work Brian! Thanks fer sharing!

RIMROCK338 · Mar 1, 2007

Kilowatt
How did they bust this guy? and how many years did they figure they had him poaching for..Bet there was alot more animals than they found, dead does and cows...RIMROCK

stickerpt · Mar 1, 2007

$25,000 seems awful cheap to me too! Also interested in how they caught em.

sheepeater · Mar 1, 2007

Nice work Kilowatt, do you live in Montana now, for some reason I thought you lived in Northern Cali.

kilowatt · Mar 1, 2007

LAST EDITED ON Mar-01-07 AT 10:44AM (MST)[p]Whoa,

Let me clarify something right now, IT WAS NOT ME DOING THE INVESTIGATION.
I received the e-mail with attached pictures and all I did was "copy and paste" the quote from the MT F&G warden who sent it to a friend who sent it to me.
As the "quote" stated, this husband and wife had been going to MONTANA for 25 YEARS. They had probably only 1/2 the tags to cover the animals I would guess from the message.

AGREED, the sentence and fine WAS WAY TOO LIENANT I THINK. Should have locked up their sorry arses for a long time. Don't know the whole story but hopefully soon one of the leading magazines will post the story or if anyone gets the Montana Outdoors Magazine published by MF&G it will show up there soon as I have read other articles there in the past.
Most of the western states Game Dept. put out a Outdoor Magazine, you should subscribe to them. You can keep up with what is going on in that state.

Brian (RETIRED FULL TIME)

sheepeater · Mar 1, 2007

Gotcha, you had me confused there for a bit.

Zigga · Mar 1, 2007

I think I hunted one of the places these idiots poached from. Too bad I didn't run into them, I would have ruined their whole day. I have no tolerance for this crap.

NMHUNTNUTT1 · Mar 2, 2007

Glad to see they caught them , but it really ticks me off to see all thosr antlers being they were paoched animals.Poaching should be considered a felony!

202typical · Mar 2, 2007

I think scum like that deserve prison time coupled with the hard labor that T sugested. I also think a ban for life from ever hunting in the USA. The fine was way to light. Needs to be in the 100's of thousands if you ask me.

Zigga · Mar 2, 2007

Agreed 202. People that blatant should lose their home among other things.

buckshot · Mar 3, 2007

The big horn alone is worth over how much at auction for a tag 50,000 on up. The fines should be set for the going auction rate for each anaimal poached.

buckshot

TripleK · Mar 4, 2007

LOL Brian....I thought it was you who investigated it, too. I was even wondering which one was you in the pics. LOL No pats on the back for YOU then. But high fives for those guys who really DID bust those two.