$53K fine levied for the 278" Texas buck

[IkemanTX]

That is a lot more information than I have seen before.

He knew he was on the neighbors land. The neighbor put signs on his stuff to remove it and not hunt. He knew he was hunting it after hours. He dumped the meat. He admitted to doing it 2 years prior. Deleted evidence.

$53K isn't that bad for being caught with two poached deer, destroying evidence, lying to police, trespassing, dumping meat.....

On top of all that, there were several people who knew he was breaking the law.

Does the neighbor have grounds for a civil suit on top of this state case?


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[Smart]

I wonder if while he is working in a fellow hunter's house.....if he gets....


"Do I know you from somewhere?...you look familiar?... Man I swear I have seen or met your somewhere. Were you on TV?"



"Hey hey! you are that 278 dude!!"

[TX_Hoghunter]

$53,000 is a lot of money. Does the State put people on payment plans?
IMO the fine was plenty considering most people would never even be able to pay that much. So even if he had/has money it's simply not right to fine one more because they have money.

If anything he should have served more time in jail...



If he lost his career he couldn't pay the State! Just a WAG

And a thief is worthless. But IMO poaching a deer is a tiny bit different. Only because of people's mentality. I mean lets get real. Someone steals your families money and you will be more ticked than if they shot a doe off the side of the road by your house.

On a big deer I see it differently. You need to think about how much money would have gone to a hunter that killed that deer legally. Think of all of the endorsements, the hunting shows appearances, and such. If the right person kills that deer it could have been a life changing experience and he stole that opportunity from every legal hunter in that area. We are not talking about a 130 inch 8 point. That makes it different in my opinion.

-john

[TX_Hoghunter]

I wonder if while he is working in a fellow hunter's house.....if he gets....


"Do I know you from somewhere?...you look familiar?... Man I swear I have seen or met your somewhere. Were you on TV?"



"Hey hey! you are that 278 dude!!"

LOL.

-john

[COOLDAD1]

i wonder if while he is working in a fellow hunter's house.....if he gets....


"do i know you from somewhere?...you look familiar?... Man i swear i have seen or met your somewhere. Were you on tv?"



"hey hey! You are that 278 dude!!"

[Big pig]

$53K might have been plenty of a fine.
But 2 yr. probation is WAY too light.
10 yrs minimum. He stole from every hunter in the state a very rare genetic carrier while on a neighbors land, etc
I have zero tolerance for thieves. Poachers are thieves.

BP

[Bruiser]

You’re manually rolling up your windows for a F-250 diesel at 53k out the door.!


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yup! fine should e double and lose hunting rights for life!

[drbonner]

On a big deer I see it differently. You need to think about how much money would have gone to a hunter that killed that deer legally. Think of all of the endorsements, the hunting shows appearances, and such. If the right person kills that deer it could have been a life changing experience and he stole that opportunity from every legal hunter in that area. We are not talking about a 130 inch 8 point. That makes it different in my opinion.

-john

Do you think the fine would’ve been $53k for a spike???

I think the fine and probation is plenty. He is a marked man for life.

[RiverRat1]

On a big deer I see it differently. You need to think about how much money would have gone to a hunter that killed that deer legally. Think of all of the endorsements, the hunting shows appearances, and such. If the right person kills that deer it could have been a life changing experience and he stole that opportunity from every legal hunter in that area. We are not talking about a 130 inch 8 point. That makes it different in my opinion.

-john

I understand. But no one except the State owned that buck. And who knows who would have shot it. And no one would ever even know if another hunter would have even seen that buck again. You would know what was stolen from your house because what was taken was 100% yours...not maybe yours.

I'm not debating this too much. Just saying it's a tiny bit less in my mind versus a house robber. Too easy for a man to succumb to a big buck after dark. But I don't know the guy..so just blabbing my probably stupid thoughts.

[Rwc]

Mike appreciate you posting the final award, I must have slept through a few of the other dozen whacked threads that have been mentioned above.

...............................The old boy made a catastrophic error in judgment, period. I hate it for all involved and hope he has learned a tad from it. But I am not without hiccups in life, so I will just hold off on judging.

I can't keep thinking, free range, low fence, north central Texas deer, having the genetics, habitat and living long enough to reach 278" is unreal in my mind.

Rwc

[switchbackxt]

The great State of Texas has that deer. Im sure it will be mounted and displayed like so many other great poached deer and other animals.

And this guy probably gets to ride around with it to show it off.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas/2015/07/05/texas-game-warden-wounded-while-illegally-hunting-avoided-felony-charges-kept-job

[Bruiser]

hes just like them vietnamese fishing on texas law they know what they are doing know they are breaking the law and still do it and the wardens give them a brake throw the book at them!!

[mudkat]

I'm going to start off by say yes the guy did wrong and poached this deer , but there are some circumstances here that is not like he cut somebodys high fence went in and shot this deer ,it was on land he had permission to hunt and the other track of land is owned by people from Sweden that have probably never even seen the land ,as far as I can tell he hit the buck the first time legally on his lease.
And a buck that size can make a man go insane,and be completely obsessed and consumed.
YES he went to far and did wrong but to have the man lose his career and pay 53000 in fines for a deer is out of line to me,10000 fine and lose the deer should be enough

[Dale Moser]

That is a lot more information than I have seen before.

He knew he was on the neighbors land. The neighbor put signs on his stuff to remove it and not hunt. He knew he was hunting it after hours. He dumped the meat. He admitted to doing it 2 years prior. Deleted evidence.

$53K isn't that bad for being caught with two poached deer, destroying evidence, lying to police, trespassing, dumping meat.....

On top of all that, there were several people who knew he was breaking the law.

Repeatedly. Every time he got in the blind he knew he was poaching, when he put it there he knew it was poaching, and when he shot the deer at night he knew it was poaching. It's not like he hopped a fence once to shoot a deer....that's a lapse in judgement. This was a consious effort to poach over and over again.

There were others who knew what he was up to the whole time as well, and I bet there were other blinds that had to be taken down in a hurry.

Well when it all started I came down against him pretty hard. Lots of good people here defended him because they knew him.....here is the rub.....I have some very good friends that live in that area. They also knew him and his parents really well. They all had no doubt he had done it. I was not mad at anyone for defending him but it did get a little old that no one elses opinion carried any merit. I think that is why people keep bringing it back up. Whether intentional or not it seems that the inner circle of TBH were dismissing everyone elses information. In the long run it is all good....with the exception that he got off way too easy. He has been a poacher for a very long time. They did not catch him on it all. I know the authorities did not want him to loose his plumbing license and I am not sure how I feel about that. I understand they did not want to take away his livelihood but I guess I am old school. Once you decide to be a thief ( and that is what you are when you poach deer in my opinion ) then you are signing up for whatever comes your way.

JMHO.

-john

[Slew]

hes just like them vietnamese fishing on texas law they know what they are doing know they are breaking the law and still do it and the wardens give them a brake throw the book at them!!

I'm sure those folks don't pay the fines either. What enforces payment of the fine or are their consequences to not paying it? Can't renew drivers license or something?


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