Another Poacher

[ronn]

Bruce at that price you should buy 2. lol one for each end of your camper. lol

[BruceBruce1959]

Ronn, you keep saying a poached deer is of no value. I just pasted an Ebay link in my previous post where someone is selling a whitetail Rack for $699.00 dollars. That's a nice profit I think.
All a poacher has to do is have his "TROPHY BUCK" scored and sign an affidavit and into the books it goes. It's that simple.
How is anyone ever going to know if he poached it or not? an affidavit is a formal statement of facts do you think the poacher is going to tell the actual facts on his affidavit? I mean if he's already poached a Deer wouldn't you think a few lies on an affidavit is nothing for him to sign?
I personally think that a VERY LARGE percentage of tropy's in the books have probably made their way into the record books based on a few bent truths (little Lies) I would probably guess that number to be at least 20%.
I'm not saying they went out at night with flashlights or anything that extreme but I'd bet some were shot just after legal shooting hours or some were shot just before legal shooting hours or maybe some were taken from high fenced hunts. numerous reasons I'm sure. We will never know how many shouldnt be in them record books BUT we all know some of them in there probably shouldnt be there.

[BruceBruce1959]

I already mentioned (jokingly) that I was going to hang my mount in the camper, well lets just say she shot down that thought real quick.

[joel the signman]

again im not talking about hunters Im talking about professional poachers who kill just for the antlers to sell on the blackmarket.

[Hunting Man]

I thought I'd end my remarks on this subject, but I'm glad others see the money as an root issue. We know that good hunters sell their record book racks to buyers without ever entering them in the books. The rich buyers then control the fate of the racks. Why is this? MONEY thats why! I think poached or as bruce said bent law bucks are in far greater numbers than we think. We are in a different world today than when the record books were conceived, I don't think anybody could have forsaw the inpact big money/greed would affect the entries for dollars big bucks. Unfortunately,this has created the snowball effect and tarnished the reason for the B&C/P&Y purpose. The legal/ethical hunter deserves what comes to him/her by shooting a record animal, however, industry has promoted the money greed by creating the riches for racks enviroment, whick fuels the fire of todays poacher. In the old days poachers were simply doing it for food. Today they do it for money! Now I'm done.

[ronn]

bruce, $699 is a long way from $20,000 and I wouldn't give the $10 for the rack. odds are there are some in the books that shouldn't be there. Joel, maybe I'm naive but is there a REAL market for racks? huntingman, If you don't like money just mail it to..... (kidding) Ok guys I give up. I'm all wrong.

[Hunting Man]

ronn, I figured if we kept shooting you'd finally go down, just kidding!!! This was one of the best topics yet.

[ronn]

yeah I got tired, kinda like pushing a chain. Good topic. I wonder what the real numbers are? not just our feelings. we'll probably never know.

[joel the signman]

Iowa's Deer Poachers: Stealing The Trophies Police break up deer-poaching ring - March 18, 2006 The Morning Journal - Local deer poaching ring busted by state officials read page 2 of first article

[Turtle]

Ronn , your right that we will never know the real numbers. Although I believe it's worse than you think, deep down I hope you're right. But after seeing all the ball players on steroids when they new it was illegal, after seeing the Nascar teams cheat when they know whats allowed, etc. etc. etc. It's hard for me to believe that our sport is any cleaner when it's not governed nearly as closely.

It's a shame that this would only be considered a misdemeanor. I may be alone in this, but I see no difference between poaching game and the dog fighting that Michael Vick got 2 years for.

To me better examples need to be made. The only way to deter crime is by increasing the risks if someone is caught. Make the risks far outweigh the rewards.

Again, I hope you're right. I think you're a good person, good father, good sportsmen . I don't believe most people are as good as you are. But however many, be it few or many. We need to crack down before it gets worse.