Record buck illegally taken, Minnesota officials say

From News Reports

November 13, 2009 at 10:18 am  | Mobile Reader | Print 

Courtesy of the MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Minnesota Natural Resources officials taped this 8-point rack at 185 inches (green) after confiscating it from the man they said illegally killed the buck wearing the huge crown. The rack could be the largest 8-point ever measured.

Court records accuse Troy Alan Reinke of Cannon Falls, Minn., of shooting the monster 180-class buck with a bow on Halloween while hunting on private land.

“It’s something you’ll never see in your lifetime,” taxidermist Chuck Corcoran told the (Minneapolis-St. Paul) Star Tribune.

Corcoran processed the 269-pound deer, and taped the rack at 192 inches gross and 188 net. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources  set the greenscore at 185 inches.

The problem, state officias say, is the buck wasn’t the only one Reinke killed in October. The man allegedly admitted to taking another buck during another hunt, even though he was allowed under state law to kill only one buck for the season.

Among the charges the 32-year-old Reinke faces are exceeding the annual limit, failure to register a deer, leaving big game untagged and illegal transport of big game.

If convicted, Reinke faces $19,000 in fines, up a year in jail and revocation of hunting licenses.