Outfitter Busted!

[dbltree]

The Van Buren Register came today with an extensive article stating how undercover IDNR officers over a period of time have found a tremendous amount of evidence of illegal hunting activity going on at MIDWEST USA Outfitters in Cantril Iowa (owned and operated by Rodney Hughes of Pennsylvania)

The article is to long to state everything here and no charges have been issued at this time, only evidence siezed when they executed a search warrent which is also extensive.

The undercover officers were sold Missouri tags to hunt turkeys in Iowa and given Mr. Hughes's own personal license.

This fall the same officers also witnessed deer with Missouri tags that had not been checked in (registered) in MS.

I will repeat that all of this is "alleged" and no charges filed at this point, but it appears that is only a matter of time. I'm only telling you the highlights of what they are "suspected" of.

If I hear anymore I'll keep you posted and anything I post is right out of the newspaper not heresay or personal opinion...I'll wait on that until after the IDNR does their job..... /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

 

[Fishbonker]

I anxiously await details. It is important that we don’t paint all outfitters in Iowa with the same brush, but……

A quick search of IOGA on Google got a lot of hits, but none that are sponsored by IOGA. Redirect me if I’m wrong.

The ‘Bonker

 

[tped]

I didn't get a chance to look at the charges or anything but it is not surprising to me that some of the outfitters operating close to the Missouri border such as Cantril is that they would be skirting the laws. I had a person on a local belletin board from this area mention that he archery hunted Iowa every year. Well we all know that with the draw and limited archery tags that bowhunting Iowa by a non resident is virtually impossible to do each year. When pressed he stated he hunted with an outfitter who was close to the border south of Des Moines who had property in both Iowa & Missouri so he was getting the MO tag each year but hunted both sides of the line which is illegal. I won't mention the outfitters name on here but I imagine this goes on quite a bit, particularly along the Iowa/MO border. I don't condone it either and this guy and any others guilty should be prosecuted to the fullest extent.

 

[dbltree]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">he archery hunted Iowa every year. </div></div>

That's exactly what was going on in this case and the records they confiscated I'm sure will lead to many more charges against NR hunters who hunted with them illegally.

It may take years to unravel it all but much of it was initiated because of tips from people who stated "Rodney Hughes was acquiring resident Iowa deer licenses for non-resident deer hunting clients to use during the shotgun deer seasons"

the informant stated that "Rodney was charging NR's several hundred dollars for these licenses"

Again, I am quoting directly from the newspaper and the article is long and extensive in covering this.

Personally I suspect that this is only the tip of the iceberg and it only substantiates many of the concerns many of us have had for some time including the reason antlerless tags are no longer available for NR's during archery season.

Many are not aware of serious abuses by greedy people on all sides of this issue.... /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazy.gif