loneranger
Well-Known Member
It is crazy,,bones growing out of animals heads have become so valuable. I know, just about anything rare becomes valuable,,just watch American Pickers, or Pawn Shop,,,but still crazy.
jclaws
PMA Member
there must be some kind of black market because i hear of peoples deer heads getting stolen.They have to be doing something with them.Look at brian andrews buck,i figured it would have shown up by now but it and many others are still missing.Unless there is a wothless piece of trash with a wall full of other peoples heads.The guys from fairfield had a buyer buying there poached racks.It definately happens.just because it has a tag dont mean it was taken legally,There are alot of shady people around.
Daver
PMA Member
Although I really don't have any facts to support my theory, I agree with JClaws here. I have not heard of this lately so much, but about 4-8 years ago I know of a few racks that were stolen that to the best of my knowledge have never surfaced. The Andrews buck was one of those, but certainly not the only one.
The Andrews buck was so top end that I can't imagine that it could ever be made public without someone recognizing it. Other big heads that I believe were also stolen in this timeframe may not be quite as recognizable, but surely if these big racks were somehow ending up in the hands of an eccentric collector there will be a breakthrough sometime I would think.
If one person was somehow ending up with these racks illicitly they really could not show them to anyone for fear of getting caught and someday I would think that someone would find their "stash" and solve this puzzle.
As far as someone putting a valid tag on an illegally harvested animal...it would be very easy to do it if that was your cup of tea. I shot a buck the other day, all legal BTW
, but not one other person in this world really knows for sure if I was following the rules or not. Even my son who was hunting with me can't say for sure that I didn't use a high powered rifle on it, etc. (No flaming!! :grin: It was a perfectly legitimate harvest with a legal weapon, I am just making a point.)In short, I too think there has to be a black market of some sort, even if it is just one James Bond villain type gathering all of the world's biggest racks. It is possible too that there may only be one big time antler thief and he takes them himself and has never bought a thing.
nannyslayer
New Member
I guess things like this make me wonder sometimes. Not saying anything about the seller, just no tags on the racks of any deer. Very well could have salvage tags for them, or the tags in a box somewhere.
http://desmoines.craigslist.org/art/2072449546.html
http://desmoines.craigslist.org/art/2072449546.html
Shoot2Kill
Active Member
Wow, the word shady doesn't come to mind at all when I see that many heads laying on the ground - wtf? Who knows for sure, but it looks very shady when most you see for sale at least have the hides removed and it's just the skull plate.
ironwood
Active Member
jclaws
PMA Member
I could see someone getting racks like that from a meat locker.there are alot of guys that dont care about the smaller racks and they just let the locker keep them.That would make more sense to me than someone poaching deer that size.
codywright
TENRINGER
Disgusted
If the DNR is hitting it so hard to try and catch poachers then why would they tell us no they are not going to look into it. We would have to catch them in the act. This fall while bowhunting I undoubtedly heard a rifle shot come from the road and immediately called the landowner just in case. It seems like this road is a magnet for poachers when the rut hits. The landowner said he wouldn't make it out there til dark due to work. So while walking out from bowhunting the landowner calls me and says I had better stop up. He said he found a buck in the field that was very nice and I should take a look. Wow! 170" ten point with double brows left laying in his hayfield. The landowner went into the Magistrate at the courthouse and told them to get ahold of the DNR! They did, but were told if they had time they would look into it. In the meantime later that night the poachers returned to retrieve the deer and drove all over his hayfield. Too bad they didn't find the deer. Til this day he never has been contacted. Now we wonder why the poaching is happening so much? It is because nobody is going to stop them or even attempt to. We have called the past three years cause we either caught or found poached deer and nothing has been done. When a guy goes to all the hard work of scouting food plots ect, it really hits home when something like this is going on. Until they really crack down on it and make huge astronomical examples out of people, it is going to continue. They should make it a flat fee for poaching. $25,000 or better, just like they do with federal birds and such.
If the DNR is hitting it so hard to try and catch poachers then why would they tell us no they are not going to look into it. We would have to catch them in the act. This fall while bowhunting I undoubtedly heard a rifle shot come from the road and immediately called the landowner just in case. It seems like this road is a magnet for poachers when the rut hits. The landowner said he wouldn't make it out there til dark due to work. So while walking out from bowhunting the landowner calls me and says I had better stop up. He said he found a buck in the field that was very nice and I should take a look. Wow! 170" ten point with double brows left laying in his hayfield. The landowner went into the Magistrate at the courthouse and told them to get ahold of the DNR! They did, but were told if they had time they would look into it. In the meantime later that night the poachers returned to retrieve the deer and drove all over his hayfield. Too bad they didn't find the deer. Til this day he never has been contacted. Now we wonder why the poaching is happening so much? It is because nobody is going to stop them or even attempt to. We have called the past three years cause we either caught or found poached deer and nothing has been done. When a guy goes to all the hard work of scouting food plots ect, it really hits home when something like this is going on. Until they really crack down on it and make huge astronomical examples out of people, it is going to continue. They should make it a flat fee for poaching. $25,000 or better, just like they do with federal birds and such.
iowabruce
Active Member
With the imaginations some have on this site, I'm glad I deal in sheds. Crooks are crooks are crooks , it doesn't matter if they are stealing racks or flat screen televisions. How does anyone know if anything is stolen when it is offered up for sale. I do like the "James Bond Villain" reference..............WAIT, I've solved it..........The Black market is....................BASS PRO SHOPS....they have all the big heads anyway, and they are all filled with drugs, that's how they ship them across the country, know one would ever think to check the BASS Pro truck.........Sorry I got carried away.
What is the real world value of a big rack? The ones I see on Ebay don't look like they bring that much unless they are unique. How many deer does a guy have to sell to make a living? Is it really that easy to poach enough trophy bucks without getting caught?
I agree the obsession with antlers is ruining the sport.
I agree the obsession with antlers is ruining the sport.
Daver
PMA Member
OK, so let's hear your theory on what is happening when a house or place of business is broken into and the only thing taken is a deer head with big antlers. I don't think that anyone would dispute that multiple big racks have been stolen over time and they then have disappeared...for good.
In some cases many years have passed now and these big racks have yet to be recovered to the best of my knowledge. Do you think that someone would risk breaking into someone elses property to steal them and then throw them in the river, etc?
iowabruce
Active Member
Why would you assume that every trophy head stolen is because of it's cash value? Jealousy, family grudges, the list goes on and on............and yes I do think someone would steal a rack and and throw it in a river, crazier things have happened. I truely believe there are crimes done by individuals just to piss other people off.
Daver
PMA Member
I don't think that I assumed every head stolen was for it's cash value, in fact I believe I suggested that there may be one eccentric person out there somewhere that has a vault loaded with huge racks due to some crazy personality quirk, etc.
Surely a rack here or there may have been taken for who knows what type of reason, who can say for sure, but my persuasion is that it is much more likely the thief, or thieves, is either receiving some financial compensation OR they think they will get some cash out of it somehow. I certainly don't think those are unusual motivations for someone that would steal someone elses property.
So do you think that these big racks are stolen for revenge, etc, or because of their value, real or perceived? You didn't really answer my question from an earlier post either...who do you think is stealing these large racks?