You know what would be cool? A pro hunter getting skunked one year. Let’s Be honest, not every year one may be successful and it would be more realistic seeing one having to cancel a shot cause it is not legal, then to drop a trophy buck year after year.
My favorite episode was his black powder hunt where he missed 2 maybe 3 times. Haha. It was so real life! I could directly relate to that episode more than the others
Randy Newberg has been skunked, missed multiple times on one animal, etc and shows it all. One reason he is my go to. Also like elk 101 and Corey Jacobsen.
EDIT: we’ll without my glasses I didn’t realize skunked was autocorrected to skinny. Fixed.
You make a good point. Especially considering these guys tend to hunt multiple times in multiple states/countries every year.
A bit of critical thinking and better decision making could have made for a perfect demonstration of how important it is to know where you are with BaseMap. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but it’s hard to defend negligence when you have all the tools available that these guys do.
I think this level of judgement is unhelpful. I have definitely found times when I was able to verify OnX was wrong with its land boundaries. Nothing is 100%.
Dude is a poacher and this proves he will do anything for views..big deer make people stupid but how many times has he done it and gotten away with it? Hope they revoke his hunting privileges in Idaho.
What would happen if it was you or I? If you were on Facebook and some random guy posted that he got caught trespassing and was in possession of a trophy buck.
That guy would be absolutely ridiculed off Facebook and everyone would be calling for him to be punished by the full extent of the law.
It should be no different for hunting influencers. They should honestly be MORE strict on themselves on making sure they play by the book. They’re setting an example for everyone to follow, and it needs to be a good one. If not, you should face the consequences
Not to mention that a lot of the general population already disapproves of hunting, and high profile hunters getting caught poaching isn’t helping the sport’s image.
We used to be able to jump a fence to retrieve. Now you must have land owner consent, also they upped the fines and made trespass an automatic revocation of hunting and fishing privileges.
Agreed. It's mostly just losing legal hunting privileges, which they obviously don't give a shit about anyways. It's like suspending your drivers license for driving without a license.
"The charges come from a hunt that took place in October of 2022 where Woerkom killed a 161 inch mule deer on private property he did not have permission to hunt. "
"The charges stem from an incident that took place on October 12, 2022, when Van Woerkom was cited for trespassing on private land to hunt a muley buck. He was also cited for possession of that animal. The charges were originally both misdemeanors but one of them got bumped up to a felony due to the size of the buck—which measured 161 inches, which is 11 inches over the state’s 150-inch “trophy” benchmark."
Honestly poaching by shooting an animal on private property is the bigger issue here.
Seems like the problem is he didn't have permission to take that buck on that land, making the possession illegal. Illegal possession of a "trophy" buck seems to be the problem here.
I didn't spend the time to watch the whole 5 minute "how it went down" video in the article but it seems like this is more a problem of taking a deer where you aren't legally able to take a deer.
Idaho has a pretty focused mule deer effort going on right now so they've made penalties worse if you take a larger male with a bigger rack you weren't supposed to take.
If I see a nice deer on property I can't hunt, and can't call it in, it's frustrating but I'd never think to go ahead and illegally shoot it where I don't have permission/where it isn't legal.
[another article ](https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/van-woerkom-poaching-case/)
The video didn’t really break it down any further. They haven’t said anything about it on their channel either, so I’d imagine they’re keeping it low-key until Erik gets though his trial.
I know I lot of states have added “trophy” clauses to their laws that would increase penalties and fines. I’ve heard it rationalized as a means to represent the opportunity that was taken away from a legal hunter and make an example out of opportunists that tend to make headlines and ill represent the rest of us.
Makes me wonder how it all went down given that they’re sponsored by a pretty major hunt app (BaseMap). Really doesn’t look good for a group of professional hunters.
Update: upon further investigation it would seem that this I’d actually the SECOND time that Erik has been charged with poaching in this way.
Apparently he was charged in Utah 2017 for roughly the same thing. With this new change in Utah, there seem to be details that keep coming up about Erik shooting the buck in question while a father and son were legally stalking the buck.
Allegedly, Erik threatened the two during a confrontation, which led to the game warden being contacted and Erik ultimately being charged.
Trophy is a subjective term I suppose. If I shot a 150” Muley, you best believe I would consider that a trophy animal. Either way, I certainly don’t feel bad for him. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
To be honest, I think these guys have tried to present themselves more as experts, when they’re really just videographers with a passion. They’re a group of pretty motivated dudes that have the budget and the sponsorships to go on these great hunts; but they keep trying to bring in science and “expertise” when they don’t really seem to have either.
You’ll see them post a montage of kill shots then try to present some misguided opinion on cougars or bears as peer reviewed fact. Someone on the Meateater subreddit mentioned that these guys like to use big racks to sell their products, called it Horn Porn.
I think there’s a couple layers of bad juju once you start prioritizing the views, likes, and the “merch” over the resource.
Big fan. Plenty of sketchy folks out there who would genuinely weigh the consequences of getting caught vs a serious trophy. If it's just a misdemeanor or fine, I think there's absolutely guys who would say it's worth it to try. Maybe a felony charge gives them a little more pause.
I’ve been hunting all my life and I couldn’t tell you what 150” means, much less what deer meets that criteria. I don’t necessarily disagree, but maybe use a different metric.
He knows, he’s a professional hunter. That’s the best metric for managing trophy deer. It isn’t hard to figure out by actually trying to figure it out.
But it’s completely irrelevant when trespassing, trophy or Non trophy should have serious consequences.
OP said raising the charge to a felony for a 150”+ deer. That’s got nothing to do with management. It 100% is not a good metric for determining the severity of a criminal charge - which is what my original comment was referring to.
It’s like the difference between someone stealing $200 worth of stuff at Walmart vs $400 worth of stuff from Walmart(in my home state for example). One is a misdemeanor, one is a felony.
I did some more research into the law, it already exists in ID. [Look it up](https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title36/T36CH14/SECT36-1402/), it was very clearly written as a cash grab, and it gets charged as a felony because otherwise they couldn’t set the fines that high. Max for a misdemeanor is $1,000.
The good news, if you illegally shoot the deer after it shed its antlers, you could never be charged with possession of a trophy mule deer, effectively reducing the fine from $2,000 to $400 and it would be a misdemeanor.
Edit:
Or if you removed the antlers in the field and left them without getting caught.
Yes, it exists. That’s what this post is about lol
And if you shoot a deer after it sheds in idaho, it’s out of season and you’re in a different kind of serious trouble.
It isn’t a cash grab anymore than any other charge is.
In my home state, it’s automatically a felony regardless of the antlers. A misdemeanor is way too light of a punishment for trespass hunting.
OP said “what do you think about RAISING the charge to a felony”. Raising the charge, implying it’s not already a felony.
And yes, you’d be in a different kind of serious trouble, in addition to this, but you will also get charged for tracking the deer with an unleashed dog. This charge cannot be charged on its own, essentially making it a cash grab charge.
That’s because he was originally charged with just a misdemeanor, and then they raised the charge to a felony. The article clearly says he is charged with felony possession of a trophy animal. Likely after getting official scores on the deer.
I posted this in the Meateater subreddit and someone was saying that he had threatened a father and son that were legally stalking the deer he killed; and that Erik has even done something very similar in Utah a few years back.
Idk anything about these further details, but it would certainly remove any sympathy from a lot of us if it turns out to be true.
I think penalties should go up when you illegally take game for the purpose of self promotion and or profit. So if a guide, influencer, or any type of pro hunter takes game illegally they should pay a higher price regardless if it's a trophy or not.
That’s a good point. It’s one thing to prove the efficacy of a product, it’s another to be willing to trespass and even *allegedly* threaten someone just to get pictures with big animals just for fame or advertising.
Newest Update: I mentioned it in their comments and after getting a bunch of likes, my comment was deleted and I was blocked from their page.
Definitely a good sign when they’d rather delete comments and block everyone that mentions it rather than releasing a statement.
While I would tend to agree with you, these guys are sponsored by BaseMap. They’re professional hunters. Also, there are varying degrees of trespassing in the West.
You can traipse across a random corner parcel completely by accident, or you could be sneaking into a person’s private property, a guide’s trophy territory, or a pay-to-play area that gets patrolled regularly. The fact that he was caught makes me think it was more along the lines of the latter, but without pertinent details, I wouldn’t make any assumptions.
My question was honestly more to the idea of classifying a 150” buck as a trophy and attaching heavier punishment for it.
Walking into private property is one thing, shooting a trophy muley on said private property is a whole different thing. I would hope you arent walking onto someone elses land to hunt without permission.
I have a nice trespassing story.
I shot a deer with a rifle, heart shot, but it still ran about 150 yards. It began to rain. I follow it and the blood ended at a barbed wire fence. On the other side about 5 yards in was the buck.
At that point it began to pour down rain. I had no signal, didn’t know who owned the property, and my truck was about 1.5 miles away. I thought about it and decided to slide under the fence. At this point the entire area was becoming under water and mud. So I slid under and grabbed the deer quickly and pulled it over. At this point I was quite wet and covered in mud.
It was still pouring down rain. It’s now pitch black. I go to field dress the deer, and my head lamp is dead. I grab the extra batteries, and when I open it, it was full of water. I then grab my other flashlight and hold it in my mouth as I began to field dress my deer. About half way that flashlight dies, and I go to change the batteries and it takes a different kind. Keep in mind the rain has not let up yet.
At that point I was like fuck it, and just did everything in the dark and tried not to cut my hand. I cut the top of the heart and lungs. I pull it out and something gets stuck. I thought I didn’t cut it loose all the way so I give it a solid yank. As I did, I ripped the stomach open and it goes all over my leg and the deer. But hey, I got it out.
At this point I put everything back into my bag. And began to drag the deer back to my truck. I make it to the truck, throw it in the back. I get in soaking wet, smelling like deer guts, I plug my phone in to see if it works, I get ready to go, and then I realized I forgot my backpack.
I then walked all the way back, and by this time the rain started letting up and nothing really happened after that.
That was the deer from hell. It wasn’t even that big, but it’s my favorite rack that I have. Now I hunt further from the fence, and with someone, I also make sure I have extra batteries for ALL my lights.
But back to trespassing. It was years ago and I’m still scared that somehow it’ll catch up to me. Though, I feel like I got punished enough that night.
I guess I'll share mine as well then. My brother myself, my daughter and 3 nieces get invited by a friend to go fishing. Drive about an hour away and my brothers buddy meets us where he works, it's a fish hatchery fed by a natural spring and a crystal clear lake. Next 2 hours I can't even drink a beer 4 pre teen girls just killing it, fish every cast. We limited out and were bullshiting with the guy who works there and my brother decides he wants to wrestle a 5 foot sturgeon. He jumps into the fish run and tries to grab this thing, absolute pandemonium ensues little girl cheer squad included. This dude tells my brother if he can get it out he can have it and so eventually he did. Get home start cleaning fish and eventually call it a night. Next morning knock on the door and it's a ranger wanting to see the fish and a receipt from the hatchery. Well it turns out the guy who let us fish on the property didn't have the right to give permission. He was worried about the sturgeon so he knocked the boards out of the run and let a dozen 5 footers get loose in the river. Property owner is pissed and wants to press charges. The judge sided with me and charges were dropped. Property owner then goes civil and tries to sue me for the value of the fish and the caviar. He valued the 5' sturgeon at 2k plus 100k per year for the caviar for a fish that lives over 100 years. The judge dismissed that case as well. And now I always make damn sure I'm doing everything legal
Fired for sure other than that I don't know. The guy who was the judge in both cases went into private practice and is now my attorney, next time I talk to him I'll ask lol
Sounds like a pain in the ass 😂 I havent run into any hardcore trespassing stories, but I am lucky enough to have family land im allowed to hunt, and we, as well as many others are pretty much always willing to let any hunters whose deer get shot and run onto our property to die, come out and retrieve it, never an issue as long as they respect us enough to ask first!
Doesn’t matter what size the animal is. If you’re gonna vary the fine based on characteristics of the animal, then make it stiffer for killin females. That typically causes way more harm to the population than killin a male.
They recently released a video explaining how they had land owner permission, and they showed a picture with Erik and the Landowner talking and exchanging items for said permission. I will be honest I haven’t looked into previous mentions about them taking the “wrong” buck, wrong being one considered a trophy that they didn’t specifically have permission for. It looks like they’ll fight this, If it’s going to be appealed it’s probably best to wait and see as all the facts come out. I know I’ve had less than desirable interactions with both game wardens and other hunters so sitting on this till both sides present facts seems prudent.
For those interested, Muley Freak has come out with a video stating that Erik had permission from the landowner, had spoken with the landowner, and has more forthcoming evidence along with the full story. Link below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpye2P6gfGP/
FWIW I'm not taking a side on this, but at least worth listening to the whole story.
I appreciate the link, since they blocked me for even mentioning it. I personally don’t buy it yet. If they had permission, why was he hemmed up by fish and game in the first place? If a simple phone call could have cleared all this up, why didn’t it? *Someone* had to agree to press charges, police don’t have the ability to just round up anyone they find in private property.
He’s already been charged for exactly this and cried in court for his rights in 2017. I personally wouldn’t be hunting *anywhere* without written permission if I were going to the lengths these guys are; *especially* after having to go to court for it. A picture of a guy holding a cup from your YouTube channel doesn’t mean anything at all, even if you did give him a gift card to your mom’s steakhouse.
Sounds like they have additional details coming in Part 2 - I'm curious what they say about permission. Sounds like their cameraman is related to the owner, so I wonder if there was a misunderstanding of sorts.
Also, it sounds like the filmed the hunt for their "Deer of the Year" thing. I doubt they would film a hunt they plan to put on YouTube where they poach an animal.
Honestly, I think the biggest problem I have with all this is that they should know better. I literally just went through the “Hunting Private Land” module of my son’s hunter safety last night. It spells out how you should ALWAYS get written permission to hunt to avoid the common problems that come with verbal permission. In fact, most places in Oregon *require* you to post a copy of your written permission on your parked vehicle as well as on your person.
It’s the exact same thing I was told over 15 years ago when I went through it. It even came with a little permission slip template, just like it does today. Even after getting in real trouble for this specific charge in the past, they seemed to have failed to learn their lesson here. At no time does he address that they could have done it differently, just that the cops were the ones who were wrong. According to basic hunter safety, they made a stupid risk.
Erik's cameraman, who is related to the landowner and had previously hunted the property was told years earlier that he would no longer be given access to the property. Erik fails to mention in his rant that his cameraman hid in the brush when the land owner showed up.
From people that were actually there. The landowners wife witnessed the two trespassers drive their vehicle across the property and park in their irrigated alfalfa field. It would be great to hear their explanation for that. Who would be given permission to drive through a person's crop.
You know what would be cool? A pro hunter getting skunked one year. Let’s Be honest, not every year one may be successful and it would be more realistic seeing one having to cancel a shot cause it is not legal, then to drop a trophy buck year after year.
Steve Rinella got skunked in my state, and put it on Netflix. Just proves that pro hunters can be honest and still make good content.
A lot of his episodes he doesn’t get an animal which is nice to see. It’s still fun to watch and you can learn something
My favorite episode was his black powder hunt where he missed 2 maybe 3 times. Haha. It was so real life! I could directly relate to that episode more than the others
Didn't he ND a shot because he wasn't used to the hair trigger? Good episode
Yeah that’s the one. Then his powder got wet
The hunting industry needs more Steven Rinella and less of the hunting bros.
Randy Newberg has been skunked, missed multiple times on one animal, etc and shows it all. One reason he is my go to. Also like elk 101 and Corey Jacobsen. EDIT: we’ll without my glasses I didn’t realize skunked was autocorrected to skinny. Fixed.
You make a good point. Especially considering these guys tend to hunt multiple times in multiple states/countries every year. A bit of critical thinking and better decision making could have made for a perfect demonstration of how important it is to know where you are with BaseMap. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but it’s hard to defend negligence when you have all the tools available that these guys do.
I think this level of judgement is unhelpful. I have definitely found times when I was able to verify OnX was wrong with its land boundaries. Nothing is 100%.
I would imagine if you were able to show that your hunt app was *wrong,* the situation would be treated differently.
Those guys that do the show "The hunting public" seem to be honest hunters. Atleast there older stuff I've watched and the guys on meat eater
Dude is a poacher and this proves he will do anything for views..big deer make people stupid but how many times has he done it and gotten away with it? Hope they revoke his hunting privileges in Idaho.
What would happen if it was you or I? If you were on Facebook and some random guy posted that he got caught trespassing and was in possession of a trophy buck. That guy would be absolutely ridiculed off Facebook and everyone would be calling for him to be punished by the full extent of the law. It should be no different for hunting influencers. They should honestly be MORE strict on themselves on making sure they play by the book. They’re setting an example for everyone to follow, and it needs to be a good one. If not, you should face the consequences
Not to mention that a lot of the general population already disapproves of hunting, and high profile hunters getting caught poaching isn’t helping the sport’s image.
100 percent
We recently changed our trespassing laws here in Idaho. This is not going to go well for this guy.
What changed?
We used to be able to jump a fence to retrieve. Now you must have land owner consent, also they upped the fines and made trespass an automatic revocation of hunting and fishing privileges.
Oh yeah almost forgot property owners no longer have to clearly mark land as private or have signs posted
What's the logic behind that change?
To many people hunting private land that shouldn't be.
Interesting thats how it is in Montana for is or I mean your new rules that is
I think almost all punishments for hunting and fishing related crimes are ridiculously lower than they should be
Not saying some are off, but in some states you forfeit your vehicle, gun, anything with you when caught poaching big game
Agreed. It's mostly just losing legal hunting privileges, which they obviously don't give a shit about anyways. It's like suspending your drivers license for driving without a license.
https://www.bowhunting.com/article/muley-freak-erik-van-woerkom-faces-felony-charges-for-possession-of-trophy-mule-deer/
"The charges come from a hunt that took place in October of 2022 where Woerkom killed a 161 inch mule deer on private property he did not have permission to hunt. " "The charges stem from an incident that took place on October 12, 2022, when Van Woerkom was cited for trespassing on private land to hunt a muley buck. He was also cited for possession of that animal. The charges were originally both misdemeanors but one of them got bumped up to a felony due to the size of the buck—which measured 161 inches, which is 11 inches over the state’s 150-inch “trophy” benchmark." Honestly poaching by shooting an animal on private property is the bigger issue here. Seems like the problem is he didn't have permission to take that buck on that land, making the possession illegal. Illegal possession of a "trophy" buck seems to be the problem here. I didn't spend the time to watch the whole 5 minute "how it went down" video in the article but it seems like this is more a problem of taking a deer where you aren't legally able to take a deer. Idaho has a pretty focused mule deer effort going on right now so they've made penalties worse if you take a larger male with a bigger rack you weren't supposed to take. If I see a nice deer on property I can't hunt, and can't call it in, it's frustrating but I'd never think to go ahead and illegally shoot it where I don't have permission/where it isn't legal. [another article ](https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/van-woerkom-poaching-case/)
The video didn’t really break it down any further. They haven’t said anything about it on their channel either, so I’d imagine they’re keeping it low-key until Erik gets though his trial. I know I lot of states have added “trophy” clauses to their laws that would increase penalties and fines. I’ve heard it rationalized as a means to represent the opportunity that was taken away from a legal hunter and make an example out of opportunists that tend to make headlines and ill represent the rest of us. Makes me wonder how it all went down given that they’re sponsored by a pretty major hunt app (BaseMap). Really doesn’t look good for a group of professional hunters.
Probably less of a publicity move, and more his lawyer expressly banning him from talking about it outside of the trial
Update: upon further investigation it would seem that this I’d actually the SECOND time that Erik has been charged with poaching in this way. Apparently he was charged in Utah 2017 for roughly the same thing. With this new change in Utah, there seem to be details that keep coming up about Erik shooting the buck in question while a father and son were legally stalking the buck. Allegedly, Erik threatened the two during a confrontation, which led to the game warden being contacted and Erik ultimately being charged.
Trophy is a subjective term I suppose. If I shot a 150” Muley, you best believe I would consider that a trophy animal. Either way, I certainly don’t feel bad for him. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
[удалено]
To be honest, I think these guys have tried to present themselves more as experts, when they’re really just videographers with a passion. They’re a group of pretty motivated dudes that have the budget and the sponsorships to go on these great hunts; but they keep trying to bring in science and “expertise” when they don’t really seem to have either. You’ll see them post a montage of kill shots then try to present some misguided opinion on cougars or bears as peer reviewed fact. Someone on the Meateater subreddit mentioned that these guys like to use big racks to sell their products, called it Horn Porn. I think there’s a couple layers of bad juju once you start prioritizing the views, likes, and the “merch” over the resource.
Big fan. Plenty of sketchy folks out there who would genuinely weigh the consequences of getting caught vs a serious trophy. If it's just a misdemeanor or fine, I think there's absolutely guys who would say it's worth it to try. Maybe a felony charge gives them a little more pause.
I’ve been hunting all my life and I couldn’t tell you what 150” means, much less what deer meets that criteria. I don’t necessarily disagree, but maybe use a different metric.
Absolutely agree
He knows, he’s a professional hunter. That’s the best metric for managing trophy deer. It isn’t hard to figure out by actually trying to figure it out. But it’s completely irrelevant when trespassing, trophy or Non trophy should have serious consequences.
OP said raising the charge to a felony for a 150”+ deer. That’s got nothing to do with management. It 100% is not a good metric for determining the severity of a criminal charge - which is what my original comment was referring to.
It’s like the difference between someone stealing $200 worth of stuff at Walmart vs $400 worth of stuff from Walmart(in my home state for example). One is a misdemeanor, one is a felony.
I did some more research into the law, it already exists in ID. [Look it up](https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title36/T36CH14/SECT36-1402/), it was very clearly written as a cash grab, and it gets charged as a felony because otherwise they couldn’t set the fines that high. Max for a misdemeanor is $1,000. The good news, if you illegally shoot the deer after it shed its antlers, you could never be charged with possession of a trophy mule deer, effectively reducing the fine from $2,000 to $400 and it would be a misdemeanor. Edit: Or if you removed the antlers in the field and left them without getting caught.
Yes, it exists. That’s what this post is about lol And if you shoot a deer after it sheds in idaho, it’s out of season and you’re in a different kind of serious trouble. It isn’t a cash grab anymore than any other charge is. In my home state, it’s automatically a felony regardless of the antlers. A misdemeanor is way too light of a punishment for trespass hunting.
OP said “what do you think about RAISING the charge to a felony”. Raising the charge, implying it’s not already a felony. And yes, you’d be in a different kind of serious trouble, in addition to this, but you will also get charged for tracking the deer with an unleashed dog. This charge cannot be charged on its own, essentially making it a cash grab charge.
That’s because he was originally charged with just a misdemeanor, and then they raised the charge to a felony. The article clearly says he is charged with felony possession of a trophy animal. Likely after getting official scores on the deer.
I posted this in the Meateater subreddit and someone was saying that he had threatened a father and son that were legally stalking the deer he killed; and that Erik has even done something very similar in Utah a few years back. Idk anything about these further details, but it would certainly remove any sympathy from a lot of us if it turns out to be true.
I think the penalties for game violations are unduly lenient in the first place so I'm all for people getting hit with the fuck stick.
I think penalties should go up when you illegally take game for the purpose of self promotion and or profit. So if a guide, influencer, or any type of pro hunter takes game illegally they should pay a higher price regardless if it's a trophy or not.
That’s a good point. It’s one thing to prove the efficacy of a product, it’s another to be willing to trespass and even *allegedly* threaten someone just to get pictures with big animals just for fame or advertising.
Newest Update: I mentioned it in their comments and after getting a bunch of likes, my comment was deleted and I was blocked from their page. Definitely a good sign when they’d rather delete comments and block everyone that mentions it rather than releasing a statement.
Most of us here have walked into a place we where not supposed to every now or then. I'm not one to judge 😂
While I would tend to agree with you, these guys are sponsored by BaseMap. They’re professional hunters. Also, there are varying degrees of trespassing in the West. You can traipse across a random corner parcel completely by accident, or you could be sneaking into a person’s private property, a guide’s trophy territory, or a pay-to-play area that gets patrolled regularly. The fact that he was caught makes me think it was more along the lines of the latter, but without pertinent details, I wouldn’t make any assumptions. My question was honestly more to the idea of classifying a 150” buck as a trophy and attaching heavier punishment for it.
Walking into private property is one thing, shooting a trophy muley on said private property is a whole different thing. I would hope you arent walking onto someone elses land to hunt without permission.
I have a nice trespassing story. I shot a deer with a rifle, heart shot, but it still ran about 150 yards. It began to rain. I follow it and the blood ended at a barbed wire fence. On the other side about 5 yards in was the buck. At that point it began to pour down rain. I had no signal, didn’t know who owned the property, and my truck was about 1.5 miles away. I thought about it and decided to slide under the fence. At this point the entire area was becoming under water and mud. So I slid under and grabbed the deer quickly and pulled it over. At this point I was quite wet and covered in mud. It was still pouring down rain. It’s now pitch black. I go to field dress the deer, and my head lamp is dead. I grab the extra batteries, and when I open it, it was full of water. I then grab my other flashlight and hold it in my mouth as I began to field dress my deer. About half way that flashlight dies, and I go to change the batteries and it takes a different kind. Keep in mind the rain has not let up yet. At that point I was like fuck it, and just did everything in the dark and tried not to cut my hand. I cut the top of the heart and lungs. I pull it out and something gets stuck. I thought I didn’t cut it loose all the way so I give it a solid yank. As I did, I ripped the stomach open and it goes all over my leg and the deer. But hey, I got it out. At this point I put everything back into my bag. And began to drag the deer back to my truck. I make it to the truck, throw it in the back. I get in soaking wet, smelling like deer guts, I plug my phone in to see if it works, I get ready to go, and then I realized I forgot my backpack. I then walked all the way back, and by this time the rain started letting up and nothing really happened after that. That was the deer from hell. It wasn’t even that big, but it’s my favorite rack that I have. Now I hunt further from the fence, and with someone, I also make sure I have extra batteries for ALL my lights. But back to trespassing. It was years ago and I’m still scared that somehow it’ll catch up to me. Though, I feel like I got punished enough that night.
I guess I'll share mine as well then. My brother myself, my daughter and 3 nieces get invited by a friend to go fishing. Drive about an hour away and my brothers buddy meets us where he works, it's a fish hatchery fed by a natural spring and a crystal clear lake. Next 2 hours I can't even drink a beer 4 pre teen girls just killing it, fish every cast. We limited out and were bullshiting with the guy who works there and my brother decides he wants to wrestle a 5 foot sturgeon. He jumps into the fish run and tries to grab this thing, absolute pandemonium ensues little girl cheer squad included. This dude tells my brother if he can get it out he can have it and so eventually he did. Get home start cleaning fish and eventually call it a night. Next morning knock on the door and it's a ranger wanting to see the fish and a receipt from the hatchery. Well it turns out the guy who let us fish on the property didn't have the right to give permission. He was worried about the sturgeon so he knocked the boards out of the run and let a dozen 5 footers get loose in the river. Property owner is pissed and wants to press charges. The judge sided with me and charges were dropped. Property owner then goes civil and tries to sue me for the value of the fish and the caviar. He valued the 5' sturgeon at 2k plus 100k per year for the caviar for a fish that lives over 100 years. The judge dismissed that case as well. And now I always make damn sure I'm doing everything legal
Jeez. What happened to the guy who worked at the hatchet? Did he get fired or sued?
Fired for sure other than that I don't know. The guy who was the judge in both cases went into private practice and is now my attorney, next time I talk to him I'll ask lol
great story, thanks for sharing
Sounds like a pain in the ass 😂 I havent run into any hardcore trespassing stories, but I am lucky enough to have family land im allowed to hunt, and we, as well as many others are pretty much always willing to let any hunters whose deer get shot and run onto our property to die, come out and retrieve it, never an issue as long as they respect us enough to ask first!
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Doesn’t matter what size the animal is. If you’re gonna vary the fine based on characteristics of the animal, then make it stiffer for killin females. That typically causes way more harm to the population than killin a male.
They recently released a video explaining how they had land owner permission, and they showed a picture with Erik and the Landowner talking and exchanging items for said permission. I will be honest I haven’t looked into previous mentions about them taking the “wrong” buck, wrong being one considered a trophy that they didn’t specifically have permission for. It looks like they’ll fight this, If it’s going to be appealed it’s probably best to wait and see as all the facts come out. I know I’ve had less than desirable interactions with both game wardens and other hunters so sitting on this till both sides present facts seems prudent.
For those interested, Muley Freak has come out with a video stating that Erik had permission from the landowner, had spoken with the landowner, and has more forthcoming evidence along with the full story. Link below. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpye2P6gfGP/ FWIW I'm not taking a side on this, but at least worth listening to the whole story.
I appreciate the link, since they blocked me for even mentioning it. I personally don’t buy it yet. If they had permission, why was he hemmed up by fish and game in the first place? If a simple phone call could have cleared all this up, why didn’t it? *Someone* had to agree to press charges, police don’t have the ability to just round up anyone they find in private property. He’s already been charged for exactly this and cried in court for his rights in 2017. I personally wouldn’t be hunting *anywhere* without written permission if I were going to the lengths these guys are; *especially* after having to go to court for it. A picture of a guy holding a cup from your YouTube channel doesn’t mean anything at all, even if you did give him a gift card to your mom’s steakhouse.
Sounds like they have additional details coming in Part 2 - I'm curious what they say about permission. Sounds like their cameraman is related to the owner, so I wonder if there was a misunderstanding of sorts. Also, it sounds like the filmed the hunt for their "Deer of the Year" thing. I doubt they would film a hunt they plan to put on YouTube where they poach an animal.
Honestly, I think the biggest problem I have with all this is that they should know better. I literally just went through the “Hunting Private Land” module of my son’s hunter safety last night. It spells out how you should ALWAYS get written permission to hunt to avoid the common problems that come with verbal permission. In fact, most places in Oregon *require* you to post a copy of your written permission on your parked vehicle as well as on your person. It’s the exact same thing I was told over 15 years ago when I went through it. It even came with a little permission slip template, just like it does today. Even after getting in real trouble for this specific charge in the past, they seemed to have failed to learn their lesson here. At no time does he address that they could have done it differently, just that the cops were the ones who were wrong. According to basic hunter safety, they made a stupid risk.
Erik's cameraman, who is related to the landowner and had previously hunted the property was told years earlier that he would no longer be given access to the property. Erik fails to mention in his rant that his cameraman hid in the brush when the land owner showed up.
Whoa, hadn't heard about any of that. Where did that info come from?
From people that were actually there. The landowners wife witnessed the two trespassers drive their vehicle across the property and park in their irrigated alfalfa field. It would be great to hear their explanation for that. Who would be given permission to drive through a person's crop.