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MN: hunter charged with poachingNovember 12, 2009 Minn. hunter charged with poaching trophy buck Troy Alan Reinke drew back his bow on Halloween evening, targeting a whitetail buck with 8-point antlers larger than any recorded in history. Reinke's broadhead flew true, and soon he and two friends were dragging the huge whitetail out of the Goodhue County woods. But there was a problem. Legally, Reinke could kill and register only one deer, and on previous days he had already killed a doe and smaller buck, neither of which he had registered. The would-be world-record buck Reinke killed on Halloween was poached, as were the other deer, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which on Thursday announced a 13-count case against the 32-year-old Cannon Falls man. The antlers the DNR trotted out at Thursday's news conference were so big that they appeared at first glance to be those of an elk. "Millions of deer are harvested nationally each year,'' said DNR big-game coordinator Lou Cornicelli. "The probability of harvesting one [with a rack] this big is just infinitesimal. It doesn't exist.'' If convicted, Reinke would be required to pay $2,000 in restitution for the three illegally killed deer, in addition to losing his big-game hunting privileges in Minnesota for three years. Jail time is possible, DNR conservation officer Maj. Rod Smith said. "We take this very seriously,'' Smith said. Return to Hunting Accident Index
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