Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Kirt Darner Update Questions

I was at a friends home the other day and I was perusing one of his "outdoor" magazines as he was brewing up some tea for us.
I saw a small article on "Kirt Darner" (the disgraced Mule Deer Hunter from Colorado IIRC) I only got to glance at the article as tea then was being served.
I did not get back to the article and my friend cleaned out his books since I remembered I wanted to read the rest of the article - and thats another question I have - I think it was the latest issue of Sports Afield Magazine.
Anyway I finished my tea and cookies but did not get back to the article back then.
Can anyone fill me in on this Kirt Darner update?
I think the header of the article was "Update - Kirt Darner Sentenced"?
TIA
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Here is the press release regarding his penalties

Drummond

HUNTING 'LEGEND' GETS $10,000 IN FINES, 4,500 HOURS COMMUNITY SERVICE

GRANTS -- Kirt Darner, a former outfitter and owner of a private northwestern New Mexico elk hunting park, was sentenced to $10,000 in fines and 4,500 hours of community service Monday for illegally transporting elk and receiving stolen bighorn sheep heads.

Cibola County District Judge Camille Martinez-Olguin also ordered Darner to pay an undetermined amount of restitution to the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, and a taxidermy business in Montrose, Colo., where the sheep heads were stolen. Olguin ordered Darner to serve 25 weeks of community service a year for
4 � years -- 4,500 hours -- in Colorado and New Mexico.

"Mr. Darner has learned that we will not tolerate people trying to profit by stealing wildlife that belongs to the citizens of New Mexico," Cibola County District Attorney Lemuel Martinez said. "We will continue to aggressively prosecute these types of crimes."

Darner, 69, pleaded guilty to the charges in June 2008. He faced a maximum penalty of 4 � years in jail and a minimum of $10,000 in fines and restitution. In a plea agreement accepted by Judge Martinez-Olguin, Darner also agreed never to hunt, fish or possess a firearm in his lifetime.

The investigation involved close cooperation among the 13th Judicial District Attorney's Office, the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

Kirt Darner, a nationally known big-game hunter and guide, and his wife, Paula Darner, were co-owners of a 40-acre game park on the Lobo Canyon Ranch north of Grants. They were indicted on multiple charges related to the possession of two trophy bighorn sheep heads and the illegal transport of stolen live elk. The Darners were accused of illegally moving three state-owned elk from the Lobo Canyon Ranch to the Pancho Peaks ranch and game park in southeastern New Mexico in 2005. Kirt Darner was paid $5,000 for each elk.

Department of Game and Fish officers who executed a search warrant at the Darner property in 2005 discovered a desert bighorn sheep head and a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep head inside a vehicle. Further examination of the heads determined that they were stolen from a Montrose, Colo., taxidermy shop in 2000. The Colorado Division of Wildlife had offered a $5,500 reward for information about the sheep-head thefts. At the time they were stolen, the sheep heads were estimated to be worth more than $20,000 each. At Monday's sentencing hearing, a Colorado Division of Wildlife investigator testified that a former employee of Darner's admitted to being paid to steal the sheep heads.

Previously, in Colorado, Darner was convicted of illegal possession of wildlife in 1994. In 1999 he was convicted of second degree tampering with evidence and careless driving in an incident in which he was serving as an outfitter. Division of Wildlife officers observed Darner's client shoot at an elk decoy in a game management unit for which the client didn't have a license. In 2008, Darner pleaded guilty to making a false statement in order to purchase a license. He had applied for landowner vouchers with the Department of Wildlife, but did not own enough property to be eligible for the program.

The Darners currently live in Crawford, Colo.

If you have information about a wildlife crime, please call Operation Game Thief toll-free, (800) 432-4263. You can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward in information leads to charges being filed.

Huntsonora: Thank you VERY much for that press release update!
I am aghast at this so called "sportsman" and the crap he has gotten involved in!
I know of two burglaries here in Montana (where buglaries are rare) where the only items taken were game heads!
I am sure the vast majority of "Hunters" would not commit crimes relating to big game or trophy horns BUT there must be a market for these type items somewhere?
Darn (as in Darner!) shame.
Thanks again.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I knew about the stuff in CO that he did, but was not aware that he was still up to shenanigans.

I just got an offline E-mail in which the sender corrected me in that the short article regarding Kirt Darner was in this months issue of "Field & Stream" Magazine in the Villians & Heroes section.
Thanks for that correction.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Don't be so quick to tie this guy to a stake and burn him, as a teenager growing up back in PA., my brother and I would read his mule deer hunting articles in various outdoor magazines. He helped put the 7mm Remington Mag in the lime light as a great western hunting cartridge and also inspired me to want to move out west where I have lived the last 30 years. He has written at least one book that I've read titled,"Hunting The Rockies". I have followed in bits and pieces his brushes with the DOW here in CO. where he resides in Montrose not far from where I live. I can't say what led to his move to unlawful activity in regards to wildlife violations, probably big money, but there are always 2 sides of a story and mostly I see the laws side in this case which isn't always as correct as we would like to see. To be stripped of his hunting and fishing privileges and lose his right to possess firearms has got to be as close to a living hell as one can get for an outdoors man like him. I only hope the best for him. Side note, AI Fool, I love the hell out of that 39A I bought from you, Thanks again!

Darner has been convicted of various serious wildlife crimes for years now. Evidently he never could learn, even after being punished before. I find it curious that any real hunter could defend him.

Just my opinion, maybe I'm just not a real hunter! LOL!

Glad to hear it. I got a little single shot falling block as a replacement, and I've put 750 rounds through it since I sold that 39A to you. I just couldn't bring myself to punish a gun like that as I have been doing this one. SO, we're both happy, but you do have the better shooter of the 2 for sure.

Darner killed big bucks and that takes work as well as skill no doubt. I think the pressure was on to keep getting big ones and that probabloy wasn't easy to do year in and year out, especially when things got a bit more restrictive due to drops in deer numbers. I suspect he felt he had to resort to whatever means necessary to keep in the lime light.

Asked and answered..

There can be no mitigating such actions......no matter what excuses are offered in his behalf. Obviously premeditated, the only goal was to profit from his actions, took animals possibly destined for others playing fairly, continued to act in a criminal fashion even after being busted....what's to emulate about this guy, especially when his current and past history shows him to be just a plain, everyday criminal? I hear that women still pine over Manson as well, but that doesn't make him any more than what he is. Says a lot about those pining, as well.

OJ was a hell of a football player. Got lucky killin' his wife and what's his face. Thought he'd go to the trough one more time, 'cuz he has no respect for the law and felt above it evidently. I suppose we should respect him now for what he once did.......many, many years and brushes with the law ago.

Same, same....................IMHO. It's been my experience throughout my career that most people don't just suddenly become unlawful/deceitful/scheming at middle-age on up. There has generally been some, if not multiple criminal/unlawful activities, which these people have been involved with, either directly of peripherally. In Darner's case, there is absolutely no question that his road to the big house started many years ago. And even more likely, possibly in his youth, many years even before his very first adjudication.

Bad apples and hurtful to our sport in several ways.....these.

My guess is Darner was poaching from the start and his career developed from illegal kills judging from hs string of run-ins with the DOW. And as far as two sides to every story, it sure seems Darner's side is getting convicted quite often. The guy is nothing more than an old, washed-up poacher at this point.

Prredog: It is NOT my (our?) job to punish Mr. Darner!
I wouldn't even if I could.
I am, though, glad he has been punished by the courts!
No one is advocating he be tied to a stake or tarred and feathered.
NOR should anyone DEFEND him or his actions - he has been found guilty before and now he has PLED GUILTY to these new and serious charges!
He should be punished by the courts and his punishment is in effect and pending.
Once his fine is paid and his community service completed I hope he does go Hunting somewhere and he gets back on the "straight and narrow".
It is perfectly legitimate for those of us who try to be honest sportsmen and Hunters to decry Mr. Darners actions AND condemn them - if someone wants to condemn Mr. Darner then that is just fine with me.
But the public does not get to administer justice or punish criminals.
Someone once said no one is all bad - I am not sure about that but I am glad Mr. Darner had some positive influence on you - still, that does not diminish his crimes and criminal intentions.
Mr. Darner conducted himself as a turd - I hope he quits doing that IMMEDIATELY.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Couldn't agree more. He's a poaching. thieving, stealing, POS and deserves to be treated like one.

Just an observation but I've seen it happen to more than one super successful hunter that sooner or later greed took over. And they began going further and further into the grey are. And then, sooner or later they begin to get pinched and sooner or later it goes farther.

There's been others and there will be more.

Just an observation.

Dober

Absolutely no offense to anyone, but this is all very old news (relatively speaking). I'm very suprised VarmintGuy and others here didn't already know all this. I'm not a computer guy by any means, but I already knew all this info months ago.

I am by NO means a computer guy (more like computer ignorant) and I know I have added nothing to this post, just typing (slowly BTW) my suprise to see this come up now.

I'll now sip my last beer and make my last dumb post for the evening!

Bill

P.S. I think Darner got everything he had coming to him.....and he got off easy!

Bill

Tx270: WELL EXXCCCUUUSE ME!
I initially heard of this outcome while reading a copy of Field & Stream that a close friend of mine has a subscription to.
It was in the latest edition of Field & Stream NOT one that has been lying around for a year or two!
And unfortunately the article that a HELPFUL poster copied for us here does not have a dateline!
So I have no idea when this LATEST incident occurred NOR does THAT matter!
What matters IS a Hunter turned BAD/GREEDY/CRIMINAL!
And that set of facts is not affected by a DATELINE!
I did not know about these LATEST incidents and convictions and sentences until yesterday, and I am sure MANY other sportsmen also were not aware of them.
In fact I sent this "latest" information to most everyone of my friends on my E-mail list (you are not on it) and many of them responded with surprise and indignation at Mr. Darners acts and convictions.
So I stand by my posting even if YOU think its untimely!
And in keeping with YOUR policy on commenting on others posts - "I" think your post here is petty ("of little importance, trivial, narrow minded and mean spirited" - Websters Dictionary), impertinent (irrelevant - Websters Dictionary), rude AND right next to useless!
Yeah, head back to your beer!
Sheesh.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Screw Darner. He had his chance and went from bad to worse.

Varmintguy, sorry I ticked you off. My post was in no way intended to be smart azz, sarcastic or anything of that nature. My apologies if it came off that way.

I thought the Darner situation was done and finished and he had already been setenced months ago. Guess I was wrong. They were discussing his punishment he recieved from the judge on Monster Muleys website a few months ago.

Sorry again,

Bill

BTW, I didn't think your post was untimely at all, I was just suprised is all that many here had not heard of it yet, as we usually hear about things like that when they happen on this site.

VG, I suppose my initial post didn't add anything relevant to the discussion, but it was not "rude, or mean-spirited". The same cannot be said for your reply to it.

Bill

Did Darner shoot any of his B&C mulies legally?