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He didn’t shoot that buck. Or at least, it’s not him in the picture.

Kind of a strange move to claim he shot a buck that he didn't.

You had better sit on the sidelines a few months before you make any comments on what I or anyone else does or doesn’t do…

Just want to hear the story on that world class buck!

Some of the beading on the base of the left antler was arranged in a bean-shaped pattern with a dot in the middle.
My photographs of Darner's mounted buck, shown on the cover of How to Find Giant Bucks, showed the same pattern. I had no doubt that the rack on Darner's mounted buck and the so-called Housholder set of antlers were one and the same. It was time to look into the Housholder picture -- was that really Bob Housholder in the photograph, and was this picture really taken in the '50s long before Darner claimed to have killed the same buck in 1977?
I did a bit of research and soon learned that Housholder had been an official scorer for the Boone and Crockett Club and was well known among Arizona trophy hunters. When I was editing for Outdoor Life magazine, my chief contributor from Arizona was Bob Whittaker, an outdoor editor for The Arizona Republic newspaper in Phoenix. I placed a call to Bob to see if he had a phone number for Housholder and could tell me his approximate age.

"Well," Bob said. "I know who Bob Housholder is, but there are some things about him that you should know. I certainly wouldn't want to be placed in a position to compare Housholder's credibility with Darner's credibility."

"Why not?" I asked.

"I would rather not say," Bob replied. "But what I will do is send you some clippings of newspaper articles that will show you why you might not want to use Housholder to question anybody's character."

A few days went by, and then I received from Bob an envelope that contained the next surprise in the Darner affair.
Bob had sent me clippings of three articles about Housholder. All had been published in The Arizona Republic. One of them, titled "Hunter arrested in morals case" and dated March 26, 1983, described how Housholder, 61, had been arrested "for investigation of taking photographs of a seminude 14-year-old girl and molesting two girls," according to police. He had been booked on charges of exploitation of a minor, sexual abuse and furnishing harmful items to minors.

Interestingly, Housholder was the man who started the Grand Slam Club in 1956. Another interesting aside is that one of the first chapters of the Grand Slam Club was the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, which has gone on to bigger and better things. Click here for details.

Whittaker provided me with more information about the photographing of dead girls and the resolution of the case, but nowadays I can't find it in my old files. I did realize, however, that Whittaker was right -- I couldn't put Housholder's character up against Darner's. I needed to find out more about the buck on the cover of How to Find Giant Bucks.

That's when I got my next anonymous letter. This one I suspected came from Darner or one of his pals. It was postmarked "Albuquerque, NM, 5 Dec 1989" and it contained the next surprise.

This envelope contained clippings of the same articles that Whittaker had sent me. Also enclosed was a typewritten letter.

"To Whom It May Concern," the letter read. "I have learned that a photo was sent to you of a man and a buck that supposedly resembles one of Kirt Darner's bucks. Is the question credibility? Here is definite evidence of Householder's (sic) questionable credibility. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider this."

Why the letter had not been signed was a mystery. I still needed to learn more about the Housholder photo.

Seeing the picture had reminded me of something I had seen that spring when I had been promoting my hunting consultant service at a sport show. That's where I met George Cook, a serious hunter and a representative for Sage, a fly rod company that was only four years old at the time. George unfolded a photocopy of an article that had appeared in the September 1949 issue American Rifleman magazine, the National Rifle Association's official publication. The photocopy was made on a machine that did a poor job of reproducing photographs or screened pictures. This was a common problem among photocopiers made before the early 1980s. Grays became blacks, and groups of black or gray dots would be represented by black splotches.

A deer in one of the 2 1/2-inch by 4-inch illustrations still looked suspiciously like the same buck that had appeared on the cover of How to Find Giant Bucks.

I had a copy of the book with me at the time, so George and I studied the rack shown in photocopy and compared it with the antlers pictured on the book. There were some obvious differences. The magazine photo, as fuzzy as it was, showed a forked main beam on the deer's right antler, but on Darner's buck, the right main beam was not forked and bent down at an odd angle. The right antler in the photocopy also didn't appear to carry as many long points as the Darner buck. At the time I concluded the deer were two different animals, but because the photocopy was so poor, a little doubt had stayed with me.

Somehow the date of the magazine had stuck in my head, and so I decided to try to find an original copy of the September 1949 issue. First I tried an old gentleman who had been a member of the NRA for years and used to lend me copies of the magazine when I was a kid. He had discarded his collection years earlier. Then I tried the library at Utah State University. USU didn't collect American Rifleman magazines. Then I tried to the University of Utah library -- its collection went back only to 1951. The Brigham Young University library also went back to 1951. Finally I asked Kim Bonnett if he had any ideas. Soon he called back.

"I found a shop in Michigan that sells old magazines," he said. "And they said they have lots of old American Rifleman issues. Give them a call, and they can probably find the issue you need.

So I phoned the Highwood Bookshop in Traverse City, Michigan, and spoke with the owner. I told him I wasn't sure which issue I needed, but I thought it was the September 1949 American Rifleman.

"If I recall, the picture I'm looking for was used to illustrate an article about venison care," I said. "Would you mind looking in that issue to see if that's the one, and if so, I want a copy.

"Call me back in a few minutes," he said.

When I called back, he said, "I think I have your magazine. Send me $5 for the magazine and $1.50 for shipping, and it's yours."

I also ordered a copy of an old Outdoor Life that had its most famous cover ever, a GI painting that was actually a collage of outdoor scenes. When I worked for Outdoor Life, somebody had stolen that particular issue from the company's collection of back issues and even the original painting had come up missing. For another $5 I could get that magazine, too.

A few days later I received the September 1949 American Hunter magazine, which contained an article by Charles C. Niehuis, "Harvesting a Prime Buck," about proper game care. The piece was illustrated by 13 photographs, and one of them was the picture I wanted. It much clearer in the magazine than it had appeared in the photocopy, but the screening necessary for publishing was too coarse to make a positive ID of the buck. And there were still apparent differences. I sent a good copy of the article to Kim Bonnett, whose partner Jeff Warren quickly realized that the picture in the magazine had been flopped -- the negative had been placed upside down in the enlarger to make a reversed print.

In a mirror the magazine photograph made it obvious that this buck and the Darner buck looked identical. The picture wasn't clear enough that a person could say with 100% certainty that the pictures showed the exact same deer.

"If we had original negatives or prints," I told Kim, "I would bet they would show this is the exact same deer that Darner claimed to have killed in the '70s. I've already called American Hunter, and the editor said they don't have manuscripts or photos from that far back. I wonder if Niehuis is still alive. I'm right in the middle of my busy season and can't take time to do research right now. But wouldn't that be something if Niehuis were still alive and could track down the photos that went with his article?"

A few days later Kim phoned.

"You're not going to believe this," he said. "Niehuis is still alive and living in California."

I could not find a phone number to match the address that Kim gave me, so I wrote a letter explaining my interest in the photographs and asked Niehuis to call me. A few weeks later the phone rang.

"This is Charley Niehuis," a voice said. "I'm the guy who wrote that article in 1949, and I think I might still have the negatives to the photo you want. I took several photographs of that deer. It was in 1948 when I was working for the Arizona fish and game department on their Kaibab study. A guy named Dean Naylor killed that buck."

Niehuis explained that his negatives were in an office he maintained in Colorado and that he would be happy to provide prints. He gave me his phone number and mentioned that he was 83 years old.

(continued from page 11)

"As an old newsman," he said. "This story really interests me. I'm going to do some investigating of my own, but next time I'm in Colorado, I'll look for those pictures and get back to you."

I soon realized that the buck was listed twice in the Boone and Crockett Club's book, Records of North American Big Game, once under Dean Naylor and once under Kirt Darner. Coincidentally, I knew Jack Reneau, who had recently started working full time for the club. Jack and his wife, Susan, had featured several of Darner's mounts in a book that he and his wife, Susan, had written, "Colorado's Biggest Bucks and Bulls." After the publication of that book, I had contacted Jack and negotiated to buy several boxes to sell out of my booth at sport shows. The Reneaus' book and Darner's book had been great sellers, and though they didn't pay for our show expenses, my associates and I made enough to pay for our out-of-town meals and a bit more.

As I suspected, Jack was personally interested in investigating the matter for the same reason I was -- he had helped publicize Darner and now he felt an obligation that the public knew the truth.

"I know where the negatives to those photos that were published in 1949 are," I told Reneau. "I'll give you all the information I have on Darner's buck under one condition. When you get the photos, I want 8x10 prints of those original photos."

I also mentioned a couple of other suspicions I had about two other trophies Darner had taken. One was a desert sheep that was also in the record book, and another was a so-called Coues deer that would have surpassed the No. 2 or No. 3 listing. I sent to Jack copies of the Housholder photo along with slides that showed the American Rifleman picture reversed.

Some time went by, and I heard that the Boone and Crockett Club had pulled Darner's listing of the Naylor buck out of the record book. I was disappointed that I was not supplied with the photos I had demanded, so I called Reneau. He confirmed that the club had decided to disquality the Naylor/Housholder/Darner buck and also mentioned that the club had decided to reject a whitetail that Darner had entered as a Coues deer and was also deleting his Arizona desert sheep from the record book. The club had called in several experts on Coues deer and had decided to consider the rack as coming from a regular whitetail unless Darner were to supply adequate proof that it was a Coues deer. The club ruled that the ram had not been plugged and, hence, was not considered a legal harvest.

I was disappointed to learn that the Boone and Crockett Club had no plans to remove the rest of Darner's record-class trophies from its record book. At the time the Pope and Young Club had a policy that any hunter who was shown to have signed a fair chase affidavit falsely would be banned permanently from entering any animal in its record book. My assumption that B&C had a similar policy was wrong.

"Well, if you change that policy," I said, "I have since come up with information that calls into question some of Darner's other trophies."

About this time I received a call from Doyle Moss, who was working at the time for Darner's Hunter Information Service out of Montrose, Colorado. A Utah native and now a nationally known trophy hunter and guide and a hunting video producer, Moss asked about Darner's legitimacy. "I've been hearing some rumors," he said, "and I wonder if they're true."

"Well, I think you could get all the proof you needed right there in Colorado," I replied. And then I went on to say that Charles Niehuis had the negatives he had made in 1948 and that Niehuis was in Colorado or was soon gonig there. "Why don't you call him and arrange a meeting," I said. "I'll give you his phone number under one condition -- that I get 8x10 copies of those prints."

Later Niehuis told me that Moss had contacted him. At first he was fearful that he might be ambushed by an person with loyalty to Darner. But he was impressed with Moss's tone of voice and apparent sincerity and decided to risk meeting him.

To be continued tomorrow with Niehuis's account of his meeting with Moss and copies of the pictures I had been waiting so long to see

(continued from page 12)

Niehuis later wrote an outline for an autobiographical book that he proposed to write and sell. Here are excerpts dealing with his meeting with Moss, who was working at the time for Darner's Hunter Information Service in Montrose, Colorado:

"I leave to go to Montrose .... I go directly to the office of Tom Gilmore, Sheriff of Montrose County. I meet Tom, make known my purpose of being in Montrose. ... I am warned again that Kirt Darner and possibly Doyle Moss might be dangerous, and to avoid being trapped in a remote place by either one. ... I learn Doyle Moss has been on my trail making three long distance calls in one day wanting to know where I am staying, what kind of car I am driving, description, etc. ... So ... I go undercover, register under a false name and hide my car. The next morning I case the Darner Hunters Information Service ... but make no contact. Instead I go to the sheriff's office again and learn Bob Cox there is an investigator. Cox is known to me. ... I go the Stockman's Cafe ... and ... phone Doyle Moss to meet me there. I decide to take a chance, meet him in a place of my choosing, not his.

"Doyle Moss comes in. I recognize him because of his behavior and call him by name. ... We talk it over .... Doyle is a young man, 26 years of age. ... Although I already know it, I asked for his Social Security number. ... I ask the questions to get answers and verify what I have already learned. Doyle gives me more of his background and interest in Darner. He wants to show me some mounted heads, one with a bullet hole in the antler. ... Also, Doyle wants to show me where he lives, in a trailer house furnished by Darner. And he announces he has quit Darner.

"I decide to chance it. We go to his trailer and enter it. The front of the trailer is very barren of furniture. Interestingly, the walls are covered with photographs, paintings and sketches of Rocky Mountain Mule Deer. The amount and quality of the art surrounding a single subject is quite unusual. There are no other furnishings in the front room. This facet of his personality leads me to believe his driving interesting [is] hunting and hero worship of Kirt Darner. ... As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he does not have an ash tray in sight. ... I look his trailer over, including the bedroom which only has blankets on the floor. No bed on the floor. Every sign I read verifies his professing to be a Mormon. He serves me some lemonade.

"We step outside and at the truck I show him the pictures of Naylor and his buck. There is no question in his mind that is is the same buck that is on the cover of Darner's new book. Again I am told that Rich LaRocco wrote the book for Kirt Darner. ... Doyle again asks me for one of the photographs of Dean Naylor. I tell him I cannot spare one, but will make him one."

After Niehuis returned home, he sent Moss and me 8x10 copies of four photographs along with a note saying that they showed Dean Naylor and the buck he had just shot in 1948. The pictures were clear enough to show that the buck's antlers were the same antlers photographed with Housholder in 1957. The picture shown above even shows the unique bean-shaped bone deposit on the base of the right antler. Jim Zumbo photographed Darner with the same rack during the winter of 1980-1981, and this picture was used to illustrate Zumbo's article about Darner in the April 1981 issue of Outdoor Life magazine. That photo also is detailed enough to show the same bean-shaped deposit and other unique features. I was the senior editor for Outdoor Life in 1980 and 1981, and the first time I had heard of Darner was when Zumbo had proposed that piece. Later I learned that one of the Naylor pictures also had appeared in a 1951 hunting annual.

I photographed this same trophy with Darner during the winter of 1982-1983, and Darner selected one of those pictures for the cover of How to Find Giant Bucks that was published in 1983. Darner said that buck was one of his most prized trophies because he had seen the deer a year before he claimed to have shot it in 1977. He said he had just shot another great buck in the fall of 1976, and as it thrashed around on the ground in the last throes of life, a giant non-typical stepped out of the cover. He supposedly returned the following October and outsmarted the giant. He had told me this story several times, and the details had been so consistent that I was convinced Darner had shot the deer.

Interestingly, shortly before I had received the Housholder photo, Darner had requested my slides that I had made of him with his various trophies, and that is the last I have seen of them. Fortunately, Zumbo still had his slides when Reneau contacted him in the Boone and Crockett Club's investigation of the matter.

Just want to hear the story on that world class buck!

It was shot by Cam Barlow in Saskatchewan.