Trying to get my antlers back...

So if yall remember, I shared the biggest buck of my life with yall. Well I am now fighting to get them back as they were stolen from me by my employer. Its turning into a huge mess. Hard to find a lawyer willing to deal with it. Due to politics Looking like I will probably lose my job because I'm standing up to them. Anyway, just needed to vent a little.

Why do you have to be fired if your boss is a thief? Should already be gone. I would be telling everybody I could get to listen that he is to lazy to shoot his own deer.

Uh.......we need a little more of the story.

I killed the deer on the airport property. As a hunter not an employee. The airport is run by a board of commissioners. One happens to be on the state wildlife commission as well. He is trying to get it mounted for his office and trying to use his position to do it. Sheriff department and wildlife enforcement are on my side however with the politics involved it is making it hard to get anything done.

How did the antlers get out of your possession in the first place?

They took them out of my office

Exactly...it was your Tag right?

Sounds like someone is a thief

Sick people

That may be his way of getting you fired or getting you out of his hair. It would be easier for him to let you quit. Hang in there

Most southern states have no tag. It’s so hot by the time they got them tagged would be stinking

It has my tag on it. Or atleast it did last time I seen it.

Public hunting is/was allowed on the airport property?

If not...then you can likely forget it.

AirportTrapper, I feel your anger. Still dealing with a bad boss. Where are the days were there are great bosses. I've a couple, but man, they are in short supply. Don't give in or up. Might have to take legal action. Sarge

Ky has no "physical" tag you must call them in or check them in on computer. You are then issued a confirmation number. IF there is a paper trail that "YOU" check the deer in then it's no brainer. It is your deer. BUT IF you where given permission to perform "animal control for the air port then you will loose. Depending on how the der harvest was reported is how you should move forward.
Unless you where just thinning the deer for the airport , why hang it in your office. But that's up to you..

More details on how it was reported will help............

what kind of dip stick wants a set of antlers to display from an animal that somebody else shot? you should have changed jobs a long time ago.

How did it come about that you were hunting on Airport property? Just during season and you got permission, damage control, etc... ????

I had permission to hunt recreationally. I even gave them to the wildlife and fisheries and months later they signed them over to me. I just got off the phone with the assistant DA. Sounds like we're going in the right direction.

I didn't hang it in the office. It was sitting on my desk from when the game warden gave them back to me. They were fixing to head to a taxidermist.

Don't give up, get your antlers back.
Then If the jerk tries to get you fired, turn the tables on him and get him out of there.

OK I'm still confused WHY did the Game warden even have them in the first place? When you kill a deer in loiusiana do you turn them in to the game warden before you get them back. I'm slow but part of this I can't understand .

That is a DANDY Buck! Good luck with this.

https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/6412202/got-a-good-one-yesterday#Post6412202

I gave them to the game warden so they could hold on to them

That's actually a smaller deer

My mistake, that was the year before... WOW! Dwarfs the other one. https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/6968188/2

171 inches, 2nd largest ever killed in the parish

Wow really nice buck I hope you get it back wit no further trouble. That said I'm still not following why you would give the rack to the conservation officer for safe keeping? So the game warden know they are yours should be cut and dry. I may be slow but feel like I'm missing something.

After looking at that picture , that's not just theft.

That is GRAND theft antlers. Nice deer. I'd be ticked if those got stolen.

Your problem is like everyone else I know that has killed big bucks and bragged about it...nothing good comes from it. Next time just shoot it and take it to the taxidermist and get it mounted how you want. Loose lips sink ships. I see deer killed like that every year, but you will never see them on the Internet. And unless you’re in the know, then all you’ll hear are rumors. Pride of a kill has ruined more friendships and landowner relationships that anything else. 130-150“ gets posted some...150”+ never. And these deer are only officially scored under condition of anonymity, just for personal best. Or “best” amongst friends. I won’t even post trapping pics unless I have permission from the manager/landowner.

That's a great buck bud and I really hope everything works out for ya. Why did you feel the need to let the GWs hold on to them for ya, im not trying to be smart in any fashion. I killed a 190" in Ohio a couple seasons ago and I thru the antlers in the back of the truck for the ride back to TN then they laid in my basement for a month until I took them to the taxidermist. I wish you the best, that's a dandy and I don't see how they would have any claim to it

Politics

This!

A lot of truth here. I post pics on here but only a few. Made the rule to the wife years ago about putting pics of the boys adventures about deer, turkey, and trapping on Facebook. Nothing good comes from it!!!!!!

Hindsight 2020

Maybe go to the media. Local newspaper or tv station may be interested in the story.

Media may help. My family will not post pics or show people what we shoot on our property. To many green eyed monsters. My brother does our taxidermy work as well. I repairman seen part of our collection and opened his mouth. People didn't believe him anyway, lol. He nor his company will ever do business with our family. His company knows it also.

You trust game wardens way more than I do.
I witnessed game wardens take a friends elk antlers for "investigation" When my friend called the next day to find out how he could keep track of them they asked him for his receipt number, He told them the wardens never game him a receipt. The evidence custodian said that means they weren't confiscated. Lost in a dark hole; but in reality probably hanging at the game wardens house. Crooked cops, wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. My friend never received a citation or anything, the game warden was just PO'd that my friend was hunting in his honey hole I think (public land). This happened in Washington State about two years ago.

We went to school together. We're pretty tight.

Beautiful deer, with that being said i’m still confused. What was the purpose of giving them to the game warden in the first place? Did your boss take them after the game warden gave them back to you? If so i would think the game wardens would settle the whole thing.

Kind of seems there may be more to the story considering you felt the need to let the game warden hang onto them for safe keeping before the boss took them

At the time it was the only thing I thought I could do to keep the politics out of it. The whole thing turned political

Don’t seem to add up.

I’ve never had politics brought into a hunting experience ever. For some reason you keep saying the word as if you weren’t even hunting.

Airporttrapper, did you start hunting as a kid or got into it later in life?

I've hunted all my life.

The airport is a political subdivision of the state run by politicians. After I killed the deer one of the politicians started accusing me of illegal actions so he could get the antlers. That's when I gave them to the game warden.

Did you get permission to hunt the property? I don’t see how anyone can take what’s yours and why would you give them up? Do you feel you did something wrong?

So when did the politics start? Did the boss mention he should get the antlers or something like that so he could hang them in his office or was he hunting the same deer and it was all over jealousy? I’m assuming he’s not much of a hunter himself if he’s wanting to hang someone else’s trophy in his office, where’s the pride in that. The only way i would want someone else’s trophy if it was handed down to me from family or a really close friend.

^^^^
And the game warden gave them to the airport guy?

Many people don't realize that various "Port Authorities" are pretty much run like their own little fiefdoms; They can have a lot of power and answer to no one. That is until they get caught; embezzlement is a big temptation for those guys, as is having employees work on their personal properties. Might be fun doing a little investigation yourself after this all blows over. You might end up wearing a pair of concrete boots too though.

I had written permission, he wanted to lease that property for himself but legally couldn't. I knew I didn't do anything wrong and the game warden could prove it. I've killed other deer out there without a problem.

We're getting closer. Is it legal to hunt deer where you killed this one? 100% without a doubt legal?

Man! Then why hand over the antlers in the first place??? Lol. Good luck with getting them back!

Yes

Well i really hope you get your deer back, very interesting situation. Keep us posted. I know we all have to eat a little crap at work sometimes whether it be bosses or customers but to steal a mans biggest buck is crossing the line.

Because I knew I would get them back from the game warden. Which I did.


It would take forever to type every little detail but I have every law printed and all documents proving 100 percent legal ownership

Do you do deer control on the airport property? If so i could kind of see a conflict of interest also recreational hunting it for trophy bucks on the side. Especially if night vision is used for the control work. Like maybe I won't shoot this trophy buck during control work so I can shoot as my trophy or maybe I'll let this one live for next year. Also I'm curious if the airport is run by a board and the guy that took your deer is on that board who gave you permission to hunt it for your recreation? Just seems like you had an idea this might happen before it did and I wonder why.

I will add if everything was 100% good about your permission and ethical about your harvest i hope you get your deer back, keep your job and end up with a new boss. Without all the details it hard to understand this whole thing.

The property I hunt is not the actual airport itself although we never done deer control on the airport unless it was shooting one off the runway.

I was given written permission from the executive director. The guy who took them is on the board for the airport. Life long politician. He was the state senator at one point.

Take your time we'll be here all week.

If I get time to write it all out it would be easier to understand it. After talking with the DAs office today though. Looks like they are fixing to face criminal theft charges.

I hope you get your deer back.

If it is getting to the DA, I would think it best not to discuss it on the Internet until all things are resolved.



Nice deer and I really hope it is resolved in your favor without too much headache and stress.

Well that makes sense now

None of it makes sense-who hunts at an airport?

Its a property owned by the airport, not actually on the airport

the fact that all this hate and discontent is over deer antlers, is proof that antler hunters are often insane

just curious...how long after the game warden brought them back, did they disappear?

Great deer and hope it works out for you! Trying to understand chronological order of the event. You had written permission to hunt the property ,you hunted during a legal deer season(?) with a legal deer tag. Now this is when you lose me. You killed the deer ,gutted the deer and took it home or processor . Why did you feel the need to give the antlers to the warden for safe keeping?

He already explained that. Good luck, and hope the jerk loses his job. Doesn't sound like airport authority is even a paying job.

The moral of this story is once the deer is field dressed, process the meat for eating.
The legal field will not be as passionate about the non-edible portion of the carcass as the hunter is.
That's a non-issue.

And on city property to boot.
The deer is going to hang where the top-of-the-airport property food chain chain says it'll hang at this point.
He knows that or he wouldn't have snatched them in the first place.

Bummer how people is and what people does.

I don't think this guy is the top dog.
About 40-45 yrs ago, before bobcats were even recognized as being in SE Nebraska, a kid shot one. They were not protected. He showed it to the local game warden, who confiscated it, had it mounted, and put it in his house. He ended up losing his job for taking the bobcat from the kid..........so there is justice. Sounds like the DA is on the right side and hopefully it'll turn out well.

We can hope the antlers end up with the hunter who legally harvested them. Justice is a good thing.

This sounds like a cut and dried case of antler envy.

AirportTrapper was hunting legally and with written permission. He saw trouble coming after he killed that monster buck and handed the antlers over to a game warden for safe keeping. After getting them back they were stolen from his office by someone with bad antler envy.

I hope you successfully prosecute the guy.

If it were my buck and I was aware of the potential trouble those antlers would have never been in my office where they were vulnerable to theft.

by Who goosed the moose

The game warden dropped them off to me at the office. They were taken the same day from behind locked doors.

Some airports have a "buffer zone" at the end of runways for a variety of reasons, safety, noise, expansion, etc. I have hunted a "buffer zone" property own by the airport before, strictly controlled but open to the public.

my exact thoughts.

If it was me and if and when I got them back I'd destroy them and video it.
Then send the video to the thief.

My dad had a friend who hunted airport property all the time. The pictures of the deer he passed up would make most antler hunters green with envy. He hunted a smallish county airport that nobody thought to even ask permission to hunt.

The deer, for the most part, are not harassed, eat really good, and grow old. We used to go in after he got his deer and trap coons. It was nothing to go 30/30 on traps set around the dumpsters.

I managed an airport for 9 years and we had a permit to shoot coyotes, deer, turkeys anytime but at that time you had to cut the antlers in half if there was over so many points on a buck and if you gave the meat away you had to issue them a receipt and log in where it went and send the information to the state at the end of the year. Bad enough hitting a deer with a car, way worse with an airplane.

I wish there was a virus that would make all the deer not grow antlers. We didn't have a deer season till I was in high school and it sure was a different time than today. I think all this antler worship is a sickness, unbelievable how some people act.

Why don't you file a police report if they were stolen from you?

He said what he did. I am asking why he felt the need to give possession up? Makes no sense ,your legal let them accuse all they want. They want em , let them get a court order and the sheriff !

That's one of the places politics comes in. The sheriff's department leases buildings from the airport.


I thought if the game warden proved I was legal they would drop it.

We have same permit here but no rules on what to do with it. We donate to the wildlife and fisheries.

We now have a thermal scoped rifle and will be conducting night shoots

I'd rather mail him a signed picture of me holding the antlers

Just saw the post about the sheriff leasing from the airport. What a convoluted mess. My other thought is ask your game warden buddy about illegal possession. If the guy has no license, carcass tag or other conveyance doc from game n fish, illegal possession may be a thing to look at.

I sure hope your next report isn't that the DA is too worried about politics to press charges. But that happens too.

Good luck

I believe he has already posted that this was property owned by the airport but not the actual airport.

I’ve hunted three different airport properties. We used to hunt land owned by the Reading regional Airport. It was some of the best rabbit hunting I’ve ever experienced.

I hope you nail the guy!

If all else fails....Darkness, ski mask, axe handle - Back of the knees, then top of the shoulder....Finally, use the end to jab the face.

Works well on protesters too.

Why did a game warden ever have the antlers to begin with? After you harvested a deer that size I see no reason the antlers need to leave your house or possession other than to go to a taxidermist. If your worried about safe keeping invest in a safe of some kind and keep them there in your own home.

You guys who are Johnny-come-lately to this thread really need to go back to the beginning and read all the posts before asking at this point in the thread "why did you give them to the game warden".
The poor OP must be getting pretty tired of re-answering questioned that have already been asked.

The deer that are shot at the airport here in town, have to be donated to the local food bank. Antlers are supposed to be destroyed. Removing the deer is done for the safety of the planes. It’s a removal not a hunting trip in the eyes of the city. I’m just guessing but I’d say there’s some of the same going on here. If not, file theft on the person that took them and go pickup your antlers with the game warden.

^^this is how I'm seeing this situation too, but Im still confused as to why you needed a GW to prove you were legal. Wouldnt that have already been determined by airport staff allowing hunting there?.....maybe not.

The deer was not killed ON the airport under the permit. Different property they own. If it was under the permit it would be a different situation

I'll also add I have killed 3 bucks between 150-160 inches and they weren't an issue. The 171 happens to be 1 inch away from his best however.

There’s got to be more to the story. Otherwise it’s pretty cut and dry theft. File on him and get your antlers back.

There's nothing more to it. I am working on it.

No kiddin!. This should play out well.
After you get the antlers back, post the guy's address and let BLM take over.

Who knew OJ Simpson was on here.

I'll update when it's all said done.

From what I gather the job you have must be a extremely great job that you couldn't replace or I figured you would just go to the guy beat him till he gave you the antlers back.

Okay I went back to page #2 and read exactly what he wrote. "I gave them to the game warden so he could hang onto them" Nothing else was written in that post.
Why??? Do you not trust yourself with the antlers of a deer you shot? The one deer I have a shoulder mount on isn't as big as yours but it never crossed my mind to have anyone else hang on to them. If you would've done that you wouldn't be here now.

What is the reason he gave them to the warden is the question and there doesn't seem to be an answer unless I've missed it along with many others. Was he hanging onto them until an investigation was completed??

I do wish you the best on getting the antlers back. If this was a totally legal harvest they belong to you. Hopefully you've learned exactly what not to do with a set of antlers from a trophy animal.

Airport, you seem to be handling all these stupid questions, and the situation with a level head. Keep cool. Good luck with this bad situation...and remember, payback is a b#*ch.

Nope, O.J. was an amateur!

Yes Badger, you read one post and didn't find the answer. Waggler said real ALL THE POSTS. When you do you will have the answer.

Crap like this is why people quit deer hunting.

I don't care to ever shoot another

I have read all the post and something here has been left out.

Or you missed it.

Why the guy who took the antlers feel he was justified in doing so? Sounds like from your side of the story, he shouldn't feel that way.

Let’s take a break and let the facts bubble up. Something is missing here. The antlers should not be part of the problem or solution. Neither should the sex of the deer if open to doe harvest.

After reading through all of this I do hope you get your horns back. I agree with not wanting to hunt anymore to. I remember as a kid the goal was to get meat for the freezer and if you happened to kill a big buck it was talked about all over town and folks was proud of you. Now with the big horn craze a fella can't just ask to hunt anymore. If he is lucky enough to have family or own his own land you dang sure don't talk about a big kill as all of the horn hunters get jealous and the rumors start. I have all but quit myself due to this BS. I do take the kids to hunt, but if they kill a biggun you won't be hearing of it.
Horn hunters have ruined deer hunting and deer management for that matter IMO

First of all congratulations on a beautiful buck. One like that does not come around every day. I can't for the life of me figure out why the other guy thinks that he should have the antlers. Can you shed any light on his mindset on this issue?

That is a dandy. Good stick.
It'd be sweet if you got it back.

Blessings,
Mark

Yup went back and read all the posts. I wouldn't of handled it the same way. Those antlers never would've seen the airport again if they're such a hot topic. If I was tight with a warden an arrangement would have been made to get them back and it wouldn't have been at the airport. The warden never would've had them to begin with either so there's that. A choice was made to involve others and this is the result.
I hope you get them back, they're yours. Sincerely good luck.

Hindsight is 20-20. I bet Airporttrapper would do it differently if he had it to do over again.

Yep

Nothing wrong with hunting trophies. We have the freedom to do that. Maybe those who don't like it will get their wish if the Dems get back in the White House.
My boys hunt big bucks and when they kill one nobody hears a peep about it.

Soo did you get your buck back

Not yet. Working on lawsuit.

Who paid for the Taxi work?