Denton County Man Admits to Poaching Record Whitetail Buck

AUSTIN – The second largest whitetail buck ever in Texas could be headed to the record books with an asterisk: poached. Earlier this week, a Denton County man pleaded no contest to illegally taking the trophy deer, which scored 278 points under the Boone & Crockett scoring system, last October near Pilot Point, Texas.

Travis D. Johnson of Aubrey, Texas, was sentenced in Denton County Criminal Court on Monday, Jan. 22, to two years of probation and 40 hours community service, plus court costs. He also faces in excess of $53,000 in civil restitution fines from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and is prohibited from purchasing a hunting license for the duration of his deferred adjudication period.

“What an ill-fated legacy for what could have been, and should have been, a remarkable testament to Texas whitetail deer,” said Col. Grahame Jones, TPWD Law Enforcement Director. “It’s tragic that in the pursuit of this magnificent specimen, Mr. Johnson chose to violate hunting’s code of ethics and the game laws designed to protect our state’s precious wildlife resources. It’s something he’ll have to live with.”

Almost immediately after news of the huge buck broke on Sunday, Oct. 8, 2017, Texas game wardens became aware of rumors alleging Johnson may have harvested the buck after legal hunting hours the night before. Based on a photo being circulated online that showed Johnson posing with the field dressed deer during daylight hours, along with comments that he had taken it with a bow the previous evening, wardens had concerns about the care and disposition of the venison considering the warm temperatures. Hunters are required to keep the meat of harvested game in edible condition.

Denton County game warden Stormy McCuistion met with Johnson at his residence the afternoon of Oct. 8 to inspect the carcass, and was informed it had been discarded at a different location due to concerns about the meat possibly being infected. Johnson claimed to have wounded the buck on Sept. 30, but was unable to retrieve it. When he saw the deer on images captured by his game trail camera a few days later, it exhibited entry and exit wounds. Since then, Johnson explained he began pursuing the animal in earnest in hopes of putting an end to its suffering, going so far as to spend the night in his hunting stand to avoid spooking deer. He said he got his opportunity at about 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017 and dispatched the buck with his bow.

After inspecting the deer carcass, game wardens then went to the area where Johnson claimed to have killed the big deer to confirm the details of his story. During a conversation with the landowner adjacent to the property where Johnson hunted, game wardens became suspicious about the timeline. The landowner recalled texting Johnson at about an hour past dark on Oct. 7 asking if he was okay since he noticed he had not returned to his vehicle. Johnson replied that he was safe, but made no mention of having successfully taken the big buck an hour earlier.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmed...g=denton_county_buck

Hard to lie out of that one.
Damned shame.
Amazing they didn't kill his hunting privileges for life over this. Hell of a fine. Be nice to see a picture of the buck.

What I've wondered reading these huge fines. Can they be listed on a bankruptcy and avoided? I've seen where doctors had done that after being sued for malpractice. Knew a guy that had lost his leg over a screwup and the dr filed and avoided paying the kid for the lost leg.

George

Hasn’t this guy killed numerous big deer on the same small patch of ground?

By and large we have lost respect for the animals we hunt. Much like we have lost respect for most everything and everyone in our society.
We have to start hitting these guys where it hurts, their hunting privileges and second amendment rights. Convict it as a felony.

Perry

Here is a link with a picture.


https://www.dallasnews.com/new...tead-itll-wall-shame

quote:

By and large we have lost respect for the animals we hunt. Much like we have lost respect for most everything and everyone in our society.
We have to start hitting these guys where it hurts, their hunting privileges and second amendment rights. Convict it as a felony.

Lots of truth in the above response.

Drummmond, reports are he had a conviction for the same thing, same place, in 2004. If so he got off light.

Damn Shame!!

quote:

By and large we have lost respect for the animals we hunt.

Unfortunately that old question, 'What did he score' has influenced some folks to lose sight of ethical hunting and why we do what we do naturally.

Two weeks ago, on a youth hunt near Brownwood, the rancher was showing some of the dads his 40 + point buck. He showed us all a picture of an 80+ point buck from one of his ranches.
The high fenced ranch we were on had bucks 2 to 2.5 years old and the racks were that of a healthy 7 year old; strange to see that on the slim body of a 2 year old buck.

He has bred these bucks for years to get a genetic strain where all young bucks grow huge antlers.

These deer are not natural or wild, but make for amazing trophies. He may also sell the bucks to other ranchers for breeding stock.
Personally, I am glad to have lost interest in trying to shoot a bigger buck than someone else.

What surprises me is the gene pool at Pilot Point area would have such a deer! I wouldn't besurpised if it was a high fence escapee, but then I havn't been in that area for many years..or perhaps he was poached from a high fence ranch! I bet he is whistleing 'who'd a though it"

One thing Im 100% sure of and that is Texas has the best Wildlife program and the best law enforcement officers anywhere and I get around in the business a lot and deal with a lot of LE game depts.

quote:

What surprises me is the gene pool at Pilot Point area would have such a deer! I wouldn't besurpised if it was a high fence escapee, but then I havn't been in that area for many years..or perhaps he was poached from a high fence ranch! I bet he is whistleing 'who'd a though it"

Yourv correct, you have NOT been in that area for many years! This was not a "High Fence" escapee, but an animal that is in a 4 county Archery Only hunting area tha has a low niumber of deer with really good genetics.

Not meaning to or trying to be disrespectful Mr. Atkinson, but things have changed in a lot of Texas counties in the past 25 - 30 years an lots of folks have became so selective that the genetics are showing some really impressive results.

I am pretty famaliar with the area around lake Ray Roberts (where the buck was taken). Actually looked at buying some property up there.
There is a state park on the east side of the Dam on the lake named Isle de Bois state park. It drops off into the trinity river bottom.I suspect that is where the deer came from. There is a lot of private land surrounding the park where it is legal to shoot a deer with a land owners permission if you have a hunting license. There are a lot of BIG deer there.They grow old.
A lot of extremely nice home developments around the park on 2-10 acre lots and they all have deer feeders in their back yards.
It is BIG horse country as well. Real sandy soil. There are mega million $$ stables everywhere.
Very few high fences up there. Land is fairly expensive up there now. Probably not 30 miles north of Dallas, Texas.
In recent years there have been quite a few big deer taken at the headwaters of the DFW local lakes. Lake Grapevine is one where a few +160-180 deer are killed every year. All archery.


EZ

Like I said I have not been in that area in many years and at one time it was deer like the Hill Country has, nice deer but nothing particulary sensational like South Texas. My nephew ranches out of Klondike and those deer are mostly small.....BTW, I hunt South Texas and far West Texas almost every year. I have some relitives that still ranch that country and lots of friends that ranch in Texas. and I ranched the Rosillas Ranch South of Marathon, Tx. bordering the Big Bend Nat'l. Park for about 5 or 6 years in the 70s....Im not completely removed....I even book a few hunts in Texas from time to time..I also ranched out of Maypearl and Hillsboro Tx. while I was with the Govt and retired from the Govt. there, and went full time booking hunts, something Ive done no matter where I lived or worked. Our deer there were small and few..

Things in north Texas have changed a lot in the past 30 years concerning deer hunting and hunters expectations.

In spite of what some claim concerning "Meat Hunters", I know for a fact that it is hard to get many lease hunters to kill the numbers of does that need to be taken out to properly manage deer numbers.

Places that I joined in the lease that were going for $1.00 an acre in the 70's and early 80's are now going for 2K to 3K per gun.

Imagine this, about 4 or 5 years back one of the hunters that was leasing from my boss, brought his two sons out to the lease in Archer county and the younger son, 8 years old killed his FIRST buck, a symetrical double drop tine that measured 145 B&C.

I do not buy into the idea that so many hunters are "Meat Hunters" not from what I have been seeing first hand for almost 20 years now.

So, is that beyond reasonable doubt as there is no witness and no way to prove by minutes if it was legal light or not?
Here we go again, someone says and GW takes it as proof?
Seems to me as too much power.
So easy to condem.
Any thoughts on that gentlemen?

Milan, with as big a business as deer hunting is in Texas I serioiusly doubt this kill was legal.

Maybe not where you live, but the majority of Texas Game Wardens and land owners within the GW's jurisdiction have good working relationships.

Deer hunting in Texas is a multi-million dollar business annually and land owners/lease holders and Game Wardens have good working relationships and bucks like that one, especially in the area where it was killed are KNOWN by too many people.

I hear you Randall
I do believe scrutiny for government is good practice as power definitely corrupts and jealousy and envy can be the biggest motivator
But I do also know many bow hunters shoot past half hour after sun down and well before half hour after sun up
That being said, I have a problem in judicial system with prosecution on he said/she said and so forth as that is such a slippery slope towards draconian laws

Maybe because I grew up in oppressive society, I have a problem with authorities and I will always question them

This makes a two some on poaching biggest deer in Texas..The largest Tesas Mule Deer was poached in or around the frying Pan ranch, and is now on the wall of the Texas Highway Patrol Office in Rankin or Irean or in one of those towns in that area..He is a bloody monster, that area has always had monster mule deer, but like all monster mule deer they are far and few behind. Its the gene pool and Sacawesti brush that grows big horns Im told..That area is tough to hunt, walking in sand tracking all day maybe sleeping on the track and going again the next day just ain't for the elderly or weak at heart..but its the way to success, because the last 4 tracks will have that big boy standing in them..My best friends dad was manager on the Frying pan for years, I spent weekends and summer days working cattle on that ranch and about ever week or two someone would see one of those monster bucks, but the ranch had few deer. it was a thrill for sure to see one, take your breath away..The biggest I saw back then was a 225 plus shot by some hunter from Houston as I recall, and I know a rancher near their that shot a 233.5 buck..Those are big boys.

Mr. Atkinson, TP&W opened up a new Wildlfe Management Area, north of Lubbock I believe, called the Yoakum Dunes WMA.

In 2015 when Lora and I drew two of the four permits on a 27,000 acre ranch, inside the old Longfellow Ranch between Sanderson and Marathon, TP&W issued one permit on the Yoakum Dunes and if I remeber correctly the hunter shot a Muke Deer that measured something like 226 and some odd tenths.

Things have changed so much as far as deer hunting, white tail or muley, from when I shot my first deer in 1970, that it is amazing where quality bucks are showing up.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
This makes a two some on poaching biggest deer in Texas..The largest Tesas Mule Deer was poached in or around the frying Pan ranch, and is now on the wall of the Texas Highway Patrol Office in Rankin or Irean or in one of those towns in that area..He is a bloody monster, that area has monster mule deer, but like all monster mule deer they are far and few behind. Its the gene pool and Sacawesti brush that grows big horns Im told..That area is tough to hunt, walking in sand tracking all day maybe sleeping on the track and going again the next day just ain't for the elderly..but its the way to success, because the last 4 tracks with have that big boy standing in them..My best friends dad was manager on the Frying pan for years, I spent weekends and summer days working cattle on that ranch and about ever week or two someone would see one of those monster bucks, it was a thrill for sure, take your breath away..The biggest I was a 225 plus, and I know a rancher that shot a 233.5 buck..Those are big boys.

I grew up hunting that exact ranch. My dad and the owner were very good friends. I may have even run across you out there in the past. What years was that? I'm curious who your "best friend's dad" is? BTW, the landowner told me the first deer he ever saw in that country was in 1971, and biologists have verified they are a Rocky Mtn stain of muley. Where they came from, and why....who knows.

That poached buck was hanging in the Monahans Hwy Patrol office last time I checked.

Hell of a buck. Just saw the picture.

JG,
Alan Carraways dad was foreman on that ranch for some years, He later had a Hardware store near there (maybe in Roswell) and he raced horses at Ruidosa for a number of years. Alan Carraway now lives in Boise, Id. He and I grew up rodeoing together in West Texas..That was in the 1950s and there have always been a few deer on that ranch. and in that area. Personally I doubt they migrated from the Pacific N.W.... I know right across the line in New Mexico there have always been some big Mule deer,

In the past, as you know, I booked a few hunts in that area for a lawyer in Midland, Texas both in his New Mexico ranch near HObbs and his Texas ranch near the Frying Pan..An outfitter in El Paso, maybe Muley Mike had that land leased for hunting in the past couple of years..All of it is hard hunting and the deer are far apart, especially the big ones..The Hobbs ranch is somewhat better population wise and he has some mighty big bucks on it. That country is hard to book for, so many hunters today approach big buck hunting with unreasonable expectations in that they expect to see at least one monster every day, it seems!! I know a hill where you can spot the big boys almost any day, but getting to them is a whole nuther deal, near impossible.

I saw three, maybe 4 on the frying pan in my high school days in maybe 5 or 6 years while helping work cattle....I hunted deer fairly recently with Alan Carraway out of Ft. Sumner, New Mexico and it has a few deer in that area and we saw one real sho nuff monster buck along that river. but he gave us the slip big time. Can't think of the name of that river off hand. Is it the green river or Gila??, its murkey nasty salty river in the sand dunes, I remember that..Maybe some bucks wondered south to texas in the early years, its perhaps close enough. The old timers in that area tell me its always grown some big muleys.