Hi Everyone, I recently bought his second book on Hunting the Rockies and would like to puchase his first book "How To Find Giant Bucks" if anyone has one for sale. Please send me a PM or contact me directly at (nvsolitude@att.net)It would be much appreciated. thanks, Steve

Was he the guy from Colorado that poached all the mule deer?

kudu56,
I really don't know what he did or didn't do. I heard the book was a good read.

He is from Montrose CO but I dont think he poached any. I read his first book and thought it not very good. IMO. That was several years ago though, and I may have looked at things differently. He was a dyed-in-the-wool mule deer hunter, hunting 4 states every year.

I have Darner's first book, and it is a good read. Most of what he has to say about trophy mule deer hunting makes great sense. It's well-worth owning, no matter what.

As I understand it, Darner still lives in Montrose, CO. I'd call directory assistance and ask for his number. If anyone can supply you with a copy of that book, it would be Kirt Darner.

AD

As far as I know he didn't poach anything except eggs. This fellow knows how to hunt muledeer ! Another fellow with a great reputation is Dick Pennington from same town. He know where to find them but I don't think he wrote any books. Talk to him some time he is also in the phone book.

Kirt Darner killed a "Trophy" mulie inside a natioanl park in the off season. He also used a personal aircraft to spot the trophies hanging on the barn for the Remington promotial. You notice that the Remington promotion deal went away.

On September 14, 2001, the Colorado Wildlife Commission voted unanimously to suspend his hunting license for three years. OA 01-134. DEN00660.

It in the record. His book might better be titled, "How to Poach Record Book Mule Deer."

The SOB stole those deer from hard working slobs like us that follow the law.

Allen, thank you for the extra effort. I appreciate the help. please contact me PM or directly. I'd like to talk to you.
Steve

Had a slight advantage any way......worked for the forest service. Kinda helps when you are in amongst them everyday. They used to have his mounts on display at the Sportsmen shows...don't see them any more. I can now understand why..

nvmuley,

Hang on to your back pockets, for various reasons, Kirt Darner has ignited some of the biggest controversies and wildest rumors I have ever listened too. I am about to get flamed from all sides (I am now donning my flame suit and charging my fire extinguishers).

I was born, raised, and have spent most of my adult life in Montrose (although I am not currently living there--But I Shall Return). We seem to have a large proportion of "famous white hunters" in my hometown (my words). Wayne Carlton, Kirt, even my old school chum Phil Phillips, etc--who the snarf is Dick Pennington anyway?

Kirt was raised in Northern New Mexico/Arizona. Worked for the Forest Service in the 60's. Was a serious Muley hunter back then and took several B&C bucks (you gotta remember big bucks were far more common then). Since the early 70's kirt lived in Montrose and worked for timber companies (as a timber cruiser) and was also self-employed in various enterprises, (real estate, guiding, books, logging). In the late 70's Remington featured Kirt--with his original 1964 vintage M700 7mmRemMag--and 7 B&C heads he had killed and/or picked up. For almost a year he was on the back cover of most issues Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, and Sports Afield. Kirt took full advantage of the publicity to promote himself and his various hunting enterprises. To describe Kirt in a neutral manner, I would say he was/is a very aggressive businessman. There seems to be somebody mad at him most of the time. Kirt moved to Montrose expressly for the Muley hunting. He continued to kill big bucks (not all of them were B&C heads--but still big). Sometime in the 80's, Kirt had a guiding/outfitting business going, and was traveling the hunting show circuit with a horse trailer full of his, his wife's, and some other friends heads (his wife took a huge bighorn near Gunnison). One of the bucks Kirt killed in the early 70's was a non-typical that was in the top 10 in the B&C book. In about 89 or 90, just when ol' Kirt was really hitting his peak, a longtime family protaginist who lived in Arizona, sued Kirt, claiming the big non-typical was stolen from his garage. Within--literally--a month or two, the family of a deceased rancher--from Utah!--sued Kirt, claiming their father killed the same non-typical in the late 50's. The newly created Mule Deer Foundation, of wich Kirt was a founding member, offered to have the antlers carbon dated by the University of Arizona. Anything that has lived in this world sinced the nuclear tests in Nevada in the 40's can be dated to within plus or minus of a year. The results came back at (I believe)
1973. This was the year Kirt said he killed the buck, not to mention the numerous affidavits he produced--including the county sheriff--who saw the buck in the back of Kirt's pickup when he brought it to town the day he killed it.

Within a year, an individual who claimed he guided Kirt on a Desert Bighorn hunt said the head Kirt killed wasn't the one they had originally killed. All of these lawsuits and a couple investigations by wildlife agencies came to...zip. But the Boone & Crockett Club kicked the non-typical head out anyway. So Kirt pulled all of his heads out of the book. It didn't stop the various controversies.

I have a very good friend, originally from Texas, who thinks the world of Kirt. This guy is a major Stanley Straight Arrow. Stop at my friend's store (The Buckstop) in Montrose to see his collection of heads. It may be the second largest collection of Mulies around. Anyway my friend drew a Paunsgahnt (spelling?) tag for December in Utah in the early 90's. Kirt had killed two nice bucks that
fall. One of them in Colorado on a Muzzleloader tag in September, the other in a different state (I can't remember which). Kirt immediately brought the buck down to my friend's place of business where dozens of people saw it.

Imagine my friends surprise, three months later while hunting with his Paunsgahnt tag, when the cafe he walked into in Arizona, just across the border from the Paunsgahnt area, had a photocopy of a photo of this buck and Kirt at the end of the counter with the caption saying to the effect; "This buck was poached by Kirt in the Paunsgahnt the year before". Imagine my friends anger, when he recognized the photo as one he had taken the day Kirt brought the head and cape into the store, and that this photo was in his photo album that he kept on his counter in his store. Somebody had taken a photo of the photo, made a photocopy of it, and apparently distributed it around! The cafe had to call the police--my friend almost tore the place down. And with the threat of a lawsuit, the cafe
quickly removed the photo.

But, alas, as one buddy of mine said "where there is this much smoke their must be fire". A few years ago, one of Kirt's hunters, while riding in the truck with Kirt driving, stopped, got out and took a shot at a big buck standing a ways off of the county road (this was a few hundred yards from my family's land on the Uncompahgre Plateau). It is against the law to shoot from a county road, and to shoot onto private land--especially without permission from the landowner! Imagine Kirt's and the hunters surprise when Colorado Division of Wildlife employees popped out of the brush. The "buck" was one of them hi-tech decoys with radio controlled movements! So Kirt decided to make a run for it, in his pickup, to his hunting lease on a nearby ranch. After a few miles he apparently decided to pull over. He eventually reached a plea bargain, and Colorado jerked his outfitters license for a few years (his wife took it over). Kirt has sinced moved back to New Mexico.

As one of the founding members of the RMEF chapter in Montrose, I got to know Kirt and his wife Paula. Kirt raised a lot of money for the RMEF, the Mule Deer Foundation, and SCI and put in a lot of work--I'll will personally vouch for that. But he was an absolute idiot, given his situation, to allow (or possibly encourage) his hunter to shoot illegally. And all it did was confirm a lot of people's suspicions.

Casey

He might have been a nice guy, a good writer, an authority on Mule Deer, but like I said he was a poacher. He stole from every deer hunter that hunted or ever wanted to hunt Colorado.

nvmuley, I have an autographed copy of the book in excellent condition. It is yours if you want it, make me an offer. Thunder child

I have no affiliation with Kirt. I just found this info in a quick google search.

Kirt lives in New Mexico now and is available at 1-505-290-1468. You can order his books directly from him.

$bob$

Casey, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to write a very thorough and concise background story on Kirt Darner. I really appreciate the effort you put into it....

AD

Casey,



Thanks for the post, I use to guide out of Montrose back in the mid 70's (for a while to the east around the old Silverjack, and then later west around the Payne Mesa area).

I also knew Darner, but unlike you had no respect for the man at all. Many of us just wondered when the Department of Wildlife was going to bust him.



When Remington used him in their add's I refused to by any of their products, and wrote them saying so. His actions hurt us all.



Regards,

MaBell

Hey everyone, thanks for adding all the great information and contacts to this post. I've enjoyed reading it all!
Steve

Gator1,

Actually, I didn't give information in the "decoy shooting" that is incorrect, instead, I chose not to go into gory detail (my post was already wordy enough). I am well aware of the details surrounding the ol' decoy shooting. The details you gave are well documented in the Montrose Daily Press. The "garage sale" buck mentioned?-- Kirt has always been forthcoming about it--it was a standing joke with Kirt (Boone & Crockett garage sale buck!). He also has a number of skulls w/ large antlers and shed antlers that have been picked up and he had mounted--to the best of my knowledge this was always made clear to everybody involved. The big non-typical was killed in 1973 in the Lone Cone area. I am aware of (and have seen) affadavits stating when the buck (fresh head and cape) was observed. The family from Utah that sued over the big non-typical also had a black and white photo of a buck in the back of a late 40's/ early 50's pickup. It looked just like Kirt's non-typical--but turned out to be an impossibility.

I could write pages of "information" (factual or otherwise) about various claims concerning Darner. I am not condoning nor disparaging (well , not disparging much anyway). Instead my intent was to address lots of rumors--rather than go into excruciating detail.

Casey

I don't think there has ever been a better book on Mule Deer hunting than Kirts book. I had mine autographed by him at one of his shows.
The problem started when the non-typical buck he entered turned out to be exactly like a head that taken on the kaibab in the forties (If I remember correctly), and lost or stolen. When I say exactly, I mean even the smallest deformation. Kirt lost many of his loyalist supporters including the co-author of his book, Rich LaRocco. This buck was disqualified from the B&C. Kirt did submit these horns for carbon dating, and they did come back to the year he claimed he killed the buck as stated in a previous post.

I tend to believe Kirt did not take all the trophys he claimed, but as I stated at the beginning of this post, you can't go wrong with reading his book.

OldFart,
After having the chance to read the book for two nights now, my gut feeling is you are correct in your post. There is a lot of good information in the book, and photos to back most of it up. Lots of details on successful hunts, contacts, locations, tactics, etc. I'm sure not sorry I bought it. It's a good informative read. I'm going to stay away from passing judgement. To much time has gone by, to many rumors for me to even want to try and sort things out. I think the book stands on it's owm merit.
Steve