Hunting legend Darner sentenced in theft
By Nancy Lofholm
The Denver Post
01/14/2009


Hunting legend Kirt Darner was sentenced this week in New Mexico to pay $10,000 in fines and perform 4,500 hours of community service for illegally transporting elk and receiving stolen bighorn-sheep heads. He also permanently lost his hunting rights.

Darner, 69, pleaded guilty to the charges last summer, three years after trophy sheep heads stolen from a Montrose taxidermy shop were found in his vehicle. That same year, Darner sold three state-owned elk from his game ranch in New Mexico to another big-game ranch.

Darner was a nationally known big-game hunter and guide and author of hunting books. He held a number of big-game trophies that were later rescinded after it was determined that he had allegedly cheated to win the trophies.

Darner had previous problems with the law. He was convicted of illegal possession of wildlife in 1994. In 1999, he was convicted of tampering with evidence and careless driving after he was accused of trying to run down a wildlife officer who observed one of Darner's hunting clients shoot at an elk decoy in an area where he didn't have a license to hunt.

As part of Darner's most recent sentence, he has agreed never to hunt, fish or possess a firearm anywhere. He also was ordered to pay an as yet undetermined amount of restitution to the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the taxidermy business in Montrose where Darner paid a man to steal the sheep heads.

Darner currently lives on a ranch in Crawford.

As a kid in the eighties I used to read all about him. Since then I really haven't followed his saga.

Was he always dirty and it just took until his later years to get caught or did he turn to the dark side in an effort to stay in the "limelight"?

The folks that I've bumped into that play dirty have always played dirty. I find it hard to believe he was spotless in his early days and went that far astray.

There must be people out there who know more of the story.

I think he began to believe the things written about him, and went over to the dark side.

sad to see that part of humanity revealed.

Rich
Buff Killer

Kyler

He has been dirty since the very beginning, he once worked for the Forest Service near Chama New Mexico. And people thoght he was poaching back then....guess they were right.

Steve

"he allegedly cheated to win the trophys"
who writes this stuff? he didn't cheat,he poached the monster mule deer he later wrote the "look at me i'm a super mule deer hunter" book about.
when he and his wife of that era divorced she spilled the beans on him.
no evidence, but you don't start off a straight shooting honest man and then fall into a life of crime poaching critters off the winter range and then write a puffed up book about your hunting prowess.
better keep a close eye on him,he had no respect for game laws before and he will have damn little in the days to come.
you would have to run 24/7/365 for many years to find the number of, the caliber of bucks he had lined up in his book.was an itch on the back of my neck that something was fishy there.
NOBODY is that good or lucky, his poaching was a full time job. IMO

I can't believe he isn't doing any actual jail time for the theft of the bighorn heads. This guy is a one man crime wave.

I recall in the mid to late 70's, pictures of Darner, in Outdoor Life I believe, showing him in front of a barn, to which were attached many many HUGE mule deer heads; he was touted as an expert hunter of monster muleys....not surprising they were most likely poached....

Regards,
Craig Nolan

The Bernie Madoff of the hunting world...Indeed!!!

Kirt was a friend of a friend from Houston back in 80 or 81. Kirt was doing the (map for a place to hunt business) and well on his way to fame as the great mulie hunter. He leased what is now the RLL ranch (Ralph Lauren had just bought it the fall we hunted both the sep muledeer and sep elk seasons with Kirt) It is just East of the Dallas Divide and West of Ridgeway. There was a group of four of us from TX and he also had a group of four from CA. We were put up in guest cabins on the property. His wife did the cooking for us. We each got to hunt with Kirt a time or two in the evening or AM hunts.He seemed to be a very personable guy but seemed to have some quandry as to how to capitalize on his new found fame. Jimmy Houston (the pro fisherman TV show) was just getting started and Kirt seemed to have an interest in achieving similar sucess.
Kirt's reason for his sucess at that time, he attributed to the fact he was out in the woods all the time (he worked as a timber rover--counting quanity and quality of trees) thus he was on horse back in places both private and Gov't that had unpressured game.
Based on the way he conducted hisself with our group I would not have suspected any illegal behavior.

He put me on an exceptional elk one evening and
as it was dark thirty, he wouldn't let me shoot,
I thought I could but he said to pass.

I have followed his trials for the last 3 or 4 years and sounds like he went over the edge.
Sorry to see any one fall to the level he obviously did. It certainly does nothing for the sport.

I have never met him but remember him in Remington ads around 1980. I guess if you are going to be a successful fraud, you need to have a convincing manner. A friend had her purse snatched by a guy wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase (the running shoes should have been a giveaway).