Kansas Mule Deer Poaching Investigation Nets 140 Charges

[tk44]

They should have jail time and ban for life for such recklessness.

The only justice I see here is that people listed in the articles have relatively unique names so its easy to figure out exactly who they are.

 

[Gunnersdad49]

Average of 13 deer was 173"! That isn't the biggest, but the average! Damn shame. I bet a lot of local hunters would have loved to legally put one of those on their wall.

 

[HollaPeenyo22]

I'd have to think those fines don't even begin to offset what it cost the state to bring this to trial.

 

[505Wapiti]

What a joke as far as consequences…. I would love to know who they know that kept them from stiffer punishment. Hard to believe the state would be that lenient on me if I ever did something that egregious and stupid. Hunting is supposed to be conservation, not a greed fueled all out theft of wildlife. Should be felony counts… What a bunch of

 

[*zap*]

I would love to know what actual evidence the state had of all those charges. Does not seem likely they had solid evidence for 140 charges.

 

[505Wapiti]

I would love to know what actual evidence the state had of all those charges. Does not seem likely they had solid evidence for 140 charges.

Agreed, but it would take a heck of a lot to be charged with 140 counts… the whole thing seems insane to me.

 

[mtwarden]

If you live in Kansas (or other state) that doesn’t have a felony wildlife statute- you should lobby to get one.

We got one 20-ish years ago in Montana; it was an uphill fight with the legislature (you mean if little Johnnie accidentally poaches three bull elk he could go to jail?), be we won the fight and have used it numerous times over the last twenty years.

When I was still working, at one point we had three offenders in Deer Lodge (our state prison). “What are you in for? bank robbery. You? poaching”

We were very selective using it, but when warranted- we really hammered some (deserving) folks.

 

[*zap*]

Agreed, but it would take a heck of a lot to be charged with 140 counts… the whole thing seems insane to me.

Every skull/euro/mount that you do not have a tag for is a poaching charge. We had ehd bad in 2012 and I know folks who picked up lots of deadheads without getting tags. They never even thought to get one...

Turkey beard and/or fan and no tag is the same thing.

 

[Xoutfitters]

They were tied in with XTreme Outfitters out of TX. No new posts on that page since 2020. The owner even somehow managed to shoot a KS elk when all he did was lease ground for hunting purposes.

Hey Biggie, I’m Zach Knowles, owner of Xtreme Outfitters, and I’d like to correct a few things in your comments here about me and set the record straight.
#1. I’m not out of Texas. I do hunt there a lot. But that’s not where I’m from.
#2 I did not shoot an elk in Kansas. I did however guide a hunter to a Kansas elk. This elk was taken with the commissioners tag on Ft Riley, a long way from Unit 1. This is the only elk I’ve ever been a part of harvesting in Kansas so it must be the one you’re mistaken about.
#3 While Tracy Weeter did guide some hunts for me as a sub contractor back 5 or 6 years ago, I had absolutely nothing to do with any of this stuff. I hunted up there a couple weeks a year for a a couple years and have no idea what they were doing on their own time. I was never contacted by law enforcement about any of this and to my knowledge was never under any investigation myself. If you’ve got any more questions or feel the need to post about me or my business on the internet again, please call me first and verify the story.
432-207-2171

 

[mtwarden]

^ curious if you had any suspicions of Weeter?

 

[kscowboy01]

"#1. I’m not out of Texas. I do hunt there a lot. But that’s not where I’m from."

Yet your phone number's area code is from the Permian Basin...

You're also being mentioned on the KS forum of Bowsite. Might as well go defend yourself over there while you're at it.

 

[mtwarden]

Appears it's a one and done post, I legitimately wanted to know if any bells/whistles were going off with this guy that worked for him

 

[Billy Goat]

@Xoutfitters ??

You get notifications?

A few honest questions and morecthan one person curious for an answer.

 

[KBaird]

There’s really no point for Zach to respond to any of this. He sure won’t admit to knowing anything on a public forum. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. Taking a quick peek at his social media posts from that time period nearly all of the Kansas related content still either includes the convicted poachers or expresses gratitude towards them for “keeping things running” while Zach wasn’t around/including finding nearly all the bucks they were killing during that time. The way it reads and seemed at the time those guys were “Xoutfitters” for a few years as far as the Kansas operation went. Zach just showed up for some trophy shots. Hard to believe the state never reached out to him during the investigation.