Man Guilty Of Poaching Trophy Buck

(WHBC) – A Holmes County man has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars in restitution and will lose his hunting privileges after illegally harvesting a trophy buck.

Junior L. Troyer, 43, of Millersburg, pleaded no-contest to five charges including providing false information while game checking deer, attaching a game check number to a deer other than the deer it was issued to, taking more than one antlered deer in a license year, possessing deer or deer parts without an attached valid deer tag, and attaching an antlerless deer game check number to an antlered deer.

Lindsay Rist, with ODNR Division of Wildlife, says the 26-point, non-typical trophy deer that was poached in Coshocton County scored 228 7/8.

“People value these larger racks, something that will score this well and possibly break records, so when people take these illegally it hurts everyone.”

Troyer was ordered to pay $27,904 in restitution to the ODNR Division of Wildlife.

He will also lose his hunting privileges for one year, and be entered into the Wildlife Violator’s Compact and most likely lose hunting rights in 46 other states.

The ODNR says a wildlife K-9 and his handler, assigned to Holmes County, located evidence that was crucial to the case.

The ODNR Division of Wildlife has five K-9 teams throughout the state that are trained and certified to detect wildlife, gunpowder, and ginseng, and are certified in tracking, area searches, and article searches.

Anyone observing or suspecting that wildlife violations are occurring can report illegal activity by calling the Turn-In-A-Poacher (TIP) hotline toll free at 1-800-POACHER (762-2437) or submitting information online at wildohio.gov. All information received by the TIP program will remain confidential.