Gun may have felled poached trophy buck

Department of Natural Resources enforcement officials now believe that the world-record eight-point buck poached this fall in Goodhue County was killed with a firearm, not a bow, according to sources familiar with the agency's investigation.

Testing of the animal's hide points to a firearm killing, said one source close to the investigation.

Enforcement officials also are weighing whether the big buck was killed near the town of White Rock in Goodhue County, as earlier believed, or instead might have been poached with a rifle or shotgun, perhaps from a rural Goodhue County road, the source said.

The firearms season wasn't open when the animal was killed.

The DNR said last week that Troy Alan Reinke, 32, of Cannon Falls said he killed the buck with his bow on Halloween evening. Reinke told the DNR that earlier this fall he also had killed a smaller buck and a doe with his bow, officials said, failing to tag either.

Reinke could legally kill only one deer with his bow, and his failure to tag the first two rendered the trophy buck poached. The DNR said it confiscated meat from the three deer from Reinke's home and also took the big buck's antlers.

The DNR wouldn't confirm whether its investigators have found gunpowder or similar residue on the buck's cape. Assistant Goodhue County attorney Dave Grove said Wednesday that he has spoken to the DNR about its investigation, but that conservation officers haven't given him test results confirming a firearm poaching of the deer.

If he receives such results, Grove said, "I would have to review [the information] to see if the charges would have to be amended."

The antlers of the big buck are believed to be the highest-scoring eight-point whitetail rack ever taken anywhere by a bow hunter -- or would have been, had the animal been killed legally.

Reinke has been charged with 13 misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors and faces fines of $2,000 or much more, as well as jail time, if convicted. He could also lose his hunting privileges.

According to a complaint filed in Goodhue County, Reinke told DNR conservation officers Tyler Quandt and Kevin Prodzinski that he killed the buck just before dark on Halloween evening, and that his cousin Matt Pientenka and Pientenka's girlfriend helped get the big deer to Reinke's house.

Reinke told the officers that he butchers his own deer and that he took the massive buck -- which reportedly field-dressed at almost 270 pounds -- to a local taxidermist the next day, intending to have the head and antlers mounted.

The taxidermist "caped" the deer in preparation for mounting and the animal's hide was stored in the taxidermist's freezer. It's that hide that investigators have studied to determine whether the animal might have been killed by a firearm.

Court records show Reinke has been convicted of illegal alcohol consumption, gas theft, marijuana possession, traffic offenses, fighting and domestic assault. The DNR also previously cited him for fishing with an extra line and, separately, issued him a written warning for not carrying a fishing license.

A person who answered the phone at Reinke's home Wednesday said he was unavailable. His first court appearance will be in December.