April 8: Forfeited firearms: Ready, aim, bid

Jim Konrad cradled a camouflaged Remington Model 700 rifle with a Nikon scope, someone's dream deer rifle. "It's a nice gun," said Konrad, chief of enforcement for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. "It looks like it hasn't been used much." The rifle was confiscated by a DNR conservation officer after its owner was caught using it to illegally hunt deer over bait last fall in Becker County. It is among nearly 300 rifles and shotguns -- all forfeited by hunters for serious game violations -- that are soon going on the auction block to the highest bidders. And for the first time in a decade, the general public -- including those who had their guns seized -- will be able to buy them. If the price is right. "Some of the guns are pretty beat up, but there are some nice ones here, too," Konrad said this week as he looked over the firearms, nearly overflowing a small locked room in the bowels of the DNR's St. Paul headquarters.

"I have about run out of storage space," said Patty Holt, the DNR's arrests and confiscations supervisor. "There's no more room." Also hanging above the wooden gun cases are about 20 bows, also seized from hunters. Those will be auctioned later.

Most of the 144 rifles and 146 shotguns were seized over the past four years.

"The last auction we had was 2005," Holt said. "Our goal is to sell them every two to three years, depending on how many come in. Once the shelves start getting full, we start thinking about a sale."

Before 1998, the DNR sold the guns in auctions open to the public. Hunters who had sentimental attachments to their seized guns, or just wanted them back, could outbid fellow buyers. But since 1998 -- when mandatory background checks became required by federal law to purchase long guns -- agency leaders decided to only auction the confiscated guns to gun dealers.

DNR Commissioner Mark Holsten decided recently to change the policy and reopen the gun sales to the public. The state is soliciting bids to handle the sale, which likely will occur next month. The vendor, which will get a percent of the proceeds, also will be responsible for the background checks of potential buyers.

"There's an educational component here, getting the word back out that we confiscate guns when it's a serious offense," Holsten said.

"Hopefully we'll raise more money too," he said, because the guns will be sold at retail rather than wholesale prices.

Some gems, duds

The guns could bring an estimated $30,000 to the DNR's Game and Fish Fund, but because they are being auctioned, officials can only guess at what they might fetch. Condition of the guns varies widely. Some look as if they were left in a leaky barn the past 20 years. Others clearly have been well cared for. A few appear almost new.

"I've seen them go from $30 to $900," Holt said.

Said Konrad, who spent 22 years in the field as a conservation officer: "Sometimes you're just really surprised. I seized a $1,000 muzzleloader from a guy for hunting without a license. It went for $300, and it was bought by the guy who lost it. It should have gone for a lot more."

"That's in very good shape," Konrad said. "It's probably worth some money."

There's an almost-new 10-gauge semi-automatic Ithaca shotgun, likely used for geese.

"I wouldn't want to hunt pheasants with it," Konrad said. "It's heavy."

And there's a 12 gauge Belgian-made Browning A-5 -- "a classic," Konrad said.

Baiting and shining

In recent years, more guns are showing up that were involved in baiting violations, Konrad said. Baiting has become a widespread problem, and last year the agency said it would seize more firearms from those caught violating the law. Konrad, who took over as chief of enforcement last month, will retain that policy.

"We feel it's that important of an issue, and it doesn't seem to be going away," he said. He also attributes a recent increase in seized bows to baiting.

Evidence of the problem sits in the DNR's storage room.

Konrad picked up a Remington 7400 rifle with a Simmons scope. Its owner was caught hunting over bait in Crow Wing County last November. The hunter acknowledged killing two 8-point bucks the previous year using bait. He was issued baiting citations for 2008 and 2007, and paid $1,000 restitution for the two deer, and lost his gun.

"And he lost his hunting privileges for three years," Holt said.

No sob stories

Because the DNR's gun auctions haven't been open to the public in recent years, hunters who lost a gun that was highly valued or had sentimental value could write a letter to the DNR and try to buy the gun back directly from the agency.

But conservation officers had to get several appraisals before the gun could be sold back to its original owner.

"We were spending taxpayer's money to accommodate someone who violated the law and had their gun taken away from them," Konrad said. "I thought that was really a waste of our officers' time."

Now, those who lose a firearm to the long arm of the law have only one option.

Doug Smith • dsmith@startribune.com