Among the many problems that Texas Game Wardens handle are poachers. Poaching is defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poachers break ethical rules and game laws designed to protect and conserve one of Texas’ most prized wildlife resources. Fortunately, our game wardens work tirelessly to seek out and punish people who poach. In recent months, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has reported several successful conclusions to Texas poaching cases.
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Poachers Beware: Texas Game Wardens Will Find You
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Grayson County’s Big Bucks
Photo: Facebook/Eisenhower State Park
Grayson County is known for its proximity to both Lake Texoma and the Red River but also for the quality of its whitetail deer. Grayson County is also one of only a handful of counties in Texas where bowhunting is the only legal means of harvest.
According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, rumors in Grayson County spread like wildfire after photos of a huge 19-point buck surfaced in town. Game wardens received information suggesting the hunter’s story didn’t add up. On December 16, 2016, the man who killed the big buck, John Walker Drinnon, 34, of Whitesboro, Texas, told game wardens that he killed the 19-pointer on public hunting land in Oklahoma. The wardens had obtained a game camera image of the deer in question, photographed on public hunting land on the Texas side of Lake Texoma, which contradicted Drinnon’s claim.
Game Wardens Enlisted Help to Catch the Poacher
Photo: Facebook/TexasGameWardens
Working with their counterparts in Oklahoma and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents to build a case, game wardens eventually obtained a confession from Drinnon that he had killed the buck in Grayson County from a public roadway with a rifle. Charges were filed against Drinnon for taking a deer without landowner consent (a state jail felony), hunting without landowner consent and hunting from a vehicle (Class A misdemeanors). Drinnon was also issued citations for no hunting license, hunting from the public roadway, no hunter education, and illegal means and methods.
Poaching: You Can’t Afford It!
Photo: Facebook/TexasGameWardens
On October 12, Drinnon pled guilty to the felony charge of taking a whitetail deer without landowner consent in 15th District Court in Sherman, Texas. Civil restitution on the deer, which scored a 202 Boone & Crockett score, and was estimated at $18,048.10. According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, advances in stealth surveillance technology have made game cameras essential gear for serious deer hunters. In Grayson County, wary old bucks present a challenge for bowhunters but seldom escape the camera or coffee shop gossip.
