The sad tale of a world-class buck’s sorry demise continues. Today, Troy Alan Reinke, 32, of Cannon Falls, MN, pleaded guitly to poaching the largest 8-point whitetail buck ever killed--a 185-inch bohemoth brought down last Halloween. Now, Alan is headed to where many hunters say he belongs—in jail.

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Reinke… admitted Thursday in District Court to a gross misdemeanor for illegally possessing the trophy buck and to two misdemeanors for failing to register two other deer he shot in October, said his attorney, Tim Dillon. About a dozen other charges were dismissed.

Taking into account that this incident put Reinke in violation of his parole from a domestic assault conviction as well as time already served in the poaching case, Reinke's sentence calls for him to serve 245 days in jail. He also loses his hunting privileges for five years, and must pay $1,500 in restitution and $500 in court costs.

Your reaction?

Wait a minute. Hold on, now. It’s not me saying so. It’s the winner of the previous “Shoot Me Down”—that is, the person who gave the best argument against my wild assertion that “The .260 Rem. Is The Best All-Around Whitetail Cartridge.” It is our own Walt Smith, who has agreed to accept the coveted prize of doing my job for me, as a guest blogger. Put another way, Walt is my guest. So be nice. Disagree, by all means. Shoot him down, if you must. Nail him to the wall. But be nice about it.

(Seriously, Walt, thanks for playing along.)

With that, here’s Walt:

Food Plots and Baiting Are One And The Same

There are many Quality-Deer-Management believers out there who will argue up and down that their food plots are helping deer achieve greater nutrition and bigger horns. That’s just smoke and mirrors. What they are really doing is trying to protect their form of baiting practices and gain an edge on their neighbors who cannot afford to spend hundreds of dollars on food plots. The way I see it, there is no difference between a 60-acre food plot, a 20x20-foot food plot tucked away in the woods, or 100 pounds of corn scattered over a 200-square-foot area. They are all the same fundamental practice; they all achieve the same result; they all are baiting.

There you have it. Stand with me—or shoot me down.

So we have a four-way tie. That’s right, buddyboy25, ikedogg, mwmrtn, and taylor1 each correctly guessed the actual, to-the-inch, gross-score total of all four bucks, which break down like this:

Buck#1: 153
Buck#2: 151
Buck#3: 170
Buck#4: 211

For a grand total of 685 inches.

There you have it. So, buddyboy25, ikedogg, mwmrtn, and taylor1, you four have a score to settle--namely, the score of this tie-breaker buck:

As before, you need to guess the pictured buck’s gross B&C score. But this time, in order to reduce the likelihood of another tie, fractionals will count. (That doesn’t mean the buck’s actual gross score necessarily includes a fractional. It may or may not.) The one who guesses closest wins the Mathews Z7 bow. Only your first guess counts and you may not guess the same total as any other finalist. I’ll announce the winner next Friday.

As for everyone else, have some fun. Let’s see your guesses. Only the finalist’s will count. But hey, if you get it right you’ll have the pride of knowing that you really do have the skills that might have won you that great new bow had you not screwed up on the first four bucks. I wish we had a consolation prize. Maybe your sister will kiss you.

Seriously, lets all congratulate the finalists and wish them luck. Okay, go for it.

It’s rare for a winter to pass without some word of a whitetail stuck on ice, and it’s easy to see how that situation occurs. Many frozen waterways offer deer comparatively easy travel to the deep snows found on shore. Some whitetails surely run onto ice to avoid predators, and of course deer are no different than any critter (or human) in their ability to just make the occasional stupid mistake and walk where they shouldn’t.

Of course most ice-bound deer are not seen by people and must either find their own way to sure footing or die. But each year a handful are spotted by passersby, many who decide that the “Nature must take its course” option is not acceptable. Rescues occur and the deer live to confront other survival challenges.

Naturally, getting a wild whitetail off the ice is no easy task, and the photos and stories that accompany these rescues often involve a lot of rope, a panicked deer and bunch of mayhem. But if you want to see a slick, seconds-to-safety whitetail roundup, check out this video. Some pretty ingenious maneuvering by a chopper pilot who gave a young deer another shot at life.