When Your Trophy Case Turns Into a Court Case

Man drops a bag of cash on professional escorts for the biggest elk in Pennsylvania, and the escorts end up in cuffs.

Picture this dream: you beat the odds, pull a Pennsylvania elk tag (read our original article here), hire two guys who supposedly know every fence line in the county. You shoot the bull elk of a lifetime…an 8×8 monster that rough-scores 428 inches, which is basically the deer equivalent of bowling a 300 while doing a backflip. Potential state archery record. The taxidermy bill is going to be worth more than your truck at this point!

Then the phone rings. A landowner says, “Hey, those guys were on my dirt.” Now Mike Conaway and Abner Druckenmiller, the two guides, are staring down trespassing charges, have lawyered up, and are pleading not guilty while insisting they thought they had the green light. The hunter is untouched. No charges, and he keeps the bull. Game wardens basically said, “Yeah, he had no idea he hired the wrong tour guides.”

So the final score reads: trophy — 1, hunter — 1, guides — court date. The guy did everything a hunter is supposed to do — drew the tag, paid the pros, trusted the pros — and still ended up as the human face of a poaching headline.

This story is still cooking, and there’s almost certainly a chapter nobody’s read yet. With Rack Junkies Podcast and Outdoor Writer Stephen Ziegler is still on this story as more information unfolds.

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