![Image](http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h90/esox1492/th_Ross20County20Deer2011_08.jpg)
Well, some of you folks may know about this one, some may not. It's from Ohio. A couple of poachers jacklighted this buck, at night, from the road with a rifle, back in November and were caught by ODNR and convicted of the crimes... Unfortunately no jail time was given. However, but among the fines, court fees, loss of the deer, hunting license and privlages, community service and loss of firearms and all other equipment involved in the illegal activity ordered for each of the criminals was a value of "restitution" for loss of wildlife.
This to me is very interesting....Many states have come up with a "value" for wildlife and typically the established Wildlife Value is somewhere in the order of $500.00 for whitetail deer. But Ohio has calculated a formula for the recovery value of such a big buck.... The formula is base upon the gross score of the antlers exceeding 125 Boone andCrockett (inches).
The formula is:
Recovery Value = ((gross score -100)squared x $1.65) + $500.00 (the Value derived in the established Wildlife Value Formula)
So what does that all mean. Well in this case just the Recovery Value of this buck was $12,988.00....
Another poacher caught by ODNR with a buck that scored 175 6/8 cost him $9719.00....
Hopefully that should make people think twice about poaching... Well, maybe not, but I think it's step in the right direction...
So the question is (just for fun), using this formula, "How much is your buck worth?"
Mine are priceless.....