UPDATE: Bill Busbice, Star of Outdoor Channel’s Wildgame Nation, Sentenced for Elk Poaching in Wyoming
OutdoorHub Social 06.26.17
Bill Busbice, host of Wildgame Nation on the Outdoor Channel has reportedly been sentenced for intentionally allowing an antlerless elk to go to waste and for hunting without a proper license.
According to the Star Tribune, Busbice appeared before Lincoln County Circuit Court Judge Frank Zebre, who sentenced him to one and a half years of unsupervised probation and ordered Busbice to pay $23,000 in fines and restitution AND will lose his hunting and fishing privileges across 45 states until 2019.
The original news release from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department was taken down due to “inaccurate information,” and representatives of Mr. Busbice have also asked us to remove the original press release from our website. Other sources are reporting, however, that Bill Busbice was observed on October 16, 2016 shoot and kill a female calf and then a bull elk on a ranch Busbice owns himself.
“The case started on October 16, 2016 when Kemmerer Game Warden Chris Baird received a report from a group of hunters that had observed a possible wildlife violation on the Spring Creek Ranch, which is owned by Busbice, on La Barge Creek.”
The hunters who watched Busbice and the other man who was with him that day say they saw the men walk to both carcasses, leave, and then eventually returned and retrieved the bull elk with a backhoe but left the calf out in the field to go to waste.
“Apparently, there was a younger man with the hunter who had a video camera and appeared to be filming the hunt. They watched the hunter shoot one elk, presumably a cow, and then shoot a bull. The first elk fell within around 60 yards of where the bull went down. They observed the hunter and the cameraman walk up to look at the bull and then leave the area,” said Game Warden Chris Baird
Busbice was cited before this incident in 2016 for purchasing a resident elk tag even though he was not a resident. He was also cited for purchasing more than the authorized number of deer tags and paid $1,430 in fines for those violations.
Here’s a video of Bill Busbice crossbow hunting whitetail deer:
