After months of tracking a monster-sized mule deer buck and bagging it during an arduous backcountry hunt in the rugged high country near Star Valley, Dakota Smith says his trophy’s head, antlers, and cape went missing.
He suspects somebody stole it Sept. 15, after he stashed it during his pack-out.
“I worked my butt off for that deer,” Smith, who lives in Bedford, told Cowboy State Daily.
He’s offering a $750 reward for the return of his trophy.
“I’m not looking for revenge or to press charges or anything like that. I’d be more than happy to pay to just get that deer back,” Smith said.
It All Started In July
Smith was on a mission from the moment he first laid eyes on the buck.
“I’ve been watching that buck since the end of July. He was my target buck for the 2026 hunting season," he said.
Smith is an experienced high country mule deer hunter, but this was the first time a buck left such a huge impression. He decided to hunt only that deer once the season opened in December.
The buck’s antlers have it all: Height, mass, and the sort of picture-perfect symmetry to make it a trophy in the typical class — meaning a mule deer with “typical” antlers, growing in a straight and symmetrical manner.
The only anomaly was a missing eye guard (the small point right above the eye) on one side.
“He’s a 180-plus buck for sure. He’s not the kind of buck you see every day,” Smith said.
He was referring to a hoped-for score in the 180-inch range, according to the highly regarded Boone and Crockett Club trophy-game scoring system.
Scoring mule deer racks involves taking measurements in several places along the antlers’ structure. The spread, or greatest distance between the antlers, is also taken into account.
A score of 180 inches is enough to make the B&C awards list for a typical mule deer, and 190 inches or more gets it into the all-time records book.
‘I Froze My Butt Off’
Smith hiked in and set up camp ahead of the Sept. 15 deer season opener.
“I caught a good glimpse of him (the buck) the night before,” he said.
He picked out a vantage point from which he hoped to spot the buck at dawn and bivouacked nearby.
“I slept in a hammock and froze my butt off,” he said.
He was up and moving in time to set up at his vantage point two hours before sunrise.
When sunlight came, the buck was nowhere to be seen.
When he finally spotted the deer, it wasn’t in the best of places.
“He was moving up over the top (of a ridge), and so I had to get up and go way around,” he said.
After gaining another 850 feet or so of altitude, Smith was finally in a good spot to intercept the deer.
The shot from his 6.5 PRC rifle was true. He dropped the buck at about 250 yards.
Time to Pack Out
Then the work began.
“It turned out that there was a huge cliff between him and me. It took me about two and half hours to get to him, Smith said.
“I processed the buck for a full shoulder mount,” he said.
Smith kept the antlers, head, and cape (the skin back to about the front shoulders) in one piece.
Then he removed the edible portions of meat from the carcass, including the quarters, backstraps, and tenderloins.
Given the distance he had to cover and the ruggedness of the landscape, it was too much to try packing out all at once.
He hung the rear quarters in a tree and initially laid the head, antlers, and cape underneath it.
Then he decided to try packing the trophy portions out, too.
“I made it about 120 yards farther, and it was just too dang steep. I almost slipped and fell and told myself, "This just isn’t working," he said.
So, he decided to stash the trophy portions in the thick cover of another tree and pack out only his gear and the meat he already had in his pack.
He planned to come back for the trophy and rear quarters the next morning.
When he returned, he hiked straight to the quarters, bypassing the trophy stash.
“When I got there, the head, antlers, and cape were missing,” he said.
Where Did It Go?
Grizzly bears don't roam that part of Wyoming, but there are mountain lions, black bears, coyotes, and other scavengers.
But the scene showed no signs of an animal trying to pull his trophy from its hiding spot. And there were no chewed-up pieces of deer hide or similar telltale signs.
The spot looked undisturbed, as if the trophy had been “carefully lifted” out,” he said.
“I don’t see why a coyote would have tried packing something like that out instead of just eating it right there,” he noted.
That pushed him toward the idea that the trophy was stolen by “somebody on two legs,” Smith said.
Smith searched the area and found no sign of his trophy, so he decided to get the rest of his venison home.
He returned the next day with his dog, and they undertook a meticulous, broader search of the area, still turning up nothing.
“I reached out to the Game and Fish wardens. They hadn’t seen anything. They told me, "We didn’t check in any deer that looked like that," he said.
Smith said it pains him to have worked so hard to bag what could very well be the buck of a lifetime, only to have it go missing, quite possibly stolen.
Stiff Penalties
Retired game warden Joe Sandrini said that, unfortunately, theft of big-game trophies was something he saw occasionally during his career.
In the part of the state where he worked, hunters were more likely to take deer out whole, and so “we would get cases of deer stolen from the back of pickup trucks,” Sandrini said.
He was a game warden for 10 years and a wildlife biologist for 23 in the Black Hills region.
Once a hunter takes legal possession of a big-game carcass, it’s legally regarded as that hunter’s property, Sandrini said.
So, theft of that carcass or any part of it would be classified as larceny, or a criminal property crime, not specifically a wildlife crime, under Wyoming statutes.
Trophy-sized big-game antler, skulls, and/or capes can be worth thousands of dollars, Sandrini noted.
The theft of an item or items valued at $1,000 or more is grand larceny under Wyoming statutes. Grand larceny is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
Game and Fish could also bring a charge of illegal possession of wildlife parts, Sandrini said.
Illegal possession of big-game parts is punishable by a fine of $5,000 to $10,000, imprisonment for up to one year, and multi-year hunting license suspension.
Under the Interstate Wildlife Violators Compact, the loss of hunting privileges in one state can result in the loss of privileges in all other states.
If wildlife parts are taken across state lines, that’s a violation of the federal Lacey Act, Sandrini said.
When prosecuted as a felony, a Lacey Act violation is punishable by up to five years in prison and fines up to $20,000 or up to $250,000 under general federal sentencing or alternative economic gain provisions.
A loss of hunting privileges can also be included.
Other Thefts
While hunters generally regard each other as honest, hunting-related theft happens from time to time.
Smith is friends with Nic Buxman, whose hunting blind was stolen during an archery pronghorn hunt in Natrona County.
In September 2022, Utah resident Jimmy Lynn told Cowboy State Daily that “dirtbags” stole his trophy mule deer head and antlers from a remote camp in the Hoback Mountains.
That October, David DeAustin, who knows Lynn, saw a trophy-sized elk skull and antlers stolen from his backyard in Lander.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
