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Helena man receives lifetime hunting ban for 2019 moose poaching

FWP Wardens with moose antlers
Posted at 2:59 PM, Feb 15, 2022
and last updated 2022-02-15 16:59:57-05

HELENA — A Helena man received a lifetime ban from hunting and trapping in Montana as part of his sentence for illegally killing a trophy moose east of Townsend in 2019.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) say Shiloh Berry, 41, was sentenced Friday in Broadwater County District Court. He pleaded guilty last fall to unlawful possession of a game animal, hunting without a valid license and waste of a game animal.

In addition to the lifetime ban, Berry has also been sentenced to a three-year suspension of fishing privileges, $12,100 in fines and restitution and a suspended five-year imprisonment term.

FWP game wardens received a tip in 2019 via the department’s 1-800-TIP-MONT hotline about a dead moose with its head cut off and the meat abandoned. Wardens found the carcass on Blacktail Road, about 17 miles east of Townsend and also found distinctive tire tracks and boot prints at the scene.

Wardens received another tip in April of 2020 that Berry possessed moose antlers he claimed to have found in the same area where the moose carcass was discovered. Through a search warrant, wardens discovered the antlers, as well as boots and tires that matched the tracks at the kill site. Wardens say during an interview Berry confessed to killing the moose.

The moose’s antlers were 56 inches wide and had a Boone and Crockett gross score of 167 and a net score of 145.