Two guides and an outfitting company accused of breaking the rules while hunting Dall sheep near Kluane Lake are finally getting their day in court this week.

Ryan Leef and Gregory McHale, along with Ruby Range Outfitters, are charged with using an ATV to hunt in a no-vehicle area and entering false information on a kill report, specifically, the location where the animal was shot.

The hunt in question occurred in October 2007. The charges were laid in February 2008, after an investigation led by conservation officer Russel Oborne.

Oborne was the first witness on the stand Tuesday as the trial began in Yukon territorial court before judge Cunliffe Barnett.

Oborne told the court he began his investigation into the charges after receiving a complaint from two resident hunters who were travelling by boat across Kluane Lake.

Leef and McHale were guiding two hunters, one from Colorado and one from Ontario, in the range above the south side of the lake around that time.

By the end of the day yesterday, it was still unclear what exactly the resident hunters reported seeing.

Crown counsel Zeb Brown and defence counsel Nicholas Weigelt told the court they would be likely submitting an agreed-upon statement of fact instead of bringing the hunters in to testify.

That submission was expected later today or early tomorrow.

What the court did hear was Oborne's account of his investigation and also the testimony of Phil Phillips, the Colorado hunter who was with Leef and McHale around the time of the alleged offence.

Speaking as the first Crown's witness, Oborne laid out the rules for guided hunts in the Ruby Range.

When he got to explaining why he had begun his investigation into Leef's and McHale's activities in October 2007, the guides' defence lawyer objected on the grounds Oborne would be repeating someone else's words, hearsay, and the judge agreed.

Oborne said he interviewed the hunters who laid the complaint, as well as Phillips and the other visiting hunter.

"He was initially co-operative," Oborne said of the Ontario man, Dwight James, but when Oborne tried to get an official statement from the man, "he declined."

Leef and McHale, the conservation officer said, also declined to speak to him.

During cross-examination, Weigelt asked Oborne why he had included in his final report information about two previous investigations into Ruby Range Outfitters' and Leef's hunting practices.

One of those investigations, into the use of a helicopter for scouting out sheep, found the outfitter waited more than the required 48 hours after doing a fly-over before going on the hunt.

The other investigation, for filing a kill report four days late, resulted in a ticket that was later forgiven.

Oborne said he only included the files as background information, but Weigelt had other ideas.

"Isn't it an inference there have been problems with this outfitter?" Weigelt asked.

He then asked Oborne if he had a personal issue with Leef, a former conservation officer and occasional parks employee. Oborne said he did not, but Weigelt asserted there was "friction" between the two and they had "disagreed publicly."

The soft-spoken Oborne rejected that theory and insisted everything he did during the investigation was professionally, not personally, motivated.

The Crown's second witness was Phillips, who at the time hosted a big game hunting show for the Outdoor Network.

He was on a "complimentary" hunt organized by Leef, he told the court; in return, Phillips would promote Ruby Range Outfitters on his program.

Phillips said he did see ATVs at the camp, and heard them being used, but never actually saw anyone riding one of the off-road vehicles.

Hunting with motorized vehicles is permitted in the Ruby Range concession, but only on a couple of designated routes; beyond that, hunters must pack in.

For those simply camping or exploring, ATVs are permitted throughout the area.

"Did he at any time tell you they were going to cheat on the kill location?" Weigelt asked the American in cross-examination.

"No," he responded.

"Did he at any time ask you to lie?"

"No," Phillips answered again.

The trial continued today and is scheduled to run until Thursday.