Troy Gentry Grins and Bears It

Country crooner Troy Gentry pled guilty Monday to charges that he actually is something of a wimp when it comes to encounters with animals larger than a jumbo shrimp.

The singer, one-half of the duo Montgomery Gentry, was facing five years in prison on felony charges of shooting a tame black bear -- a critter who went by the fearsome name of Cubby -- in an enclosure, then claiming the creature had been shot in the wild. Gentry, who reportedly paid in the neighborhood of $5,000 to take part in the canned hunt back in 2004, initially denied all wrongdoing in the matter, chose to avoid trial -- and the potential wrath of Ted Nugent, who slaughters his prey the old-school way -- by copping to "falsely registering a trophy bear."

The agreement Gentry and his lawyer reached with the Feds requires him to give up both Cubby's corpse and the weapon used to dispatch the little fella, and bans him from knocking off any other living things in the state of Minnesota for the next five years. On the bright side, the singer has 49 other states that might be willing to host his next expedition.