GAME WARDENS

[sawyer04]

never had a run in with game warden, well, maybe one. Most of us residenters pack something here and I was packing a shotgun and a bag. Got back to the truck and a warden was waiting on me. Nice young fellow, asked to see what was in the bag, I had found abundance of rooms and the bag was full. I think he thought I poached a little Jake. He got interested in ole Gettum, double barrel cap lock, long conversation followed.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Not that I was ever a teen drinking beer down by the creek But the Game Wardens were the ones we feared. . . Cops and Park rangers stopped chasing at the water's edge, only the Wardens would get their feet wet

 

[nit wit]

John Ford was a legendary warden here in Maine. After retirement he wrote a few books. John was a fair no nonsense warden and a good man. He died a little over a year ago, but he left us some good reading!
Nit Wit

 

[Sidney Smith]

What state was that in?

PA

 

[mjpchief]

Had a lot of interactions with game wardens over the years and all were good except one. But forget that one. After a successful pheasant hunt once with 5 other friends we were checked as we were loading up in the trucks. Nice guys and after they checked our birds they began checking our guns for plugs. I had already put mine away in the truck. When it came time to check mine I told the warden that he probably wasn't going to like mine because it didn't have a plug in it. He had a real disappointed look on his face and asked why I had done everything legal up to this point and didn't have a plug in my gun. I pulled it out of the case and showed him a sweet little SKB side by side 20 ga. We all had a good laugh over that one. Nice guy.

 

[bang]

Game wardens in general are great. Just like anything there are the few that are not. 50 years of hunting have only produced two of those few. One place I was on unbeknownst to us had poaching issue the previous year. Foe whatever reasin the warden couldn't seperate us from them. He very disrespectful and very harassing. To the point the entire group went to the local office and filed numerous complaints. The situation was resolved and he changed his tune.
Another waited while I was at the property gate cleaning up a bit to go eat. It was dark. I pulled out, locked the gate and was fixing to go when a car with no lights comes flying up stops off the road about 20 yards away and all four doors open, no interior light. Not knowing what was going on I rolled out the passenger side sidearm in hand. From over the hood ready for the worse I called out announce yourself or else. One said "game warden."
Approach alone and be identified.
Once things calmed I asked him if he saw me inside the gate. He said yes.
Then why didn't you wait till I was heading out to pull a very dangerous stunt like that.
He had no answer.
He was young and had three cadets with him and figured he was showing off.
Once he checked what he wanted I told the cadets to be careful stunts like that can get you killed. I called the local and reported the incident. They too were very concerned with his methods. It turned out this one of the few had prior issues and he was not seen since.
His actions were not proper at all. He like any warden could have just came on the property. Could have just drove up to the gate in plain sight. He made a simple contact a potentially deadly situation.

 

[3 trees]

I have know all the wardens in my county in WV over the last 35 years. All but one had conducted themselves in a professional manner. The one who didn’t was let go by the state, the sad part was he gave all wardens who followed him a bad name. So I guess I am saying they are human like all of us.

 

[Sidney Smith]

One of my negative experiences went like this. I was at a game commission owned shooting range. This was years ago, right around the time a lot of Yahoo's ruined it. A rule was three rounds max in any firearm. I was firing my .357 at the then 25 yard target board. I fired 3, emptied the gun, loaded 3 more, fired them, emptied then, loaded 3 more and fired them. Suddenly a tap on my shoulder. I turn and see a game warden standings there. He calls me aside and starts to read me the riot act about loading more rounds than are allowed at any one time. I tell him I did no such thing. He practically called me a liar. I asked him to count the empty cases on the table. 9, three times 3. It wasn't until one of the locals who was there all the time, who scrounged empty brass, who knew me, stepped over and told the warden that I was telling the truth. He said this to the warden ," he's one of the few who obeys the rules here". The warden then walked away, no apology anything. Ok we all make mistakes, but to keep it up the way he did, and almost call me a liar. That didn't sit well with me, and definitely lowered my opinion of game wardens for quite a while.

Fortunately, recent interactions with the men in green have restored my faith in them.

 

[Quebec99]

After hunting in Massachusetts, Nebraska, Connecticut, Texas, Georgia, and now Vermont, I have had my first interactions with F&W, all exceedingly positive. The only problem that I have heard of is a neighbor who was let go twice, and fined on the third offence.

 

[Bad Karma]

One of my negative experiences went like this. I was at a game commission owned shooting range. This was years ago, right around the time a lot of Yahoo's ruined it. A rule was three rounds max in any firearm. I was firing my .357 at the then 25 yard target board. I fired 3, emptied the gun, loaded 3 more, fired them, emptied then, loaded 3 more and fired them. Suddenly a tap on my shoulder. I turn and see a game warden standings there. He calls me aside and starts to read me the riot act about loading more rounds than are allowed at any one time. I tell him I did no such thing. He practically called me a liar. I asked him to count the empty cases on the table. 9, three times 3. It wasn't until one of the locals who was there all the time, who scrounged empty brass, who knew me, stepped over and told the warden that I was telling the truth. He said this to the warden ," he's one of the few who obeys the rules here". The warden then walked away, no apology anything. Ok we all make mistakes, but to keep it up the way he did, and almost call me a liar. That didn't sit well with me, and definitely lowered my opinion of game wardens for quite a while.

Fortunately, recent interactions with the men in green have restored my faith in them.

Hopefully you called in a complaint against this character.

 

[Sidney Smith]

Hopefully you called in a complaint against this character.

I should have, but I didn't. I just let it go. He didn't fine me or anything so I just chalked it up to him having a bad day or maybe he thought he heard me fire more than three(when I wasn't). But since I wasn't the only one shooting at the time, he probably heard me shoot, then someone else, and thought it was all me. He was mistaken. But, he wasn't decent enough to admit it, and that's what left me with a lowered opinion of him and his cohorts.

 

[ppg1949]

In my decades in the field, I've had a dozen or more encounters with CO's. I never had a bad experience with one. One time a buddy and I were hunting doves on state public lands. My friend was using an old but near mint Remington 870 16ga that he just bought that week. A CO came by to check us out and found my friends shotgun would hold more than the legal limit of three shells. Well my friend got a ticket. But the CO took my friends shotgun and broke it down. He then cut a corn stalk and placed it where the limiting plug used to be so my friend could continue to hunt. That CO went beyond his normal duties IMO.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Never had a bad experience with the local game wardens and considered them very professional,all were helpful with questions and suggestions. They are like the rest of us have a job to do, with out them there would be no game or fish to pursue. and I guess depending on how they are received has a lot do with how they conduct business. I know one game warden whom was very helpful in Wyoming with setting up a antelope hunt.

 

[longcruise]

The shotgun plug stories reminded me of a time I and a friend were at the car having lunch during a dove hunt. We were in the parking area of a public hunting area so it was not unexpected that a warden would drive up to check us. He first checked our dove counts and then asked to see our guns. Immediately my friend recalled that he had taken the plug out the past winter and hadn't replaced it. Before the warden even checked his gun he grabbed a stick and started whittling.

The warden was plumb friendly and said he was sure my friend was completely honest about it but he still wrote the citation.

The official view in my state is that being lenient ultimately gets around and only encourages people to cross the line. I pretty much agree with that policy.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Of all the Game Wardens I've dealt with one of the vary best was a woman, Cathy Green was the Warden in our area when I was a kid. We had so much respect for her. . . even when we were walking some vary shady lines in our late teens, we kept the vast majority of game laws to a T. Never without a license, never over limit, or out of season. The lone exception was a running war between us kids that Trapped and a super rich guy who would threaten land owners who let us trap with frivolous lawsuits (something he could afford and most of them could not) or Green peace protesters. At 14 and helpless against his actions . . . . . . We might have been so distraught that we got confused as to the bounders of his property. But outside of that one guy (and as teens who all wanted to be Jim Bridger, and with teen boy brains, we really did see it as a feud) we considered it a matter of pride that we kept the game laws, made fall game counts and adjusted our take from an area based on what harvest we thought was health (Not the price of fur). I think Cathy instilled a lot of that in us.

 

[Sidney Smith]

That's why I like using a double barrel. No worries about forgetting to plug anything.

 

[fishmanbeene]

Never had a problem with GW's went to college with a lot of guys that are now game wardens in Oklahoma. I will say that at least in Oklahoma, it seemed that a prior conviction for poaching was a plus on an application. I know of at least 5 that had poaching convictions on their record before they were hired.

 

[toytruck]

My dad was a game warden. I grew up with many of them coming to the house for a monthly meeting. Dad was the area leader (Sergeant) for the six county area in VA. I have a lot of respect for those men! I was even considering to apply for a job after high school, but my eyes didn't make the requirements.
I retired from LEO work after 27 years.
Most of the wardens I knew back then have passed on now. It's a super dangerous job when most of the people you meet are armed!

 

[renegadehunter]

I've found most of the GW's I've had encounters with to be straight forward and pretty serious people, but polite too. Most of them share the same hunting/fishing passion we do and are willing to offer advice of where to find game or catch fish. I've been checked while fishing far and away more than when hunting. All my interactions with them have been positive with the exception of two.
There have been exactly two in my 38 years of hunting/fishing that didn't have the right personality for the job (field work anyway). One was some high up mucky-muck from back East somewhere that wouldn't be pleasant to interact with in any social or working environment, and the other was a young guy that, well, I don't know what his deal was.
The mucky-muck I encountered on Crooked River (although called a "river", think more like a large Creek) on the SouthFork of the Clearwater River was there for some kind of visit, we camped and fished there a lot and knew the local lady that patrolled the area. She was very pleasant and had checked us a few times. Where we camped there was a small pond, fed by the "River". The local warden came into our camp area often to view and check on the smolt and young trout that inhabited the pond. One morning she came driving in and had the mucky-muck with her. He got out and stomped around like he was a VERY important person. Asked to check all of our licenses (none of us were even fishing at the time), wanted to look in coolers, looked over the motorcycles for spark arrestor mufflers, anything he could think of. The local Warden had the most embarrassed look on her face the whole time. The next weekend she explained who he was and actually apologized for his behavior.
The young guy was new in my "normal" area where I deer hunt and our family owns property. I was in my very early or mid twenties at the time. I had a new scope on an unmentionable that I needed to sight in, so a week before deer season I went up to our family property to do so. I'm at the cabin, set up on a shooting bench on the cabin deck and have a target 100 yards out. I'm a 1000 yards into the property behind a posted and closed gate. I have fired about 3 shots when I hear a rig coming. I see it is our newer GW. I open the bolt and step away from the rifle so he won't be nervous or anything. I had met him that spring during turkey season and he was perfectly friendly at that time with our other normal GW present. He drives up to the cabin, gets out, looks in the back of my pickup and through the window into the front of the cab, walks up onto the deck of the cabin and then turns and goes into the cabin (I had the door open). Hasn't said a word to me. Now, how would you take that? Long story short, he "heard all the shootin and figured I was opening the deer season a bit early and was looking for the deer I had poached". I firmly informed him that he was an *****, that I would be having a discussion with his boss, and that he was to remove himself from our property and not step foot on it again. Never saw him again so have to assume I wasn't the only person and that he was sent packing.
The above two are extreme exceptions to any other encounter I've ever had. All the ones in my normal stomping grounds are expected to cover a ridiculous amount of area and while I respect what they do greatly, I sure don't envy them their job.

 

[Col. Batguano]

I was falsely accused of taking a deer under a license that was obtained under false pretenses by one one time. It's a long story, but the Game Warden in making the charge was trying to find an activist judge to write new law, and make instant felons out of thousands of other license holders who obtained their licenses exactly the same way. I got the venue changed and the D.A. in the new venue dropped the case. It still cost me several thousand dollars and a lot of angst over what could have possibly been a felony conviction, (the Lacy Act) which would have ended my career in financial services. Though I respect them for what they do for the things they do that they should, I do NOT respect them for the things they do that they shouldn't.