Have you had any ridiculous, funny, or wonderful run-ins with Game Wardens

[Big Muddy rancher]

That was a great story MM.
I am pretty good friends with a couple of our retired Conservation Officers/CO's. They parked a old bunk trailer on the north end of the ranch and would use their horses for game counts/ surveys and some hunting season patrolling. Mostly just to get out of the office and hide out.
 Our CO's just got side arms about 2000, around that time I got took by a cow in the barn and broke my arm, My CO friend told his wife that if he had been there the cow would have been shot. She said "what if you hit Big Muddy" and he said"he would have been collateral damage but the cow would have been dead"
Hardly see a CO anymore, none of them have been down to stay at the trailer but the newest one has stayed at one of the wife's rental cabin while bow hunting.

[terminator]

Best one is a friend told me him and his buddy were ducking hunting years ago when they were 16.They were walking out from the creek they had been hunting and heard shots after legal shooting time.Game warden was at their truck when they got there and gave them a ticket for shooting after legal hour.They had to go to the judge and game warden later on.The judge asked Bobby if they were shooting after legal hours.Bobby said "No Uncle Dan it wasn't us." Judge said "Case dismissed" True story.Game Wardens used to be nice guys (some still are I guess ) but it seems now they just want to write tickets and catch you for something.My answers to them now are yes and no only.2 of them stopped at my home place in Arkansas a few years ago as we were unloading atvs off the trailer in our pasture beside the house and wanted to see our hunting license (Texas tags on truck and trailer).Told them we were not hunting and didn't need a license but catch us in the woods tomorrow with our guns and they could check then.They are not all as powerful as we are led to believe.Tell them to get a search warrant and see what happens,

[musicman]

As one other member mentioned, and I have been told, that Game Wardens do not need a search warrant.  Which begs to ask, isn't that against Federal law.  When my son and I had it out with our one bad Game Warden that was here for a short while, he had it out for us.  My cousin, that had the property adjacent to us, came home from Church one Sunday, and sees the back end of a vehicle behind his barn.  He didn't know what to do, call the law or what, and then the game warden comes out of the barn.  So he goes up to him to see what was going on.  The game warden asked where I was.  My cousin said, "His place is the left entrance.  Turns out, the warden had gone through all of my cousins coolers, it was the second week of hunting season, and had completely checked out everything in the barn, without permission, consent, or anything.  My cousin had nothing to hide, and I think there were two doe legs, and two bucks heads still laying there, but all completely and correctly tagged with the permit tags for the does.  My cousin called me after the warden left, and told me he had asked about me; and then said that he looked a little pissed off that he didn't find anything.  I called my son and told him that I think the warden is "out" for us, and make damn sure that EVERYTHING is in order when he's hunting.  The next day, that is when we found out about the "bait deer."  My son went out to our place, and from our entrance, saw this really nice "buck" just standing in the treeline of an adjacent property.  He took out his binoculars and looked at it, and thought, "this isn't right."  It would move it's head up and down, and then turn the head.  Hold still a while, and then repeat.  He called me and said that he thinks there is a "fake deer" on the neighbor's place.  I told him to just go out and hunt on our place and I'll check into it.  I called a friend that works at the jail and told him.  He said that the Game Warden has a mechanical deer that he uses to get people to shoot at from a road, and then he tickets them for I think he said, "Unlawfully discharging a firearm from a public road," or something like that.  So I BET that Game Warden put that thing there, hoping one of us would shoot at it.  Of course, we are all friends with our neighbors, and would NEVER shoot a real deer off of their property.  But I think that it is chicken shit to try and make someone break a law.  And I need some official clarification, as to why Game Wardens in Texas can search without a warrant.  MM

[eford]

One of my dads best friends was a game warden and hunters safety instructor, so I never had a reason to see the job as a bad thing. Several years ago on the second day of pheasant season two Kansas Parks & Wildlife pickups pulled off the highway near the field we were hunting. We knew they saw us with our orange vests. They waited for us to get to our vehicles and asked for our licenses. We had them and all was well, until one of them asked my buddy for proof of his military orders assigning him to Ft Sill OK. Why?  I dont know, but maybe he wanted to find out if my buddy knew the rules with an out of state proof of residence but a Kansas hunting license. No orders were in the vehicle. My buddy was right with what he did. The wardens told us they didn’t want to get their boots muddy in the field so they were going to wait for us. Hummmmm. Interesting. If we would have gone around them I can only wonder what they would have done———follow us?
The new, local warden is a great guy who looks out for us. I consider him cut from the same bolt as my dads friend. Both the retired and current warden are a true credit to their roles.

[DW5]

By far, the most interactions I’ve had with wardens has been while dove hunting. Most of the time they want to see your license and check your gun for a plug. I’ve had a couple count my birds. I’ve personally never had a bad experience with them out in the dove fields. Some people that used to hunt a field beside me did get some SERIOUS fines one year and I watched it happen. They were way over their limits one afternoon and turns out it was their second time getting caught in a few years. Never saw those guys again.

Had a warden stop by my gate to my deer lease on year and start asking me all sorts of random questions. After a few minutes he admits the only reason he stopped is he had heard from one of the local farmers that they thought  I had taken a few deer that season and the acorns were real bad and he was hunting down the road about a mile a wasn’t seeing anything. He wanted to know if I could give him any advice! We ended up chatting for a bit and I sorta became friends with him.

One of his duties at the time was running a voluntary CWD checking program. I told him I didn’t mind if he checked my deer. So we worked it out where the local processor would call him if I dropped off a deer and then he would call me with the results. (Everyone of them all came back negative) He ended up moving somewhere way north a few years ago.

Fast forward to this year... I find the headless deer right in front of my place. The afternoon of the day I found it I am at the farmer’s house who I lease from talking to him, his son, and his son’s friend from Austin who hunts the land right around their house. I mention the deer, show them the pictures I took and tell them I am thinking of calling the game warden. All 3 of them about fall over trying to rush to tell me that would not be a good idea. Turns out the new guy isn’t so nice and they have all had negative run ins with him. The farmer’s son tells me if I call he will almost certainly try to blame it on me and also start coming to my lease, ruining hunts and hassling me. Needless to say I didn’t  call it in.

[DW5]

As a follow up to my too long of a post above, I believe the vast majority of wardens are honest people just trying to do an honest job. But I also believe there are probably way too many wardens out there that go out of their way to write tickets and show off their authority when people are in no way violating the spirit of any law. And when they post that kind of behavior on social media and make TV shows where it is boarderline celebrated, all it does is lead the average hunter/fisherman to see them as the enemy, not as an ally in conservation. And that is a shame.

[musicman]

I too think that the majority of the LEO are good people, just doing their job.  I was loading up after a gig late one night in a small town in a neighboring county.  The city cop pulls up to my vehicle, and he gets out.  It was a fellow that I knew and he knew that I hunted.  He asked if I wanted some deer meat.  I asked "what's the story."  He said that someone had just hit a doe about seven blocks down the street.  They did have deer IN the town.  He said it was clean, nothing banged up.  If I want it, go pick it up and then they won't have to send a city crew to get rid of it in the morning.  I asked, "what if I get stopped for something on the way home, and they see it."  He said, "just have them call us, and I'll explain the situation."  So I finished loading up, went down to where it was.  It was a nice clean, still warm doe.  It must have just got hit in the head.  I loaded it up, went home, processed it, and put it in a cooler.  Then I got to thinking, WHAT IF, he had been "setting me up," and then called my county and told them they suspected a vehicle like mine had an illegal doe in it.  And when I would have been stopped and told them to call, they would have said "They called us."  Boy, that would have been an ordeal.  But, the cop was decent and honest, and I got some good meat out of the deal.  This same cop would sometimes stop in at the bar I was playing at, just before closing time, and ask if anyone needed a free ride home.  He said he'd rather give someone a free ride home, than have to haul them to jail if he caught them all over the road.  I thought too, that was really a good gesture on his part.  MM

[Northern hunter]

Back in 2000 out in the Elk River area of the foothills i was taking a wash in a glacier fed river that took about 15 mins to get used to. I just got back to my 4x4 and started drying off when a warden pulled up with a female biologist and asked me if i had my license on me, i said"not right at the moment"stand there with nothing more on than my birthday suit . Needless to say the i did get him my license, but that biologist was pretty cute and wasn't looking the other way all the time like the warden, she was taking glances back at me. They were pulling away she took a couple more quick glances at me and the warden was looking at her chuckling, i kind of wished he would have left her there for a few hours.

[PARA45]

If I didn't read it, I wouldn't have never believed it.  This actually happened, and I read in the news paper clip. 

This happened in South Dakota.  Two brothers, we will call them John & Jim, were hunting on their property.  John had the deer tag, and shot at a deer.  When the brothers moved up to get the deer, the deer jumped and ran.  Well Jim took a shot and dropped the deer.   The game warden was watching all this, and he drove over to where the two brothers were.  He checked the tag on the deer, and tag had John's name on it.  So, he told Jim that he would get a fine for killing a deer without a tag.  The boys tried to talk their way, and the GW didn't want to hear it, and he was going to give Jim a ticket.  Well, while all this is happening they called their dad Bill, and Bill came over to see what was going on.  Bill tried to talk to the game warden about it, and that they were in their own property, and that the deer had two bullet holes, which meant that John & Jim had both shot at it.  The GW wasn't budging, and told Bill sorry but the law is the law.  Jim got  the ticket, and no one was happy about it. 

Karma is a b*tch.  A week later, Bill saw a vehicle in one of his property, and knew that no one was supposed to be hunting there.  He drove up to check who was hunting in his property.  Well, wouldn't you know it, that the guy hunting his property was the game warden.  Bill asked him what was he doing in his property?  The GW replied that he was hunting.  Bill told him that he had not given him permission to hunt his property.  The GW tried to explain to Bill that  apparently he had made a mistake reading the map, and was in the wrong property.  At this time Bill was calling the local sheriff to come to his property.  When the sheriff arrived, the GW tried to talk to his way out of this predicament, stating that he had read the map, but made a mistake by being in the wrong property.  Well Bill calmly told the GW, that he was trespassing, and hunting without permission.  The GW tried to apologize to Bill, but then Bill told him sorry, the law is the law and you broke it today.  The sheriff handcuffed the GW out of Bill's property.   

[galamb]

I have only had a few encounters with Conservation Officers (our game wardens) over the years.

The majority were while hunting on DU lands for ducks and geese. Almost never asked for a licence but had a magnet in hand to ensure that we were shooting steel (mostly in the few years following the lead ban).

The most memorable encounter was while trout fishing in Algonquin Park. Algonquin Park is a huge Provincial Park in Ontario encompassing almost 3000 square miles of bush/water/swamp with almost no road access to the interior.

We were on a week long canoe trip and had spent three days paddling and portaging right into the center of the park without seeing another person anywhere. We were fishing a very small, un-named lake for a few specks when a float plane flew overhead.

It promptly banked, descended and landed on the lake. It idled it's way over to our canoe then shut down. A CO opened up the door and said "good afternoon boys, can I see your fishing licences".

No I get their mandate but gotta wonder how many of my tax dollars were spent flying around to make sure a couple guys weren't poaching a few trout

[DW5]

Wow. No kidding on the allocation of funds there Galamb! Those must have been some important trout...

[Jameson]

Small town in the southern Sierras, about thirty-some years ago. The nephew of a good friend was completely drugged on hunting and wanted to be a guide when he grew up. When he got his first shotgun, he rushed out to where he knew some turkeys had been introduced, called one in, bagged it, and then called the local game warden, who was a family friend, to tell him what he'd done. The game warden told the boy that IF he were old enough to hunt legally, which he wasn't, and IF there were a legal turkey-hunting season in that area, which there wasn't yet, it wouldn't be open for another ten days, and that under the circumstances, the best thing he (the game warden) could do would be to come over to the boy's house and show him how to dress out the turkey and cook it. The boy realized he had screwed up, learned a lesson without getting turned off to either hunting or law enforcement, and ten or fifteen years later that boy was my guide on a pig hunt on the Tejon Ranch.
JP

[DW5]

Jameson, those are the kind of stories I wish we could hear more of, but I get why it’s a tricky thing for a department to publicize. Although the warden in that situation did not enforce the law, which he had every right to do, his actions that day probably furthered the overall goals of his larger mission 10 times more than accessing any penalty ever could.

Thanks for sharing.

[dubyam]

I shared a story earlier of a warden being a bit of a jerk. I've had numerous interactions with wardens which were good over the years, too. Often wardens are in a position to use judgement, rather than just rotely enforce the law. A good example is something which happened to a friend of mine, David, several years back. He was riding home from church one evening with his wife and kids (2 & 5 years old) and saw some deer in a field. Since it was night, he stoppedal and turned his truck into the ditch, shining his lights into the field so the kids could see the deer. A warden happened to be coming the other way (primarily because this road was known for road hunting issues) so on go the lights, and he approaches my buddy and asks what he's doing. David says he's showing these deer to his kids. So the officer asks if he has any weapons on him, in the truck, etc. David says he's carrying a 9mm pistol, but has a carry permit. No other firearms in the truck, though. Warden talks to everyone in th truck, interacts with the kids, and proceeds to tell them a little about deer, and then about the law regarding spotlighting. In Alabama, it's not legal to shine deer without a research permit, even just for viewing. Now, seeing deer as you're driving isn't a problem, but once David turned off the road and into the ditch, he violated the law. It could have been an expensive ticket. But the warden used it as a teaching moment for a young father and a couple of curious kids, explained how shoning lights on the deer disrupts their normal nocturnal routine, and talked about how it's important to know the laws. David got a warning and some good information. His kids got to see a Game Warden (kind of a hero to kids) and sit in the warden's truck, even. Very cool experience with a warden using discretion and common sense.

Of course, the warden did remind David that if he'd had even a 22lr in the truck with them, it would likely have been harder to issue just a warning. Good guy all around, and good learning experience.

[Big Muddy rancher]

For years I never saw a CO/Game Warden, Not in the wild or captivity. In the late 1990's we had two officers move in to separate offices whose area sort of over lapped at our place. They both had horse so with permission moved a camp trailer to the north end of the ranch and fixed up a old corral to keep the horses. They would do bird and deer counts ect, deer season patrol and enforcement around the area but most importantly the got to know some people in the area and people knew they were out and about. Since then one has moved on and the other one retired, we were back to never seeing a CO again. This fall a new CO came and stayed at the ranch for some bow hunting, he said he want to come back for coffee and a visit but time will tell.
 I see the one retired CO more and still talk and text with him, our families are friends.