How to deal with game wardens?

[huntineveryday]

I was hunting a popular WPA another day when the state warden was working his was through the area checking every group. I was loading up the pickup when he got to me. Checked me, we chatted for a bit, then he drove off to the last group. Friendly guy, everything was straight forward and cordial.

I take off and about 3/4 of a mile down the road I crest a hill and meet a federal warden in the middle of the road waving me to the shoulder. He had been set up just out of sight, waiting for someone to drive out his way. He comes up with a real tommy-tuff-nuts demeanor wanting my info. As I hand it to him he huffs that he wished my buddy would have came the same way, he wanted to check them too. Confused, I asked who he was referring to. "That blue ford!" He really seemed shocked when I let him know that was the state warden for the area, not a hunting buddy. And that he had already checked everyone in the marsh. It was almost comical how it really burst his bubble. He ended up handing everything back without even checking it, then grumbled and pouted about being beat to another marsh that morning by a different state warden. 1) maybe talk to the state Wardens covering the same area, or at least know what they drive! 2) just come down and check what's needed instead of trying to set up some sort of special sting down the road! If he missed the agency pickup and uniformed game warden, he wasn't watching close enough to catch anything illegal anyway!

 

[Pony Soldier]

I probably haven't seen more than three wardens in 60 years. A couple years ago, we came down a trail to the road where the horse trailer was parked. As we got off our horses the warden drove up. He said how big of a bull did you get. I said we didn't see anything. He said that you only used horses to retrieve game. I said we hunt off horses. He said nobody does that. My partner said we do.

The look on his face was a classic. Then we went through the classic paper shuffle and I introduced him to my longterm hunting partner who happened to be the county sheriff in a northern county.

We haven't seen one since.

 

[Maverick1]

Here’s an old GW story…

I grew up fishing on Lake of the Woods MN many years ago.

In the winter, there are ‘cities’ of shanty’s and ice houses for fishermen.

We would be sitting in a shanty and all of a sudden a snowmobile would roll up, and the GW would burst through the door to check us for too many fish or too many rods.

Well, after I moved away, story has it that one time a GW rolled up to a shanty on his snowmobile, burst through the door to check the fishermen.
He actually witnessed/caught two guys in a ‘non-fishing compromising position’.

They sued. And won.
And now a GW has to knock before entry to an ice shanty.

Was part of the deal you had to leave MN, too????

 

[Boarmaster]

Funny story about the GW trying to shoot a turkey from his vehicle on your leased land...I guess it's funny.

Can't verify the story but I know a guy that claims to be really good friends with a GW and he says he poaches all the time. His response is "Who is going to check the checker." Pretty crazy if it true.

I probably would have been less pizzed off if it wasn't opening morning of spring gobbler. He had another guy with him. They were in camo not their uniform but driving their work truck (bronco).
I had hunted that lease for about five years prior and never saw a GW until that year and ran into this guy three times that season. He and his buddy where very likely hunting it. We had 10,000 acres and ten guys on the lease.You might see one or two of the other lease members out there every year. I was about the only guy who hunted about every weekend of the season. At that time I was the young poor guy in the lease the other guys where all big money guys that might come out once a year. Great deal for me. So the GW probably felt pretty safe hunting out there. I never reported him as I didn't want any trouble with Fish n Game and I fugured maybe he was keeping poachers out.