How to deal with game wardens?

[Habitat#1]

There are several bad ones just like in any profession.I saw one time during a Kansas antelope hunt. I was sitting in truck with farmer and landowner watching one of our friends park and sneak 300 yards down a fence to get within range. he made the shot and we all went to see his goat. Here come GW flying across wheat field in his pickup and tells hunter he used his vehicle to get closer to harvest animal.He told him to gut it and load in GW truck and the fine was 50.00 or he could drive back across the state to court. He paid 50.00 and loaded goat with everyone including landowner pissed. About 10 years late I called head of LE and talked to him about it and he said he would check, no sign of ever being stopped or fined so who knows where this antelope is now as it was a very nice one for Kansas.I have seen sheriff officers call GW to get trophy sized road kills also.They always argue about giving dead heads or road kills when found but only if they are big. I have also seen the same GW walk across a wheat field to check a hunter in a pop up blind 2 mornings in a row on private land when a father was taking his daughter that can only hunt on weekends and was told that the day before.I lock my gate so they can wait at road if they want to talk to me.I have had them drive all over my property and I wasn't even there.

 

[LongWayAround]

It’s not about the person/subject but rather the method in which the game wardens handled the situation. I don’t know the guy so I’m not going to comment on his character. You missed the point.

Yea. It's really unfortunate when people get charged for doing things illegally then cry about the "method" by which the evidence was obtained.

Bummer. Guess what? Those guys wouldn't have been there if the club was doing everything legally.

 

[hibernation]

Something I never thought about in the past was how hard their job is if poaching is socially ingrained in an areas.

This is something I've heard from a few wardens as well. There's some areas and groups of people that get repeatedly convicted and every time it's the same "well, that's just how we do it around here".

 

[CorbLand]

Yea. It's really unfortunate when people get charged for doing things illegally then cry about the "method" by which the evidence was obtained.

Bummer. Guess what? Those guys wouldn't have been there if the club was doing everything legally.

This may go down as the dumbest thing said in this thread. How the evidence is obtained is extremely important. Allowing evidence to be obtained any way possible is not a slippery slope, it’s a cliff.

I don’t know the story about this dude or what happened but to think the end justifies the means is outlandishly asinine.

 

[DanMan]

I don't talk to any law enforcement, they are not your friend and any questions are to find reason for a citation.

They are my friend.
If not for wardens there wouldn't be anything to hunt.

 

[Habitat#1]

Kind of a funny one happened in NM when hunting antelope.I had shot one and happened to be hunting at the north end of the unit so I pulled up be fence and had one of those receiver hitch winches to skin off of.I was probably 200 yards off hiway.So this truck comes flying in there and GW jumps out and is like what the hell are you doing.I'm like 'what I'm skinning this antelope. He goes the season isn't open in CO and I said good thing because this isn't CO. The state line is right there,pointing at fence and told him theres a marker out by hiway.He drove out there looked at it and drove off. Another in same unit in NM but this was a good GW.Seems there was several years that NM would never get our tags sent to us before the drive out to NM which was only a couple days before season so they would just tell us to have GW run our names. There was this really hot female GW that worked the hunt and we would see her for couple years and she wrote our tag numbers on back of business card to tag antelope with.By the way she had 2 big mean ass dogs as backup but she was very nice.

 

[LongWayAround]

This may go down as the dumbest thing said in this thread. How the evidence is obtained is extremely important. Allowing evidence to be obtained any way possible is not a slippery slope, it’s a cliff.

I don’t know the story about this dude or what happened but to think the end justifies the means is outlandishly asinine.

Short version:

Their club was known for routinely shooting beyond the legal limit. Wardens infiltrated them and participated in shooting over the limit.

I'm for catching poachers even if it means they shot a couple extra ducks.

I'm also for cops participating in drug busts.
"Oh no! They tricked us into selling those kilos!"

 

[ReaptheHeat]

Similar experience with CO bears.

If you ever dealt with many Game Wardens in Western Pennsylvania in the last 40 years, you would for sure be tainted....

Outside of PA, I have had GREAT experiences, except for the JERK that checked my bear in Colorado. But I heard he retired.

 

[mattflipper]

Short version:

Their club was known for routinely shooting beyond the legal limit. Wardens infiltrated them and participated in shooting over the limit.

I'm for catching poachers even if it means they shot a couple extra ducks.

I'm also for cops participating in drug busts.
"Oh no! They tricked us into selling those kilos!"

Ok. To get the point across I’ll edit my original post so you’ll see the point. I’ll exclude Jeff from it since you’re hung up on that. You seem to be fixated on that one. The Ryan Warden one may be a better example here. In his case the game wardens exaggerated the case, set him up, lied about some of the case and charged him with things that weren’t true. The equivalent of getting a ticket for speeding when you were driving under the speed limit. Does that sound like a better example not that Jeff is excluded from it?

 

[mattflipper]

Look up the Ryan Warden (this is his last name and he’s not a game warden) story. You can listen to the Ryan Warden story on the End of the Line waterfowl podcast and you’ll have an entirely different view of them. Like may have said above, they aren’t your friend.

He lost nearly everything he had because he trusted some wardens he thought were friends.

Updated…..

 

[LongWayAround]

Ok. To get the point across I’ll edit my original post so you’ll see the point. I’ll exclude Jeff from it since you’re hung up on that. You seem to be fixated on that one. The Ryan Warden one may be a better example here. In his case the game wardens exaggerated the case, set him up, lied about some of the case and charged him with things that weren’t true. The equivalent of getting a ticket for speeding when you were driving under the speed limit. Does that sound like a better example not that Jeff is excluded from it?

I agree that's different. Lying about those things is unacceptable.

You are correct that I bit on the case that I was familiar with, which I believe to be a totally different circumstance.

 

[hibernation]

There was this really hot female GW that worked the hunt and we would see her for couple years and she wrote our tag numbers on back of business card to tag antelope with.

Nice.

By the way she had 2 big

Where is this going

mean ass dogs as backup but she was very nice.

Nice.

 

[CorbLand]

Short version:

Their club was known for routinely shooting beyond the legal limit. Wardens infiltrated them and participated in shooting over the limit.

I'm for catching poachers even if it means they shot a couple extra ducks.

I'm also for cops participating in drug busts.
"Oh no! They tricked us into selling those kilos!"

I am all for criminals getting caught too but there are rules on gathering evidence that must be followed. Full stop.

 

[KenLee]

I handle them like mods.

Change mods to "redheads" and thats my relationship strategy.


Admit nothing, deny everything, and make counter accusations.

 

[KenLee]

Idaho resident. I hunt the same units every year. We’re stopped every year. This year it was multiple times. They checked everything. They were weird about giving information but questioned everything. They are now using dogs in Idaho along highway checkpoints. We showed our tags, licenses, game and everything.

They ask a lot of questions about how much game you saw, where and etc. I will not not being answering those questions. It’s becoming a common occurrence of crossing the line between law enforcement and personal gain in my opinion.

I hunt a very popular unit.

Local to me, most wardens are all about personal gain.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

They're people just like you and me, trying to make a living and to protect the very resource were all out their trying to hunt, fish, and trap.
Give them the respect they deserve.

Sometimes respect is a 2 way street. I was on a spring caribou (snow machine) a few years back with a few other people. I can’t remember but I think we were entitled to 2 each by law. We didn’t have any yet but had found a herd of caribou.

Warden circles us for like 10 minutes scaring off all the animals, then lands and messes with us checking tags, IDs and shit for a solid 30 minutes. We had t even shot yet. Thor caribou were long gone by the time he left.

Of course we found them later but we could
Have been on our way home by the time he quit bothering us.

 

[Sawitrightoff]

Wardens…… have a job to do, so if I see one coming I unload my gun, …..

That may make the encounter go SO much quicker. I once watched a body cam footage clip, and the warden didn’t know how to unload a Browning A-5 semiautomatic shotgun. One of the most popular, and easily operated guns of all time. Not having a clue, he proceeds to try and dig the shells out of the magazine tube with his finger. Gives up and hands it to his buddy. C’mom, what qualifications do they need for that job, that aren’t important enough to include in their training class.
.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I have great concerns in states where the game wardens are partvof the stste police. At least on the tv shows they seem to dance on the edge of entrapment and are overly aggressive. That and the state residents appear really stupid.

I really feel they should be the most aggressive in cases where the meat is wasted.

 

[ClearCreek]

So how is it that the people posting on this thread can remember the one or two times they had, what they consider, a negative encounter with a game warden; and they can remember almost verbatum what was said during that encounter, even if is was 20-30 years ago.

But, they can't remember how many fish they caught just 2-3 hours prior to being checked or when they bought a boat or ATV or when they moved to a state to establich hunting and fishing residency?

That seems odd to me.


ClearCreek

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Anybody from WA ever encounter a GW with the last name Kram, first name Mister (according to him)? This may be a few years ago, mine was 1997.