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.

 

[mtwarden]

I heard from a guy that heard from a guy through his second cousin that a game warden hid in his freezer (well dressed for the cold) waiting for the guy to get home to bust him for having an overlimit of perch (no search warrant needed he said). Sadly they also took his boat, truck and house.

True story.

 

[mattflipper]

Jeff Foiles is your example?

Dude is a total POS.

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.

 

[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.