How to deal with game wardens?

[Rich M]

Law enforcement get a bad wrap bc of a few bad apples. Ever think hunters can get a bad wrap bc of a few bad hunters. A landowner out west may have easily given permission to anyone who may have asked, hunting rights even if asked, but the day he saw trespassers it was “gd hunters, think they own the place” from there on out. What else is there, you ever have a bad day where you just act like an ass to people? ever think about things from the other persons boots? Sure, a game warden or cop can be ass at times, ever think what a cop may have dealt w before coming to your situation? Sure there are some bad cops, but the % is low. Sure there are some asshole hunters, I bet the % is low. I’m sure there are some illegal guides setting poaching camps that give guiding a bad name. Not all guides are bad. At the end of the day, if you’re in the right, the warden or cop just has a job to do. If your wrong yiur wrong, sure there is discretion a lot of times, but that’s like a tip, don’t expect it.

Law enforcement gets a be rap cause of how 1/2 of them treat people.

Say that 3 times and understand.

1/2 gw are good conscionable folks. 1/2 are dicks. Which one you gonna get?

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Fricking wardens harassing the general public still, we need to rid of them

https://rokslide.com/forums/threads...-over-trophy-deer-lion-and-wolf-cases.419154/

Unfortunately it is part of the human condition, and LEOs are not immune to it. I'm confident the LEOs and wardens who visit this site are aware of at least some bad apples in the ranks.

That being said there are also many very good human beings who work in law enforcement of all types, and I'm grateful for them.

I’m not just talking about law enforcement, corruption is rampant at all levels of state game agencies. I’ve seen first hand people who show up with good intentions only to use the system for their own benefit.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

1/2? Pretty bold statement. Thsts a lot. Is it true half of them are? That’s crazy.

My good buddy is a cop and he says it’s shocking how many things don’t really make it into evidence, bags of weed etc. he also told me that resources to find information about people is often abused.

As far as fish and game agencies, it’s fairly common for things to use reported data and flight time to find animals on their own trips.

 

[North of 60]

The problem is…when doctors, teachers, and/or LE don’t call out fellow “bad apples” of their professions. Trying to protect the image of the system instead of the integrity of it…(see the general counsel’s statement in SC)

This takes much courage...in part because of the many risks involved (professional and otherwise) in being a whistleblower on a fellow professional.

IME there is much truth to systems of various kinds having leadership whose first instinct is to protect the image of that particular system.

My good buddy is a cop and he says it’s shocking how many things don’t really make it into evidence, bags of weed etc. he also told me that resources to find information about people is often abused.

As far as fish and game agencies, it’s fairly common for things to use reported data and flight time to find animals on their own trips.

Generally speaking evidence is probably the most safe once it reaches a crime lab, because the lab is then involved in chain of custody.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

This takes much courage...in part because of the many risks involved (professional and otherwise) in being a whistleblower on a fellow professional.

IME there is much truth to systems of various kinds having leadership whose first instinct is to protect the image of that particular system.


Generally speaking evidence is probably the most safe once it reaches a crime lab, because the lab is then involved in chain of custody.

Yeah it would take a pretty bold cop to be taking stuff from the lab/evidence room. Lots of “small things” don’t make it there at all but though.

 

[7mm-08]

Unfortunately it is part of the human condition, and LEOs are not immune to it. I'm confident the LEOs and wardens who visit this site are aware of at least some bad apples in the ranks.

That being said there are also many very good human beings who work in law enforcement of all types, and I'm grateful for them.

Well said. Be respectful and reciprocal in your treatment of all others, and especially law enforcement officer (because they can make your life miserable). Don't mistake cooperation with relinquishing your 4th, 5th and 6th Amendment rights, however.

 

[Zeke6951]

Long post but needed to get the full story.
I had an encounter with a Colorado GW that sorta gave me a bad impression. My son killed a bull 2 days before the end of our hunt. He and I spent the next day processing the meat. We broke down all the muscles and sliced them into steaks. Proof of sex was left on a piece of meat that was probably 2 1/2 inches thick. It came off the mountain on a whole rear quarter. All the meat was put in zip lock bags and put on ice. Next day we were fishing at a nearby lake. A game warden pulls up to check fishing liscense. When he got to my son's liscense he noticed he had killed a bull. The first thing out of his mouth was POS left naturally attached to a major portion of the meat? I said, not to a major portion but to the biggest piece. Explained we had processed it in camp. He ranted for a while about how it had to be left on a quarter until processed for consumption. IT IS PROCESSED FOR CONSUMPTION !! Instead of harassing a hunter for not leaving the bulls pecker on a big enough piece of meat, why are you not out in the woods writing tickets for all the ATVs off trail. I had called CPW twice about the problem in the week prior. We saw worn out ATV trails across meadows in Wilderness Areas. They were easily seen from a forest service road. We saw beaver dams that looked like a motor cross race had taken place in them in WA. The last thing he said was I never should have stopped, I knew you had fishing liscense. I think it was easy and he didn't have to get too far from his truck.

 

[BBob]

Good luck. He doesn’t need permission

Yes he does if there’s no probable cause. There was no probable cause because we weren’t and didn’t do anything he could justify it for. When I told him no he just carried on with his questions and when satisfied he was on his way. Btw this is AZ and mby your state is different but here a fish and game officer needs probable cause for a search just like the regular popo does.

Edit: Just for clarity for others. The officer wanted me to literally allow his dog up into the back of the truck. I denied that request. He could and did let his dog run around outside the truck. He can do that all he wants.

 

[KenLee]

Yeah it would take a pretty bold cop to be taking stuff from the lab/evidence room. Lots of “small things” don’t make it there at all but though.

County Clerk of Court wanted to buy a personal airplane with proceeds from stolen evidence.

Prison Sentence Reduced For Former Clerk Of Court

A judge reduced the prison sentence on Tuesday for former Spartanburg County Clerk of Court Marc Kitchens.

www.wyff4.com

 

[4cMuley]

When my buddies and I were around 16/17 we were out pheasant hunting opening weekend ND. We ended up 1 shy of our limit between the 3 of us, 8 birds total. Headed back to town we hit a “game” checkpoint. DEA and Border Patrol were there too. Figure they must’ve been working a lead or something. It was sort of interesting.

They did talk to us separately to ask how many birds each of us shot haha. The last one of my buddies in the line had to do some mental math on the spot lol.

The DEA dude thought he hit a jackpot when he looked at our guns with shells in the magazine tube. Local game warden quickly told him that was legal. Strange experience

 

[Swamp Fox]

The problem is when doctors, teachers, and/or LE don’t call out fellow “bad apples” of their professions. Trying to protect the image of the system instead of the integrity of it…(see the general counsel’s statement in SC)

I don't know where she got her law degree, but her "faith" in the probable cause here is farcical, if not tragic. There was absolutely no probable cause for this stop, and her defense is thin blue line and political crap "twice on Sunday" to use her words.

The video below adds and emphasizes some important context, especially about the night hunting law, the wardens' eagerness/uncertainty about seizing the truck, and the lack of probable cause.

It also includes some verbal zingers to add to the conversation ... : )

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Long post but needed to get the full story.
I had an encounter with a Colorado GW that sorta gave me a bad impression. My son killed a bull 2 days before the end of our hunt. He and I spent the next day processing the meat. We broke down all the muscles and sliced them into steaks. Proof of sex was left on a piece of meat that was probably 2 1/2 inches thick. It came off the mountain on a whole rear quarter. All the meat was put in zip lock bags and put on ice. Next day we were fishing at a nearby lake. A game warden pulls up to check fishing liscense. When he got to my son's liscense he noticed he had killed a bull. The first thing out of his mouth was POS left naturally attached to a major portion of the meat? I said, not to a major portion but to the biggest piece. Explained we had processed it in camp. He ranted for a while about how it had to be left on a quarter until processed for consumption. IT IS PROCESSED FOR CONSUMPTION !! Instead of harassing a hunter for not leaving the bulls pecker on a big enough piece of meat, why are you not out in the woods writing tickets for all the ATVs off trail. I had called CPW twice about the problem in the week prior. We saw worn out ATV trails across meadows in Wilderness Areas. They were easily seen from a forest service road. We saw beaver dams that looked like a motor cross race had taken place in them in WA. The last thing he said was I never should have stopped, I knew you had fishing liscense. I think it was easy and he didn't have to get too far from his truck.

Yeah that’s lame. Andrew years ago me and my buddy got back super late (like 3am) from our moose hunt and hung the meat in my friends garage since we were there. We let it hang for a few days then decided to process it at my place. Loaded the meat in my truck and pulled out (it’s literally a 4 minute drive) game warden going the other direction flipped around and followed us to my house.

Asked to see my hunting license (didn’t have it on me because….I wasn’t hunting. He started ranting about how we can’t transport meat, what??? How I needed my license on me, what? I’d literally hopped in my truck, gone and loaded up the bagged meat and gone home. The kill had been reported online and everything.

He kept going on about how he could take the moose if he wanted to because transporting meat is illegal. And a bunch of other crap. I told him that I’d transported it out of the field and hunted legally, tag was notched, report was filed, it’s my moose. He kept going on about how he could take it, finally after like 20 minutes of back and forth I told him “if you want to take it then do it but I’ll be calling the trooper post in the morning to see if this constitutes as harassment”. He ended up leaving and not taking the moose.

I called the troopers the next day anyways and explained what happened, the game officer I talked to didn’t see any problem with anything I’d done since the report had been filed, I wasn’t hunting and there’s no laws about where you hang or process meat.


In your case I’d argue that since your meat was out of the field, processed etc, you shouldn’t have to leave proof of sex or provide that evidence.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

County Clerk of Court wanted to buy a personal airplane with proceeds from stolen evidence.

Prison Sentence Reduced For Former Clerk Of Court

A judge reduced the prison sentence on Tuesday for former Spartanburg County Clerk of Court Marc Kitchens.

www.wyff4.com

Yeah that’s blatant corruption which isn’t as common. From the people I know and have gotten the inside scoop from, stuff like that isn’t normal but low level corruption is extremely common. Keeping confiscated meat for yourself, using taxpayer funded information that isn’t available to the public to find animals on your own hunts etc.

 

[solostalker]

As a cop, I think I might switch over to be a game warden. You guys have got me thinking of all the possibilities. Spend 40 hours a week in the field scouting, asking others for information on hunting spots, accessing information not available to the public for my own benefit and filling my freezer with confiscated wild game. Whats not to like.

In all seriousness, the interactions I have had with Conservation Officers both personally and in an official capacity have been positive. Sure they can come off gruff, but the vast majority care about the resources they protect.

Not everything is a Conspiracy and honestly I think game wardens are the least likely sector of law enforcement for corruption.

 

[huntsman22]

And most of them don't wear 'jackboots'......

 

[OneShot]

I have had a lot of encounters with wardens in many states. Seems most of them were during waterfowl season at the boat ramps in California, on the refuges out there, or boat ramps in Oklahoma. We usually run into one when deer hunting Colorado and all those guys up there have been pleasant to talk to and even helpful. Out of all the times being checked for bag limits or fish or waterfowl, plugs checked, license checked, steel shot checked, etc, etc, I have had only one bad experience with one particular local warden and wrote up once(which I was legal)
I used to waterfowl hunt a lot. And with that, getting checked at the ramp seemed to be a normal thing. We never worried as we followed the law and had nothing to hide. One particular warden and the lady warden had been at the ramp the two weekends prior checking the boats as they came out. We always BS’d while being checked. Same thing every weekend. Check license, stamps, limits, plugs, and shells.
On this particular day we were in a hurry as I had a birthday party to get to. We put the guns, ammo, birds and license on front of boat and asked the game warden if he could look it over while we get the boat strapped and clothes changed as we gotta get on the road. He says no problem. Then a few minutes later I hear him say “we have a problem” I walk back and asked what the problem is. He says you have one too many pintails as you can only shoot one per person. I look at my buddy in disbelief, thinking the warden is making a joke. The warden says there are 3 pintail as he sets the 3rd bird on the other 2. I looked and was like that’s a widgeon. He said nope, that’s a pintail. We went back and forth for a while, it started getting heated especially when the ticket book started to come out. His little helper lady warden was quiet during this conversation. This was before iPhones and androids. I told him he better pull out his duck ID booklet or call in another warden before writing a ticket. Finally the lady warden walked over and said, yeah, that’s a widgeon. At that moment I could tell he got pissed. All he said was “have a good day” as he walked to the truck.

Very next weekend a group of us hunted on Saturday on some private and killed 7 limits of birds. Went home that day, took care of the birds and put the hunting stuff In the garage. On Sunday my cousin and I got in the truck and headed out to scout for a Monday morning hunt. We don’t have camo on, none in the truck and no guns with us. While driving around and glassing, low and behold we run into Mr green jeans. He asked if we had been hunting, I answer nope, just scouting. He gets out, looks in the bed and I hear him ask, “who killed the teal?” We looked at each other like WTF and both get out to look. In between the bed and the tool box is a single teal. I told the warden, somehow we must have overlooked it yesterday when pulling the birds out after the hunt. He asks to see the guns and I explained, we done have any hunting stuff with us except binoculars and spotting scopes. Then asked for my license and stamp. I had my license but my stamp is in my waterfowl bag. That POS wrote me a ticket for not having a federal stamp in possession. We told him, you check us every weekend, know we have our license and stamps, and never had an issue and now you are looking for something to write us up for after last weekend.
After telling the story with one of the local fed wardens I knew, for whatever reason I never had that warden check me at the ramp again.

 

[KenLee]

And most of them don't wear 'jackboots'......

But they do get a realty license and take advantage of older folks with decent sized acreage.