Idaho Regs...No Tag...Can I still go hike with a hunter

Glendon Mullins

Hillbilly Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Sep 7, 2014
Messages
2,396
Location
Highland County Virginia
Man, that is insane, and I’m not a lawyer but it seems like something the courts would be willing to take up as this seems to really be a limitation on one’s rights


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I agree, I mean literally all he was doing was pickup us up for a ride, I tried arguing/explaining that to the game warden, but it was of no use.

I worked night shift at the time, and I also asked, "So I work nights and a lot of the time I come home from work and see my dad and these guys out hunting, I will stop and talk to them on my way home, if I do that and I am just sitting there in my truck, am I participating in the hunt as well?" He kinda himhawed around on that one before telling me, "depends on what your doing at that time" lol
 

Glendon Mullins

Hillbilly Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Sep 7, 2014
Messages
2,396
Location
Highland County Virginia
here is the law in the VDGIF regulation book as it's written:

Hunting and Trapping: The act of or the attempted act of taking, hunting, trapping, pursuing, chasing, shooting, snaring, or netting birds or animals, and assisting any person who is doing the same, regardless of whether birds or animals are actually taken

the line of "assisting any person who is doing the same" I guess "assisting" could include a wide range of things lol
 

KurtR

WKR
Joined
Sep 11, 2015
Messages
3,954
Location
South Dakota
those are crazy laws people go pheasant hunting all the time here with us. They just walk the field and watch the dogs work. I go with friends who have tags and help them glass. I would have never even thought about checking if it was legal
 
OP
C

cworth

FNG
Joined
Oct 24, 2023
Messages
19
Location
Latrobe, CA
Questions like this are the reason I’m not surprised our government was able to trample on so many individual freedoms during the pandemic. I’m sorry I just can’t even with this. Are you literally asking if you’re allowed to hike on public land without a hunting license?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It is stupid, but the Gov. can really screw with you if they want to. I have to go to work, and don't have time to fight a group that is getting paid to do it. While I 100% agree with you, I am also trying to live being straight up with myself and others. I am not there to just hike around and I will be helping him in small ways.

Full discloser: My question had a hidden addenda, I was pretty sure I was ok to do it and would have gotten / get the OK from the Government. The hidden question was is the hunting community at large cool with it. Just because the Government says you can, or you can manipulate the truth to get the answer you want, does not mean that you should if our community is not for it. Remember I come from a state where it is legal to poop on the sidewalk (Sorry to be crude, but it is true and such a good example of how wrong things can go). We have to self govern or they will try. I will say I was surprised by the support. Thank you.
 

LostArra

WKR
Joined
May 9, 2013
Messages
3,648
Location
Oklahoma
When someone in our group fills a tag they almost always go along on the days following to glass or help pack out an animal. Never even considered if it's a violation.

There are some strict fishing guide rules in Alaska if money is changing hands even if the money is for boat rental.
 
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Messages
471
Location
Idaho
It is stupid, but the Gov. can really screw with you if they want to. I have to go to work, and don't have time to fight a group that is getting paid to do it. While I 100% agree with you, I am also trying to live being straight up with myself and others. I am not there to just hike around and I will be helping him in small ways.

Full discloser: My question had a hidden addenda, I was pretty sure I was ok to do it and would have gotten / get the OK from the Government. The hidden question was is the hunting community at large cool with it. Just because the Government says you can, or you can manipulate the truth to get the answer you want, does not mean that you should if our community is not for it. Remember I come from a state where it is legal to poop on the sidewalk (Sorry to be crude, but it is true and such a good example of how wrong things can go). We have to self govern or they will try. I will say I was surprised by the support. Thank you.
To answer your second question I would say, it depends.

I don't have any problem with a hunter having a nonhunting friend or two accompany him in the field, as long as they stay together. It becomes a problem when you post your non-tag holding friends on every ridge to glass and hunt for you and occupy space and deter other tag holders from hunting the area. You can quickly see that if every tag holder had one friend helping them it would double the pressure in the unit. I have decided that the next time I walk up on ridge and find someone who is glassing for a friend but doesn't have a tag them selves, I'm not moving on. My new rule is whoever got there first as long as they have a tag. If they don't have a tag, they don't count.
 
OP
C

cworth

FNG
Joined
Oct 24, 2023
Messages
19
Location
Latrobe, CA
To answer your second question I would say, it depends.

I don't have any problem with a hunter having a nonhunting friend or two accompany him in the field, as long as they stay together. It becomes a problem when you post your non-tag holding friends on every ridge to glass and hunt for you and occupy space and deter other tag holders from hunting the area. You can quickly see that if every tag holder had one friend helping them it would double the pressure in the unit. I have decided that the next time I walk up on ridge and find someone who is glassing for a friend but doesn't have a tag them selves, I'm not moving on. My new rule is whoever got there first as long as they have a tag. If they don't have a tag, they don't count.
I totally agree they don't count. The question gets complicated quick.
 

Tick

WKR
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
368
Don't let the opinion of the "hunting community" keep you off the mountain. I'm in better units and see more animals in the years I don't have a tag. No tag only means more beef in my freezer.
 

MNGrouser

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Oct 16, 2020
Messages
142
My older brother and I got in a little hot water in WI a few (~3) decades back. He had a driver's license and I didn't yet. I was into trapping and he wasn't. We got stopped by a game warden and my brother informed him that he was driving me around while I ran my traps. Warden got pissed when we only produced 1 trapping license...mine.

We were told that any assistance by my brother counted as trapping and he needed the appropriate license. When we pressed back asking if even driving me from location to location was assistance he backed off a little. He told us we were lying and it was B.S. but he didn't write us. When we got home our dad was most livid about the language he used. Called the game warden at home and told him it was unprofessional to curse at kids and not to call his kids liars.

I don't know that any of this is helpful to the OP but the thread certainly triggered a memory for me. In some states "assisting another" counts and some game wardens aren't scared to stretch that definition.
 
Joined
Sep 13, 2016
Messages
2,410
Location
Idaho
My older brother and I got in a little hot water in WI a few (~3) decades back. He had a driver's license and I didn't yet. I was into trapping and he wasn't. We got stopped by a game warden and my brother informed him that he was driving me around while I ran my traps. Warden got pissed when we only produced 1 trapping license...mine.

We were told that any assistance by my brother counted as trapping and he needed the appropriate license. When we pressed back asking if even driving me from location to location was assistance he backed off a little. He told us we were lying and it was B.S. but he didn't write us. When we got home our dad was most livid about the language he used. Called the game warden at home and told him it was unprofessional to curse at kids and not to call his kids liars.

I don't know that any of this is helpful to the OP but the thread certainly triggered a memory for me. In some states "assisting another" counts and some game wardens aren't scared to stretch that definition.
"Worrying" covers a very broad area!
 
Joined
Feb 22, 2020
Messages
335
Location
Virginia
Same here in Virginia, it's called "participating in the hunt" when we used to bear hunt with hounds, my neighbor who was an older fella and couldn't walk in the woods. Would tag along in his vehicle (which came in handy when we would walk a few miles and come out somewhere, he would pick us up and take us back to our truck) one year he decided not to buy his license and got a ticket because he was "participating in the hunt"

So it's probably a smart thing that the OP is asking, because if your participating in the hunt, you may not be able to walk or drive on public land without getting a ticket in certain areas/states
I’d take that stupid shit to court everyday and twice on Sunday….
 
Top