Well, when I was growing up in rural West Virginia we had a game warden who would never arrest a local unless there was a complaint from a landowner. He was tough on out-of-staters though.

He checked me a time or two when I was road hunting for ground hogs (common practice back then). When he saw who I was he asked if I was having any luck and went on his way. Never asked to see a license or check my rifle. I don' t know if it was legal in the 60' s to have a loaded rifle in your vehicle in WV but he never mentioned it.

Unfortunately, when he neared retirement he must have went off his rocker. There were lots of reports of spotlighting deer in the county and the rumor was that the state police were doing it from their patrol cars. As you can imagine that ticked off the state troopers who decided to investigate on their own. You guessed it. It was the game warden who was shooting deer, from his vehicle, at night with a spotlightlight.

Because he was so popular with the locals he was given a transfer to a desk job and allowed to finish his time and retire.
As David said, those were different times in a different place.