Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

Some of these recent posts about game wardens got me thinking: Has anyone ever seen a game warden out in the woods walking around? Like, after they were already set up in their treestands?

I would think most of the conservation agents would be more prone to just waiting at people' s cars to check them, rather than messing up someone' s hunting by wandering around in the woods.

Just curious.

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RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

I had one come up to me while hunting woodchucks. And I have seen them driving down well roads from my stand, but never walking in the woods.

It seems to me that they drive around, and will come investigate if someone calls them. I have run into a few because of my neighbors calling, but I wasn' t doing anything wrong, but I am glad that my neighbors are keeping an eye on things.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

saw two of them enter park property, looking for a man hunting on park land.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

I' ve only been checked while hunting small game when I was a teenager ....... other than that, just checkpoints along roads ...........

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

Never in 24 years. (While hunting, fishing now, well let' s not go there)

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

way back in the good ol days i ran into a couple becasue the people i was with wernt very descret about how they were breaking the law. trout fishing one stopped to tell me i couldnt cast on the one side of a cable that ran overhead, it was a " fly fishing only" zone. and then opening day of arch this season i saw one parked on the side of the road. ive never seen one within 10 yards from the edge of the treeline going ino the woods. i honestly dont think they would have any reason to just go in and police the woods.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

I' ve only seen a warden in the woods once and that was when I was fishing. A couple of the lakes/ponds I fish are artificial baits only and the wardens tend to frequent them a lot. They are generally plesant. The only times I' ve seen them while hunting was once after a guy hunting near me shot a calf(moose) and turned himself in. There were wardens everywhere that day. The other time i was leaving the woods with two friends just at dark and while we where walking across a cut cornfied the warden pulled in and asked to see our tags and checked to make sure we were unloaded as it was after dark. I' ve had nothing but positive contacts with wardens. They usually come across as a tough guy at first but I probably would too knowing that everyone you have contact with is more than likely carring a gun.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

The warden that use to be in our area, would mostly wait by the vehicles. New one this year wanted to where everyone was hunting and he proceeded to searching the woods. Guess he was trying to make a statement.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

As far as having a warden stop me and check tag/license, that' s happened to me almost every trip (we camp the same place every year and they know where). One time while dove hunting some citrus groves, there was a G&F officer that I guess thought he was being discreet (wore a jacket over his G&F uniform, when it was 90+ outside). Well he was carrying a SLUG gun, and actually acted like he was firing at dove and occasionally fired a slug into the groves. He came damn near hittin my bro-in-law' s dad with one of ' em. That' s the only BAD incident I' ve ever had, though.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

The only one I have ran into was coming through the woods to check us out. We met him on the trail. Nice guy though.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

Don' t normally see them deer hunting, but have been stopped in the woods and parking lot while pheasant hunting. The Wife and I were stoped just last week 3/4 of a mile from the road before shooting time. He just wanted to make sure our guns were plugged and unloaded and made sure we had pheasant stamps. 99 percent of the time they' re polite, there just doing their job, and a tough one at that.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

A few years back I got out of the truck with my brother and two dogs when we were " accosted" by two Conservation Officers. They confiscated our 12 gauges and started giving us the twice over. We had to get our game books out and prove to them that that day was actually the opener for dove season. All this occurred on state game lands and, believe it or not, we didn' t even get an apology.

Oh, both those guys were old and considerably overweight with an attitude. They assumed we were guilty of something and were gonna " get us."

I' ve met others at my vehicle that we very nice and were always willing to provide information on the local deer herds. Some are good, but you will run into that jacka$$ every now and then.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

Sure, I' ve seen them in NY waiting for people to come out at night. Sometimes they' re obvious... while other times they jump out of the bushes to see if you unloaded your gun before you step into the road right of way. Not often, but a few times. They check tags, licenses, guns etc. Forest Rangers do it to. We had one stop this spring at our campsite and check our fire pit, crapper hole, camping permits and licenses. Over the years we had a couple jerks... well really one jerk.. but for the most part they' re just doing their job. In Maryland I' ve seen them in the woods but always the results of a reported poacher. I' ve also seen them walk over to someone visible in the woods and write him a ticket for not wearing orange in Maryland. Personnally I wouldn' t want them messing up my hunt by coming back into the woods looking for people. They' re road dwellers for the most part.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

Never seen them in the woods in 13 years of hunting. I think they are afraid of getting shot!

Ice fishing I will usually see them once a year. Sorry to say I don' t have much respect for the wardens in MN seems like they usually assume guilt until proven innocent and they have a hell of a time using their heads for common sense.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

Had one walk right up to my stand earlier this year, spooked a nice 8 point that was working toward my stand. Made me get down and checked myu license and had to walk back to his truck to do that. While talking to him found out he had been on the property enough that he knew where most of my standxs where. This was on private property to.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

Last season I had one under my stand talking to me. He was just checking me out because I was hunting in the same area for 12 days straight. I think he thought I was up to no good! But now When I see him he always says Hi! Nice fella!

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

yes mq1 i had one set up on me and watch me for two hours till i shot a deer and gave a 600 dollar ticket . But It was my fualt i was gun hunting . But we were trying to kill some does out

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

Twice. Once while goose hunting, actually twice while goose hunting. He lived around the corner and on his way home he saw our decoy spread and walked about half a mile across the field to check us out right at about an hour before sunset, the incident while goose hunting was from the Feds walking from one field to the next just checking everyone out. We watched them with binocs the whole while, if we were doing anything wrong had plenty of time to correct it or just vacate for that matter. The third incident I was bowhunting private property of of a powerline right of way. He saw my truck from the road and came in the woods looking for me, walked within 20 yrds of the tree I was in, I just let him go by but when I came out at dark he was a waiting for me. Nothing was wrong and had a permission slip. When I told him I saw him in the woods and if he was a buck he' d be in the back of my truck. He didn' t like that and asked why I didn' t call out to him. I forget what my answer was. He left by telling me good luck and will reconize the truck so he won' t come in again.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

Twice while hunting pheasant in stocked areas. One was driving a loggin road and one was at the point where everyone parks. Nice guys. I would be shocked to ever see a warden where I deer hunt since it is private land.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

like some have said i' ve had them park behind my truck wait for me to exit the woods usually around gun season since i hunt a archery only area.all have been real friendly they check my tags,license and make sure i' m not hunting with a firearm.have seen them walk the trails around the area but not in the woods they use binoculars. just doing their job.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

Once, hunting on the Marine base at Quantico, I had just unloaded my slug gun as I was walking out of the woods. I put my slugs on the dashboard of my truck when the game warden drove by and stopped. He saw the three slugs sitting on my dash and said " 3 slugs, thats good. Mind if I see your gun?" He took my gun and checked that it was plugged. He was satisfied all was legal, and said he liked my gun. We talked for a few, then he took off. Didn' t check my tags/license, just wanted to see if the gun was legal.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

I' ve only meet up with the game warden once in the woods.I was going sucker spearing with my bow.I was driving down an old railroad grade to get to a river.He stopped me and said I shouldn' t be on the grade it was for ATV' s only than he looked in the back of my truck and saw my bow wasn' t in a case.He told me he could write me up for both offenses,but he never did.I asked him where all the suckers where and he told me the name of a lake where the suckers where boiling.I went where he told me to go and shot alot of suckers.To this day that' s the only place I take my bow to shoot suckers.He was a nice guy.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

Just this past summer my wife And I had our 2 sons at a campground on a lake, and we were down on the dock fishing, ( we didnt have licenses) she was helping her son (age 5) and I was helping my son (age 10). There was a ton of people on the dock fishing and I didnt want my son to hook someone when he was casting, so I casted his line out for him and then handed him his pole. Not 30 seconds later, game warden pulls up to the dock in a boat, checking licenses. I told him that we didnt have one and that the only ones fishing were the kids. He sais to me, I just saw you cast his line out, and then hand him the pole. So I told him that I was just helping him so he wouldnt hook someone. He tells me that I cant even cast it for him unless I have a license ( I honestly didnt know that), but he was real cool about it, just made his point and left without giving any citations. You learn something new every day.

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

I' ve been checked by one warden while hunting. I was walking a logging road out of the woods when I saw a guy stand up, and shine a flashlight in my face. I didn' t know what to think at first, but then he said something about being a DNR officer. It was probably 30-40 minutes after shooting light(had to remove stand, wait for dad, and walk out of the woods a few hundred yards). He asked me several times how far back into the woods we were and what legal shooting hours were. I knew what the hours were, and my watch read the same time as his. He simply couldn' t bust me because I didn' t have an arrow on the string.
It was the last week or so of late season, and he said he just wanted to make sure. He explained that at this time of year some guys like to stretch the shooting hours a little if they haven' t filled any tags yet during the year.
He also checked my backtag and everything out too, just routine I suppose.

This officer did seem like he was trying to pinch me for something I didn' t do, but overall he seemed like a pretty decent guy. He walked the rest of the way out with us, and we talked a little about the year' s deer harvest and so on.

peashooter

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

i have seen the warden in madison county ohio several times. he is the only agent for whole county and i see him about every day of gun season. go figure. i dont have anything to hide i abide by the laws and regulation. he has driven his truck threw corn fields to check on guys standing in fence rows and has walked right into the woods to check for permission slips and licenses. he is not very friendly and is kind of a jerk. once he checked several of us out before we went into area to hunt you know we had guns in cab making sure they weren' t loaded and the whole bit. then 2 hour later ask for licenses and permission again . same trucks nothing different just wanted to bug us a little .

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

been checked several times in maryland, but only when fishing,
also been checked in delaware when fishing
never been checked when hunting,
i guess they think you can' t hurt them with a fishing pole,
during hunting season everyone has a gun, not a good thought

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

We were on game land when my buddy was in his stand and shot a nice 8pt buck, the game warden walked to his stand and asked him how he was doing. This was about 5 min after the shot, then he walked to the deer and said nice job, let me see your license. So my buddy showed them to him and he left. He decided to drag the deer out himself and when he got to the truck the warden was still there and asked to see his license again. When my buddy showed them to him he said, partner you didn' t punch your tag and I' m going to write you a ticket. It cost my buddy $150.00 for this guy being an A-hole. I know he somewhat did wrong by not punching his tag, but his nerves were tore up and he was excited. This warden knew he was hunting legally but still ' harassed' him.

He did say that 8-point was worth the $150 bucks though!:)

RE: Has anyone ever seen a game warden in the woods, or...
 

I have only ever seen two wardens that were not on the road checking. But these two were thorough!

Unit # 17 in the Selway-Bitterroots. 21 miles from the nearest thing you could even consider a road. Nice guys, but they sure did check us out.