Im in college right now to someday hopefully become a Conservation Officer. One thing that our instructor stresses is to not right "chicken ****" tickets, meaning that we should be reasonable and take in concideration if there is realy any harm done before writing a citation.

I can understand where ya'll are comming from. A few years ago I had a officer walk out into my spread and SHE was being very uncool.....We had a small group of Canadians buzz us and to make a long story short I told her to either write us up, Leave or get her ugly azz in the blind.....She picked the last and it was probably one of the better hunts....I know a buddy of mine was scared to death, he left his plug at home....

The problems you have with the game wardens who are PIA's is that while they have federal jurisdiction they get almost no respect from other law enforcement agents. Ask the next state trooper who pulls you, his opinoin of a game warden... you will get a chuckle. So the younger guys tend to have that chip on their shoulders to prove they are not just the rabbit sherrif or opossum patrol. Dont get me wrong, I have several local GW friends and wouldn't dare do what they do. They have my utmost respect.I mean all they have is pistols and most people they deal with have high powered rifles or great big shotgun and then the dress in camo and hide in the woods. With all the idiots out there just waiting to shoot the next terrifing rustling bush, thats a great way to get killed.

i have not had a bad run in with a GW yet. i have one that was potentiolly bad due to a misscomunication of whether it was called a Junior hunt or a Youth hunt, i could have been slapped with poaching for it was a youth hunt a week after normal season ended, we were hunting a NWR and the local wardens let me out, then walking in the Feds stopped me and asked how i did, i had a spec, two snows, a mallard, and a ringneck, he just asked me questions about the birds, told my dad that technically it was called a 'youth hunt' so even though i turned 16 only a monthh before and still had a junior license, i was not considered youth. but he then decided that we couldnt put my birds back in the air, and he allowed me and my dad to walk back to the check station.

Me and my buddy got checked by the warden last year. We were huntin the saltwater for woodies and unfortunately came back empty handed. anyway, we put the boat on the trailer, and wouldn't ya know, here comes three SCDNR trucks. As if on cue, 5 or 6 other duck hunters pull up to the boat ramp. The wardens get out of their trucks and yell "yall just hold tight, we need to check all of you." (BTW, one of the wardens was lezbian, which was kinda weird) so, we went through the dreadful routine of, "is there a plug in your gun? did yall shoot any ducks? Do you currently possess lead shot? I'll take you to jail. You're not lying to me are you?"Finally after all these questions, he checks us. He is constantly telling us that he'll take us to jail if he found a duck... which i don't know why he would considering we were friggin' entirely legal anyway. He even asked us if we had a hollowed out gas tank that we could hide a duck in. and since the bottom of the boat had plywood over the bottom, he threatened to rip the plywood out to see if there was a duck under that. We kinda laughed and said that he might find a dead bream The guy was kinda anal about everything. He didn't say we did anything wrong, but he was still acting like a jerk... and oh wow... let me tell you what he did. He begins to check my gun for a plug, so he takes 4 of my shells and starts to load my gun. he sees that i have my plug in, and he unloads the gun while the muzzle is pointing right at my buddy. He jacks all 3 shells out of my gun, and doesn't even realize his error. Of course, by the way this guys attitude was, we didnt say anything. one thing was funny though: my buddy dips, and the warden saw the dip cans in the boat. He looks at me, smiles, and says "boy aint you too young to be dippin TABAKKER?"

I`ve been checked once by the COs in 40 years. Don`t know if I`m lucky or it`s the 90% public land our province has to hunt on.

Ron