JC-1

Has ANYONE had a positive experience with a Game Warden?? Ever?? I could use a reality check on this.

I met a game warden this weekend during the deer gun opener here in TX. Considering it's my first deer season as a new hunter - it was also my first game warden ever.

Background - my son and I had jumped a 6pt last month while looking for squirrels. So, when gun season opened this weekend and he was at his mom's for visitation - I decided to see if I could ambush this buck.

I had my topo and aerial maps ready to go. Used my GPS to get into position. Had a good [what I thought at least] setup and was in position at 0530. Heard him coming thru the woods at 0645 and didn't hear or see anything after 0700.

I waited until 0745 before I even moved a muscle. Well, I stood up to stretch and thought I saw something about 50 yds off in the thickets. About that time - he stood up and bolted!! And I almost needed to change my shorts. hehe..

I followed him with my barrel ready to fire with my finger on the trigger as he ran but didn't feel comfortable with the shot. So I simply watched him run off.

Looking at my maps, I figured he would prolly head to a different area a couple hundred yds over. Sooo, I go back to the car and drop off my jacket and see if I could get a shot at him at that location.

I got back to my car... took off my jacket... sat down to make a phone call and smoke a cig before heading back into the woods. Just as I'm finishing up my phone call - here's comes a game warden.

No preliminaries... niceties... or anything... "Can I see your gun?" he asks. [I'm sure all of you experienced guys see it coming already...] I received a loaded weapon in vehicle violation.

I questioned the fact that I was sitting on the passengers side floorboard and the vehicle was not moving. He stated that didn't matter - my gun was loaded and leaning against the vehicle and that was all that mattered.

I was asking some questions about the rule trying to understand what was exactly the issue. I was 3 miles back in the woods on a dirt road less than 15 feet from the woods. I couldn't get ANY reasonable response and was basically told to shut up.

He didn't use those words exactly, he just said that I was lucky he was only charging me with a loaded weapon as opposed to a felony of hunting from the road and I should count my blessings. At that point - I decided to shut up and let him do his thing.

Later - while discussing this with some other hunters at the camping area - I learned that I was *indeed* in violation the letter of the law... not the intent.. I knew that you do not drive around with a loaded weapon. I didn't know that you couldn't lean your weapon against your car. Plus some of the stories that I was told was AMAZINGLY nit-picky!!

I called the judge this morning to find out what the fine was. I was told that 'it depends'. Hmmmmm..... Turns out they want $150 for this 'violation'. Sounds like a racket to me. No listed fine amounts and up to the 'discretion' of the judge???

[SATIRE MODE]
Now if I had blazed away at that running deer and spent the rest of the day trailing a wounded animal - I wouldn't have been at my car to get hassled.
[/SATIRE MODE]


So someone reality check me here. When do you load/unload your weapon?


Sheeesh....


Houston, TX

model722

jc-1 That really stinks. The law up here in ny is pretty much the same. If they catch you around a vehicle with a loaded gun they like to harass you. Sounds like you did the right thing by not arguing with the guy. Its like someone said on the other post. The law is the law no matter how DUMB it may be. Good luck on getting that deer.

Ken/WV

Most game warden's are mother f*ckers. I have never met a reasonable game warden. I got a trespassing ticket last you, and here's how it went down:

We was hunting on a work friends land. The friends land extended from his house to a powerline that was owned by the electric company. On the other side of the line, a old man owned it. So we walked down the friends driveway and up the powerline. Alittle later the old man walked down the driveway and nailed up Posted Signs. Then returned to his home. I watched him do all this as I stood just inside the powerline on the friends land. Awhile later the game warden shows up as we are all coming off the hill. Needless to say we all got trespassing tickets. We begged him to go to the friends house at the top of the driveway and ask him about the permission and how far his land extended. But the f*cking game warden acted like he couldn't even hear me. Then the son of a b*tch had the nerve to give me his card, and say, "if you know any poachers, you know how to get ahold of me." I just shook my head and walked off thinking, "yeah, f*ck you."

Just my experience with the game warden.

High Country Archery - "Driven to greater heights..."

skeeter 7MM

First off I have met good GW's in my travels, in fact I would say most are good with a very tough job and limited funds. I also have met the JO cop want to be's, trying to belittle us lowly hunter with their uniform,badge, lights and apparent know how. Which urks me, but I just remain pleasant during the process. Always end the meeting with "thanks very much, nice to see you guys, have a great day" type thing. It is a tough job, I sure wouldn't want to do it! Also think how many hunters are "Put Off" be being stopped and give attitude to the GW.

Now as far as the guy that writes up everything, annoying but I guess that is the law and the job. I would hope most would just say the law states "Such and such" and give you a warning, if it is marginal. Which not all do, in this case the dude seemed put off by you and should have stayed in bed that day. To bad and sorry to hear the loss of 150 bucks.

I unload my weapon when I plan on entering or leaving in my vehicle. If I am stopping for something, I leave it loaded and rest it on my pack on the ground. I do it for safety reasons only.

jpm8920

I have only had a few run-ins with the game wardens in NY, which are known to be ball breakers. Every time I meet one of them it is never a good experience. They always try to find any little thing to bust me on and it really aggrivates them when they can't find anything. And they always treat with with utter disrespect. But I know that not all of them are bad.

DamBigBuck

Yeah, I agree that this was kind of a BS call by the game warden.

Personally, I only have my gun loaded where it's legal to hunt. In other words, if I can't hunt off of the road where I park my truck, then I load up when I'm off of the road and I unload before I hit the road.

I hunt another area that has a pull-off next to it. In that place I'll load and unload right beside the truck, however, I don't lean loaded guns against the truck for safety reasons. Nor do I ever put a loaded gun into a vehicle.

cball

JC 1,You pretty much summed it up ,I've never met a decent game warden,and I don't go around breaking the law,even when they check you and dont find anything wrong they have an attitude.Here in West va the'll fool with regular hunters,but when it comes down to catching these hard core law breakers and poachers they steer clear of them...

silentassassin

I have yet to have a positive experience with a Game Warden.

Protect your hunting rights, "Spay or neuter a liberal."

Thundergut

Every experience I have had with a Game Warden has been good. In my younger years the local warden could have nailed my arse to the wall for stupid infractions here and there, but instead he gave me a stern lecture and taught me what was right and what was not.

Also when living in Nebraska, I was checked by a warden while hunting ducks on Lake Mconaghay (sp?). He was a very nice guy. He even reigned in his lab when a flock of gadwalls was coming into our spread. We shot a couple with the warden right there. He complimented us and told us to have a good day.

They are not all jerks.

needmoretime

There used to be one in my home town that I was always catching. One opening day or actually evening after shooting time, I was headed to the housw when I see a flash on something down the road. I killed my lights and slipped up on the car and it is the warden trying to slip up on me, said he saw my lights coming out of the bottom and decided to see who it was. I told him since I was the only one that hunted there ( He was in the middle of the 6000 acre place that mt my dad was Ranch manager of and we also farmed a bunch of it) who did he think it would be. If he was really worried about someone being where they were not supposed to be, he should be on the North side of the place where a county road ended and some of our neighbors liked to park and hop the fence .

David and myself had several run ins like this. He was always checking me out for something or I would see a light in the distance, leave the house, and catch him driving around the ranch after dark, never in the trouble areas.

And I never gave him cause. I always toed the line and everything was on the up and up. He was just a pain.