Game warden checks?

We use to get checked once a year hunting ducks. After that he’d see us and stop and talk to us and maybe ask how many we shot but wouldn’t check anything.
Got checked back to back years on the same farm. One year by the sheriff the other the warden, most of us were hunting pheasants but a few had hunted ducks early that morning. He had glassed them and knew who to check stamps and plugs on. Small town I think they were all friends. The gw told us he liked to hunt geese on the place.
Got checked two days in a row in Nebraska . The first one was the evening before the season opened I was out driving and looking at stuff and thought I might hop into something and try to kill a chicken if it looked good. Mostly I was dickn around. I had to ask him what time legal was in the morning I didn’t know and apparently he didn’t either because he had to pull out the book.
The next day I was walking the edge back to the truck and I could see someone was waiting for me. Figured it was the warden. Was a different warden. I had dropped two birds one had dropped just over the public fence in the ditch and the other one had fallen in the road and ran over into the neighbors. The dog worked that one for a little while but I didn’t want to go over there and give her any help. When she came back we looked for the one in the ditch a little bit but lost them both.
I asked him about ditch birds, apparently that’s a no no. He had seen it and I don’t think he was going to ticket me or maybe being up front saved me from one. He let me look for the bird on the public side on the way out but I never found it.
 
Calm down folks, really.

I have a hard time thinking why anyone could give two episodes of sexual intercourse what is said on venues such as this.

Me, I have a shotgun lost in the mail someplace out east. Now that is worth getting worked up about.
 
McFarmer said:
Calm down folks, really.

I have a hard time thinking why anyone could give two episodes of sexual intercourse what is said on venues such as this.

Me, I have a shotgun lost in the mail someplace out east. Now that is worth getting worked up about.
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Dang…hope it shows up!
 
You can always tell when the season is winding down on here….😂 I can’t believe I read the majority of this thread 😜. I have enough to fix in my own life to worry much about what others are doing. I always heard it’s best to take what you need and leave the rest.

I had a run in with a Federal Warden outside of Sand Lake Refuge about 15 years ago on an extremely cold December night. They expressly want no cleaning of game on the refuge, which I certainly understand. We had shot a limit of roosters and had stopped to rough clean them on a minimum maintenance road across from the refuge before it got dark as there was no facility at the motel. We were only cutting and gutting and putting it in a trash bag. This guy lost his mind and became extremely abusive. He was young and blew in driving a black SUV. He got pissed when I said I understood the rules but we weren’t on the refuge and weren’t making a mess. He quickly jumped in his truck and peeled out. It was weird. He didn’t check licenses, and when I counted the birds we had 13 due to shooting one late the day before. In probably 30 trips to SD I’ve probably been checked 3 times
 
In many areas the ATV traffic is so heavy I wonder how the CO’s allocate their time between machines and hunters/fisherman? Certainly some of these riders are doing both, but it’s interesting how the machines have become such a hobby for so many…not my cup of tea, personally. I have relatives in the black hills, some of whom have razors, or whatever they’re called…rather hike with dogs.
 
Don't try and walk your dogs on FS land in the BHills during tourist season. They (ATV's) literally invade the area, and run in packs of 20-30. And, because they bring in $ to the state, no state officials want to discuss how all those trails get torn to shreds during/after rains. However, when the tree cops catch a local resident pickup driving those trails during deer season, they get the 3rd degree.
 
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Over the years I have never been checked while waterfowl hunting.Pheasant hunting I have checked 4 times, 2 years in a row on the same WMA. 3 times I have been checked while deer hunting and only 1 time fishing. You just never know where a warden will show up or be watching you.
In the mid 1970's my dad was on the way to town to get some parts for his combine. The federal wardens had a check point on the state highway,it was the opening weekend of duck hunting. My dad was not hunting,but the feds searched the car.
 
carptom1 said:
You can always tell when the season is winding down on here….😂 I can’t believe I read the majority of this thread 😜. I have enough to fix in my own life to worry much about what others are doing. I always heard it’s best to take what you need and leave the rest.

I had a run in with a Federal Warden outside of Sand Lake Refuge about 15 years ago on an extremely cold December night. They expressly want no cleaning of game on the refuge, which I certainly understand. We had shot a limit of roosters and had stopped to rough clean them on a minimum maintenance road across from the refuge before it got dark as there was no facility at the motel. We were only cutting and gutting and putting it in a trash bag. This guy lost his mind and became extremely abusive. He was young and blew in driving a black SUV. He got pissed when I said I understood the rules but we weren’t on the refuge and weren’t making a mess. He quickly jumped in his truck and peeled out. It was weird. He didn’t check licenses, and when I counted the birds we had 13 due to shooting one late the day before. In probably 30 trips to SD I’ve probably been checked 3 times
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lol I know who this was now!
 
I've had good and bad experiences being checked by wardens.

1) Getting ready to leave my property after duck hunting had warden fly up in his SUV, block the drive out of the field and check us all for licenses, plugs, steel shot, then proceed to inspect our vehicles and wanted to cite us for having lead shot in the trunk. Said he was going to write citation! I told him that when I finished duck hunting, my dogs and I and buddies were going to be pheasant hunting in the field we were standing in. he wasn't happy. Bad.

2) Same farm, hunting opening of duck (which always used to start at noon on a Sat) I left at @3pm as had to be home. Brother, friend and cousin stayed behind to hunt to dusk. Around 5pm cousin has a warden walk up behind and proceeds to check him out. No big deal but warden has an attitude. Wants to know who shot what. He doesn't know because we all hunt in different blinds around my lake. Warden is less happy and wants to know who I was, what I shot and where I went.

He told my cousin that he and two other wardens had been set up with spotting scopes in my woods in a sting operation. They were going to catch the poachers they were warned about. Except we weren't the poachers. That guy had trespassed the week before and shot 30-50 ducks with another guy. The neighbor has rolled up on them and saw it all. Called in and the wardens set up on us. Bad

3) Walking to my tree stand opening morning of WI gun deer season i notice something directly under my stand. Could be a deer! As I get closer, not sure it's a deer but looks more like a human. Freaks me out as i am always scared shitless that some dip squat will be trigger happy and shoot me because he thinks I'm a deer. I carry a flash light, pop it out and light up the..... guy. I see his back tag is some really low number like 000-058. Don't know why I noticed it.

I asked him what he thought he was doing and he says, "Deer hunting." So I followed up with "why are you hunting literally right underneath my deer stand?" Says he 'just thought it was good spot!' i said, "You're on private property." He said, "I'm a game warden." SMH. It was very cold that day, had my hood over my orange hat and he asked me if i hunted like that? Told him I wasn't hunting yet so the orange hat didn't apply yet. Also told him that I would be very uncomfortable having him hunt right under my stand. He moved off about 150 yards to my fence row and I didn't see one deer that day. Only opening day deer I have never seen a deer. bad.

4) Group hunting in IN with 8 guys. Warden drives up as we are getting ready to head into a field. Very nice guy. Everything in order except for the one newbie who is with us. Never pheasant hunted before. The night before he went to Walmart and asked to buy a hunting license. They sold him one - for deer hunting. I expected the Co to give him a warning and tell him to buy a pheasant license/stamp but he fined the kid something like $150. I thought that was BS.

5) Checked last year hunting alone in IN on pheasant/quail opener probably close to 3/4 miles from the road. Never saw the guy walking up behind me which i thought was dangerous. I might have swung on a bird that flushed toward him and not knowing he was there, and he was wearing only his OD uniform, may not have noticed. He checked me out, we had a good chat and we went on our way. Good.

6) Had at least two other uneventful checks that I remember. Just license, chit chat, gun/ammo, game reports.

What's funny, is I became acquainted with the guy in WI who gave us so much grief. Met him socially a few times and he's a good dude. There had been quite a bit of poaching in the area and since we are absentee owners, they thought we were the culprits and were sure they were going to catch us. Turns out it was a couple of guys in the vicinity who used to poach on my land all the time. We'd find gut piles, hear stories in the local bars he would tell and show pictures. He was stupid and got busted. But took probably 15 years.
 
AtTheMurph said:
I've had good and bad experiences being checked by wardens.

1) Getting ready to leave my property after duck hunting had warden fly up in his SUV, block the drive out of the field and check us all for licenses, plugs, steel shot, then proceed to inspect our vehicles and wanted to cite us for having lead shot in the trunk. Said he was going to write citation! I told him that when I finished duck hunting, my dogs and I and buddies were going to be pheasant hunting in the field we were standing in. he wasn't happy. Bad.

2) Same farm, hunting opening of duck (which always used to start at noon on a Sat) I left at @3pm as had to be home. Brother, friend and cousin stayed behind to hunt to dusk. Around 5pm cousin has a warden walk up behind and proceeds to check him out. No big deal but warden has an attitude. Wants to know who shot what. He doesn't know because we all hunt in different blinds around my lake. Warden is less happy and wants to know who I was, what I shot and where I went.

He told my cousin that he and two other wardens had been set up with spotting scopes in my woods in a sting operation. They were going to catch the poachers they were warned about. Except we weren't the poachers. That guy had trespassed the week before and shot 30-50 ducks with another guy. The neighbor has rolled up on them and saw it all. Called in and the wardens set up on us. Bad

3) Walking to my tree stand opening morning of WI gun deer season i notice something directly under my stand. Could be a deer! As I get closer, not sure it's a deer but looks more like a human. Freaks me out as i am always scared shitless that some dip squat will be trigger happy and shoot me because he thinks I'm a deer. I carry a flash light, pop it out and light up the..... guy. I see his back tag is some really low number like 000-058. Don't know why I noticed it.

I asked him what he thought he was doing and he says, "Deer hunting." So I followed up with "why are you hunting literally right underneath my deer stand?" Says he 'just thought it was good spot!' i said, "You're on private property." He said, "I'm a game warden." SMH. It was very cold that day, had my hood over my orange hat and he asked me if i hunted like that? Told him I wasn't hunting yet so the orange hat didn't apply yet. Also told him that I would be very uncomfortable having him hunt right under my stand. He moved off about 150 yards to my fence row and I didn't see one deer that day. Only opening day deer I have never seen a deer. bad.

4) Group hunting in IN with 8 guys. Warden drives up as we are getting ready to head into a field. Very nice guy. Everything in order except for the one newbie who is with us. Never pheasant hunted before. The night before he went to Walmart and asked to buy a hunting license. They sold him one - for deer hunting. I expected the Co to give him a warning and tell him to buy a pheasant license/stamp but he fined the kid something like $150. I thought that was BS.

5) Checked last year hunting alone in IN on pheasant/quail opener probably close to 3/4 miles from the road. Never saw the guy walking up behind me which i thought was dangerous. I might have swung on a bird that flushed toward him and not knowing he was there, and he was wearing only his OD uniform, may not have noticed. He checked me out, we had a good chat and we went on our way. Good.

6) Had at least two other uneventful checks that I remember. Just license, chit chat, gun/ammo, game reports.

What's funny, is I became acquainted with the guy in WI who gave us so much grief. Met him socially a few times and he's a good dude. There had been quite a bit of poaching in the area and since we are absentee owners, they thought we were the culprits and were sure they were going to catch us. Turns out it was a couple of guys in the vicinity who used to poach on my land all the time. We'd find gut piles, hear stories in the local bars he would tell and show pictures. He was stupid and got busted. But took probably 15 years.
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Some weird stuff…not good.
 
When I was growing up in Northern Indiana, it was on a sizeable lake. Back then the CO's had the old jeep cherokee's and they would park on the shore and start walking out. When would see the slow down to park some of our group would pick up and started walking the other direction as if we were looking to fish a different spot. Usually there would be multiple CO's traveling together and we found that the rookies were the ones sent to track us down as we moved across the lake. We would stagger ourselves too, we never got a ticket as we were always legal. My dad or good friend always stayed at our point of origin and from their conversations the older CO's always got a chuckle with our antics. This was back before they had all the toys they have today.
 
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