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Author
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Topic: Game Wardens...
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Lonny
PANTS ON THE GROUND
Member # 19
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posted August 03, 2014 04:18 PM
Your experience with them in the field good, bad, or indifferent?
I was just watching the boob tube and caught a show following California game wardens on patrol. Wow, those dudes would make me nervous even if I thought I hadn't done anything wrong.
In one scene, they pull up to a guy on a mountain road and the first question they ask was if he had a gun in the vehicle.
In another scene, they are checking a fisherman and ask if he has a gun or knife on him while they start digging through his backpack.
Who in the hell goes fishing without a knife?
Granted, this is TV and all, but the CA F&G looks they treat people guilty until proven innocent.
I can say for the most part, my few dealings with wardens here have been pretty positive. But than I'm usually up on the laws and not trying to hide anything.
Posts: 1209 | From: Lewiston, Idaho USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Lone Howl
Free Trial Platinum Member & part-time language police
Member # 29
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posted August 03, 2014 04:49 PM
I have had contact with 2 of the wardens on that show.
On one hand, they have a tough and dangerous job. There are thugs, dope growers etc out there and backup is far away. I respect them for what they are up against.
On the other hand, that show makes it seem like every hunter is guilty. Maybe it's the editing, don't know. I do know that some of our wardens really bust your balls out here and have attitude...same as a lot of cops do.Its mostly younger ones, the ones that hate hunting in the first place.
Hey, if your poaching, or blatenly breaking the law, then you deserve to get pinched, but honest mistakes are just that, so ease up.
Got rolled up on by the show up here in the Sierra a couple years ago, friend of mine, a houndsman, got the full, on camera shakedown by a warden. Everything was cool, he was asked if he minded if they used the segment for tv, and he said yes, he did mind and would not give them permission to run it.
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When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.
Posts: 2083 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2003
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted August 03, 2014 05:31 PM
Over-all, pretty positive.
I've run into one Warden in Calif. that was a dick-head and one in Arizona. Definite lack of people skills and a poor understanding of public relations. That being said, with those two exceptions, I consider Wardens to be a source of information that I can use to my benefit.
We had a Warden stop by our camp in Utah one time and we invited him to stay for lunch. He was marking patches to check out on the map that we never would have found on our own. We were having a nice visit until an orange Blazer drove by with two idiots in camo standing on the back bumper, bows in hand, arrows nocked. They must not have noticed his truck with the "Be Not Stupid" logo on the door since they continued right past us and around a gate into a Wilderness Area.
Thus ended our pleasant visit and began their unpleasant one.
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 7577 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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KaBloomR
Knows what it's all about
Member # 4252
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posted August 03, 2014 05:58 PM
I've had nothing but good encounters with our local Game Wardens. All of the ones I've known are avid hunters and fishermen, great to visit with, and freely share information. Several of them actively participate in hunter safety programs, and outdoor field trips for the schools.
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"It always gets a helluva lot worse before it gets any better"
Posts: 302 | From: Utah | Registered: Nov 2012
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted August 03, 2014 06:56 PM
I'd have to say, my encounters in the last twenty years have been negative, two to one ratio.
And, okay, I understand they have deliberate poachers, asians mostly but of the one's I have had contact with, it's mostly negative from right off the bat. My impression is they expect problems even the time we had a dozen guys shooting dove, here comes the warden right in the middle of the action with a home made thing to check everyone's shell capacity, just doing his job but I think there are few wing shooters who don't know enough to have a plug in their gun. So, what he was looking for was a mistake, not a criminal.
I'm not particularly happy to see them, and it's not my attitude, it's theirs.
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31451 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Lonny
PANTS ON THE GROUND
Member # 19
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posted August 04, 2014 06:37 AM
Interesting experience with the wardens and camera crew Lonehowl. It makes you wonder if the wardens go a bit further with questions and searches when the cameras are rolling to build the drama a bit?
Leonard, hunting with people who I'm not REALLY familiar with makes me nervous anymore for the safety and infraction reasons.
Example: I went salmon fishing last spring with a co-worker who supplied everything since he is a seasoned salmon guy and I'm not. Come to find out, a couple hours into the day all the plugs we were pulling had barbed hooks. This is a no-no for releasing wild fish. It kinda ruined the day knowing that if we got checked, it was going to be an uncomfortable situation. I'd just as soon avoid that stuff.
Posts: 1209 | From: Lewiston, Idaho USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Moe
Knows what it's all about
Member # 4494
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posted August 04, 2014 09:14 AM
Both good and bad. I've been checked by wardens and when they saw I was legit wound up talking my ear off. Good conversations, too. Like others here I've gotten some good tips from wardens.
There was a warden out in Barstow that hassled some of the CVCA guys. He didn't like predator hunters or maybe just hunters in general but one night he teamed up with his BIL who happened to be a country sheriffs deputy and worked on the notion that if he couldn't bust them his BIL could. He told me that everyone breaks the law every day and they can always get you if they wanted to.
When I applied for my hunting guide's license he noted where I lived and on the opening day of dove of dove season was parked blocking my driveway. When he found out that I was a member of the CVCA he began a serious campaign of hassling me.
A friend and I found a flock of Canada geese out by Harper Lake. We watched them for a few days and noted where they were landing and what time they arrived. We walked over a mile carrying sacks of decoys to set up for them. About 20 minutes before the birds arrived he drove up on the road by an alfalfa circle where we didn't have permission to be and watched us. When the birds were sighted he got out of his truck making sure that the birds wouldn't come near us. He checked our licenses and guns and even made us turn over an old barrel to see if anything was hidden there. I lit into him about ruining our setup and he just smiled. I told him real wardens check you out after the hunting was done so as to not disturb the hunters. I told him I was going to write a letter to the department and make a complaint against him.
I did just that. Don Carper from the Pasadena chapter of the CVCA had written a bunch of letters on him and so had a lot of other people. He was busted from captain to lieutenant. He still enjoyed hassling me while I was out dove hunting but one day he stopped. I had just come in from the field and he drove up. He said we'd gotten off on the wrong foot and wanted to get along with me.
Another time we were in a small town in the San Joaquin Valley gassing up. It was about 2 am. He drove up to the pump behind us, got out and saw the 2 coyotes we had in the bed of my truck. He went ballistic. We got a lecture about how those coyotes were just mindiing their own business when we came along and shot them. Actually, they were in the act of killing a newborn calf when we shot them. He called us liars.
I guess after a while they get cynical or maybe they try to take possession of the wildlife. Or maybe they're like everyone else some are assholes and some aren't. I've run into both kinds.
There's a pretty good one in Burns, Oregon. He enforces the law according to the regs as he sees them, the regs are intentionally written to confuse people here in Oregon. He's told us his definition but also warned us about the deputy sheriffs. I check in with him when I'm calling over that way.
Up in Juneau where I lived at the time a female warden checked my license 3 times in the same day. I was hunting ducks in the early morning and fishing the rest of the day. The third time she checked me I got a bit pissed and called her on it. She stepped back and said she was sorry. She had never looked at my face. I had a combination license.
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I snatch kisses. And vice versa.
Posts: 593 | From: Oregon | Registered: Nov 2013
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Duckdog
Knows what it's all about
Member # 3842
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posted August 04, 2014 09:33 AM
I feel the same way about that show, it does seem to paint the hunter and fisherman as a no good meth head.
I've probably had more positive interactions than negative regarding wardens, but the negative ones were bad enough to taint my view for a long long time.
We used to have a warden around here that was just downright dirty. He harassed me and my buddies for years. And here's the kicker,...wanna know how many tickets he issued us?
Not a single one! Not one infraction! And yet, everytime we had a run in with that clown, he treated us like we were running some kind of poaching ring!!
He went so far as to show up at my buddies' houses, and always said he was "looking for 'me' "!
Like I was a fugitive from the law or something!!
Hell, I wasn't even unlisted! He could have drove right to my house if he'd wanted, but he never did.
Yet, several times stopping at my 2 buddies houses "looking for 'me' ".
He finally harassed one of them to the point that he threatened to kick his ass right there on the front porch!
He pulled the "threatening a peace officer" card, but didn't use it and drove off.
We didn't see him for 6-7 years after that,...Until one day,...
Me and one of those same buddies were hunting on a piece of land that I'd hunted my whole life. Only, it had been sold and changed hands, but I didn't know that.
So, I'm back in there hunting and a 4-wheeler comes rolling up and the new owner finds me.
I introduce myself, and we chat for a little while.
He also tells me that he'd called the game warden and had given him my buddy's tag number, but he would call him back and tell him that it was just a misunderstanding and now all is well.
So, I find my buddy and we head home...
Later that afternoon,...my buddy (the same one who'd threatened to stomp this guy's ass), answers the door, only to find this same warden standing there, and the first thing he says..."I'm looking for Kevin"!!!!
My son and I ran into a really super cool warden a couple years ago out in western Kansas. We'd just finished up a kick ass little stand where we'd called in an ass load of coyotes and killed 3.
When we got back to the truck he was waiting for us. We chatted cordially for a while, and then naturally he wanted to see our licenses. Well, for the life of me, I couldn't find mine, and my son couldn't even find his wallet!
I knew I had one, and I always keep it in my wallet, but it was gone. And, I knew my son had one because I bought it for him before this trip but his entire wallet was missing!
As we were standing there, I called the hotel and sure enough, he'd left it in the motel room.
The warden didn't have cell service or something, but he said he'd check on my license later, and if I didn't have one he'd just mail me a ticket. Super nice guy!
Posts: 205 | From: Ks | Registered: Jun 2011
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booger
TOO BIG TO FAIL
Member # 3602
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posted August 04, 2014 01:51 PM
My experience with the two I deal with here in Central Kansas has been pretty positive. However, both of the wardens are guys I have known since they were little kids. I also work very close with both of them in Hunter Education, but I think both of them would write me up if they caught me doing something I shouldn’t.
I do know that they are very fair after an incident I saw last November during a youth pheasant hunt I was helping with. Both guys were at the hunt in uniform, when a guy dumped his kid out 400 yards from where we were having lunch. They were driving down the road when one of the planted birds happened to stick his head up out of the milo stubble next to the road…the driver’s 10 year old kid bailed out of the truck on to land where they didn’t have permission and smoked said stupid bird after it flushed.
Both wardens went up to question the guy and his kid, (turned out to be one of the local miscreants), and proceeded to ask him why he did this in light of the fact they didn’t have permission and why did he put his kid in this situation? (the guy also had every right to include his kid in the hunt as it was free to the public but chose not to)
The guy ended up being very mouthy, and I think would have just gotten off with just a warning, (both guys said they DIDN’T want to give him a ticket in front of his 10 year old), but then the guy makes the comment, “Are you going to give me a f***ing lecture or a ticket?”—they obliged with a ticket that cost the guy $400.00.
The only issue I have with the guys here in Kansas is the latitude that they have in interpretation of the law. I quit having more than one warden come to my Hunter Ed classes as I have had two of them get into an argument in front of the class as to how they would handle different situations.
These two guys are a joy to work with, but there are some officers here in Kansas that I flat do not like and would not like to be in any situation where I had to deal with them.
I have watched the warden TV show, and like any reality show, it seems that most of the drama gets in the final cut. Most of those guys on the show seem like they just don’t like folks that hunt…
[ August 04, 2014, 01:53 PM: Message edited by: booger ]
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If we ever forget we are one Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under--Ronald Reagan
Posts: 911 | From: Bob Dole Country | Registered: Apr 2010
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DanS
Scorched Earth (AZ Sector)
Member # 316
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posted August 09, 2014 06:25 AM
I can't remember ever having a bad dealing with a game warden, and have seen people get warnings (in Arizona even) when I am sure they could have been given a ticket or cited or whatever it is called. I have been confronted many times in several states.
However, "some" police, sheriff's and especially Missouri water patrol have proven to be cheese dicks on several occasions. If I do something wrong and get a ticket, ok you got me, my bust, but I can't stand the crooked thugs, and the pukes that cover for them.
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futuaris nisi irrisus ridebis
Saepe Expertus, Semper Fidelis, Fratres Aeterni:
Often Tested, Always Faithful. Brothers Forever!
Posts: 1465 | From: flyover country | Registered: Feb 2004
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Joel Hughes
SPECIAL GUEST
Member # 384
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posted August 13, 2014 06:35 PM
I'm in Texas where currently this is pretty much a non-issue, but I just wanted to say, I'm glad to see Lone Howl posted immediately after Lonny. Ha! One of the most amazing coincidences in the cyber world. Greatness! Lol
Posts: 145 | From: texas | Registered: Aug 2004
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted August 13, 2014 07:50 PM
Although it's not causing any harm, I am glad someone besides me has noticed this thing with Lonny and Lonehowl. Really, guys, it's okay.
Good hunting. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31451 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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ursus21
2nd place, John Denver lookalike Contest
Member # 3556
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posted August 13, 2014 08:52 PM
I have no use for game wardens. Come hang out in Montana for a while and I think you will not be much of a fan either. They aren't all bad here, but the one's that are, tend to overshadow everything.
[ August 13, 2014, 08:54 PM: Message edited by: ursus21 ]
Posts: 780 | From: Montana | Registered: Jan 2010
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