We have some crazy laws in Oklahoma that could easily get you in trouble. I've never been checked for anything in all my years trapping. I think as long as you are not doing anything stupid and/or get called in for something - you will not have a problem. One thing that would get a lot of guys in trouble are out legal trap laws. One example is double spring traps have to be offset - so a closed jaw #11 or #1 coilspring is not legal. No snares. Bodygrips were illegal but that changed a couple years ago but have to be under water now. I have traps that are legal in Arkansas but not in Oklahoma and some legal in Oklahoma but not Arkansas.

I did cause a guy to get a ticket. Kind of a long story so bear with me. My brother-in-law had bought about 300 acres and he went with me to do some preseason turkey scouting (around March) and I was also thinking about trapping.. We had stopped and doing some walking around. He is not a trapper but had rode with me a couple times. When we got back to the pickup he said I think someone has been trapping as he found a spot that looked like where a trap had been. We walked back out and sure enough there was a dirt hole set. When you pull your trap there is usually a low spot where the trap was and this was still level. I kicked in the dirt and sure enough I kicked up a set trap. It had an Arkansas tag attached which only had a CID number (legal in AR but not OK). It was attached to a dead log that any critter larger than a skunk would get away from. That was a little confusing as Arkansas was fifty miles away and trapper driving that far would have known how to anchor a trap. My bother-in-law didn't want to pursue it as he had only owned the land a couple months and we figured they had just missed the trap when they pulled. I thought oh well I got a free trap out of the deal. A mosty shiny (untreated) closed jaw Duke 1 3/4 (not legal in Oklahoma). I spent a little time doing the normal adjustments that you have to do to a stock Duke that they hadn't done. I go back in April turkey hunting and happen to walk past that area and low and behold another trap was set back. This was not close to a property line and at least 200 yards from a road so not an easy place to get to. This time they had wired to a rock and not a good wire job at that. Probably would have held a possum but a coon would have got away. Again, by brother-in-law didn't want to deal with it but said I could. I was still really confused about it all, but talked to the local game warden to have him look into it. I guess he called Arkansas Game and fish to track down the customer ID number. Come to find out a trapper in Arkansas had loaned some traps to a non-trapper friend in Oklahoma that was a neighbor to the property. He was trying to catch coyotes that had been catching his chickens. The warden let the guy off with the minimum fine but I had to return the traps. Grrrr!

Nothing against COs in general, one of my best friends for a few years was a CO. Had one in my home town area that was a real (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) though. He loved to give tickets whenever he could, threatened to give me one a couple of times, but mostly as a way to try intimidate me from trapping on land he wanted to trap himself.

Seems dnr is out to find a reason to ticket people rather than just making sure rules are being followed. I feel many times they have opportunities to teach people rather than tickets them when in the gray a area. I think most states need to simplify the rules so there is no reason a person has to really think or guess. Make the rules easy for anyone to understand. Keep the outdoors fun and not push people away.

Several years back, a game warden I knew pulled up in the driveway a few days after season ended. He said "were you trapping up so and so road?" I said "yes until season ended." He pulled a gray fox with a snare on it out of his truck and said "I think you forgot one of your snares and it wasn't tagged. " I said "I didn't have any snares set in that area all season and my snares don't look like that." I showed him my snares were different cable and locks and had tags. He said sorry and ended up giving me the fox.

Who hasn’t?

1 ticket for fishing with out a salmon tag reporting card on me, left it on the dresser, court dropped the fine when i sent a photo copy of it in.

Had several encounters from good to bad, some think everyone is a poacher and other are turly there to protect the resource.

2 encounters stand out first hunting frozen flooded feilds for geese the warden pulled up and glassed use with binos andcwe stood up , he realized it was 3 teenagers and left, not sure if he didn't push because we were teenagers or didn't push because he didn't trust teenagers lol.

The next was a volunteer game guy that Or uses to check tags and closed road violations, he snuck into camp after dark and dinner and demanded tags and licenses. Got awful but hurt when we ran him out of camp as we were camping and not hunting and if he wanted to check hunting licenses he could catch us hunting it was illegal to hunt and drink beer but not to drink beer and camp.
The state police warden showed up the next night and politely helloed the camp and asked what happened, we chatted offered dinner and a drink. We showed him licenses because he wasn't a jerk and then he would leave us alone. And he did.