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.

I only trap on my farm to keep predators and nest raiders down. Couldn't imagine ever having a reason to be checked unless a neighbor reported me for something.

Not trapping related, but I've had more negative encounters with Federal folks than anyone local. All around water fowling. They give me the impression that they are there to find something, whereas the local fellers do a quick check and move on.

Hmm, one for setting within 1000’ of a campground. About 900’. One for setting to close to natural bait, a bs law that came with our area being included in a “linx protection zone” even though there aren’t linx around here nor ever have been. One for catching a bobcat in a coyote snare after cat season had closed. Game warden found it so I didn’t get a chance to claim a non-target catch myself. But other than that, no.

The year I turned 16 was the first year Nebraska changed the permit dates to calendar year, rather than end of beaver and muskrat season. Season ended Mar 24th but under new change, my permit ended Jan 1.

I was trapping muskrats on a lake for a guy who owned a bunch of lots there. Another person on the lake thought I was trespassing so they called the sheriff. Sheriff checked it out and said I was fine but the warden was on his way also so he wanted me to hang around. I had a high school buddy with me who didn’t have a license. The warden was giving him the business, then he realized my license was expired by a little over a month due to the new dates. I was unaware. He told my buddy to buy a license at the local sporting goods store and that he would check later.

I wasn’t so lucky, before I knew what was happening two more wardens showed up. They made me pull traps while they watched with binoculars. I turned my back to them and stuffed any more caught rats up under the bank, 3 or 4 if I remember right. They followed me to my house, about 20 miles away and took all my skinned and dried rats. I got charged with liquidated damages on all the rats and trapping without a license. $680 some dollars. Coincidentally, it was county government day so a bunch of classmates and a teacher from my school were in the courtroom watching.

I almost got a contempt of court charge when the judge, actually a tree hugging neighbor of ours, said “and let that be a lesson to the rest of you kids that think spotlighting raccoons at night is ok! It won’t be tolerated!!”. I stood up and said “hay! I ain’t no spotlighter!!!” She whacked the hammer down and said one more word and you'll be held in contempt!! I caught my teachers eye and he put his finger to his lips in the shush motion.

To add insult to injury, that was also the same year Nebraska didn’t require kids under 16 to have a trapping license. Before that kids under 16 could hunt and fish without a license, but not trap. I had purchased a trapping license every year since I was 11. Or rather my mom purchased the first few for me.

What a kick in the nads that was.

Used to be a couple outlaw brothers from Beatrice NE that bought fur and also made some dogproof coon traps. Local warden followed them down the Big Blue River at night in a rowboat. They were spotlighting beaver and shooting them. He waited until they crossed into Kansas and busted them for spotlighting, shooting, and transporting illegal fur across state line. No KS permit. They lost all privileges for many years.