Got checked by the game warden...

...this morning. Opening day of early goose season here. Two game wardens drove by multiple times looking at our decoys with their binoculars. Finally they stopped towards the end of our hunt.

We were 3-400 yards off the road so I expected them to check us on our way out, but they walked all the way to us to check us

They checked licenses, duck stamps, HIP certifications, and shells. We were hunting in a harvested silage field

We had a great interaction with them, no citations issued and they were great guys to talk to. Never standoffish or authoritarian. One fellow in our group had not signed the face of his duck stamp, they gave him a pen and he signed it for them. I had reloaded dove loads, 2-3/4" 20ga shells, with #3 bismuth, they didn't give me any grief and we talked about reloaded sub gauge guns for a bit.

Just wanted to report a very positive encounter with a couple great guys who enjoy the same hunting we do.

Thanks to officers Blankenship and Allman for their positive interactions with our local hunting community. I sure am glad we have some good ones here

Nice. Thanks for posting.

I have had nothing but positive encounters for the last 10 yrs or so.

Yea!! You need to put your picture in the back seat looking out!!

Watching the show Louisiana Law, their wardens drive right up to the hunter's duck blinds. They do the usual checks, plug in the gun, licenses, ducks shot, boat registration, etc. Many times if there is a violation, unless it's flagrant, they will often cut the violator a break. Most of the time they have a cordial attitude with the hunters.

they were not worried about dents or scratches to their truck.

I've had MOSTLY good encounters, but a few bad ones sort of tainted the whole lot.
But I think the lemons would have been the same in ANY profession.

Also, it used to.be almost exclusively guys that were into outdoor stuff.
Now, lots of other LEO/MP transfers who have no background in OR interest in outdoor stuff.

FWIW, I used to trap with a TV game warden, lol.
Really good guy

Good to hear coondagger2

I've had all nice encounters with COs too with the exception of one time.
Beaver had flooded a landowners creek causing his hay field to be underwater. I had trapped the beaver out and a friend of mine who worked as a blaster for a mining company was going to blow the beaver dam to drop the water level.

It was a large dam that had to be blown in two sections. We had just blown one section and were setting up to blow the rest of the dam when this CO came driving in to our location like he was crazy. His first screams were, "What do you think you're doing?"

We explained the situation about the beaver, the flooded hay field, and said we had notified the local sheriff's office that we would be blasting a beaver dam on this person's farm.

The CO's response was, "You don't do anything next time until you check with me first!"

Beaver season was open, so there wasn't an issue there. He did contact the sheriff's department to verify we had called them. We weren't cited for anything. He left very irate.

I've been checked twice one was ok one I wasn't impressed with. The one I wasn't impressed with was a State Trooper and Warden working together. The trooper would find a minor reason (something that they normally wouldn't have bothered with) to pull over obvious hunters on opening weekend of pheasant season and then when u said u had been hunting (after the trooper asked u) he would call the Warden who was waiting over the hill to come check u out.

great to hear

We were checked by a game warden once and he fell over dead from a brain aneurism with some blood coming out of the corner of his eye. It was a terrible day and there was a lot of explaining to do.

I’ve never been checked. But have been “caught” I guess you would say. Got a 215$ fine for trout fishing before 7am on opening day. Time was 6:45am, I didn’t know you couldn’t start till 7. But the warden told me, “atleast you’ll know next time.” It was two of us. Fine was 35$ rest was court cost. Was kinda funny till he read off the court cost. I thought it was gonna be just 35$

Terrible? That sounds more like a nightmare!

For the most part my dozen or so interactions with game wardens has been very positive. The local guys here at home have gone to bat for me several times concerning issues with trespassing dog-walkers getting their dogs caught in my traps. They even prosecuted one guy that was a real piece of work.

The guy that had the area around my camp was a good guy too, he retired a couple of years ago. He was a stickler about rules but he helped me out a few times with trapping related issues.

The new guy seems okay.

We have a new guy here who is covering twice the area he originally was assigned due to labor shortages. He's a great guy and that is a blessing after the last few we've had. He calls me now when he has a skunk issue and I am happy to help out since he has such a large area to cover. He's active in his church, Cub Scouts and a few other family orientated activities and fun to talk to. I hope he sticks around for awhile!

At least they waited until the end of your hunt. We don’t have many geese here and I was setup to shoot a single flock a couple years ago. Truck drove by, slowed down, and came back. Out gets the GW and starts strolling across the field. About that time I hear the geese get up and head my way. Get about 100 yards out and turn and go somewhere else. He was apologetic, and it wasn’t a huge deal. A little frustrating though. Other than that no real bad experiences with them

... that’s why they get aneurisms sometimes

.. I’m sorry the devil made me say that

GW are just like everyone else. Some good, some bad. I’ve met more good ones than bad. Hunted with some and even had a “hmmmm” moment with one on a dove field, lol. Most local wardens are alright. Those federal boys are out to find something, lol.

I’m not a fan of game wardens. My last interaction involved myself, a game warden, and my 7 year old son. I was spoken to like I was a criminal, in front of my son. If I had been breaking laws it would have been one thing, but I wasn’t.

I've never had an interaction with a game warden.....

Maybe you’re just lucky swamp wolf! I’ll have to start wearing green jeans and a grey button down and see if they leave me alone too. Is that the camoflauge you used to keep them away? Don’t think I can get them to throw me a retirement party even if I camo myself for 30 years

I have had always good encounters with the Game Wardens in multiple states. They have a job to do.

X2. All my experiences have been positive. I was even invited to the retirement of one of my best ones!

"Lord I apologize fer that"

LoL

All the officers I've met in 40+years have been courteous except one.

I'm getting close to 40 years and so far all good interactions. Most of the time, I have already met the game wardens getting cats tagged and quite a few of them are curious about how I catch the cats so we already have built a dialogue.

I don't know why anyone would want to be a game warden.
No one is ever happy to see you.
Almost everyone lies to you even if it doesn't benefit them. This is the one thing which would wear me thin quick.

Turn on CNN and toughen yourself up! lol

Arn't you a game warden?

HIP certifications? I've filled out HIP reports before but can't recall having any certifications to carry around? I bought my duck stamp at the post office the other day and there was no HIP form to even fill out.

In 24 years of pheasant/turkey/coyote hunting , fishing and trapping, I have never been checked by a warden. We were spotlighting (no gun-all legal with a video camera) in high school and got stopped one time. Guy was ok i guess. Seemed more mad that we werent breaking the law than anything.

Shh! Don't tell anyone.

Just kidding. I retired June 1st, 2022.

The HIP questionnaire used to be done at the time you bought your regular hunting license. Now its done online and you are given a number to write on your licencse to show you did it. (At least that's hoe Iowa does it.) You only have to bother with HIP if you are going to hunt migratory birds. Otherwise you can skip it.

I've only ever had 2 interactions with Game Wardens. Both times they were called on me. The first time I was a teenager and someone found a dead cat in an area they knew I was trapping and called the law. GW asked me if I'd killed the cat. I said nope. He said okay, have a good day and just don't kill any cats, and went on his way.

Second time we had just moved down here and had a trap set on our driveway (which is an easement). Our great new neighbor showed up at our door, GW in tow. That GW irked me, but only because he had NO IDEA of what the laws were. I knew them better than him and I'd only lived here for 2 months, lol. He said, "You can't be trapping now, it's not trapping season." I said "trapping season is year around for fox and coyote, which is what we're trapping." He said, "Well, I don't know about that" to which I replied, "Well I do. I can show you in the regulation book if you would like?" To which he replied, "No no, you don't need to do that" and then switched to the fact that having an easement on a driveway doesn't give you the right to trap it. Well, he didn't cite us, but he did try to take off with our trap in his truck yet until Pete flagged him down, lol. But seriously, shouldn't you at LEAST know the season dates you're supposed to enforce???

In some states that have no season on predators, there are legal methods of take that may be restricted by dates. In other words, you might be able to shoot coyotes year round but only trap them when coon trapping season is open etc.

Yep that's how some states are but not Mississippi. It specifically says you can trap them.

Yeah Louisiana is exactly like that, except you have to be approved by the state to trap coyotes year round. Not a hard process, but as described.