how are the wardens?

[Unreal_tk]

What is the worse incident with a warden you've had? I've heard ours can be a pain but never ran
into one yet while hunting.

[Big Horn Posse]

hmmmmm the worst incident I had was when a bear was running around town and it happened to get into my dumpster and my son and I chased it down the street and had it cornered in a neighbors yard. I called the warden to tell him it iwas in a neighbors yard and to come quick. He shows up and the bear takes off. I tell him I can go get Ozzy and Scarlett and they will have it treed in no time. (I was contracted for depredation) He said no and that he will just get a trap out in the morning.....I thought that was lame.

Anyways, to make a long story short. He set the trap the next morning and left it there a week and no bear. It continued to come into town until it was time to hibernate.

Other than that I have never had a bad incident with a warden

[BEAR HUNTER]

California wardens are jack asses when it comes to hound hunters. They believe all hound hunters are criminals. Last season they snuck into a buddies tree and watched them shoot and tag the bear. When my buddies got it loaded and started off they stopped the whole crews. Kept them detained for three hours going through all of the trucks looking for evidence of a crime. After all said and done issued a cite for improperly filling out the tag. The guy who shot the bear forgot to put the date on it.
One thing you have to remember to is wardens are all over the hunting forums. When you offer to take a new guy out at least in Ca make sure you DO NOT accept any money even for gas, dog food, etc, or you are "Guiding" and you will be busted. My personal oppinion is that their are some wardens on this board pretending to be new hunters. Some of the post make me awfully suspicious.

[wanchese]

[Benny G]

Just like most groups, there are good and bad in the world of Game Wardens. I used to lease a ranch in the Guadalupe Mountains in Southern New Mexico. The Game Warden in charge of that area at the time was always slipping around and asking questions about me and my habits. He told me several times that lions couldn't be caught in the Guads without the aid of snow. We had this constant dissagreement about the topic because he had a friend that hunted lions and was only successful in the snow (that friend has since been able to get it done to some extent in the dirt). One early morning during a deer hunt, I was making the rounds checking waters and gates. Right on the Texas state line I came across two guys acting strangely and headed out at a pretty good clip. I offered them a ride to their camp, and they gladly excepted. It was early in the hunt, they hadn't had any success yet, but said that they were headed home. As I made my rounds, I kept thinking about how strange those two guys were acting. On my way back to the house that morning, right along the fence that separated my place from Texas, right behind a bush that could only be seen from the direction that I was headed then, there lay a freshly killed doe. I checked the tracks, and sure enough, those two guys had shot the doe, then gone over to her, only to discover that they had killed a doe. I hot footed it to the house and called the Game Warden, who just happened to be set up at the only way out of that country. I told him the story, what they looked like, what they drove, and what kind of trailer they were pulling. I even told him about what time they would be coming by. When I talked to Mr. Game Warden a couple of weeks later, he told me that he decided not to wait on them. He did, however, never stop asking others about me, in hopes to catch me doing something that he could prosecute me for. He has since retired, but I lost whatever respect I had for him that day.

[coadycurbow]

He doesn't deserve respect, especially when he wouldn't do his job. It would piss me off too.

[Big Mike]

All Game Wardens are AHoles, I cant stand them. Everywhere i go i run into them dam fish cops. When i was growing up them dam possum police tried to write me tickets everytime I did something illegal!! Can you imagine that!!. I poached a crane and they caught me and wrote me a ticket, thats bullsh!t!!!!

A Game Wardens does not get paid to make friends. There job is to enforces wildlife laws and in order to do so they rub some folks wrong thats just the nature of law enforcement. And truth be told most houndsman are worth investigating. Thats a fact! Unfortunately Houndmans have worked very hard to get a bad rep, and the good houndsman have to suffer for it.


That would piss me off too benny. That suprises me with who you are talking about too. I wouldnt expect that of him.

[Benny G]

Big Mike,
I didn't expect it either!

But, on a lighter note, that's pretty good stuff that you started your post with!

[Brindle]

Its not that hard. Just dont do any thing illegal. And you wont have any problems. Thats how I do it at least. And I have no problems with the wardens.

[Cowboyvon]

I can't say a whole lot about them. I had a couple show up at my camp in the Gila and tell me my no hunting signs were illegal? I asked him to explain and he told me what they needed to say, anyway come to find out what he meant was they wouldn't hold up in court the way they were written.

Another time I was at a gas station filling up and we had our hounds and one asked us what we were hunting and I told him lions and he asked to see our licenses I said sure but all I had on me was last years bear license, my current lion license was in my saddle bags at the ranch. He took my bear license and wrote on it and asked again if I could find my lion license so I told him I didn't have it with me so I guess that we were just hunting coyotes today.

I was camped out one time and had a couple come by and we had hounds staked out every where.. they asked us if we were lion hunting and we told we were and they never asked us nothing just started talking to us about where they had seen tracks and sign and where we should go..

Another one that I kinda know is a great big fellow and he seems to be alright but hell he runs hounds too and rides a mule so he has to be a little shady ....

I think there just like everyone else some good some bad....

[Unreal_tk]

Great replies. Yeah I'm curious to see how they harass us in Oregon even being legal.... I've never been checked while deer or elk hunting but mostly I stick to private ground.

[Dale T]

My in-law's had a run in a couple of years ago here in Ca. they had 2 dogs out cold trailing a bear down the canyon, (which with one dog per hunter when deer season and bear season overlap is legal), he had just put his 2, 1/2 greyhound 1/2 walker field trial dogs in the box an had his Britney running loose when F&G showed up they asked how he was doing and he told them what was going on, they said they had seen some pretty big dog tracks up the road and my father-in law told them that they were from his gray hounds that he had them out to clean out, at that point they started writing him up for more then one dog per hunter for the 2 gray hounds but not his bird dog when he asked about he bird dog they said that they know that he wouldn't be running a bear, they had not seen the other 2 dogs loose they just used what he said to write the ticket, for $290.00
Moral to the story, they are not your friend or your buddy they will BS with you until you step in it, then start writing you up.
And you can bet they are all over this web site.

[cat and bear]

Well, a warden is a warden, and have a job to do, had several brushes, with them over the years. Seems like we get a new one, get him broke in, and darn, he is transfered or something , got to start all over LOL. One thing we have done is WI, because a lot of the wardens, are from the city or not hound hunters, for the past several years, the bear hunters association, and the DNR, joined together, and all the graduating recruites, ride with a bear hunter for a day to see or understand our sport in a positive fashion. Believe me when i say, I drew a warden graduate, which was involved with me the fall prior in a high altercation, being surrounded by four other wardens, and a big drama show on their part, during our kill season. When I got to the tree, they had my dogs spray painted, to mark them, and trying to get me on to many dogs. When I seen my dogs marked or painted, and them standing there,I was wild, The conversation got real hot, and a very loud debate, for two hours. The debate was a gray area, which depended on the warden that day, and how he read it. Anyway, I was surrounded by wardens in the debate, looked around, and dad left, shoot, standing there by myself, LOL. I asked him why, he left me surrounded, he said, he figured, someone would need to bail me out of jail, but no tickets issued. As I was legal. So I volunteered for take a warden day, at a spring meeting, and dam, wouldnt you know it,20 something recruit graduates, I drew his name, murphys law LOL. Im not sure who was more surprised him or me. Kind of wish we had a photo of either one of our faces, when the name was drawn. The day came to soon, i picked him up that morning and the first thing i asked him is if he left his ticket book in the truck LOL. We went that day, he lighted up, and the long and short, I was asked a year later to pursue a bear for his boy, during kill season, and his son harvested it, it shows, if you swallow a truck load of pride, sometimes it will work out in the end, one either side.

[Benny G]

cat and bear,
Neat story. I have always tried to get along for the most part. I had to change my mind about a DOT officer once. I used to have a fleet of trucks. the DOT and I never did get along (I've been told that I sometimes have a problem with authority). There was a new guy in the area that I had never met, or talked to. Every time he stopped one of my trucks, he would tell the driver to tell Benny..... . Well this didn't go over too well since we had never met, and he seemed to want to make things personal. I went to the office to talk to the leuitenant about this officer's attitude toward me, and who would be the only person in the office that day? Yep, I recognized the guy by his name badge. Things got pretty heated, and we both ended up mad. Move ahead 6 years, and I am at a Walk To Emmaus. Guess who's there also? Yep, Mr I don't want to get along with you DOT guy. Well, needless to say, to this day, we get along just fine. We never know how things will turn out when ALL OF US are willing to just act a little human.

[papa]

I have had pretty good luck with wardens...years ago when I was a whippersnapper, I had one stop me one night while driving around the countryside...he could have thrown the book at me, but he let me slide...something about a loaded gun and blood and hair in the trunk...few years ago here in NM I shot a deer a long way from camp. I was on a private ranch that bordered blm and guys from the blm were crossing the fence like it was'nt there. I had to walk back to camp to get help with my deer, so I did'nt put my tag on it for fear someone would find it and I would lose my deer and my tag. On the way back to camp a game warden came along and offered me a ride. He checked my license and I told him my story as to why I had blood on my hands and still had my tag attached. He said he was supposed to write me a ticket, but he understood the deal. He took me all the way to camp and dropped me off. So, there are some who use common sense and are pretty good folks. I try to play it straight up now days so I don't have to worry about who is watching.