What's been your experience with Game Wardens???

my personal experience with game wardens has all been good .. state troopers need to take lessons from the wardens I have encountered .. I suppose I will find my bad warden someday .. you know .. the bad apple that gives them all a bad name ..
I drove tractor trailer o.t.r. for over 20 years and worked the safety department in a large trucking company for many more years after I quit driving .. my experience with state troopers and d.o.t. officers has not been good .. I have dealt with many more bad officers than good and a few of them were totally corrupt dishonest and would illegally write fines and place drivers or equipment out of service all for those almighty dollars for the state .. those officers have to make that monthly quota you know !
over the years I can proudly say that all the officers that wrote me illegal fines mistreated me illegally etc. were beaten in court ! don't ever be afraid to fight them in court if they are wrong and you can prove they are wrong .. bob ........
 


I live in Ohio and I am 70 years old.
I have never been checked hunting.
About 6 years ago I was fishing, when the G W check a group of Mexicans next to me.
He wrote tickets for 45 minutes. He walk over to me and Dan and said "I hope you two have licenses" LOL
 
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Figure you will get treated like you treat them. Even had a Warden hand me his pen when It dawned on me I forgot to sign my duck stamp, he could of keep it to write the ticket.
 
Not many encounters but one time in particular, he had the impression that we were guilty of something but couldn't find anything right then and there to get us for. Couple other times was the regular license check and moved on. I have never given any attitude towards any of them. Always yes sir/no sir and totally polite. I have a lot of respect for any and all law enforcement. They are all pretty underpaid and I wouldn't be interested in doing what they do for what they make. Everyone has to make a living and some really take it seriously. America would be in better shape if everyone tried to do there job to the best of their ability instead of as little as possible to get by. (Lots of hard workers but enough slugs to make it hard on numerous others.)
 
In the late 60's, I was remodeling my parents house. My Uncle came by wanting to go crappie fishing. So I said ok just for a little while. On the way to the lake I realized I hadn't bought my license yet for the new year. It was bout 45 degrees that day and we figured no GW would be out. Wrong. Bout 30 minutes into fishing, a boat came from 1/2 mile away, and made a beeee line straight for the small cove we were in. The GW boat pulled up to us and asked for license. Not good. Back then the fine was $25. At the time hunting license was $3.15 and fishing was $2.15 Ten years worth of license. Lesson learned. I do taxidermy and some of my closest friends and nicest people are Game Wardens.
 
In several counties in Mn the CO's are spending a good portion of duty hours on meth/opiate surveillance operations. Parks and recreation areas have been used for drug dealing and sheriff's have needed help with the rural areas(not sure why regular LE needs help). I have wondered what affect this will have on sportsman/CO interactions.
 
Originally Posted By: spotstalkshootIn several counties in Mn the CO's are spending a good portion of duty hours on meth/opiate surveillance operations. Parks and recreation areas have been used for drug dealing and sheriff's have needed help with the rural areas(not sure why regular LE needs help). I have wondered what affect this will have on sportsman/CO interactions.

If I were a sportsman using the area I'd be happy someone was patrolling around there. Kinda nice to know your truck is going to be there at the end of the day and/or it hasn't been broken into so some doper can sell your stuff for a $20 fix. A Conservation Officer worth his salt should be able to tell the good guys from the bad guys and be happy to interact with legitimate sportsmen using the area. Again, if the CO is any good he knows every legit sportsman out there is another set of eyes to help keep the area safe from bad dudes. It's all good...
 
In our part of the state here in Pa we have a woman Game Warden. I’ve talked to her several times and she seems nice enough but don’t ever meet up with her driving down these narrow mountain roads she’ll run you off the road!! That has happened to me twice and I yelled at her twice lol
 
Some are very nice here in Indiana, and others act like you’ve done something wrong and they are trying to bust you. I even had one approach the farmer I had permission to hunt from after he found out who it was from me. And asked him if he could hunt the same property. Owner said no he had someone hunting. Thought that was kinda crappy. But most I have met in Arizona have been real nice.
 
I've never met one hunting but several times when fishing and they have been nothing but nice, even suggesting different bait for that particular spot.

Last year i was checked 3 times in a week and a half, and thought it odd, until the 3rd time when he was just starting his "hi there, how's the fish.... Oh it's you,enjoy the day"and started to walk away

I realized then that I had just moved to the area and they didn't know me from a distance so they checked. He and I are now on a 1st name basis.

What also helps is my wife is a volunteer for avaian haven in Freedom, Maine. he has called us 3 times with an injured bird needing rehab. 1 owl, 1 coopers hawk and a nighthawk.
Kind of neat getting up close and feeding a raptor.
 
Seems most I run into are arrogant aholes who think their job is to strutt around harassing law abiding people such as myself. I have run into a couple nice one but the former seem to be the majority.
 
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Ive always wondered why they run thru the woods in season, esp deer season, w/ camouflage?? Everyone else is req to have orange, by law and common sense. I guess they dont want to give themselves away, but might get shot??
 
Locally I have ran into the same DNR officer on separate run ins, hunting he was cool and laid back, on our dirt bikes he was not so cool.
 
Good and bad here. The laws are made with very gray areas and loop holes so technically you can be in the right and wrong at the same time. Minnesota laws are terrible for this. I've ask 1 warden and he says not legal and the next says totally fine. We've had 1 warden fired because she was so unprofessional and was harassing sportsman. The way to cure the bad ones is to file A harassment report with their chief. This usually changes their attitude because they like their 80k job and free truck. I had to do this to a police officer and I never had a problem again with him. If I was to break the law and was caught I would say they did their jobs which doesn't mean being a bad officer. Even if they issue tickets they must be professional. Anything less is unexceptionable being they technically work for us and we pay their salary.
 
My experience only extends to Michigan DNR. And our great state is widely know for our corrupt and large number of ill informed conservation officers. I have many stories I could tell. Some are mine, some are family stories, and some are stories of friends. Even a couple of local CO’s wrote a book about how terrible the Michigan DNR is as a whole. It’s really a shame. Our state funnels an unreal amount of money to conservation and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it. I just wish a little bit of that money went into measures that ensure officers are correctly enforcing real law and went into a little more classroom time for the officers that are…well…a bit on the caveman side mentally.
It’s truly sad. Many of the outdoorsman in my state who are upstanding hunters have been horribly harassed by our CO’s and there is very little a fellow can do about it. Pretty hard to complain to the people who did you wrong and expect something good to come of it. Oh well. Hunt within the law, obey the rules set for your recreational activity, and keep your head down because sooner or later one of our CO’s will make an example out of you for whatever he feels is law.
God says to obey the laws of the land and give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. And that’s what I intend to do.
 
In 58 years of hunting I have had only a handful of interactions with Wardens, all except one were routine and friendly, and the only tense one was a misunderstanding that turned out ok. While scouting for the up coming bear season I found a bait site, illegal here. I reported it, gave my name, truck tags, and said I would move over the hill. Second day walking in two wardens with guns drawn jumped out yelling "hands up". After identifying myself, that I reported it, it seems there was more than one pile of oats and dog food and they sat that one the second day, and I was walking near it unknowingly. I moved a mile away after that. I've been a hunter ed volunteer instructor for the past six years and we try to have a CO to address every class and answer questions and it goes very well.The takeaway is, don't lie, don't have an attitude, and don't try to bend the grey areas. Also just because you don't see them doesn't mean they didn't watch you. A Vermont CO that checked me on my boat on the lake told me exactly where I fished on a local river, and that I only kept a couple trout. Seems the F&G office was just up the road from my spot as he drove by.
 
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