I for one have not, but have seen others get one.

Been alongside guys getting tickets. One had a poorly plugged shotgun. One was a kid who shot a spike elk by mistake.
Probably some others too.

When I was 21 I got a hunting out of season ticket. I was hunting ducks on a small pond on what i thought was the last day of the season and never fired a shot. When walking back to the vehicle we where stopped by a CO. He asked what we were doing and if we had shot anything. Duck season had closed the day before and we were a day late..
If I indeed was trying to shoot ducks out of season I would have lied and said I was rabbit hunting...

I got a speeding ticket one time trying to get to my turkey spot before daylight. Hurrying turned out to be counter productive.

That's it.

Leemar28: I have been Hunting Big Game and Varmints and fishing for 55+ years and have never "gotten a ticket" - hope to continue that streak for about 20 more years.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I got one about 5 years ago for tresspasing,never saw the marker. One of the worse feelings ever.
BBJ

The wrist r I'd when a truly honest mistake turns into something bigger in the end. Never suffered this but feel very badly for those who have.

Just after Labor Day my family was all together for a picnic on our family farm. Most of us were in the swimming pool when it started thundering and raining. We all looked confused and befuddeled because there were no clouds. Turned out it was four city boys hunting our POSTED field where we let the colts run; the thunder was them shooting doves, the rain was their #8 falling in the pool.. My brother got the barn gun (an ancient Iver Johnson single barrel 16 gauge and a handful of #8s that we used to knock down doves for dinner and started to sneak around the barn. I knew his temper and stopped him before it got nasty. I asked my mom to call the local cops who knew us all since we were tiny tykes and took the shotgun and calmly held what turned out to be a local aldertman and his friend the Superior Court Judge at gunpoint. The ticket was for restraining a legally licensed hunter. Still hangs in the den in a cheap frame. It is good for a laugh on Labor Day.

Great Memories!

Terry

Never received a ticket out in the field, but then again i try not to get caught.

Three years ago I received a $40.00 ticket from a Colorado game officer after reporting myself for shooting a "spike" bull, while holding a "cow" tag. He instructed me to gut the animal after viewing the carcass and informed me that I could have received a $3500.00 - $4000.00 ticket if he had caught me with the illegal "kill". This occured from taking a 250 yd. shot across a meadow at first light at what I thought was a cow. Leupold 3x9, not quite enough light gathering as I thought. Boy o Boy did my heart sink that morning,after seeing those antlers, with what had to be the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen in the Rockies. The animal was to be donated to a certain food bank in the Denver area.

bluesman-just cant win sometimes. i had one similar that did not involve hunting. just the guns. the lawyer said they cant file charges against you. but they did and they got out of it.

My friends and I got ticketed for hunting over a baited field once. We didn't do it (we really didn't) and took Johnny Green Pants to court and won the case.

His wife worked for me and I knew him to be crooked as hell from personal experience. I work for USDA, and knew him to go to some of my farmer's grain bins and take out shelled corn, put it in an envelope and call it "exhibit A" when he got to court on cases in the past. And I'll be danged if the crooked ol guy didn't try that same trick on us. I was able to prove, in court, that beyond the shadow of a doubt his evidence was fabricated. Case dismissed.

Life's a circle...what goes around comes around, and he and his wife got what was coming to them eventually. I only know a handful of them that are as honest as they portray themselves to be.

Came closs in Colorado when I shot a large running 5x6 bull with my 375 H&H using 260 gr Partitions. The bull rolled at the shot dead. Seconds later I heard crashing in the brush below. I ran to look and there was a 3x3 bull down with head up so I shot again and ended it. I never saw the second bull running behind the first. There were a total of 12 elk with 5 bulls all around 50 yards away. We gutted them both out, put them in the shade in a snowy area and headed down the mountain to the DoW office. We knew the DoW guy as had met him many times in our camp and in rather remote places as well. A good guy who had steered us to areas he had seen elk. He met with us and advised what the fines, etc., could be but was very pleased we let him know what happened and respected the wildlife. He and a partner each took myself and my hunting partner aside and had us each tell our story separately. Of course we told the same story, the truth, so they were pleased with that. He told us to bring the quarters down the mountain in the next day keeping them together per elk. Late in the evening the next day we called him advising we were down with the elk. He asked us to meet him behind a gas station after dark which we did. He then layed each quarter out as we related the story again to confirm the bullet paths agreed with what we had said. Of course they did. He asked us to load the second one shot, head and quarters onto his truck. He advised he knew a needy family in town that would enjoy the meat. He closed with something along the lines of, "Now don't ever do something so irresponsible again. You are experienced hunters I know, so demonstrate it". Done.

Tony,

Stories like that are what I wish we heard more often. Unfortunately, it seems many G&F officers are anxious to hand out tickets instead of realizing even the more responsible hunters are human and can and will make mistakes. It takes a real man to not only admit when they were/are wrong, but to go to the law office and turn themselves in. I think if more people did that, seeing stories like yours would be more common.

That G&F officer showed class in not only letting you off the hook, but donating the meat to a needy family act. Class act, that guy is!

Only got one ticket in the last 40 years because I trusted my buddy and his dad.

It was in the early 80's and we were hunting deer in Wyoming. Even though I wanted to pin down where we were hunting exactly and get the topo map they convinced me it was unecessary. Turns out we were all hunting in the wrong unit but I was the only one that got caught. Luckily I hadn't killed a deer but I learned the hard way that non-resident fines have to be paid in cash ($100). Learned my lesson and since then I make sure I get my maps squared away.

No convictions.

I took a rag bull down very deep in a canyon the day before I had to leave to go back to work. The next morning me and my buddies packed the quarters and straps out in 3 trips. 1400 vertical feet each pack. The only thing left was the antlers to get, but it was getting late. At the end of the third trip, we got stopped as we crested by a GW and he checked the license and tag. I showed him a time-stamped picture of the bull on my camera and told him I was running really late and was worried about losing my job if I didn't get back. He said I had to take him to the kill site to show him the rack. I was too fatigued to go back down into the canyon. He gave me a choice. Take him to the rack, or he'd write me a ticket. How much? $75 bucks. Done!

He met us back at our camp, wrote me the ticket, and then... seized the meat. I was torqued. He never said THAT was part of the deal. They took it to the county jail. Bastard.

Never got one wile hunting. Don't hunt wiles.

No tickets ever. I am very careful to avoid getting into those situations. Preparation goes a long way, hunting with the right people goes a long way and knowing the law goes a long way!

The part in bold is the truth. One of my hunting buddies has a friend that tries to come along with us sometimes. I always say no because I know that that guy is trouble.

Same here but luckily the officer was a hunter and let me go with a warning

Damn near did, came out of the woods early one evening, had to catch a flight later that night and was standing beside my pickup along a county dirt road, was waitin' for my bud to come out of the woods so we could leave.

Loaded rifle leaning against the tire while I was loading my pack and climber in the truck bed, low and behold a GW pulled up and ask if that rifle was loaded, I said yes sir it is, he says, you road hunting? I said no sir, he said you mean to tell me if a buck stepped out down there on that road and I wasnt here you wouldnt shoot?

I said yes sir i would, he said that just "EXACTLY" what I was hoping you'd say , now get that rifle unloaded and put up, yes sir i said with a smile, and he drove on.

Gunner

Got a ticket one time for shooting a buck on "posted" land. I never saw a single sign, the GW and the rancher were very friendly and my map showed it as BLM land, not private. Sure was not happy about it and the judge cut me a lot of slack when we talked so nothing came of it but still wasn't right.

You left out part of the story - did the trespassers get tickets?

Jim

Have got no tickets, but have got harassed by a short, little and full of himself 'little man with big man complex' fish game officer who was just being himself while I was leaving a stand past dark one night. The ignat was just bound and determined to prove or find ANYTHING that I was in the wrong with. He could not find a darned thing.

Have got some heat and then an argument from a buddies renter of a house once because I had permmision to hunt the 80 acre property and the the person knew it. The dumb shmuck told my buddy thinking he was in the right. the rumor was The rent went threw the roof or the dumb [bleep] got evicted. I Never did ask to find out.

just speeding tickets on the way there!

Came close once. Killed two deer in Colorado, about 3-4 miles south of the WY border, then ran them to the processor in Baggs, which is just a couple miles inside Wyoming.

As I drove into Baggs a police car was parked in the middle of the road, lights flashing. I stopped and was directed to pull into a usually empty lot that was now swarming with Colorado DOW officers who were checking out everyone that drove through town in a truck.

The DOW didn't bother me as I'd done everything right - signed and detached the carcass tags on the kill then attached them to the carc... oops..

It was a hot day and in my haste to get the deer to the processor I forgot to tag the carcasses before transporting them in the truck. When I pulled into the inspection area I immediately told the officers about my mistake and showed them the signed and detached tags, which were still in my pocket. I had to explain the situation a couple times but I guess they were looking for bigger violations. They made me tag the carcasses before driving the remaining 3 or so blocks to the processor. At the processor another DOW officer checked me out and I got stopped by two more officers as I left town.

2012 will be my 31st year elk hunting and while I�ve often talked to officers and had to show my licenses, I�ve never seen so many DOW officers in one location before.

I got busted for fishing stream trout prior to the season.

It was opening day in about 1985 and me and my buddy hit the water about 8 AM. Trouble was, the season didn't start until 10 AM.(dumb rule) It was hidden in the regs somewhere but we just assumed it opened at sunrise. We were young and stupid.

I guess the moral of the story is to never assume. I think it cost us about $30 bucks each. lol

I've never gotten a ticket while hunting or fishing, but one incident really has stuck with me. I was stopped at a game check by a GW who tried to shake me down everyway he could imagine. I had moved back to MT from CO and was renting from my brother. He was convinced I was in state illegally (hunting as a resident). He lied and accused me of everything short of raping his sister. He made up a story that he remembered writing me a ticket I didn't pay, so he ran my info. Then he lied and said I had "quite a record", trying to get info from me. Of course there was none. I told him when he was done with his "investigation" as he promised would occur, he knew where to find me for the apology he owed me. Never heard from him again. Brian G-something was his name, still look for him at game checks. I've never trusted them since.

Had a F&G officer bound and determined to find something while duck hunting the Malheur National Wildlife refuge years back. He tried to play dumb on limits on pintails and the such hoping my brother or I would say something incriminating. He got real serious when he asked to check our plugged guns and I told him my gun didn't have a plug...I could see I was making his day right there. That quickly changed when I pulled an old SxS out of the case..oops. Then the magnet came out to check the shells with a little excitement following...he was a little suspicious of my bismuth loads. I asked if I would get reimbursed if he had to cut open a shell...he didn't see the humor in that. Hey, I was a college student and money was tight.

Back in high school, one typically wet fall morning up in Yakutat, Alaska two buddies and myself went out for a duck hunt. At the end of our hunt we were loading back up into an old jeep of one of the other boy's father. The one and only State Trooper in thousands of square miles drives up on us and proceeded to question our activities. We all knew each other as everyone did and he was known to be a fair and honest man. All being in good humor we explained we were just out for some ducks which of course prompted him to ask to see our hunting licenses. Well, being the brainiacs we were, we knew we had him beat. In unison we spoke up declaring we didn't need no hunting licenses beings we're all under 16! Well, he promptly asked who was driving then, pointing at the jeep? Up went two fingers toward the other, "he did!" Wrote him up a minor ticket for illegal use of an off-highway vehicle or some such deal. Our buddy took it pretty hard as he was a good boy. We should'a just stuck to our three-wheelers, that'd been ok. We could ride them everywhere, except the three mile stretch of pavement between town and the airport, but full size rigs were a nogo, and we had known that all along as he certainly did... He let us drive home, just said to be extra careful. Pretty sure it was another duck free morning - we all had 3" mag 12 gauges with full choked barrels loaded with no. 2s or 4s and we usually set up no more than about 10 yards from where the teal would scream past flying low at Mach II over a little salt water slough... Damm those were good times, wish we'd had some mentoring in the field as we were usually more hell on wheels than hunting...