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We rented to game cop, never again.

My cousin killed a big hog one evening and we decided to take it home to weigh it since we thought it would go over 200lbs. Roughly 4 1/2 ft long nose to base of the tail, weighed 148 on my cheap scales. Have it hanging behind my house taking pictures when a truck pulls in with 3 game wardens in it.

They say "We saw ya'll had something hanging and thought it might be a big buck".
Nope just a big hog. They asked who killed it and we chatted for a few minutes. I asked them if they wanted it, said no. I told him you must know someone needy who will take it? He says yeah but they all want it already cleaned and cut up.
Well, you can teach them. They decided they had business somewhere else and left. Saw that truck pass by my house a couple of times over the next week or 2.

One game Warden experience I will always remember, Moose Styer, and me were going Elk hunting on Yellow creek, East of Meeker, Colo. we stopped in town at the Meeker Cafe, for breakfast they opened at 5:00 AM my mother owned the Meeker Cafe, while we were eating Mom came over to our Booth and very quietly said I have a Cow Tag if you see a nice dry Cow Shoot her for me. OK
We were driving my 1952 Willy's Jeep, up Yellow creek road we went about 1/2 hr after day light we spotted a group of Elk just off the road that looked like they were going to cross in front of us about 200 yrds, no big bulls but a couple of rag horned young bulls and about 8-10 Cows, Moose, was hunting meat not bone, he gets out and shoots a Bull DRT, every thing crosses in front of us, we drive up to about 5 yrds from the Bull and tie a rope to him and drag him to the edge of the road and gut him out, we put our rope pulley on the roll bar and pulled him up and got him loaded in the Jeep, We are headed back to town, we didn't go very far and and Moose hits me and say's there a nice Cow! she's about 40 yrds away looking at us, I got out real slow and knelt down and shot her right between the eyes, with my 30-06, we pulled her off the road and gutted her out and hung her in a tree with my pulley, and went to town, and put Moose's, Bull in the walk in cooler at the Meeker Cafe, by then it was lunch time and the Meeker Cafe was packed with people, I told Mom I had her Cow she said come get me about 2:30 when things slow down and I will go with you to get her and Tag her.
We picked up Mom, She was wearing a dress and her grey wool coat with a grey fox collar and loafers, we didn't have camo back then, we go up Yellow Creek and load Moms Cow and head back to town, When we get to the junction of the county road and HWY 13 there sits 2 Game Wardens,we knew both of them, they ate at Moms almost every day during hunting season, we had to stop as they were checking hunters, they looked over the Cow and checked Moms license, The Warden say's to Mom, how far away was this Cow when you shot her? Mom say's about 150 yrds!! the Warden say's that was a hell of a good shot right between the eye's, Mom Say's I always shoot them between the eye's saves meat, they knew she was lying, but let us go on, don't think i ever held my breath that long again.Rio7

Most of my interactions with them have been good. Wyoming wardens have been the most pleasant to interact with. Seemed like they wanted to help you fill a tag, would even tell you who to go see about permission to hunt antelope.


One prick of a federal warden in Louisiana tried his best to find a reason to write us a ticket for baiting doves. Was hunting a crawfish farm and he and the 2 state wardens had walked all over that 240 acres trying to find bait, didn't.

In 1965 there was a special teal season in Ks. I was 14 and shot two ducks that I “thought were teal” Actually killed both with one shot.
Later in the morning I was driving on a country road and saw a parked truck ahead of me. A man flagged me down and asked if I had any luck. I showed him my ducks and he told me they were not teal. He took the ducks but did not issue a ticket. I never told my parents.
A week later my parents get a call that I had a court date. They were not happy.
Dad and I showed up at the judges office, who my dad knew real well, small town America. My two ducks were frozen and laying on the table between the warden, I and the judge. I was fined court costs ($25) and that was the end.

In Wyoming Antelope hunting 15 years ago, local rancher is in the truck with us to show us some more property that we can hunt. Happen to look in the rearview mirror, warden behind me with his lights on. I stop, rancher gets out and says I'll take care of this. I got out to see what was up. Warden says I'm looking for a truck like yours, when I saw the Louisiana plates I knew it wasn't who I was looking far but, I already had my lights on. Asked if we had our tags and conservation stamps, told him yes, you want to see them, no. Told us to kill a bunch and we all left.

The next week I had just left my truck to head across a pasture to shoot a doe antelope, looked back same game warden pulls up behind my truck. I go back and he tells me you didn't need to come back I just wanted to see if you where going to get one. I go back and shoot one doe and missed another one. I go walk over to the doe and here comes my buddy in my truck with the game warden in the passenger seat. I told the game warden don't move the doe since I haven't punched my tag yet and go off to look for sign on the other one. Come back a few minutes later and the game warden had helped my buddy gut the doe and had it loaded in the truck. I punched my tag and we dropped him off at his truck.

Wut???

If they are anything like the Amish up here its understandable. They are all about "if it's brown it's down". lol

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About 6 of them swarmed our Dove field. Came in from 2 or 3 different directions. Some had been hiding in the bushes for hours.

The main force was checking my bud, the land owner when buds cellphone rang. The warden said that's one of your buddies telling you the game wardens are here.

My bud calmly said; I got that call 20 or 30 minutes ago. This was my wife wanting to know what temp to set the grill.


Or... an extended cab pickup from the state pulled up. The doors opened & the wardens just kept pouring out. A bystander, with a stutter, & a good buzz asked: we..well ho...how mmmmany yayayyyou sssunuufabbbitches ggonna gggeettt out uuuf tthat trtrtruck?

You just had to be there on that one. (damnit, I'll laugh at that memory the rest of the night)

I haven't seen a Frog Marshall where we hunt for years.

Some friends of mine that have a big duck lease up in the McKenzie bottom were all set up opening morning two years ago, Eddie, the oldest guy in the group who happened to be the OSHA Safety guy for our construction company had a need to hit the bucket in the boat just at daylight. He was positioned outside the blind doing his job when he looks up and there is a kayak with a black guy in it paddling through the deeks behind the blind. Eddie hollers out, "Hot damn boys lookie here, there's a n***** in the decoys!" Was a Federal GW who had paddled all the way from the river across the back water to sneak up on them, had to check all the guns for plugs, license and such and magnet the shells...I am sure it was a good thing that there were no violations after that announcement...

When my wife and I were dating, we decided to go fishing one morning, and I didn't have a license. She said that was alright, come on and lets go fishing. She was in 1 pirogue and I was in another, fishing down the bayou. We rounded a curve and I saw a john boat up ahead with one fellow fishing, but he had his back to us. As we fished on down and got closer to the fellow, I realized it was a game warden. Oh heck, I'm in for it now. I paddled over to my future wife and quietly reminded her that I didn't have a license, and she said out loud, "Yeah, I forgot you dont have a license". Well, when the game warden heard that, he turned around and motioned for us to come over to his boat. Wasn't any need to try and run, he had a motor and I didn't. So we paddled over and when we got right next to him, my 'date' said, " Dad, I want to introduce you to Randy".

Yeah, I married the game warden's daughter.

Doe I wacked this morning is going to be a little expensive .
Around 8:30 or so a plump doe came into the clearing
along with a couple other does and a spike .
Early season only allows for does .
Only about 25yds so I took the head with a Ruger Ranch 300 aac loaded with 125gr sst .
Heading home , cruise control set , deer in rear carrier on SUV , mind on the work that laid ahead and getting up to a painting job wife picked up to help her .
Been through this school zone god knows how many times .
Tuned out and suddenly the blues flashing , realizing where I was brought reality to mind when I flipped on my signal .
55 in a 45 , walks up and asks if I been hunting , Rifke on the seat , air was nippy this morning, so had on long sleeved camo jacket .
Yes sir
Get anything ?
I’m thinking , WTH ? You just walked right buy it , but politely answered , yes sir .
What did you get ?
Answer , Doe
Hey it’s freezer meat he says
Answer , yes it is .
Goes back to car for good while and brings me the ticket .Dam it .
As I was going home , rehashing the event .
Smiled and thought , ok , get this sucker checked in , he may have drove off reporting to game warden and didn’t need it to get more expensive from neglect.
Kenneth

Female Frog Marshall...only one in California I think at the time...2 friends and I finished a duck hunt near the Salton Sea in Southern California. I emptied the 2 barrels on my black powder SXS Navy arms 12 gauge, by firing it. Continued gathering up our belongings and were just about done picking up decoys, yep in vinyl stocking foot waders and tennis shoes. When she comes tearing up in her dark green official FISH POLICE CA F&G truck and scrambles out. All breathless she wants to know "Who fired those last 2 shots?" Buddies look at me, like swiveling to keep up with a tennis ball...and I reply "That was me, what of it?" She flips the cover on her ticket book and says "Well at least you were honest about it." "Why would I lie" I ask. She asks for my California Drivers License, and I ask what for...she says she's writing me a ticket for shooting after legal shooting time. I reply no you aren't writing me a ticket for unloading my gun, you would write me a ticket for a loaded weapon in a vehicle if I didn't unload it. She replies you don't have to shoot a gun to unload...and I answer her back, "Ah, yes actually you do...only way to unload a muzzleloader" Next thing she is on the radio to her boss, asking if she should cite me anyway, I can't prove that it was the muzzleloader that was fired...boss tells her, verify licenses and stamps, check birds bagged and leave us alone...saw her several other times and always stirred the pot...she was pretty worthless except manning a check station...heard her asking her boss once..."What is the limit on Western Grebes anyways? I just checked 2 guys through with 10 in possession."

Went fishing down in laguna, the mouth of Baffin bay back in 91 with a guy I worked with "Luke Bronson" the other guy his buddy had a floating cabin down there. We fished 9-mile hole that day and caught some nice specs and reds, later that evening we kicked on the generator to run the lights so we could fish under them during the night. Luke around 3 in the morning slid off the side of the cabin and started wading off must of that water was only 3-4 ft deep, he said he'd be back in a while, I figured he was going to take a chit or something so I and his other buddy go inside and crash out. I woke up at daybreak with Luke laughing his ass off, He's telling us to come outside and handed us the binoculars and pointed to the game wardens cabin about 3/4 of a mile to the west. We take a look and the wardens are out there walking back and forth on the pier and all three boats are sunk with only the T-tops and tops of the motors sticking out of the water.
That f-cker had waded over there and pulled the plugs on their boats. He did end up getting locked up later for other crazy chit.

Before I married, 2 friends and myself duck hunted all over N. La., from the Red River to the Miss. River. We had the fever, baaaad. Any way, we were hunting the 'honey hole' south of the Fort Necessity Bridge, on the Beouf River. You put in at the bridge, motored down several miles, then up a creek, and a right at the 'Y'. Best place to hunt after the morning feeding. Some hunters would hunt the shallow water, which was early shooting.

Anyway, back then La. was on the point system. Every bird was given a number of points and the first bird that put you at 100 pts or over, meant you were thru for the day. For example, Mallard hen was 90 pts and a teal was 10 pts. If you killed the mallard hen first and the teal last, you were thru for the day. But if you killed 9 teal and then the mallard hen, that was legal.
'Stacking the limit' is when you shoot ducks for a while then figure out who shot what duck, in what order, to get the most ducks.

We had stacked the limit and were motoring out, when we met a friend coming back down the river, and he flagged us down. This friend hunted the shallow water and had stacked his limit earlier in the morning. When he had got back to the landing, that's where you always got checked, a new young game warden had asked what order he killed his ducks in, and he told him the order for the stacked limit. Then the young game warden pulled out a thermometer and stuck it up each ducks azz and told my friend the order they were shot in..... and wrote him a ticket for over the limit.

We set there in the middle of the Beouf River for a minute and then I remembered the law was you had to keep a feathered head and wing while transporting ducks. We gutted our ducks and threw them in the river to cool them off. Motored up to the landing and was met by the young game warden. The older GW was standing up the at the trucks, 50 yds away. Young GW was polite and asked could he check our boat and we said yes. He checked 1 gun to make sure it wouldn't hold more than 3 shells and then made the comment that we had an lots of ducks. Now each of us had tied 'his' limit with string around the necks in a bundle and knew what order 'his' limit was killed. GW pulled out the thermometer and flopped a duck on its back to insert the thermometer in the azz.... only there wasn't an azz. He looked up and asked my friend why he gutted the duck and my friend said he always did it. GW says you cant do that and my friend was waiting for him. He took out the hunting pamphlet and read 'word for word' what you had to leave on the bird for transporting them. While he was reading to the young GW, I walked up to get the truck and you could see the older GW silently laughing his azz off, behind the truck. After he caught his breath, he told me that we had 'made his day'.

There’s a special something about the ones in Utah. Fuggers are always trying to get you with something. Was fly fishing once and on the way out we walked through an unoccupied camp. There was some trash about so we picked up what we could until our hands were full. Fish cops pull up and try to give us a ticket for littering because it’s obvious we made that mess and didn’t pick it all up. 🙄

Another time was helping a buddy fill his deer tag. Found him a really nice 4x4 muley so he blasts it right through the heart. Well, it goes about 100 yards on adrenaline and drops. I have him walk me over to where it fell and find it just across and ancient fallen down field fence. Fish cops were around the bend and heard the shot and come flying up the road in their brand-new Hunter license fees provided F350 and start giving us hell. The deer died just inside unmarked private property that they magically know about. I walk them back to where the deer was shot - show him the blood trail on public land and they start in on how I must have shot it, gonna test me for gunpowder residue, etc. I got pissed and told em to go right ahead if they’re that stupid. They write us up for trespassing and then confiscate the deer too. I asked then WTH were we supposed to do? Deer was shot on public land but died on private with no delineation - required by law - and no contact information for the land owner. (Later we found out he KNEW the landowner) Response? You could have left it but then we would have charged you with felony wasting of game. We both fought it in court and won, cost us $5k in attorneys fees though. By then the deer was long gone and DWR wouldn’t grant my friend another tag so they still screwed us.

Was out hunting doves with my buddy on HIS property when the F&G shows up. My friend is about 200 yards away so this guy wants to see my landowner signed written permission form for me to be hunting there. My friend comes over and sets him straight and then tells the fish cop if there’s no violations, to get the hell out of here.

Some friends of mine were up elk hunting. They apparently didn’t have certified weed-free hay for the horses so here’s your ticket. Yeah, they probably deserved that one. On the way out though the fish cops somehow managed to get their truck stuck so they’re flagging my friends down to come pull them out. They handed them a shovel and told them ‘good luck’.

Then you have the checkerboard public private sections of land in Wyoming that they’ll nail for trespassing, even if you diligently step across the section corners without touching private land in an attempt to keep you off of them.

I don’t have any use for poachers and such. I honestly want to support F&G but many of them around here are just overzealous aholes! It’s all about revenue generation. An attorney friend of mine told me Utah DNR spends more on average prosecuting poachers than the DA does on the average murder case.

My friends uncle and us were out hunting early muzzleloader. We didn't see anything and on the way home with about 10 minutes of shooting light left we see a monster buck at the edge of a field we quickly jumped out the side opposite the deer and began to prime the muzzleloader. My friends uncle said you might want to make sure it's a real deer before we shoot. Looking at it through binoculars we couldn't tell looked real to us. So then it put its head down to feed we started inching towards it. We got within 20 yards still couldn't tell. We walked right up to it sure as hell was a fake deer. My friend was just in the process of jumping on its back when I looked back at the truck and there was a dozen officers motioning for us to come back. They were angry as hell with us because we scared off a guy that was about to shoot it. Coat me 300 in court fees because there was a old faded no trespassing sign we didn't see.


Another time my older brother who has the mentality of a 12 yr old was out fishing at the lake we were camping at. Encon walks up to him and says any luck? My brother says yeah I caught a huge bass opens up his tackle box to show him and he says not big enough. Releases the fish and gives him a ticket. Anyone could clearly see my brother wasn't all there but this guy is famous for being a local a$$hole

Standing on the river bank fishing one evening when a young chick game warden came paddling up. She noses her canoe into the bank and stood up.
Her boat scooted out from under her and she hit the drink.
I jumped to help her up and she barked. 'Don't touch me. I'll be fine'

I backed away and she stood up in knee deep water, took one step toward shore when her self inflating life vest went off scaring the crap out of her and she fell over backwards into the water.

This time I got her by the arm and helped her up.

I asked if she was OK, she said 'not really, I was going to check your fishing license but I'm just going to leave'.

I made it all the way through that without laughing, it wasn't easy.