It’s really nasty outside today, snow and wind so I’m watching the TV and stoking the wood stove. It seems they have a TV show about game wardens in Maine called Northwoods Law.. I wonder how real it is?

I’ve only seen a very few shows but every episode seems to have a grow op and some dope smokers.

Today’s show had something so stupid I could hardly believe it. It seems a deer had jumped thru a glass window of a small store on Main Street in some small town. Deer is cut up pretty bad from broken glass and might have a broken leg also— not that unusual I guess. The game wardens on scene made the decision to euthanize the poor doe. A couple of them tackle the deer and then another one brings in a .22 caliber rifle with a big ole scope on it. They check the basement to make sure if the bullet goes thru the floor that it won’t hit any gas lines or some such and then they proceed to shoot the deer. Inside the store!

I’ve met several people from Maine—none of them struck me as being that stupid.

I think that is what they call, "reality TV", Karl, nothing real about it.

Other than Marty Staufers Wild America. I can't stand ANY of the outdoor shows.

It's not just Main.....somewhere along the way Fish Cops became commandos and BLM cops became Special Ops.

LOL! and very true.

Sadly, while there are genuine strands of truth in some of these shows, you almost have to be a local to separate the real from the contrived.

Having never been to Maine, I thought it would be a great way to view their countryside. A couple shows was all I could take. The number of Barney Fifes, Dudly Dorights, & Bunny Ninjas was too much for me. Good gosh, I though squat was gonna get called in over a fish hook having an extra barb.

The warden hunting moose was somewhat entertaining,
Crossbolt safety saved one bull LOL.

Have seen quite a few episodes (what else is on at 2 am?)

Not impressed with the local brain power.
Can't be overly critical............ have a lot of dipsticks down here (midwest).

Not just there sport, the halfwits are walking around here with pistols and attitude strapped to them...in a country where no one carries the idiot fisheries twits feel the need to stand in front of you with their hand on their pistol.


I swear they get off on it.

fixt it. every one i have interacted with could barely tie their boot laces.

That would explain all the velcro on their "battle gear".

The commentator is what made me quit watching. He was rooting for the Possum Cops to find something, ANYTHING, they could write a ticket for. He does it every episode, too. The Possum PoPo there in Maine are about as bad as you'd think anyone could get.

The west coast version "Rugged Justice" is almost as bad. I can't watch that one, either.

So far, the Texas version isn't too bad, the cops try to do the right thing, at least in the early episodes. I kinda like that one. I won't watch the coastal versions any more, though.

I have seen a couple of the Maine episodes. I do feel sorry for the guys that have to work anything east of the Rockies. There are a ton of people back there and a lot seem to be real scissor bills.. Could be a heavy bias toward some of the colorful characters, as it's probably not interesting or good TV to view checks on normal law abiding citizens. Seems about 1/2 of their encounters don't even pack ID with them.

Do that many of us really go afield with no wallet and habitually leave our licenses and tags at home on the fridge? I hope for their sake that we're not viewing anything close to reality. If so, I'd not last a month in their shoes.

Our guys can go afield and maybe not see a person for a couple days. We do have way more square miles than people though.

Also, here in Oregon our wardens are actually well vetted and trained State Police, and they put out a monthly news letter that makes for some interesting reading.

Oregon Fish and Game Officers Newsletter

I know Warden Georgia from some of the earlier episodes was a putz in high school.

Old Town High School class of 1981.
Just saying.......

The Maine and New Hampshire warden shows were pretty much what one would expect from Yankee states. On the other hand, the Texas show isn't bad. However, like any reality show, it's scripted beyond belief.

I had a dream that I was on Naked and Afraid with Candace Swanepool. We didn't win anything, but it sure was fun trying to stay warm at night.

Agreed....seems like most of the nations Fish Cops are looking for everything BUT game infractions but the Texicans have the illegals to deal with too...and not by choice so I'm not so critical of their over reach.

I live in New England so have probably seen more of the Maine shows (and now NH on North Woods Law) than the Texas and Montana shows. However, I don't notice a lot of differences in the shows from one state to another. It seems like the jerks are pretty well spread out across the country. Occasionally, there are very interesting episodes. NWL a few years ago showed the springtime efforts to recover the bodies of some snowmobilers who went through the ice a couple months earlier. It was interesting and very respectfully done.

They probably film dozens or hundreds of perfectly legal checks -- have license, legal gear, legal limit, etc. But why show that? Nobody would tune in twice. But show a parade of goofuses breaking the law with a portent of danger added in and...big audience. Which equals big advertising bucks.

Probably takes a year of filming to get a few hours worth of show and I sometimes wonder how much is scripted. They breakup each encounter into multiple segments with ads in between.

I always liked Northwoods Law. I used to get up there quite a bit and it all brings back good memories.

I watched 1 episode of this show. One of the calls a warden responded to was to help an archery deer hunter who had wounded a deer and couldn't find it. If I remember correctly, the hunter called the warden because the deer may have gone onto private land he didn't have access to. Whatever the case was isn't what struck me as ludicrous. No, what was ludicrous was the warden chastising the archer for shooting the deer at close range because as he went on to explain, the arrow was going too slow at close range for maximum lethality. He explained that the arrow wouldn't reach top speed until it was out to the 15-20 yard mark. What a fugging moron.

I remember when Marty got drug through the coals for staking rabbits out and filming staged predator kills over them. The greenies like to have went nuts over it....

Remember-- it is all scripted for TV-- LIKE ALL "REALITY " TV SHOWS

I watched a few episodes of the Fish cops in NH. I seriously hope the GW's up there do not behave in that fashion.

After watching the Maine version of Northwoods Law, I came to the conclusion that every deer hunter in Maine was guilty of baiting, and that all moose hunters were law breakers.

Most who live here dont watch that crap !!!! and i know a few of the wardens on there,the TV producers are always trying to get them to make up schitt for the shows!!!

One of the benefits of cutting the cord is that I'm never tempted to watch "reality" anything, while perusing 260 channels of "nothing to watch".

As a Moose hunter that is really how you're treated. For my one Bull I shot the NH Wardens showed up before I even got up to my Moose. They heard the shots. They wanted to know where my empty cases were and if I shot more than one Moose. Then while I tagged and gutted it they searched the area to see if they could find multiple blood trails. What they didn't do was offer to help load it.

I understand it is scripted—but—how could any legitimate conservation officer be party to shooting a deer inside a store?

I used to watch Nakid and Afraid until they had an episode where the location was the bush around Elliot Lake, Ontario, that’s in the Boreal forest. The girl brought a decent looking kiri knife and the guy brought some parachute cord—no fire starter. Guy claimed he could start a fire anywhere. Took him 4 days. I know that is complete BS.

Nobody could survive 4 nights in the Boreal without fire—not nakid anyway.

I hate to tell you this but Marty filmed in fenced enclosures a lot. Watch for it in the one with the cougar and the bighorn sheep.

Yep, I remember that episode. LOL

Stauffer was the King of creating phoney scenes.

I've seen the NWL a few times and if the Maine game department is anything remotely like the TV show, I'd feel sorry for anybody that tries to hunt or fish in a Nazi-run state like that.

Pert near alla them realty shows are reeealy stuuuupid

He was also heavily fined for building a cabin on public land and for cutting down trees on public land for better filming access.

Shots???? Obviously you weren't using a Creed.....

Yeah, I tend to shoot my moose twice, once in the back of the head when I walk up behind them. It can get exciting if one lurches to it's feet when you are 10 feet in front of it, approaching.... I don't do that anymore.

I watch NWL.. I don't live there. I DON'T watch any Alaska shows. I live here.... that kinda ruins the "reality".

I was only using a 450 Marlin. The Creed wasn't a thing yet.

lone star law is not bad.

I actually like North Woods Law and Lone Star Law. It's entertaining. The Texas lawmen are typically super polite. Every show has it's jerks in it, makes for better TV. I don't know the producers for these shows, but every reality producer I've met, talked with, or worked with, has never provided a script. Ever. They may say, "hey, be sure to talk about why you need to chase that guy" or "don't forget to talk about he potential charges he's facing" or something like that, but they don't give scripts to the people. The producer is trying to put a story together and needs the appropriate continuity to make that happen. If the producer doesn't do that, you end up with a reality show that's voiced over or VO'd. That's when there's a narrator telling the story in the background about what's going on so you can follow the story line. In any case, it's up to the producer to pick what scenes they air and who's featured in those scenes. Generally it's 4:1 or even 10:1 in terms of how much video they film, and to how much they actually feature on air. And as we all know, it's a business, and they want to make money. Make the show interesting, suspenseful, dramatic, and more viewers watch. More viewers = more money.

I'll watch Lone Star now and then if its raining or some such.

North woods there has to be nothing on TV other than hunting shows which I refuse to watch. But they sure seem to have a general assumption on north woods that most have broken a law.

OR they'll high speed chase an ATV driver just because....

Should have just stood there and said I'm going to wait an hour before looking to be on the safe side unless y'all wanna go find it and gut it for me...

I'm not sure that is a strong enough negative description of that idiot - he's special kind of stupid. That is clearly a political appointee to the Game Warden academy in that state.

Yeah, I watched that one.
Physics aside...........maybe the warden was trying to comment on arrow stability from less than decent form/tune.
Too many have problems, switch to mechanical heads and see an improvement, so think the problem is solved (when only masked).
Poor penetration should remind them of something not right.
Usually they blame the head and buy something different and screw up next time.

Up close some arrows are flying pretty badly, fletch will correct a bit if given time (distance).

Simple paper tune check would help a lot of folks.

I was watching Leatherwood Outdoors last night (like their vids) and somebody on one episode tried to explain how gravity works on downhill shots.
Had similar discussion w old time bowhunters.
And a chitload of other old time (and newer) deer hunters.
Physics degree aint a prereq to killing deer.
And continued success, often reinforces silly notions.
I brought my Lyman reloading manual to work severa times for the picture explaining uphill/downhill.
Once to a guy with a mathematics degree, who got snippy when i told him he was "wrong".
He said gravity helps when downhill............so I asked why then does it have dang near the same effect uphill.
After he swallowed his pride he was an OK guy LOL

Dunno, I've shot deer when we were not tuned quite correctly, as close as 3 steps in the process. Never ever had penetration issues. but it may/probably was the fact that we used COC heads and folks don't do that much any more. But boy talk about penetration....

Seems like all the archers worry about now is 50 yard shots and expandables