Busted by the game warden I was....

6or7dazeaweek · Dec 15, 2005

Here in NY, you will often times see a game warden during raids or busts. It is my understand they have more searching powers than the state police.

Which brings up another subject...licensed to carry. I better check into wether or not it's legal for me to carry a loaded handgun on my person or while driving. What's good is an unloaded handgun if you need it?

I know you've already faced the judge & paid the fine, but I think I'd look into it a bit more. Lightning does strike the same place twice.

/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Jon

Sigarms · Dec 15, 2005

Funny. In W.V I know of guys who invite me all the time to come up (now that I'm in N.C) hunting with them on thier (sp?) property.

First time they asked me (before I lived in that state), I asked them "when is hunting season" in your area? The response was "anytime you bring your gun with you" /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

RedRocker · Dec 15, 2005

I've always got a loaded gun on my tractor, truck, car, motorcycle, couch and or toilet. Hey, even paranoid people have enemies. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

JimR · Dec 15, 2005

(

Which brings up another subject...licensed to carry. I better check into wether or not it's legal for me to carry a loaded handgun on my person or while driving. What's good is an unloaded handgun if you need it?
)

This brings up an interesting conversation I had with my police chief in Ma. I have a LTC a pistol concealed. The chief said that if I was carrying a handgun it had better be loaded.

HGM · Dec 15, 2005

Guys,
I think you might be missing the point here. The game laws are what we're talking about here. I understand it has morphed into personal rights, but game laws are written differently.

If you look at your states hunting regulations, I'm sure most will say that it is unlawfull to hunt(loaded weapon) from a powered vehicle.(period)

This Game Warden was out of line to ticket him for just carrying his gun. However, if for some reason, he thought he was hunting, he had every right to enter his land and ticket him on his property, your property, my property, the presidents property, etc... It doesnt matter... As another poster mentioned, the game is federally protected, there are no land restrictions for the law.

tpost · Dec 15, 2005

Guys,
I thought about fighting it but I thought I will go ahead and pay it and get it behind me..My understanding after the fact he should have had a reason to come onto my property before he started writing a ticket, he kind of blindsided me/set me up...He asked if the gun was loaded and I said yes...then he had me. Unfortunately there was 2 others that got tickets for no license and not field tagging there deer which were in my barn these were relatives that came to my farm and were hunting and to be honest I did not even give it a thought about them having a hunting licsense since as a resident landowner I am not required to have a license to hunt on my own land. These boys were 17 and 19 years old....good boys but made a mistake and were caught because once the game warden busted me his investigation had begun.
One boy was fined $273 and the other boy was fined $360 and had his deer taken by the game warden.
The ticket that the citations are written on have enough space that 2 different citations can be written on the ticket...but the 1 boy who had his deer taken away had 3 citations written, 1 no hunting license/2. no field tag on the deer/3.harboring of illegal game...illegal because the deer had not been field tagged....like I said they can only put up to 2 citations on the ticket,so the game warden had to write the 3rd ticket on the next sheet in his book..well what is ridiculous about this is with 2 different tickets this boy had to pay court costs twice..one for each ticket..$153 dollars court costs for each seperate ticket.
Next year we are going to make sure everything is in order license wise etc...and try and not give the game warden a reason if he comes back.
It was funny the game warden when writing my ticket for the type of motor vehicle he had to write 2000 model John Deere tractor.
If we had not been honest with the game warden and polite with him I am sure he could have made life more miserable...as a matter of fact he told us he could have.
I never had any contact with a game warden other than years ago when I was in 4 H and they came to our 4 H meeting and gave us a gun safety course.
The game warden was there for probably 1 1/2 hours , we had to call the boys up out of the woods and that took time.
We had walkie talkies and we radioed the boys and they thought we were just messing with them,the one boy thought he would be smart and leave his gun in the woods and the game warden would not think he was hunting but that was the wrong thing to do because we had already told the game warden the boys were in the woods hunting.
The game warden kept apologizng to me for what had happened but that did not slow him down while he was writing the tickets. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
My one cousin who is the father of the one boy who had the biggest fine spoke his piece,the game warden told me that if I ever needed help to call him 24/7 and he would repond to my place and help me,thats when my cousin spoke his piece,he told the game warden he would be the last guy the boys would call for help,he said you alienated these boys.
The game warden even took a loaded shell from my 30/30 for evidence. He told me he was going to have to take a deer from the one boy and he asked me if I would help him load it in his truck and I said ok....we went to the barn and he took a polaroid of the 2 deer hanging in the barn and I said which one are you taking and he said the biggest one. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I started to ask the game warden if he would arrest his own mother but instead I asked him if he ever arrested a relative and he say's..there was a couple of times I had to have other officers do it for me. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
I was mad for a couple of days...but I got over it...and now I laugh about it.....it is a deer season I and my cousins will never foget.
I was told that this game warden busted a guy for burning an old lawn chair in a brush pile he was burning ( you are not supposed to burn tires/plastic etc...
The place where this poor guy worked had closed down and the guy told the game warden he had just lost his job ...supposedly the game warden replied...if you lost your job you will have plenty of time to think about the law you just broke. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
In West Virginia if you have venison in the freezer you are suppose to keep the tag that shows you deer was checked in per the law and keep the tag until all of the deer meat is consumed.
Anyway I wanted to share this story with you guys.The game wardens in WVa have as much power as a State polieman and the game wardens even have some federal powers...

A guy I work with has a nephew who was busted the same week I was by another game warden for not having the blaze orange..but this boy was not even in the woods yet...he was in the car enroute to where he was going to hunt....in WVa you are required to wear during gun season blaze orange of I believe at least three hundred square inches...

HRS · Dec 15, 2005

tpost,
I believe that you did the right thing by just paying the fine and getting on with your life. If you had fought it, you would have been out ... thousand or two with attorney fees, fine, lost days work, etc. Its all just a racket for them to make money.
Reminds me of a ticket I got two years back for coming to a rolling stop at an intersection of two deserted roads, 11:30 at night, way out in the country. Just so happens that the little Podunk town, whose limits I was in, needed the extra cash. So I laugh when I refer to them as having the highest road toll in the country. Cost me $145 to use their road. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

As far as still having to tag your deer. Wow! Haven't had to do that in Georgia for some time now. The liscense/tag has 12 on it, two bucks and ten antlerless. So many of them down here they're becoming a nuisance.

HGM · Dec 15, 2005

And now we know, the rest of the story............ /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif Sorry, couldnt resist.....

Seriously, now I agree, you did the right thing..... He could have made life miserable.. Bottom line, you and the boys learned a lesson. It's never fun to face something like that and get in trouble for it, but when its over you move on , laugh about it and never forget...... He was doing his job....

JimR · Dec 15, 2005

Bottom line is he is sitting down right now enjoying a nice venison steak that he took from some youngster. Now why didn't he take both deer instead of just the big one? Makes you kinda wonder. I know, he didn't have enough room in his freezer for two deer.

PineRidge · Dec 15, 2005

I've always got a loaded gun on my tractor, truck, car, motorcycle, couch and or toilet. Hey, even paranoid people have enemies. 

RedRocker they may bother you on your tractor, in your truck or car, on your motorcycle or couch, but there ain't no way they're touching you if your on the toilet. nosirreebob! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif