Yesterday morning around 0940 while downing the last several birds of a 41 bird outing, I spotting a Game Warden approaching my position! "How are you this morning" in a nice cheerful voice was his opening comment to me. Knowing I was completely legal I responded "better before I saw you" with a smile! Turns out he too was a crow hunter (but not a very good one I learned later ) and we spent the next 45 minutes going over my set-up, shot size, choke, how my electric decoy worked, etc. etc. while he was helping me haul my stuff back to my truck some 400 yards away. That is when I saw his truck had blocked my departure lane "just in case" he said! He had been on the force for 14 years and told me to my surprise he had "never checked a crow hunter before".. and then asked me for my license--I was legal! "This is deer season and here I find an avid crow hunter amidst deer country having a ball wish I could have been with you". I said I would be happy to invite you IF you can pass the Woody Crow Academy requirements that are akin to SEAL training!! He walked to his truck, got out his ticket pad that you can see and appeared to start writing me a ticket! I said what is the violation!!! He said "Failure to invite the local Game Warden"!! Nice to see one of the "bunny police" with a bit of humor on board.
Thats pretty funny Skip. I wish the Game Wardens around my parts were more friendly. Every experience Ive had with them has been a bad stressful time WHILE being completely legal.
L2B: I give him credit for recognizing the situation given his 14 years of experience as he SAW me shooting crows IN crow season on legal land. He did check my license, etc.. and then we talked "crow". One thing I left out was why he was there. He told me someone heard all the shots thought someone was shooting doves out of season and called Wildlife. I was clean... a full clothes and body cavity search revealed NO doves! Whew!!!
A good encounter with the law. During deer season here our resouce dept hires a lot of temporary enforcement people. Many of these are not hunters and i'll bet the lions share have never hunted anything. Some of the stupidity I have encountered through 46 years of being in the field challenges my sanity.
Ted
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne