Who's been stopped while night hunting?

As much as I am out at night, especially in deer season, we get checked out a lot. No real problems, I do call the game warden before I go, but there are still a few folks that want to see what I'm up to.
 
Not yet, but I expect it to happen at some point. I just make sure we all have our ducks in a row before we go out, license, hunters safety, no deer carcus.

Me & Brad (greenheadwoody) went out last December or early January w/ another friend who had killed a spike that morning. Dressed him out & had the head & left over parts in the back of the truck. I realized as we were going down the road between our 3rd & 4th stand that we'd been spot lighting near enough the road for people to see us. But.. the only thing we had in the back of the truck were deer parts. We made a sharp turn ASAP once I mentioned this to the other guys & got rid of the thing. That would have been bad if a warden had stopped us. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
 
County police. They saw the lights from the highway. Came all the way down the gravel and loose dirt power road and pulled in behind us. Something about flashing lights and the sounds of a pump shotgun being chambered really gets your attention. Especially when they get on the PA and tell you to step out of the vehicle with your hands up. We explained and every things was ok. They stated they saw the lights from the high way and when they got closer they could hear all the weird sounds and thought we might be raping farm animals.
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I've only been checked once while hunting at night and that was in Texas while hunting with Watson. That warden was a great guy.

I've talked to our local CO's and they know I go out often at night. But, we don't get called in too often because until this year, we couldn't use lights to hunt. I suspect things might be a bit different now.
 
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County police. They saw the lights from the highway. Came all the way down the gravel and loose dirt power road and pulled in behind us. Something about flashing lights and the sounds of a pump shotgun being chambered really gets your attention. Especially when they get on the PA and tell you to step out of the vehicle with your hands up. We explained and every things was ok. They stated they saw the lights from the high way and when they got closer they could hear all the weird sounds and thought we might be raping farm animals.
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Does this kind of thing happen that much that the Police are looking for it? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
Only when they catch me! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif

Seriously, I've had a few times when I've been stopped, but not nearly as much as people would think. I probably get stopped on average of about 2 times a year and that counts land owners, game wardens, sherriffs, etc. Most of the time people know what I'm out there doing. I'd rather them know so they'll be less likely to pay me a visit and mess up my stand.

Take care and God Bless,

Rusty
 
I have never had a warden come up. But have a property owners brother stop and want to know what was going on. And we have had cars stop on the road looking at us. But durning the prime months most people around here knows wath we are doing.
 
I had a land owner come out and stop my buddy and me when we were out scouting some night spots . . . it was dark out and I was shining my lightforce all over an abandoned farm. I had permission from the land owner to be out there, but it had been a couple months since I last spoke with him about hunting so he was curious about who was flashing a red light all over his brother's old homestead. It's a good idea to keep the land owners' up to speed on your hunting intentions - they appreciate it and a good relationship usually comes from it.
 
Oh boy, have I ever. About 18-20 years ago. Mingo County Wv. I was out one morning about the crack of dawn calling fox.A Gung Ho,local cop (Constable)pulls up. He had no idea what I was doing and would not let me explane. He calls the sherrif dept. and about 45 minutes later here comes a deputy. Well the deputy must have been the locals offspring for he didn't know anything neither. Now mind you, here I am setting in back seat of locals car (they use there personal cars not crusers) with cuffs on. I finally got them to get hold of a W.Va. Game Warden and after another half hour or so the GW comes and got everything straightened out. After that I had a lot more respect for the WV Game Wardens. Beleive me, the warden was not a happy camper over this. In almost 60 years of hunting I think that is the only time I have ever had a problem. Never been checked for fishing licence neither.
 
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thought we might be raping farm animals.


Since you weren't arrested, can we assume you were innocent? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


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Does this kind of thing happen that much that the Police are looking for it?


This IS Vegas were talking about here. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
In all my years of hunting (22 now) I have only been checked twice, but since I started hunting at night two years ago I have been stopped twice by the sherriff. Once was in SD out in the middle of nowhere, we just got done calling a place and were pulling out on the road and there was a vehicle coming down the road at us. We turned in the other direction and the other vehicle comes up behind us pretty quick, which was unusual because it was January and the don't plow the gravel roads and the were pretty much snow covered. We turn down a minimum maintence road and they follow so we just stop and the lights came on. Was no big deal, and we were on our way after about two minutes. Last year I had just pulled of a main county road and another sherriff drove past and quickly turned around. He just said he thought he better check, because a couple of guys all dressed in white in the middle of the night was a little unusual, and he left after only a couple of minutes also.
 
Yes, we were innocent. The police didn't even know the laws reguarding night hunting. We were about 1/2-3/4 of a mile away from a major highway and our lights could be spotted from a long ways away. The caprice cruise almost got stuck trying to turn around.
 
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Have you ever been stopped or detained while night hunting?


Yes, more times than I can count.
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By who?


Local Police, Sheriff, Game Warden, Border Patrol, Reservation Police & Military Police. I've always made a point of being legal and I have never received a citation or warning in my life.
 
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.....because a couple of guys all dressed in white in the middle of the night was a little unusual......



You didn't have any lumber and gasoline in the truck I assume...... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
yes locals that are nosey are the biggest culprits. also the wco has checked before. alot of loacals think we are poaching deer when we are out there.
 
one night we were hunting up toward calente (sp) . we pulled off the road and made a stand when a car that was around a bend , pulls back on the road and hauls a@#$!! about a hour later we are heading back to 15 when a local police pulls over while we were going through a little town.. he walks up to the truck real cool and ask if were calling up the road about a hour ago? we said yes and he started laughing!! he said they got a call from some guy that had stopped to take a pee and some guys in a truck were killing a woman off the road!! he could hear her screaming real loud!! he said i knew what it was but wanted to tell the story to us!! real cool guy!!
 
I had a land owners son wake his father up last year because of the sounds coming from the marsh. Well the father instantly knew it was me and they had a good laugh but it could have made him mad. Now I give every landowner a paper with all the info they could want: name, address, vehicle make, color and plate number, my rules wich include no headlights off the public roads, season dates and the periods when night hunting is allowed (full moon only) and most importantly weird noises.

Its been a big hit with the owners and even owners whom I have hunted their land for more years than I can remember love it. I have even picked up exclusive rights for all game on a site that has been off limits since the new peopl bought it!

I am thinking I might run the same paper by the dispathcers in the towns I hunt to prevent any interuptions if possible. Years ago I did that while trapping waterfowl with special purpose permits from USFW and my state and I was never checked. I gave them date and time in writting by fax (Voluntary condition I had placed on the application to get the permits). I had a biologist accompany on a trip after I limited out on my permit quota for banding purposes only and he said they got alot of calls about my activity but they never checked up, probably because I was open about my intentions and they have better things to do wich include looking for the not so open people IMO.
 
Once back in the 80's by a S/A Deputy who was being nosie as to how many varmints we had taken that night. My partner called the Sheriff the next day.. Never stopped again by that Deputy!!

Later
DF2
 
Hi,with over 30 years of hunting I can say it happen only one time and that was when the GW first move here.About 20 years ago.And for the amount of land we cover and the amount of time we are out that's not bad.Thanks Clint.
 
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