The idea is to make as many contacts as possible during routine patrols. The good ones will be friendly and handout cards with their personal cell number. They know they can't be everywhere and enlist the help of the public to inform them of suspicious activity. GW or any Leo for that matter cannot and will not catch violators w/o the publics help. Be an ahole and nobody will help.

With that said you must keep in mind the age of the GW. The younger they are the more prone they are to "know it all". Especially fresh out of college and the police academy. They are no different than your own kids. The seasoned GW will tend to be more skillful during routine contacts. He won't get to high or too low and it's never personal.

Just like any person (Leo or not) they all have their own pedujuce and life experience. What may be a serious violation to one is only a minor thing to another.

The newer the GW the more likely he is to view a violation as a personal attack. He takes ownership and the public perception is that he acts like he owns the animals. Most of the time he has no idea this is how he is coming across.

Just some thoughts to keep in mind during your next encounter....

..Years ago, in my wilder days, I had an encounter with a GW who had been around for several years. Two other guys were with me, and we all got tickets. We were in the wrong, and the GW did his job without much fuss, without acting like it was a personal insult to him.

Since then, I have made sure I was in the right, and have had no problems. (Strange, that if you're not doing something wrong, or something that LOOKS wrong, you won't have too many problems.)

Anyhow, the local GW we have is a really decent guy. If you're in the wrong, he will write you up, no doubt about it. If you are just out hunting, and you aren't throwing up any red flags, you have no problem. He's helpful if you have questions, and he likes to see kids have a good hunt. He doesn't have an "attitude", at least, in my encounters with him.

All in all, a credit to his department.

I've deer hunted with one one time that gw seemed to be a nice guy. Come to think I forgot to even fill out a field tag for the deer I shot. He didn't even say a word about it. I think its really who you no most of the time I was hunting with 4 cops that day to. Which my relative was one of them. But like in my recent post some are just aholes. I'm pretty sure if I had a 8 point buck with 19 inch spread sitting in the back of my truck with no field tag filled out I woulda been fined and had the deer taken away if it was a gamewarden that had no idea who I was. 99 percent of the time I fill one out heck I've even used the tip of my bullet to fill them out before when I had nothing else to write with. But that day I was just so wound up I forgot to.

we had a King Scat warden here 30 years ago. crabby all the time.
since he retired, i've never had a bad encouter.
our local CO is a heck of a nice guy and even the few guys i know that have been ticketed have said so.

I have been checked many times over the years and have yet to run into a warden that was less than courteous and professional. Have had some long and friendly conversations with a few and gotten a few tips. Just last season had a new guy give me permission to use my 4 wheeler to retrieve deer when killed (guess he noticed I wasn't a spring chicken). One warden/ biologist that checked me years ago and is now retired is a good friend. I have never had to deal with an A hole warden and hope I never do. I do my best to stay legal but mistakes can always happen.

99 percent of the time it has been positive. Twice I have been stopped and the first words out of their mouth were curse words and not Hello. Each time was a different Warden and they thought I was hunting turkeys out of season. When I was actually hunting crows in season. Now they felt stupid!

Months later I learned one of the wardens was transferred later as a result of harassing a deer hunter.

My advice to anyone is when you meet them let them walk to you, make sure your gun is safe, and let them do "all" the talking. I had a friend one time walk to the warden and the warden wrote him a ticket for a loaded firearm less than 150 ft from the road. You would be surprised how many states have hunting laws/local laws/bylaws/federal laws that are not in the State Hunting regulation guidebooks.

At one time I had hunting licenses in 5 states and the worst state I would say is PA for the Wardens. They have some type of part time or deputize wardens. They pay particular attention to people from out of state = More revenue. Had several opening day deer hunts ruined with license checks. Funny thing is they already ran the truck registration and verified the hunting license was valid before they even approached me.

Have known the warden in my hometown in ND for nearly 30 years. Hasn't ever once asked for my license. Locals he's got a list printed out of who purchased/received what licenses, and knows if you're legal.

Ex's cousin was living in Arizona and moved back to ND over the summer, one year. Applied for a resident license in both states. That didn't go over good! But the warden found him before he ever went to the field and told him, that was a definite no-no!! Said if he found him in the field hunting on a resident license in ND, while in possession of a resident AZ license, he would be ticketed. Hence the knowledge of his printed list of locals!! Small town, he knew Danny had just moved back, caught the resident license, and decided to check AZ just because. He does his job, does it well, otherwise friendly, cordial, frequently helpful. Let's you know where the fish are biting, let's you know where he's seen waterfowl coming in, let's you know where he's seen a nice buck or two. Great guy.

Met a Federal Warden over a buck I killed on a Waterfowl Production Area, couple years ago. Nicest guy you ever wanted to meet! Had my tag in my coat pocket and it had warmed up considerably, so I took my jacket off and left it in my jeep when we started the walk. So NO tag on me when I shot the buck. Made sure I grabbed it when I went back to retrieve the deer with the other truck. He told us it really should have been tagged before moving it the 30 yards up the hill, but didn't get real excited about it. Told us others might however. Handed me his pen and told me to sign the tag I forgot to sign as well. Then made sure I cut out the date properly. In that I'd jumped in the other truck, one of the guys' license was still in my jeep, and he hauled him up there to check that. Thanked us for being so patient and cordial in dealing with all his questions and the license checks, congratulated me on taking an awesome buck, and was on his way. Really a nice guy to deal with, was actually a very pleasant experience.

The only one I met out here in the field so far was alright.
I was near my antelope spot at still pretty dark AM as I have to walk 3/4 mile to my spot before daylight hits and saw a truck a mile ahead of me as I pulled off the dirt road on a knoll and the headlights shined up into the sky. He came up the road and pulled in behind me and I was thinking who the heck is this idiot. I thought it was a road hunter until after he pulled up behind me where I was parked in a depression.
It was a game warden and he said he saw spot lights. I said not a chance that was my headlights you saw and you may have a look into my truck to check if you want. He said no but let me see your tags etc.
I said I will have a light to walk in the dark as per regulations. No problem, just be carefull & that was it.
He was out looking for early pre-opening hour shooters.

My son is a Wyoming game warden who puts in long days especially during hunting season. He worked 45 days straight last fall. He admitted that by the end he was a little less sympathetic than at the start. He loves his job. He has met all kinds of hunters and the vast majority are great folks. But every so often he finds one or two that are difficult and lie to avoid getting a fine. So if that warden questions your story don't take it personally. He is just doing his job.

I have met many wardens myself and have had positive experiences. They have a tough job and Im glad their doing it.

We work with the game wardens on our hog hunts on public land, they are absolutely awesome!

If you want to know where the game is and how to track it, ask your local game warden!

never had any issues

I use to work with them while I was in the coast guard we had their back and they covered ours

In 7 decades, the first 3 of which were rawther ... shall we say ... spirited?.. I've run into a fair number of LEO's. The vast majority were just doing their jobs the best they could. Only a few are predators.

In the last 7 years I have only been checked by a Warden once. It was this year during Deer season. I went with friends but only to hunt Bobcats and Coyotes. When He asked to see My Deer tags, I explained that I had none, but reached into the front of My Coveralls and pulled out My lanyard with calls. He was very nice, and wished Me luck saying " I hope you get some of those fawn killers". He was a real nice fellow.

I got yelled at once by the MNDNR but I held my ground firm and ended up not in trouble.

Me and two friends were out in a state forest shooting some guns at cans and other targets. We had a hand gun a couple shotguns and my AR-15.

The year before this encounter I had talked to the park ranger and he said it was perfectly fine and he even showed me on the map the best place to go. I had shot there a couple other times.

Right as we were finishing our shooting we hear a guy yelling for us to drop our weapons. We do and a couple game wardens come walking through the forest, quite upset. Screaming about what I was doing and telling me I was going to kill someone. I was shooting 30 yards down hill into another hill...

I stood my ground and told them I talked to the ranger and I had also called the DNR the weekend before to make sure, and they said it was perfectly ok. We discussed back and forth for a couple minutes but our targets and our empty shells were clearly accounted for and we were breaking no laws. Our shooting was already done and they escorted us out and when we got to their vehicle they checked our records and let us go.

Other than that I have only had my fishing license checked twice, no problems. I've even considered going to school to become a DNR officer.

It's been really positive as far as actual Conservation Officers here in Minnesota.

We did have one really funny--well, funny after the fact, anyway--incident while out pheasant hunting in Western MN. My uncle has a few thousan acres of farmland out there and we were working a CRP patch that borders a well-traveled tar county road. The wardens must cruise this road because we get checked almost evey year while hunting this piece.

So we just got through the CRP, one rooster, and back to the truck and a green pickup truk stops on the highway. Yep, right on time.

Conservation officer pulls up, no problem, whatever. Same guy that checked us the last 3 years. I told him we were worried he wasn't going to show up. He gets out holding a clip board.

It was at this point that the encouter went downhill somewhat. We happend to have borrowed one of my uncle's labs to take with us. Blaze is the nicest, most even tempered, best-with-children dogs ever and she'll gladly hunt for anyone.

But there was a problem. A couple of years before, the substitute UPS driver had decided to leave a package in the machine shop as my uncle wasn't home. He got all the way into the dark shop before flipping on the lights and discovering he was surrounded by 6-7 labs who were not really aggressive, but on edge because they didn't recognize him. So he clocked Blaze with a clipboard as he ran out the door.

So here we are, out in the field, with a dog that unknown to us, has a huge grudge for ANYONE in a brown uniform with a clipboard. Yeah. You can see where this is headed.

Sadly, there could be but one outcome. Blaze sees the warden get out of the truck and goes on the offensive. The full deal, growling, snarling, teeth showing, hair up. The warden jumps into the back of the truck and Blaze keeps him "treed".

It fell to me to say to immortal lines to the warden, "Drop the clipboard, sir, and put your hands in the air."

Which he did. And Blaze instantly ceased barking and walked back to her kennel in the truck. Where she laid down and growled softly at the warden. Needless to say, I had some 'splainin to do...

After the incident I told dad that I was sure there would be some serious paperwork to do if we had to take the warden in to the ER to have a 50 pound black lab unclamped from his unit. Not a great inroducuction, but the warden took it with good humor, part of the job, etc.

Grouse