I have heard the horror stories. But, I have only experienced being treated good by guys just doing their jobs.

Wardens are just people who are likely to be a bit better educated about wildlife and conservation than most, from their perspective they are aligned against the worst types of poachers and dirt bags that don't just poach an occasional animal to eat, but take numbers that are truly hard on populations.

I've never met one yet that isn't friendly and talkative with friendly people who aren't doing anything wrong. There is a certain type of person who hates authority and finds it very hard to even be civil with those wearing uniforms in positions of authority.

Chances are those who think wardens are dirt bags are probably dirt bags themselves. I've had wardens let me off when they had me cold on an infraction because I have a sense of humor and no attitude toward them.

There ya go, has to do with the attitude. lol

Considering numbers in terms of how many police officers and sheriffs there are in the country, and how many fish and game officers my guess is that the "few" incidents they have equates to a high incident per 1000 number.

They are looking for poachers, poachers have no regard for the law, hence may likely be criminals or felons that are not supposed to even have guns, many criminals would rather shoot a warden than go back to jail.

Those wardens out at night looking for poachers need to be at least as hard nosed and tough as your average cop or they will make a fatal mistake sooner or later. That aspect of the job is not for light weights.

You don't get passed over for the police academy and decide you will be a warden.

Have only been stopped by them 5 or 6 times. Always easy to talk to and they were direct and to the point. Once they were done doing their duty they left us alone.

Unfortunately in KS you don't see them much - not enough of them around. Need more of them.

Around here we have had many game wardens that were constantly causing problems and stirring the pot, flaunting authority they did not have and such. However in the last 5 years or so we have had 2 pretty dang good ones, respectful and courteous. Don't get me wrong they would definitely write you a ticket if you broke the law but the way they carried them selves and went about their business was just different.

The current game warden in our area (one of the two mentioned above) is just exactly what a game warden should be, respectful, courteous, and when the situation calls for it Authoritative. He actively participates in the community and is always looking for ways to get kids involved. He runs an excellent hunt safe course as well. He is one guy that covers a very large area and does it quite well. On top of all this he has spear headed some much need GF &P improvement projects.

I've ran into a lot of game wardens I had zero respect for but there are some good ones out there as well and we got one of them.

In 30 years of hunting in pa i have never been stopped by a gw. The only time i was checked on it was by the local police on routine patrol and only because he also hunted groundhogs. The ones i have spoken to i have approached at county fairs or other functions where they were present and they all were polite and a pleasure to talk to.

And the ones that relax increase the odds of getting shot exponentially. Criminal felon types are the ones most likely to be out poaching, and even if they are hunting legally they may be willing to shoot a warden rather than face going to jail if they have warrants out on them.

I had a warden in a remote pot growing area tell me places to stay out of that he knew for a fact even he would get shot if he went there.

My brother in law called me an idiot for having a gun on me when we were riding dirt bikes in isolated areas. He asked this same warden we were talking to if he agreed with him about me being an idiot and he looked at him and told him I'd be an idiot not to have a gun out there.

Back in the 80's before the state started letting you get a two rod stamp I was fishing at the Nimbus dam, there was nobody else there so I rigged a steelhead rod with a night crawler and threw it out in a riffle, tightened the line and propped it in the cornet of the railing. I picked up an ultralight rod with a lure on it and cast it out, got a hit by a nice fat two pound trout on the first cast as it hit the water and was settling.

So I'm fighting this scrappy trout when my steelhead rod takes a slam, I grab it with my right hand and set the hook while trying to keep the line tight on the trout. These fish were both going ballistic, they kept crossing lines to where I had to keep twisting them around each other so the lines weren't crossed. I couldn't reel them in with one in each hand, so I decided I had to pick a fish and put the other rod down. So I lean the trout rod in the railing corner, and I get a beautiful 7 pound steelhead in, and I go back and get the trout in soon after.

So as I'm putting the trout on my stringer I hear someone clearing their throat from about 25 feet away, I look and it's a game warden, my response was to say "oh crap". He says "yeah, not cool". He said he'd been watching me with binoculars from the top of the dam, and that I could lose my fishing poles and gear. He's looking at the poles and my open tackle box and he comments that they are nice poles and asks what they set me back, I told him close to a grand. He told me that he could legally confiscate them and my tackle box, and my vehicle as well. I told him that as I was standing there trying to figure out what to do with two fish on without losing a $500 rod it occurred to me that it didn't make sense to try to catch a trout and a steelhead at the same time. He laughed and said that that was one of the funniest things he'd seen in a long time, me standing there trying to figure out what to do with these fish going crazy.

He told me to keep it to one rod, and that next season I was going to be able to buy a two rod stamp for an extra ten bucks or so. He said my gear was too nice to be losing it over something this stupid.

I'm pretty sure that had I been a jerk he'd have been one back.

Admitting being a poacher is the fastest way to getting help to find a cure.

I'm sure you've done worse things in your life than use two fishing rods oldfart, am I right?

Have you ever lived in the country, have you wanted meat in the freezer and it's standing in your backyard eating your roses? Ever seen a half dozen grays running around your backyard mid morning, and two hours later you are eating a squirrel for lunch? 80 turkeys out back and that night a big Tom finds his breasts stuffed with caramelized onions and brie being sauteed in Chardonnay and seasoning?

I haven't either.

For some reason I cannot remember cheating the State and other sportsman out of Game. You it seems are a little different.

Righteous to the end huh?

What can I say, I like eating game, and I refuse to hunt public lands during deer hunting seasons, I have personally known three people that were shot and killed while deer hunting, most likely intentionally. Also I'm sure sportsmen into trophies would never understand this, but I am not into "trophy" racks, they are too tough to eat and it amounts to killing the biggest and strongest of the gene pool.

I get unlimited depredation permits and can shoot as many deer as I want to. I have called for kills to be picked up and more often than not they don't have anyone available to do so, I have been told to go ahead and use them as coyote bait so they aren't being wasted. So whatever, I am not depriving hunters of their share of anything. More importantly I try to leave the ones with racks for hunters who care about that. That is not the case when one is tearing up one of my fruit trees.

The depredation permit rules state that I am not supposed to eat the deer so I interpret that to mean I can't put meat in the freezer, so I don't. Now some would see that as a waste not to be able to eat a deer that you can legally shoot.

Have had a few encounters w/TP&W wardens over the years and all have been pleasant and businesslike. I always call the GW in the three counties in which I night hunt predators beforehand and these exchanges have always been pleasant, as well.

A farmer friend who has a grain elevator on his property had a bad experience with a federal game warden whom he had invited to hunt white wing doves (migratory fowl) on his property. The FGW cited him for "baiting" because of a pile of waste which resulted from cleaning out one of his grain elevators on the property. I thought that was out of line. Needless to say, that fellow was never invited back.

Regards,
hm

i have very little time for them.

my very first encounter was a challange.
we called in that a deer had been shot and left.
after waiting nearly two hours a CO appeared and we told him what had happened.
i had a ruger 10/22 with me for chickens.

it was my turn to be interviewed by the CO.
he accused me of shooting the deer with the ruger.
i had a hard job explaining to him that ballastically and winchester subsonic .22
round would never cause a exit wound on a deer the size of a mans fist.
but no he was pretty insistent it was me.
i shook my head in disbelief,never again will i call a shot deer in again.

this years experience is when some truck hunter [beeep] shot a buck,he and the CO's
took it upon themselves to spend two days walking through posted land without
discussing it with my landowner first.
this isnt on at all.

i did a few years back email five different CO's with the same question
and got one reply back with the right answer,two asked me if i had my hunters safety(nothing to do with the actual question),one said he wouldnt reply because he didnt know me and the other ignored me.

i have been stopped once while fishing on a friends boat and that went fine for their attitude
etc but i did notice that one CO wasnt exactly savvy when we pulled our boats together as he exposed his sidearm with his arm positioning, a bit hard to explain but if i had wanted to,i could of pulled it out of the holster,(NOT THAT I WOULD DO SUCH A THING)

so alls good really