So this morning we're coming in. 3 guys 18 ducks. Game warden pulls over to us as we're taking pictures( on my iPad can't upload them that I know of from there) and proceeds to ask us which ducks we shot personally. He complained that we had them bunched together. Told him we were sorry and started separating them. He then starts going through our ducks and finds a teal barely twitching and says who shot that. He's still alive somebody is getting a fine for having a live bird. We said he's not alive it's muscle spasms and my buddy rang its neck. He said that doesn't work grab it slammed it against our boat and splattered blood all over me. Anybody else ever had a "live bird" problem? We felt like at that point he was just nit-picking us.

You should've checked it's pulse for him

Yeah we had a few words for him but saved them until we got back in the truck. Knew saying something to him would get us nothing but a fine.

Yup. During teal season this year. We were separating the birds and one took off running across the deck of the boat. GW didn't threaten us with a ticket though. We all got a good laugh from it, including the GW.

had sort of the same thing happen to us opening day of teal season.

We had our birds (4 limits) all on one strap, and he asked us to seperate them. when i took one off the strap, it picked its head up and tried to get away. The warden was irratated and told me to kill it. I crushed his skull with my thumb. but it still wasnt stone dead. so the warden grabbed it and said you need to ring its neck. he rung it, threw it back in the boat, and it got up AGAIN. I said "hes still not done". the warden finally gave in and said "he will die now"

after him checking everything in the boat he said, "well, good job, i wish yall could have shot more."

I looked at him and said "HUH?1? we have our limit."

that was the end of the conversation.

so you were in violation twice, once for not separating birds and another for not dispatching game. LOL@topwater blaming GW for doing his job. Probably the same guy that gets pulled over and tells the cop, "but I was only doing 5mph over", give me a break.

I once got a ticket in south Texas for removing the "wrong wing" on some doves. You can never tell with GW's.

Federal or state game warden?

"He complained that we had them bunched together"
Check the regs, it's the law, he was not "complaining", he is doing his job.
So did you get fines for this, if not it sounds like he was easy on you? Yet you complain about him.

Sounds like he was easy on you

Yeah we were wrong on having them bunched together but the teal wasn't alive it was twitching. I'd assume a chicken with his head cut off is still alive?

I have seen on 2 different occations a GW ask my dove hunters to pull out their birds and one or more has been alive. They just acted like nothing was wrong. I knew that was illegal but the all the GW's I have delt with aren't that picky.

They like to get you on the commingle ticket. Get some parachute cord and cut three pieces about 4 ft long, tie an overhand knot about a ft up. The braid the three pieces together till you have about a foot left, then tie another overhand knot. Now on three ends you have on either side tie a bowline knot in the end of each string. You will have six loops so now you have a stringer for your limit. They are cheap and easy to make. I make up bunches of them and keep in my blind bag. If you loose one its no big deal, plus with the loop around their head they don't tend to fall of and heaven forbid get commingled.

I don't want the name, but I'm curious as hell as to which GW is was. I've had some issues with GW's around the Houston area. The whole co-mingling issue IS the law, but it wasn't created in order to nitpick a bunch of guys out there who are following the rules as best can be expected. I see plenty of people crossing the street in front of my house and not using a crosswalk, but nobody calls them on jaywalking!

I finished hunting one day in a marsh near Houston with my brother. As we picked up our birds and spent shells, we noticed that some idiot had left a pile of about 30 spent shells behind. We cursed that guy a couple times and then picked up all the shells. As we approached our vehicle, a GW came up and asked us how many shots we had taken and asked to see our spent shells. We gave him an approximate number and then pulled out a huge bag of spent hulls, informing him that we had ours AND a bunch of spent hulls that we had found. He then (with the same frown he had approached us with) told us to separate our hulls and the old hulls so that he could count and ensure that our spent hulls matched the number of shots taken. They matched, of course. But surely the guy could have taken us at our word when we pulled out that big 'ol bag of dirty and rusty spent shells!

its such a stupid law.

Barney Fife puffing his chest.

I would have told him to split them himself or shove it. No law that requires a limit in a box or less.

Agree. Don't follow it all the time either.

Exactly lol

I love dealing with people with smart mouths...

And I love following the law to a T. See what I did there.

Didn't bother to get a name but we we're as far as I know we were in complete compliance minus the ducks being separated. We separated them as he asked. My problem was the bird that was "alive". As all of you know some of them will twitch. We had one headless one that was twitching for an hour. I'm not saying he wasn't doing his job or even doing it poorly I'm questioning the "live" bird thing. The thing freakin' twitched.

Aggieduck, I'm assuming they were in marsh X outside of Houston where they require that you only have 50 shells a person.

Ah never hunted the marsh, that is different.

i'm curious to hear if this was a state or federal game warden also. had a bad experience with a fed game warden around houston one time...