I worked with an ex game warden in the late 70’s, ex because he and his partner patrolling down the beach on Padre Island. Ran across two girls. Turned into sex, someone spotted them having sex and turned them in. Both lost their job. The reason I know this, he told me the story.

It would be rough telling your wife, Honey I lost my job today. I got caught having sex with a girl on the beach when I should have been working.

Fouz, you 're no fun. Party pooper.

i was dove hunting this past opening morning in north central Texas and it was about 9:00am when i see a game warden coming down a small road up to a corner where a stop sign is, just then a dove came by and i made sure it was nearly straight up and a safe shot. i shoot the dove and look down after and the warden blew through the stop sign and straight through the middle of the field. he checked a few of my buddies and then came up to me and said "you shot my truck!". i smirked a little bit and said "well i got him, and if you had made a complete stop at that stop sign you wouldn't have got peppered"... he didn't laugh. i knew we were a legal distance from the road so asked if we should move and he said we were all good but don't shoot his truck again.

Back in High School in the late 70's. A friend and I were out spotlighting raccoons. I had a 6 pack of beer (drinking age was 18 and I was 18) and was drinking one of them when the county sheriff deputy came up on us and asked us to come to the gate. We led the way to the gate to find the GW there. He asked me to sit in the front seat and close the door. When I did, he started talking with me like he was my Dad and i was a 10 year old. 'If you slam that door or throw anything else around (I'd taken my gloves off and put them in my lap), I'm going to run you in tonight." He goes on "I've got you for trespassing, destruction of private property, shooting from the right of way and taking game animals out of season. What do you have to say for yourself?".
I said, I guess you'll just have to write me up and I'll go see Judge "XXXX" tomorrow in church.

About that time the land owner's son shows up as I had stated to the deputy that I knew the landowner. The son identifies me as a friend of his family and I do have permission to hunt the property.

Long story short, I spoke with the judge at church and was invited to come see him on Monday during my lunch hour. There, I showed him the ticket and he said "Did you do any of it?" I replied "No sir" and he said "I'll take care of it." I never heard another word about it.

In New Mexico, I'd read somewhere that the NMGFD had just purchased a few of the 'new' robo-deer to catch poachers. We were hunting near Cloudcroft and were heading back to camp from town. We come up over a rise and off to the side, on private property, we spot a small, legal buck about 75 yards off in some brush. My buddy wants to ease out and get his rifle and I tell him about reading about the robo-deer. We get to looking closer and figure this is one of them. We were making jokes and trying to make the 'deer' run off when a voice in the bar ditch goes "Y'all get the hell out of here!". It was the Game Warden in a ghillie suit hiding waiting to bust us for shooting off of the public road and probably a few other things.

IN Idaho one fall in the early 80's, they were having a banner year for steelhead. At the time, you could keep 2 per day and only one could be a 'native' fish. I pulled up to a nice hole on the Salmon River and found a guy from California already there fishing. After some small talk, I was getting ready to head to another hole when he hooks a fish. He gets the fish nearly to the shore when his reel freezes up on him and he can't reel it in any further. He's backed up as far as he could and still couldn't get the fish on shore. I wade in up to my belt and have him lead the line to me and land his fish. It's a whopper, 42" long and about 25 lbs and a native. I took some pictures of him with it then asked if he was going to keep it. He said no, so we let it go.
That's when the GW comes out and asks for our licenses. After looking them over he shakes his head and says "I never would have believed someone from California and Texas would let a fish like that go. Thanks"

While elk hunting that fall, my Uncle hooked me up with the elder game warden to take me out elk hunting. Walking a long closed roads on our way to a back country place he knew of, I learned more about some of the things he and one of my other uncles did when they were kids that would have put them under the jail for a long time. One of the better walks in the woods I had.

In college a couple of my buddies and I were hunting off of 529 in Katy back when Pintails were restricted. For some reason, the only birds we saw that day were pintails and they were thick. We obviously didn't shoot them but of course talked about it all morning. Right when we start picking up the game warden comes walking down the levy with one of those big sonic ear microphones and binoculars.He checked us all and said he'd been watching and listening to us all morning just waiting for us to shoot and couldn't believe we didn't. Who knows what kind of stories and BS he heard that morning.

Many years ago my cousins and I were hunting doves with my uncle. The game warden came to check out bags as we were finishing and found we were right at the limit. We talked for a while with him, and my uncle pulled out his handkerchief from his back pocket. A dove fell out. He'd stuck it there earlier and not transferred it to his pouch. He calmly stepped to the side to put it behind him and continued talking. The warden left happy and we were relieved. "That was a $200 dove, boys." He told us. Considering this was in 1973, that impressed us.

Wow. Didn't know they did that. Would be quite entertaining to spot a GW with a microphone and pretend like you didn't know he/she was there.

Came home from TheTexas Hill Country with an Axis head in the back of my truck. Stopped to refuel & noticed an F250 on the adjoining pump due to its odd color. Headed home, kissed my wife, called my buddy to come help me cut the horns off the head. Walked to the front window to open the blind and there sat that same truck I saw at the gas station. I assumed he might be interested in my Axis so I started out the front door to meet him. As soon as he saw me he took off. I thought not much of it, buddy showed up & we commenced to sawing the Axis head on my tailgate.

Took a little break, I looked up and saw this really big, compared to me, game warden coming up the sidewalk. Thought that was strange until he cut across my yard.

“How you guys doing? Randolph McGee, Texas Game Warden.”
“We’re good. A little sun burned, but alright.”
“Reason I’m here, we had a call from a concerned citizen on our poaching hot line.”
I asked, “So, the guy can’t tell the difference between a Whitetail & a 32” Axis?!”
“ I could tell it wasn’t a Whitetail. I’ve been sitting down there about hundred yards watching since your buddy pulled up. I’m really disappointed”, McGee said. “I left supper on the table. This was gonna be my first bust. Graduated the academy 3 weeks ago. Got my truck last week.”
I said, “Well, I hate I ruined your fun.”
“Nice Axis, man. Y’all have a good day.”

A celebrity game warden. Seems like a good guy on tv.

He sure was a nice guy. No different in person than on TV.

He is indeed a nice guy. Back when I was hunting the Caddo Grasslands in Fannin County I talked to him a couple of times when I had newbie questions. He was always friendly and helpful. Kind of neat to see him on the TV show.

For about 10 years, I lived next a man who had been Assistant Chief of Wildlife Enforcement for TPWD. He retired 2007 or 2008, but Operation Game Thief was his baby and he spent most of his career in the field.

Man, did he have some stories to tell - but in listening I was always struck by how dedicated you have to be as a Game Warden.

Marc

If you live in, or near, Greenville you know Benny Richards, GW for Hunt County. He is always on Lone Star Law. Nice guy and lots of folks around here have taken to calling him 'TV Star'.

In 1983 I won a "Trophy Bull Elk Hunt" from DU in New Mexico. The hunt was on a place about 20 miles east of Raton, Costilla's if I remember correctly. Got my elk on the 2nd day of the hunt and had 2 days left. We scouted and glassed for other hunters and hunted coyotes. Last day took a ride with one of the guides to scout. After about an hour or so, had to stop for a "pee dance", got out took care of business. We glassed for about 20 minutes and rode back to the cabins. The ranch manager, Gary Wolfe, was waiting for us and asked where we had been. We answered and then he says, "good thing you did not shoot anything, Colorado GW had you under observation". We had to be 40 miles from any highway-point is those guys are pretty good at what they do. We just nervously laughed nearly choked on our coffee.

Have a friend and some of his buddies who used to hunt mule deer in N.M. for many years. One year they were stopped and questioned on the way home. They asked GWs if they wanted to check their animals, were told no. The wardens said we were watching your camp from observation points and know what you have.

I guess I have been really fortunate and can only remember one time in many yrs where a GW checked on use in Pecos County. Just checked our plugs in shotguns, licenses etc. Pretty cool dude. Other than that no other so called encounters.

I may encounter a GW in the near future as I was advised that if I took a bow blind that was left behind by another THF member, he was calling the GW on me to file theft charges. I haven't been able to sleep since

I was on a deer lease just one year, north of Sanderson, with a bunch of guys I didn't know. Lots of traffic through the place, BP, neighbors, etc. I saw the two, young game wardens for that county all the time on that ranch. 'Never did find out what the heck drew their interest there. Terrell ain't no small county. They were nice enough, just checked licenses, etc.; didn't ask too many or detailed questions.


Except for maybe one random check on a lease in Sisterdale when I was a kid, the only other time I've encountered a game warden was crossing Baffin Bay . I'd gone with a friend and his step-son and son fishing at their little cabin on the land cut. I went to bed early the night before. My friend apparently hit the hay after me and left the boys to fish all night. Neither them, nor their father are the brightest bulbs in the box and apparently they didn't measure squat. GW looked in the cooler and found 3 under length specs. He asks whose they are and my friend just stares at me! I said "They're not mine," and moved out of the way. GW wrote up my friend and that sure as heck was the right thing to do. It took me a while, but I have since distanced myself from this guy that plays fast and lose with pretty much all game laws.

My FIL works for one of the river authorities and the GWs have a mini HQ at the authority HQ at the lake - several different counties work out of there and they are all good guys. I used to fish over there a lot, but haven't lately. They'd always stop and talk and share some interesting stories. Several of them also use the vet clinic where my wife works - she tells them to give me a hard time, but I never run into them when I'm out fishing or hunting.

Only bad experience I've ever had was on a public dove field up in Collin County - not sure who the GW was - never seen him before - think it was a Dallas Co. warden that was fresh out of the academy. Man that guy had a bad attitude and was 100% incorrect on the laws. Tried to tell me that hunter orange was required while hunting migratory birds while on the public dove leases (it is not). I had a booklet in my truck and offered to show it to him, but he huffed off with a " verbal warning." Had dozens of encounters all over the state and this was the only bad one ever.

How the hell does this guy keep his job?! If he can't even follow the rules how can anyone respect him to enforce the rules. I may be more pissed at his superiors for not firing him immediately!

So are a bunch of other Game Wardens.

I never see them. When I run into them at the gas station, I ask them how they like the weather. The last one I looked right in the face at 3ft and asked. He said he was tired of all of the outlaws with a pissed off tone and look. I laughed and walked on.

This happened about 15 years ago. I was out on probably my third trip with my brand new Skeeter boat on Lake Fork. I was fishing up in a cove and a game warden boat with two game wardens started to approach me. There was a senior game warden in the back driving and a very young one at the front. The boat was coming in a little fast so I got down on my knees to catch the edge of his boat before it hit mine. The young game warden in the front of the boat yelled at me not to touch their boat. I pulled my hand back but the boat was still coming in to fast so I reach down and grabbed the front of their boat. The young game warden yelled at me again to turn loose and I turned up and I looked at him and said I’m not letting your boat put a gouge in my brand new bass boat. The young game warden just became more of a prick after that. He asked to see my fishing license, drivers license, and boat registration. I handed him all three documents along with my concealed handgun license. This was back when if a law enforcement officer asked you for identification you had to give them your CHL at the same time. He looked at the CHL And held it up and said why did you give this to me. I told him that he had asked me for my identification and state law required me to give that to him. He commented again that he did not ask for this and asked why I gave it to him. I repeated, because state law requires me to. He then went about and asked to see my life vest, which was clearly sitting in the driver seat, fire extinguisher, throw cushion, and every safety device he could think of. He even wanted to hear the horn honk. I’m fine with the safety inspection and license check, but he was being a jerk. He then asked if I had caught any fish and had any fish on board. I told him I did not and the live wells were dry but he was welcome to check. He looked at me and said I think I’ll just do that. The senior game warden in the back of the boat knew I was starting to get irritated at the pricks attitude and that’s when he told the young game warden that he thought we had checked enough and that everything looked good. The senior game warden looked at me and kind of smiled and said hope you have a good day and good luck fishing. I think the senior warden was using this to teach the younger warden a lesson about how not to handle people. The senior warden seemed to be pretty cool and he was watching me the entire time just kind a grinning. I think he was training the younger game warden and using this as a lesson to teach the younger game warden how not to treat people. I heard him tell the younger warden as they left that all that was unnecessary. The young guy was the only jerk warden I have ever run into. All the others have been extremely nice and pleasant to deal with, even have given me fishing tips and hunting tips.