Anybody had a youth with a hunting violation?

16 year old son went hunting with a friend on their property (Van Zandt County) for last day of youth Season (Sunday). He called and said he shot a button buck, so I told him to make sure they gutted the deer and cleaned it all out, and hung it up, etc. I said.. It is cold enough so it will be fine hanging outside until he can get back here so we can drop off at processors.

Long story short. did not hear from him most of the day, and finally around 4PM he calls and said he is in trouble with Game Wardens and they were talking about felony poaching charges. Finally started getting the details between crying and hubbling, and scared he was going to jail......

Ticket #1 (Hunting during closed season): Game Warden said he was in the area nearby and heard the gun shot and said it was past shooting time. Son said he did not know exactly what time it was but they were walking back to camp at dusk when deer jumped out and other kid missed, and he shot it.

Ticket #2 (Criminal Trespass on Agricultural land): Kid he was hunting with said they had permission to hunt the neighboring property to theirs.... (Not so according to land owner that showed up)

Ticket #3 (Improperly Tagged WT Deer): They had the deer hanging up in the tree after they gutted it with no tag

Ticket #4 (Failure to keep game in edible condition): Son said GW told team deer was not edible due to being muddy from them dropping it in the mud while loading it in truck and outside all day.

Restitution: Tickets says Restitution is required also.

GW said they were going easy on them by giving them 4 tickets, because neighboring property owner wanted felony changes brought, etc. against them. They confiscated his 30-30 and told him he can have it back once fines are paid. Have to call Judge and see what fines he is getting assessed, and what we need to do.

Any idea how Judges view these things for Juveniles or previous experience.

#4 sounds like BS.

I don't have any first hand experience with this, but I wouldn't be surprised if at 16, the judge doesn't offer any leniency.

I agree with this, #4 sounds non-legitimate..Unfortunately probably merit to 1-3. I would show contrition and hope for some leniency assuming he is actually contrite.

Kids can sometimes, unintentionally, get themselves into a pickle on 1-3 maybe, but #4, really, ain't the game warden ever heard of a water hose?

Yes... I agree on #4.. just don't know if I want to press the situation or not. I told wife.. we just need to pay the fines and get it over with.... as we were not there and can't argue much since we are only getting told the story from a 16 year old.

I disagree with the leniency from first hand experience. A long long time ago, (1967) I was dove hunting on land that I honestly thought I had permission to hunt on by a friend of my Dads. I was one fence off. The GW gave me a ticket for trespassing and I went to court to explain why I was one cattle guard short of the property going down a country road. I was supposed to go through 4 cattle guards but I thought he said don't go through the 4th cattle guard. Judge said that I should learn to count and fined me $135. I just checked what that would be in today's dollars and it is $953.61. I had a licence and was not over my limit or unplug gun or any of several things that the GW looked at. So, it will just depend on the mood of the judge. I'm still pissed!!!!!!!!!!!!

No one in here saw the deer but we are not agreeing on #4? lol

Id say with what the neighbor wanted done they went very easy on them. live and learn I did something similar when I was his age and got caught.. taught me a good lesson early on. My judge gave me the option of community service along with a shortened fine. I worked at the county dump for a few weeks.. smelt terrible by the end of the day lol

Sounds like a bad situation. I would seek some kind of recourse on #2 being that he was hunting with a buddy on his land and the buddy said they had permission to hunt the area.

Any possibility that the #4 is a gift from the warden? Like when you get a speeding ticked for 20 over and have an expired inspection sticker they only write you up for the speeding because if you get the inspection thrown out then the whole ticket is thrown out? Maybe if you can prove #4 wrong they will drop it all? Maybe I was dropped as a baby. Best of luck to your son, life lessons being learned it will make him a better person some day.

Id also say pushing the fact and trying to argue one violation would not help your case with leniency...

Hopefully your son has learned a life lesson, seems to me he could have thrown the book at him.

About #4 I personally don't leave animals hanging outside for 24 hours, maybe over night, but on the ice quickly. I'd love to see how nasty the deer was.

Just remember your son will know what to do and not to do next season.

If air temps permit absolutely nothing wrong with leaving a deer hang 24 hours plus.

covered in mud?

Goodluck with that, it nearly got to 60 yesterday

I'm not a parent but can certainly understand your wanting to defend your son.

However, based upon the details you've relayed, the GW used discretion to keep from charging a couple kids with felony trespass/poaching. And I imagine the GW is the one who convinced the landowner not to pursue those charges.

I'd pay the fines and let your son work off the $ through household chores or a job. Tough lessons to learn, but it could have been much worse.

You can plead for leniency from the court, but is that the right signal to send?

Yes, that is what I told him... that the responsible thing to do was drive into town and drop off the deer at the processors, then go back out hunting or shooting, etc.. later. You take care of business first.

I told him,, I hope he learns a lesson and he will think twice and understand hunting on your own is different than tagging around with dad.

I was agreeing with what you said. Don't expect leniency. He's 16. Unfortunately it's young enough to still make stupid mistakes, but old enough to have to be responsible for them.

wait, wait, wait, hold up....let me get this straight, you mean to tell me you understand that there may be 2 sides to the story? wth is this world coming to when we dont get ready to throw hands after hearing the story from one side, much less a family member!

that's refreshing to hear sir

How was the game warden there to hear the shot and then the deer hung for a full day to get muddy and ripe? Im not understanding the story.

Ok now for the real story......

3 friends in their late teens went out to a property in Van Zandt county for the last weekend of youth season. At some point during the night these three kids were SPOTLIGHTING ON SOMEONE ELSES PROPERTY. During this spotlighting escapade what was thought to be a doe was shot at multiple times by all three kids with one bullet striking the animal. The kids then proceeded to put a final kill shot on the animal directly in between the eyes. So now these three have killed a deer knowingly not on their property, knowingly after season, and knowingly with a spotlight.

As the story goes they we're heading to town to get ice when they got their truck stuck in the mud. One thing led to another and these three kids found theirselves at a gate about a mile away from where they began. This gate was dummy locked because the landowner had just left his property. These three kids then proceeded to go through the gate, behind the barn, and into the 95 Z71 parked with the keys inside. They then proceeded to drive this truck as if it were their own (with a front flat tire) to pull theirs out, only to get the stolen GMC stuck in the process.

Now how do I know this story you may ask yourself??? Well I am the landowner who's truck they stole. These kids committed MULTIPLE FELONIES. They should have all been thrown in jail and would have been had I not been in such a good mood yesterday (You can thank my girlfriend for that). So you may want to just accept the penalties bestowe upon your child, have him take them like and man, and pay for what he did. I was stupid once myself as a 16 year old but I would like to think I learned from my mistakes. The game warden was extremely fair with these kids and most defenitaly took it easy on them. All three should be sitting in an 8x10 concrete box today instead of at home eating Cheerios.

Sbeckhams story seems to make sense... I would go ahead and pay some fines and be happy.

Ouch... gotta love it when we get to hear both sides!!!

Welcome to the forum and thanks for telling us the whole story. Sometimes sixteen year olds forget the real story. I'm sure I did more than a few times way back then.

Welcome to the forum and thanks for telling your side (the truth).

Woah. Same kids? Or a different, but similar situation?

If txbasser's son didn't relay this story the same way as sbeckham did, gonna be hell to pay tonight, I'll bet.

I'm glad that you showed mercy on those kids. The parents should meet and thank you for not having their kids put in jail. If the parents offer it, then maybe those kids can do some hard work around your land to compensate for what they've done.

I wish I could dispute what was posted.. but honestly I don't know what happened.. Only heard the story from my son and father of one of the other kids... I've told my wife before.. I don't trust anything a kid says... and this again just proves my theory that these kids are dummer than a box of hammers.

Interesting. Id love to hear the OPs response to this.

Now we get the real story. Those kids don't know how bad they almost screwed up the rest of their life. Be interested to hear dad's story now.

He just responded a few threads up... quite a good one too.. just seems he didn't get the full story

Wow. I would have had them arrested for that.

I would have too!

He did, these kids were under age, the parents should have been notified begin with. OP you need try to contact the GW yourself you have right due to the age.

I'm just guessing, but I'm a high school teacher and work with 16 year olds every day. I would say that 90% of what, sbeckham, said is factual. And I think I am giving your son way to much credit on his side of the story. I would show your son what sbeckham wrote and say, this is what the GW is going to tell the judge. We cannot prepare a good defense if I don't know the truth. Hopefully, he will come clean so that you can decide what would be the best defense for your son. Asking for the Mercy of the Court might be one in this case.

What do you mean by underage? If the kid is 16, has completed HE and is in voice control of someone who is 17 or older, then he can hunt and fish on his own in Texas.

We just had a similar situation by me except two deer were over 170" inches. I am curious to see how this pans out....since the are "youth" offenders.

I don't know where to begin, but all I can do is apologize for my sons actions... wife and I are beside ourself... because this is not what we have instilled in him over time. I will send you a message with PH # as I would like to talk with you so I understand what they did, so I can try and communicate the gravity of the situation of their actions, consequences, etc.. Again I am so sorry..

Roger Milholland

Good Dad. Lucky kid.

No apology needed sir, you are acting like a very good and concerned father and I'm sure you will do right thing.

Time to get new friends and make better decisions. Cut dead weight loose. Sounds like they got off easy. They need to get their own jobs and pay the fines themselves.

May I make a suggestion, you might want to request this thread removed and settle it off the Internet.

holy cow! This has all the old radio tag line, "and that's the rest of the story..."

I am going to show my 14 yo son this story.

tx_basser, go easy but have a stiff punishment for your kid, even if he wasn't the ring leader this is something that should have never continued once it got started. I am sure sbeckham would have been a little more understanding had they realized they screwed up and just called for help instead of trying to right their wrong with more wrongs. They crossed the typical teenage line by trying to make several wrongs into a right, and that never works out. Lesson needs to be reinforced.

sbeckham, kudos to you for not throwing the book at those clowns! Had it been my property and my truck they "used" I would have been sending them to jail for sure. let them sit in there and make that call to their parents. Now we see why the OP's kid was thinking he was going to jail...it was deserved.

GW, whoever you are, restraint is sometimes good and sometimes bad. Only time will tell. I have seen it go both ways, and no way to tell until its too late.

X2, both sure are.

I could tell pages of stories about interactions with youth their parents and things the youths have done on our properties over the years.
Stuff like this is far more common than most folks think.

Can I respectfully request the thread stay open (feel free to lock it though). I think it is important to those of us with kids to show this to them. This thread was a perfect example of how teenagers can give one "truth" on their side of the story and the real "truth" comes out after and exposes what the teenagers thought was "true" as pure fiction.

The OP requested to take this offline with the land owner, so I belive their issue will be settled offline, but I think there is a lesson to be learned in this and we can use this thread for instructive purposes. Since the only name we have is the OP, there is no real harm to those involved except the father and his son if anyone knows them personally, but my guess is they already know about it by now anyway.

I hope they were drinking. I'd hate to think anyone would do something like that sober.

I just called my wife and told her I wanted to just cry over this.. because I can't believe how these kids think. They all go to church together, spend time at each other houses, etc... then they screw up like this. I'm grateful how things have turned out and the landowner understands how dumb they are..... and hopefully they learn a life lesson over this.

I wouldn't beat yourself up, tx_basser. You can lay the foundation, but you can't be there to hold his hand every moment. Kids are kids and they make mistakes. Church going kids are sinners, too. I'm sure when all is said and done, your son is going to learn a ton from this mishap.

2X

At that age impression is a big thing.. once your convicted of something its easy to convince yourself that too... if theres an age for a second chance that's the time... im glad I got mine

tx_basser, agree with what fouz said above. I will also add that kids can act really stupid when in group think, they seem to lose reason when in a group rather than gain it. It is a strange phenomenon, but it seems the more kids are added the less sense they get, subtractive reasoning rather than additive reasoning.

Like said, he knows he made a mistake, he doesn't need to be beat up over it. What he really needs is for you and mom to sit down and discuss with him why he did this or went along with it. And pursue the ultimate goal of getting him to think reasonably for himself, when in the face of others. I think there is a general lack of leadership in the youth, so many decisions are made for them and even when involved in sports or groups the decisions are made for them on so many things, they don't understand what it is to be a leader...we as the parental generation need to change that. Stiff punishment but reinforce the idea of strong personal decision making!!

You sure can, hopefully the usual group doesn't require it to be shut down. Good luck to you sir. I'm sure everything will turn out fine in the end.

Wow!

Yep. That kid is not going to feel like he got so lucky when dad gets home, but he did. That could have ruined their lives.

Well that explains the "not edible due to being muddy", and wow, sbeckham first and only post, the internet is amazing. Put the fear of God in them young ones, show him this post. Naw, ask him to come clean first, then show him this post. Kids will be kids, but when I was a kid (a long time ago) and hiding the truth from my parents, it was a lot easier!

Sir don't dispair too much. Scripture (Proverbs 22:6 tells us to train a child up in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. It's those in between years that are rough. He will learn, grow and come around. Hopefully this is a catalyst for that.

Im sure if the law man knew everything the majority of us have probably done at one point or another in our lives we would all be different. A lot don't get caught.

Someone needs to find new friends.

Yup, my first thought after reading the whole story. Take heart, my boy always gravitated to the dark side with his friends. It's brain damage, actually the brain just ain't finished making connections yet. Even after this is all cleared up, your boy will continue to make bad decisions because he doesn't want to be uncool in front of his 'friends'.

My boy is 31 now and is starting to make fun of the stupid stuff he did as a 'kid'. He thinks I'm smart now too.

We need more parents like the op.

Best read I had all day, I used to do stupid stuff too. We all grow up (hopefully) some day. Real life hunting drama... good outcome all around lessons to be learned for sure. thanks THF for this.

Hopefully the boys will learn a lesson from this. Life is tough enough, don't make it worse by doing stupid things.

My question is how did the guy who owned the property find this on THF? Coencidence or what?

Good question, sir - that post piqued my curiosity as well.

I wondered the same thing.

I've seen the same thing happen on here time and time again. Its a small world.

Wondering the same thing. Guess that's the Internet. Pretty specific place to find it though.

My guess would be he talked to a friend that is on here and they told them about this thread and that it could be the same kids

Navasot made a good point. Better to mess up now and learn than later. He is very lucky from what I have read.

We all make mistakes. I had my 7 mag confiscated when I was 16. Man the drive home was horrible to tell my parents. Never forget that. I got lucky too, I did get my gun back but it cost me 481 dollars. I had to pay my fine plus all the work I had to do cause my dad was mad! Learned my lesson real quick though. Kept the same friends just became a lot better at decision making! We weren't BAD kids just did some stupid things! I had saved that money for a long time wanting to buy new heads for my truck. Never did buy those heads! Lol my friends parents all paid thier fines,one went on to have 2 dwi's before we were out of high school. They never really had to be accountable and it showed. Still does now days and we are in our early(mid) 30's.

Probably this!

lets just say there is one unhappy child here at home..... grounded from truck for one month and must take bus to/from school, and can only drive to work. Was first two weeks, then got lippy, so escalated to 4 weeks. First assignment is to write a report detailing all of his transgressions, look up the specific laws on the books verbatim, penalties associated with transgression, etc. 1/2 of paycheck from work comes to me for recovery of fines, which I will find out tomorrow when I call Judge.

Wife is really taking this hard as she works for Dallas Leadership Foundation at the Hutchins State Jail in the Faith Based unit, as a program coordinator for inmates. She sees/hears the stories that start out like this, and how young people just screw up their lives continually due to bad choices. Last night we both could not sleep, because we knew in our hearts there was more to this story. Just so glad it was uncovered.

Dumb luck and a small world.

These kids made a mistake and will hopefully learn from it and not repeat themselves in the future. I met and talked to the kid and he definitely seems like a good kid with his head on straight. Just made a little mistake. If I would have been condemned for all of my stupid mistakes I would not be where I am today.

Thank you to the kids dad for being such a good person and taking to me about it. With a dad like you I am sure he will put this behind him in no time.

That's pretty stand up right there. Handled great great from tx_basser and sbeckham. Hats off to you guys.

to the forum.

I screwed up when I was that age as well. I'm glad I was given a second chance. Hopefully he will learn from this and put it behind him.

Very gracious of you to handle it the way you did. Well played.

X2

X3

Hats off to two gentlemen in the finest sense of the word. It stinks that it is not SB's burden, but I think the kid is lucky to cross paths with him rather than someone else. Kudos to both of you. Y'all embody the, 'it takes a village to raise a child mentality.'

Dad, let that leash out gradually and give him enough lead until he hangs himself, which is likely to happen again - hopefully not to this severity though. Teenagers are STUPID.

I remember the dumb crap I pulled. I am hoping my 4 year old won't have to learn my lessons the hard way and his mom and I are trying hard to reinforce there are consequences to your actions. However, I know it is bound to happen at some point (and probably more than once) in the next 10-15 years.

Make it 4

Crazy story!

So what time did the GW bust him? You got a phone call at 4pm, but they were allegedly using spot lights to shoot deer??

Or did it happen before daylight?

tx_basser, I'm sure there came a point today when you regretted posting this. I'd like to applaud you for being the man your wife and you are raising your son to be. You didn't have to give any of us details nor the end result. But you followed through with your experience. Painful as it is, you're a darned fine man for sharing so that others may learn from your son's mistake. I just hope the other two and their folks are reading this.

All kids mess up. Some worse than others. Lord knows I caused my parents many a sleepless night. Thankfully, I grew up in the Leave It To Beaver era when our actions had less severe consequences.

That said, thank goodness for understanding landowners and good Game Wardens.

And for parents like y'all, tx_basser!

I did some pretty dumb stuff too when I was a teenager. Used to spot light deer all the time with my buddies. Used to belly crawl across back yards in the middle of the night to pull catfish out of private stocked ponds. I new right from wrong, but guess it was all just too exciting to resist. Looking back I just SMH at myself, what the heck was I thinking. Got chased a few times by Game Wardens and shot at by a land owner but never got caught doing that. I did get caught doing something else STUPID and then I guess I finally learned that bad choices have consequences. Knucklehead teenagers...

Great thread and well handled by all parties involved IMO. Truly stand up folks and I have a feeling the kid involved is going to turn out to be a pretty good man

Fouz, I might have been a little apprehensive at first... But by trade I am an Auditor so I like to uncover facts about everything. Wife hates it, but I dont trust anything anybody says especially my kids. Love them dearly but the best thing I can do fror them is to parent them, not shelter/protect them.

It appears no one was hurt and nothing was lost or damaged. God is good.

Best thread from some good folks.

Good deal! Hope my kid makes some better choices than I made at times.

I had my car broken into in college and they got arrested doing it. They came and apologized the next day and I made them pay me for all damage plus a headache fine. If they paid in one week I would not press charges. It was over $1,000 in 1994 and I had no money to fix what they broke. They paid and hopefully learned a lesson. The kids dad was a LEO.

Best thread ever…

Sending link to both of my boys.

At 19, I got busted for trespassing and hunting without LO permission. My biggest mistake was believing my "friend" who said he/we had permission to hunt this particular ranch in Mason County. That was 40 years ago and I learned a lesson that weekend.

Fast forward to when my 16 year old got his drivers license. I told him to always tell me the truth, no matter how much trouble he thought he was in. #1. I will find out the truth because 16 yo's are not smart enough to hide the facts and #2 By lying, the punishment will be much worse than if he had told the truth the first time.

Sounds like the GW was very lenient and the landowner as well. Since they were not arrested, the criminal trespass on ag land is likely a class C. Could be class A with the firearms. The other three I think are just class C TPWD code violations. So like a traffic ticket I don't think there would be a requirement to contact parents. The GW could have gone with the hunting without permission/whitetail taken state jail felony, auto theft felony charge, tacked on more misdemeanors like hunting at night, spotlighting, and who knows what else. And he could have also taken the truck with the guns. The felony arrests would have followed these kids for life. Yes it is an expensive life lesson, but they are very lucky IMHO.

tx_basser - did you TALK to parent/adult @ the (original) destination location before sending your kid/youth off to hunt there ?

Please don't try to find an angle on this one. It's a really solid thread where everyone is learning a lesson. Trying to pass any judgment is really unbecoming.

Dis' just got good!!!

Now that I have read the thread, I believe this got really good!!!! Great job by both parties!! Handled very well by everyone. I hope your son learns a big lesson in what not to do going forward!

not trying to; I'm a parent of youngsters as well and trying to learn myself too - I also coach other youngsters (4H shooting sports) so just trying to fill in some blanks so I can help teach others how to help avoid repetition of such an unfortunate event.

send the boy back to the land/truck owners to work off the transgressions...

There is no doubt that tx_basser & sbeckham are both stand up guys as this topic could have turned south quick, thanks to the moderators for letting it play out. There are three young fellows that are lucky to have the likes of both of these gentlemen involved in this matter as they are no doubt both role models of who men should be. Well done Sirs!

Would be automatic at my house....

This is the best thread I've ever come across on this site! Glad I found it and hope everything works out for all parties involved.

Agree.

Well done gentlemen. I wish discretion like this was used more these days. A parent who takes something like this seriously and treats his kid accordingly and a "victim" who sees the bigger picture and responds appropriately to the situation. I can speak from experience when I say that my younger son benefited tremendously from a very similar set of events. It didnt involve hunting but it did involve a very reasonable, understanding, "victim" whose property was severely damaged.

I did not read this whole thing but my son shot a deer on ft hood that was just shay of 13in he got luck and only got a waring but the fine for the deer if ticketed would be 2800 just for the deer. the ward said of post it wold be more that 13in rule sucks i hope er thing turned out ok

This thread got me thinking of all the dumb things I did at that age. Some i got caught doing, most not. I remeber the day my dad bailed me oit of jail. Never said a word to me the whole ride home. Was the worst feeling ever. I never even thought of shoplifting again. Consider it a blessing that he got caught and no one was hurt. He will learn from this and will be better for it. And will have a pretty funny story to tell his own dumbass kid someday.

Classic thread. Forces us all to look back on what we did we probably shouldn't have, and forces us to think about how, no matter what kind of parents you are, we have to remember that God made us all with free will and we continually screw up that gift.
Kudos to both the dad and the landowner for how they have handled this. You two gents prove there are still decent, thoughtful and compassionate people out there.

Call the judge and beg for mercy. Worked for me and my 16 y/o son.

My hat is off to T_Bass and SBeck...you gentleman are what we need more of. A parent who doesn't just believe whatever their perfect darling tells them, and a victim who decides to try to help the perp vs nail them to the wall. You guys rock

P.S. I'll forever be indebted to a GW by the name of Fitzpatrick, who worked Montgomery Co. He had me dead to rights and I was on my way to jail as a young man. But he made a decision to give me a break, only wrote me one ticket out of double digit violations. Wherever you are, Fitzpatrick, rest assured I've never forgotten the lesson you taught me. And I've kept well inside the boundaries of the law

As others have said, my hat's off to tx_basser and sbeckham for the way you guys have handled this situation. It's refreshing to see a parent who doesn't automatically back himself in a corner believing everything out of his child's mouth. I see that crap on a regular basis and it gets very tiring. It's also nice to see a person who can see past what a kid has done (when appropriate) and cut them some slack. I'm pretty hard nosed about these things, but if it happened to me and a parent handled it like tx_basser, I would be willing to give the kid a break.

Your son is fortunate, both the GW and landowner showed a heck of a lot of character and restraint considering the potential consequences had they thrown the book at the kids. But calling the judge directly, I'm no attorney, but I'd imagine it could potentially cause you more grief than the issues that got your son in trouble in the first place.

I'd suggest hiring a criminal attorney. Preferably a former Van Zandt DA or former district or county judge in private practice who specializes in criminal law with significant trial experience. If he/she plays a weekly round of golf with the judge or DA on a regular basis, exchanges Christmas cards, goes to lunch together during recess, etc, all the better.

GW Gus Kadirka or Billy Francis?

Well done sir and to the dad as well. I have seen kids do this in my line of work where the situation spins out and they just dont think! But all in all he got off very easy and the GW needs a pat on the back as well as the State could have filed the charges without the LO. Man if kids would just stop and make that dad phone call a lot of this could have been stopped.

Great thread

Great read

WRONG! The GW and LO already cut him a HUGE break...I'd go to court with my son and tell the judge what the boys did, what the LO and GW did, and then ask for a lot of community service hours be applied to the LO.....in addition to his fines which I would expect him to work and pay off.....

Well-handled by the LO, the GW, and the parents. I bet those boys will never forget that night.

I did some pretty stupid stuff at those ages, and had to pay the price a few times, but they shaped my character. The best lessons come at a high cost.

"Wisdom comes with Experience. Experience comes from lack of Wisdom!"

I remember lying in bed 50 years ago awake most of the night waiting for a knock on my parents door from the police as a result of a idiotic stunt my friends and I did on a Friday night. Could have had my but in jail for sure with a felony record. I thank Our Lord for his generosity in the fact that nothing happened. I provide this just to confirm that many of us in our youth screw up but can and in most cases will turn out to be reasonably good citizens. Take heart Dad as you and your wife and the Land Owner are obviously decent folks and this incident will just be a bad memory in no time.

http://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20160217a

I am not being a jerk here but "Youth Hunt" in my opinion means Youth goes with the parent. Isnt that right?

For Ticket #1: There could be a possibility that someone on the other property shot a hog and this 16 yr old shot much before dark. How soon did the GW arrive after he heard the shot? When I went hunting with a buddy and we sat on different blinds far from each other. We both heard gun shots and thought each other got a deer. Only to find out someone else was hunting behind the property.

For Ticket #2: Where was the Deer shot? Neighbor's property? Where was it hanging? If the neighbor doesnt have proof for Trespassing, then the ticket will be waived. "Innocent till proven guilty".

For Ticket #3: Eat this one and take it as a lesson learned. Make sure to do that next time. Before gutting, fill out the tag. This way even if you forget to attach it, at least you have it filled out. There is possibility of leniency from GW. Have good intention.

For Ticket #4: Did the GW take pictures? Sometimes Cops or GW can be jerks. They may give u a ticket just for the heck of it.

I have worked with many Juveniles who have been arrested for worse crimes. As long as you dont have a past 'bad' record, you dont act arrogant, apologize and accept you should have known better, you will be fine. A lot of folks get out after committing Murder. Your chances of going to jail or getting hunting license suspended are 'minimal'. Next time, go with an ADULT (Parent).

This is the GW side of the story. They have not been charged yet so this may not completely be true. Lets give benefit of doubt.

"No Luck Pulling Stuck Trucks
A Van Zandt County game warden got a call from a landowner who said his ranch truck was stolen from his hunting camp. The warden was en route to the landowner’s location when the landowner called him back to say he had found his truck stuck on an easement by the Sabine River, close to another deer camp. When the warden arrived on scene, he found three individuals with two trucks stuck on the easement. After interviewing each person, the warden determined not only had the individuals stolen the landowner’s truck to pull out their own stuck truck, they had also shot a small whitetail buck the night before on the neighboring ranch, on which they did not have consent to hunt. The individuals confessed they shot the deer at night."

Ok. Did you read the whole thread?? I think you missed the part where the landowner this happened to chimed in a few messages down to clarify and substantiate it. When you confess to your dad, landowner and GW, it usually means you did it...

Court today..... so had to take a 1/2 day off work so we can go down there and I can empty my wallet. Thanks for all of the positive replies here, and still going thru this day by day with son. I find the most challenging is they are dumber than a box of hammers. They can look up any kind of crazy stuff on their phone, but not interested in researching game laws, regulations, etc.

Do you know the total damages or are they still figuring it out? Do you get to plea down and get rid of some?

Don't know yet.. Paperwork we got said 3 different offenses and it did not list fines or anything like that. After all that has happened, I told son.. we go there with a humble attitude and heart and get past this deal. You will be talking to the Judge, so it will be up to you how you communicate what happened, lesson learned, etc.

Thank goodness for parents like you and your wife, txbasser!

A good friend of mine has a saying that he used frequently with his kids when they were growing up.

"I can explain things to you, but I cannot learn them for you" Your boy is about to get some of that firsthand learning experience.

How'd it go yesterday, txbasser?

wanted to give y'all on update based on how things went yesterday.

Have to give kudos to the Judge Horvath there in Grand Saline. She reminds me of what you would expect in a small County Judge. Down to earth, common sense, weed through Teenager Derp, etc. I will say, she put the fear of God in a couple of teenagers yesterday. All in all, overall fines were $1050.00 for 3 citations (Trespassing, Hunting in Closed Season, & Failure to keep game in edible condition).

Then went over to meet Office Moore (County Game Warden) to retrieve confiscated firearm, etc. Another impressive young man that truly had the heartbeat of these kids, and knew they were making poor decisions and help broker the deal between the landowner/kids on not pressing additional charges.

Hoping these kids learn a lesson, as they still have some home punishment they are dealing with, etc.

Glad to hear you are getting things wrapped up on it. Prayerfully this experience helps them make better future decisions.

Glad this is working out for you. Hopefully the hammers will eventually get a little bit of sense and smarts! What I've seen here impresses me with your parenting skills, the landowner's mercy, and the game warden's forbearance. It is good that you got a judge with some compassion but still believes in punishment. Works better to discipline kids and avoid "affluenza".