BRILLIANT!!!

The way I remember when I was LEO is that a game warden must have "reasonable suspicion" that someone is/or has hunted/fished and they can pretty much go on any property and check any buildig or item where game/fish or parts can be stored.
Without the resonable suspicion however, they are as limited as regular LEO and must get search warrants for land.
But to say a game warden pulls you over for speeding on the highway and can look in an ice chest in the back of your pickup is not right.
There has to be that suspicion of hunting/fishing.
But back in the day, any officer could enforce game laws and we would right game violation tickets and they would be processed at the JPs office just the same.
That being said, what a game warden is legally allowed to do and what he does are 2 different arguments. Just cause the GW does it, doesn't mean its always legal.

Try proving that a GW did not have reason to think fishing or hunting MIGHT have been occurring on any piece of property where fish or game are present. No gunshots? Bows don't make them.

Helo - When you say they have to suspect that hunting or fishing is occurring on the property, if they've heard gunshots any time in the last year, they can say that they had previously heard gunshots and want to verify that no illegal game is being stored in the freezer or something similar. Even if your neighbhors are the ones doing the shooting, that's probably enough to qualify their search because how the heck do they know exactly where the shots were fired?

It'd be really, really difficult to win that battle. I just wouldn't try.

That about covers that////

Andy BTW the DONT need a warrant to search your home or vehicle.

Ours waits at the end of the only road to about 200,000 acres.He's a good guy who expects you to follow the law.

PARKS AND WILDLIFE CODE
TITLE 2. PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT
CHAPTER 12. POWERS AND DUTIES CONCERNING WILDLIFE

Sec. 12.102. INSPECTION OF WILDLIFE RESOURCES. (a) In this section:
(1) "Residence" means a person's principal or ordinary home or dwelling place.
(2) "Temporary residence" means a place where a person temporarily dwells or seeks shelter. The term does not include a hunting blind. The term does include a: (A) hunting club or lodge; (B) clubhouse; (C) cabin; (D) tent; (E) manufactured home used as a hunting club or lodge; and (F) hotel room, motel room, or room in a boardinghouse used during a hunting trip.
(3) "Wildlife resource" means any animal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, or form of aquatic life or any part of an animal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, or form of aquatic life the hunting, catching, or possession of which is regulated by this code.
(b) Except as provided by Subsection (d), a game warden or other peace officer commissioned by the department who observes a person engaged in an activity regulated by this code or under the jurisdiction of the commission or reasonably believes that a person is or has been engaged in an activity regulated by this code or under the jurisdiction of the commission may inspect:
(1) any license, permit, tag, or other document issued by the department and required by this code of a person hunting or catching wildlife resources;
(2) any device that may be used to hunt or catch a wildlife resource;
(3) any wildlife resource in the person's possession; and
(4) the contents of any container or receptacle that is commonly used to store or conceal a wildlife resource.
(c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), a game warden or other peace officer commissioned by the department may inspect any wildlife resource that has been taken by a person and is in plain view of the game warden or other peace officer.
(d) Nothing in this section authorizes a game warden or other peace officer commissioned by the department to conduct a search otherwise authorized by this section:
(1) in a person's residence or temporary residence; or
(2) on a publicly maintained road or way that is:
(A) improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular traffic;
(B) open to the public; and
(C) distinguishable from a shoulder, berm, or other area not intended for vehicular traffic.

Added by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 558, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.

Sec. 12.104. RIGHT TO SEARCH AND INSPECT. (a) A game warden or other peace officer commissioned by the department may search a game bag, vehicle, vessel, or other receptacle if the game warden or peace officer has a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the game bag, vehicle, vessel, or receptacle contains a wildlife resource that has been unlawfully killed or taken.
(b) A game warden or other peace officer commissioned by the department may inspect a wildlife resource or a part or product of a wildlife resource that is discovered during a search under Subsection (a) of this section.
(c) In this section "wildlife resource" means an animal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, or other aquatic life the taking or possession of which is regulated in any manner by this code.
(3) "Vessel" means watercraft, including an attached motor, that can be used for transportation on water.

12.103 is describing civil suits.

DOES NOT SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZE SEARCHES OF RESIDENCES AS A WARRANT IS NEEDED.

But I guess we will agree to disagree on this one.

Well, when I come back from hunting, I got all my crap in the truck with me. It's pretty clear I've been hunting, so that is reasonable suspicion.

WE HAVE BEEN HUNTING THE SAME LEASE FOR YEARS AND OUR GW STOPS BY EVERY OPENING WEEKEND JUST TO SEE IF WE HAVE ANYONE NEW,SHOOT THE BULL FOR A WHILE AND WANT SEE HIM AGAIN.BUT DEFIENTLY HE'S AROUND. NO PROBLEMS WITH POACHERS,TRESSPASSING, OR ROAD HUNTERS.AWSOME JOB

Coolest thing I ever saw was a game warden roll in to a duck camp(in the truck), while this guy was duck hunting. I saw him, but the other guy didn't. I was in my stand on our side of the fence and their camp was on the other. Game warden sets in the truck and never sees me. However, the bigges swarm of ducks ever, decided to roll in on this one guy. He bagged his limit in no less than 5 minutes. We watched him go out and get them, rope them together, and put them in the back of his tool box. He looked around for a good 10 minutes, and never saw the dadgum GW there. Idiot! Next, he gets back in the blind, shoots his limit again in under 5 min. While he's wading out, I see the GW step out of the truck. He went over to the guy, helped him load up the ducks, and asked him if he had a good day. Next thing you see is all the ducks come out, the guys guns going the the GW truck, all his decoys, and he even took the guys blind out of the back of his truck.

I have nothing against wardens, I was just a bit surprised when they rolled up... owned the property for 30 yrs and never had one out there. I told him to drop by whenever but to try not to come during hours we are sitting.
It just so happened one of us was still up in the blind trying to fill the doe tag and the gamewarden drove thru and killed the hunt. We drove 6 hrs to get here so the gw came and screwed it up.. We were following all rules and everyone checked out clean.
just venting... oh well

The only beef that I have with GW's is their attitude. I think their job descriptions requires them to have a piss poor attitude. They have a guilty until proven innocent mentality for the most part. I had one check me bird hunting one time. He checked my gun, birds, and liscense. All was well. He then asked to search my vehicle and then tried to contact the land owner to see if I had permission to hunt. He said he was confident that he could find something to cite me on. After wasting a good 30 more minutes of digging and finding nothing. He up and left. No goodbye or have a nice day. I tell you. Common courtesy goes a long way, but they don't teach that at the GW academy.

yep gw had key to our place too.... seen him come in once in about 15 yrs..

Joseph, you're right that they don't teach attitude at the academy. Unfortunately, there are plenty of "professors" out in the field who do their level best to teach it. I've seen people pound their chests & play armchair lawyer the minute the GW came around, and wouldn't you know it... they get checked real close.

When I was a kid spending the summer alone on my dad's client's property, the GW would come by pretty often, more to make sure I was OK than to keep me in line. Came up one summer day & caught me skinning a doe, with only my .22 anywhere in sight. He reminded me that 1) shooting does was illegal in the county, 2) shooting any deer during the summer was illegal, and 3) a .22 wasn't a legal firearm for hunting deer. I told him I was sorry, I knew it was against the law, but that I'd just gotten tired of eating armadillo. He laughed and proceeded to show me a better way to skin the doe. He knew the owner very well, and the owner had asked him to keep an eye on me. Granted, that was almost 50 years ago, and the situation was very different than a leaseholder who pays to hunt for sport. But if I'd been a smart-[censored], I know things would have gone differently. VERY differently.

I learned back then not only to appreciate the GW when he showed up, but to make sure the GW knew when I'd be out hunting (especially if I was hunting armadillos or coons at night). In almost 50 years of hunting, I've never had a bad encounter with a GW, but I've known others who always have problems. Pretty obvious what the common element in their stories was.

Back when I was younger we used to do a lot of spotlighting down on our families place from the truck. The land pirmarily used as a pecan orchard and was located on a creek bed so we had LOTS of coons in those trees around harvest time. The place was something like 3000 acres, so we had some trigger time.

Well, one time we were down there spotlighting with .223's making all kinds of noise. We'd probably already shot 40-50 coons that night, so you know everyone in the county knew we were there.

We'd done this hundreds of times before, so didn't really expect to see any Game Warden. Well this time, myself and 4 buddies were in the truck driving out of one of the properties. We stopped inside of a feedlot type setup and spotted a few dillows in an empty cattle pen on the passenger side of the truck, my buddy gets his AR pointed out of the window of the truck, and we shine the spotlight beyond the intended target and see some cattle there and decide it's not a safe shot and we need to head on to a different property.

We start paying attention to the road again, and I kid you not, the warden was standing 5 feet in front of the truck! He was just standing in the middle of the road.

We were totally blown away how he'd gotten up on us without us knowing. His truck was parked behind some cattle pins about 15 yards away.

Anyway, he's 5 feet from us, and just heard all of this go down. He starts walking up to the driver side of the truck. Well, my buddy didn't have time to get his AR out of the driver side window (we were VERY surprised how close he was), and it's pitch black, something like 3:00AM and the Warden didn't see that he walked right in front of a loaded AR-15.

My buddy starts saying "WOAH" and trys to get the barrel out of the wardens line of fire, but the window prevented the barrel from doing that, and the warden was leaning in the truck. Immediately the Warden's eyes get big as a dinner plate as soon as he realized what he'd just walked up into. He let my friend clear the gun and we had a nice chat. He'd been watching us for the past few hours making sure we weren't shooting deer or anything stupid like that.

The warden was an absolute great guy, and we were very respectful. Looking back on it, I strongly suspect that he was glad we didn't kill him, and tried to make him aware of his mistake ASAP. I'm sure he was more careful after that

One of my buddies didn't have a hunting license, and the warden let him slide. He was a great guy but I hear he just retired in the last couple of years. I guess we'll have to establish a relationship with the new one.


Point of this being, this warden was a stealthy SOB, an all round great guy, but I think he got "buck fever" on making contact with us. Funny story though.

Any GW worth his salt will have a lock picking set in his truck that would make the best 'safe cracker' jealous! LMAO

A lot of people do not give the Wardens credit but they know their chit, believe me. And most of them, at least the younger ones will walk 5 miles in the dead of night to check a camp if they have to!

A friend in Missouri who owns property and is good friends with the GW told me that his GW said they spend more time busting illegal drug operations than they do busting people for illegal hunting. Apparently there are a lot of dangerous scumbags who trespass onto wooded properties and set up meth labs. My friend actually found one on his land a few years ago. Pretty sad and scary. Not sure if it's as big of a problem in Texas.

There is nothing better than chatting up an old GW. My dad and uncles used to ride with the GWs every night looking for poachers. Loved hearing those stories.

We hunt real close to the warden and he is a good guy! If they come see you give them the lock combo and make them feel at home. All they want is to do is check things out and they are on your side. If we spotlight, which we never really do, give them a call and tell them whats going on. I have the GW cell phone on speed dial and a simple call goes along way.

cant remember his name but the warden in mills county is a super good dude.

Well I worked as a deputy sheriff for a while and worked hand and hand with several game wardens. They showed me a trick to get into them. Obviously I wont disclose that on here but I can assure you I dont need a key or combo to get in.

that's who walked up on us. His first name was Gary, can't for the life of me remember his last name. He retired about 2 years ago. The new warden is Vance Flowers, I've heard nothing but great things about him.

I'm guessing he took the gate off the hinges?

kinda what i figured lol. but there are ways to jimmy a lock. just not very easy, and you can damage em.



I can say ive never had a GW check up on me, not out while hunting, and not out while fishing and ive done a whole lot of both. I know some of the local GWs, but one thing that i wont do is give em the combo to any gate. Sure they are the "good" govt agency, but to me they are still a govt agency that has no business knowing our gate combos. If they want to come out, more power to em, i dont mind it.

About the attitude, I think it is taught at the academy, and I like it.

They, and state troopers,(and all LE to a degree) have to deal with the widest variety of people you could even try to imagine.

That "I am in control no matter what" attitude, and tons of knowledge and training, is what keeps them alive 1 vs XXX. They have to have that on contact.

Sure, after initial contact, they can change to a posture that fits the totality of the cirumstances better. I have never seen a rude or unprofessional warden or trooper... I have seen them be direct and blunt.

The game wardens I know are great guys that do a lot more than write tickets for no plug in your shotgun.