field possession limit, possession, custody, daily bag limit. you know what it means. it means NO PILES.

youve made like 15 comments on here, and never contributed anything relevant. please remove yourself from this discussion until you can produce a law stating you CAN NOT pile birds or put them on a single strap. Find something that says everyones birds must be separated at all times.

OR... show some case law where someone was cited for it and it stuck. they post those game warden notes all the time. i dont recall anyone on there for having birds in a pile.

thats all i am asking for. im not asking for your interpretation of the laws.

There is no relevance in this comparison. The law with speeding is quite clear. If you are traveling 1 mph over the posted speed limit you are breaking law. You can complain or argue all you want about whether an officer should give you a ticket for going 1 mph over the speed limit, but you can't argue whether or not they can or can not give you a ticket for going 1 mph over. There is no grey area here.

As far as splitting up birds, I have yet to read one regulation that explicitly states you must keep your birds separate. I've been to the Federal website and State websites. One would think that in order to enforce a law there should be a reasonable effort to make the law well known to hunters.

The only people I see reading too far into this are those trying to interpret laws that say nothing about grouping ducks into a law that states they must be separate.

Does not matter to me what you choose to do. Pile them all up.

Please post up photos of your ticket when you run across the GW who will write you a ticket for that. And then post up the transcript from your court appearance. And also post up a copy of your check for the fine you pay. You can blur out the routing numbers though.

Again, your choice to pile or not pile. I have no preference for the way you handle your ducks.

Do you keep your crappie in seperate coolers when fishing? When getting checked fishing I have never been asked which ones I caught and which ones the others caught. They count to make sure we aren't over our group limit...then move on. I personally think it's pretty stupid that wardens will be picky about that with ducks and the same warden has different standards with fish.

It is a good idea to keep you birds seperate to avoid issues with the game warden. They will seperate you and ask each person what birds they shot. Stories better line up or you could be in trouble. Much easier to keep birds seperate and avoid any confusion.

I watched a guy get a ticket a few years ago because they had a pile of ducks with the full group limit of pintails. The GW seperated the hunters and individually asked them what birds they shot. The young kid in the group claimed he didn't shoot a pintail. Dad got a ticket for shooting over his pintail limit.

Party shot ducks get confusing. If birds are seperated then it is very clear everybody is on the same page as to what birds they are laying claim to.

Ducks are migratory birds. Crappie are not.

Migratory bird hunting is held to a different standard since Federal rules apply. Which is why you can hunt Texas quail without a plug but must hunt Federal doves and Federal ducks with a plug in your shotgun.

correct, its a federal issue...

so um... anything in the federal laws about piling birds or keeping them separate?

Nope. I keep them separate till we get to the picking shed. After BOBO told me the story of his friend and the one hell of a fine he got for commingling ducks I even marked 6 off on each peg on my board. Look you have nothing to loose so pile all you want. I don't want to be the guy that guys like you start to burn on a forum when they read or hear about it. If some GW checks me and him and his wife got in a fight the night before and I get the commingle ticket. Just what I chose to do. Written law or GW interpreted law, I'm going do it.

No, but if you Google "ticketed by game warden for having ducks in a pile" this thread is at the top of the list.

] And A fed GW sees it his way. I can drive from weatherford to Albany doing 80 mph, and sooner or later Ill get caught. Some troopers will let you go, and some will right you a ticket.

Several pages ago, on guy mentioned picking up spent hulls, and that the game warden wanted them to separate out their shells so that he could count how many shots they took.

Question, why?

Who cares if I burn five boxes and kill on wood duck, is this illegal to be a bad shot?

§ 20.37 Custody of birds of another.
No person shall receive or have in custody any migratory game birds belonging to another person
unless such birds are tagged as required by § 20.36.




I see nothing about comingling. I'm I'm in a blind with 3 other guys, I retrieve my duck, toss it in the pile in the blind, that duck is still in my custody, that duck is still in my possession.

If I go home early and leave my ducks in the blind, the bird is now in the custody of others. As long as I'm present, I have not given up custody.

There should be no "grey" areas when it comes to laws that are enforced. If officials feel as though this is a regulation that needs to be enforced it should be stated explicitly and clearly such that there is no question.