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Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7415777 01/26/19 08:52 PM
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My best story about a Game Warden involves a now retired Game Warden from Howard County. I was with the SO one night and we heard a call go out to the PD about a reckless driver, just so happens we were close and spotted the vehicle less than a minute after the call. Pursuit took place involving several units and finally had them blocked in on private road going up to a house. As we rolled in we seen two individuals on the ground and a third (Female) standing in front of the vehicle. In front of all was our local Game Warden in a full length light blue and pink house coat with his complete duty rig strapped around his waist, flash light and holding his badge. The suspects in they're effort to get away ran up a blind road going directly to the Game Wardens house about 2 AM in the morning. It was quite the sight, he says it was his wife's house coat and he just grabbed it in a hurry.


Yes! A Weatherby does kill them deader.
Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7415793 01/26/19 09:29 PM
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My brother and I are shooting ducks over a small tank, really a seasonal wet spot...half a dozen decoys, we are behind a Mesquite that has a big limb that runs along the ground, and the teal couldn't help themselves...just after splashing the last 3 we needed for limits, a truck roars in brakes hard and Mr. Green Jeans runs up to us..."Where is the full auto weapon?" he demands. My brother and I shrug and say what automatic? We are both shooting slick as snot 870's...He is certain he heard full auto firing and wants to know where we hid the weapon, and we again say we are shooting pumps...with plugs in the magazine...he calls his supe and wants to know can they send a dog out to search for the automatic weapon. Supe tells him no, then tells him to check out "Herb Parson 7 clay birds with a pump, video. Tells him to turn on the video, don't watch, just listen to how fast a pump gun can shoot. GW does so standing right there with us...tells us he is sorry, but he was certain he had heard an automatic ... says he had no idea a pump could shoot faster than a semi-auto, shook our hands and walked back to his truck...didn't check our licenses or stamps, we were legal but he just kept shaking his head...


"Guns don't kill people, Guns kill dinner!"
Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7415810 01/26/19 09:51 PM
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Most my game warden run in were when I was young and my buddy was running around with his daughter. He enjoyed checking us and giving us a ticket for whatever he could find.

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7415844 01/26/19 10:56 PM
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Best thread of 2019!




LETS GO BRANDON
Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7415999 01/27/19 02:58 AM
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About 8 or 9 years ago I was home from school and took my little brothers out to shoot ducks on a small private tank. At the time they were around 13 and 15 and didn’t know much about duck ID. I told them to shoot what I told them to but there shouldn’t be any problems since the hole usually holds grey ducks and wigeon only. Well about an hour into the hunt I’m playing bird dog on the other side of the tank and I see our counties new GW creeping through the woods. The guy would have gotten peppered pretty good if we went to shoot from the angle he was coming from, possibly close enough to break skin. He demanded to see my license immediately, asked who all was hunting, then followed me to go check them. On the way back we had to cross a creek and he didn’t want to get his boots muddy. I offered to give him a piggy back ride, which made him even more angry. He got his boots muddy and comes over to the blind. There’s still some birds in the water, so he tells me I have to get them. Once I get done fetching them up I come back to the blind to him chewing my littlest brothers [censored] out for shooting over the limit. When I asked him what he meant he responds with “Look right there, he’s got 3 gadwalls in his pile. That’s 1 over the limit!” He then rolls right into lecturing him on waterfowl identification and knowing the rega before I interrupt him telling him he’s wrong. Pisses him off even more, he says he’s right, I say I want you to show me so he gets on his phone and starts looking it up. We awkwardly small talk about some deer that have been shot around there while he looks it up, but you could tell the minute he read the rules bc he shoved his phone in his pocket and started talking faster about deer. I asked him about the rule and he shakes it off “oh ya I was thinking redheads heh” and keeps going on about stuff. Finally at the end of it all he asks if we ever get into any wood ducks. “I need one to stuff to use for the classes that we do for kids on game animals and rules/regs.” Without missing a beat my 13 year old brother pops off with “are you the teacher or the student?” Conversation over, he stomps off through the mud and hauls [censored].

That same GW approached and checked my buddy and his grandpa in the Home Depot because they were wearing camp.

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Mr. T.] #7416069 01/27/19 05:08 AM
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Originally Posted by Mr. T.
Back in the sixties you could just drive up to a couple of farm houses and ask if they would mind if you dove hunted at their tank.
Always had luck doing that. Was in the very very small town of Ivan which is about 10 miles from Breckenridge. Asked at the post office
if they knew any place the 4 of us could dove hunt. Said yes, down the road 1/4 mile is the community field where the owner does
not have a problem with anyone hunting dove. It's a sun flower field. We thank him and drove to the field. Got out and positioned our
selves on the four different sides of the field. Before I could even load my gun a GW pulled up. Yep, you guessed it. We all got tickets
for trespassing. I even said, lets go back to the post office, that guy gave up permission to hunt here. He said I could tell it to the Judge.
The part I liked was we could mail in a fine of $125 each or we could appear in Judge Johnson's court for trespassing
I offended wondered, how much of the $125 did the GW get.


I killed my first deer a mile or two from there.

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7416152 01/27/19 01:53 PM
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My only bad encounter I guess

At 19 I buy a brand new Skeeter bass boat. The dealership tells me you will receive your TPW tag and plates in the mail in about 3-4 weeks. I leave with paper temporary plates

The next day I take it out alone. Get into a mess of sandbass and keep like 15-20. The daily bag was 25 I believe.

I head back and load the boat. Get on the road and on the way home the GW stops me.

You catch anything? Yes. Have any in the boat? Yes.

He makes me pull out all 15-20 and lay them on the deck of this brand new boat. Counts and measures them. Fish scales everywhere.

You know you don’t have a TPW sticker? Yes, just bought the boat yesterday. You can clearly see the paper tags were issued yesterday. I will have my sticker in the next 3/4 weeks.

GW, ok wel here’s your ticket for no sticker bang

I got it dismissed and didn’t pay anything though. He didn’t know how it worked, you won’t walk out of a dealership w a TPW sticker on a new boat.

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7416228 01/27/19 03:43 PM
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The only bad encounter with a GW for me came when I was fishing for stripers below the dam at Texoma. We would take an ultra lite spinning rod and reel combo and catch skipjack shad to use for bait. On that day the big stripers were feeding and the shad were well aware so even though they were usually easily caught they were scarce that day. I had been trying to catch a shad for 30 to 45 minutes. The GW was sitting in his truck at the top of the embankment and everyone fishing there was well aware that he was there. I didn't think anything about him being there since I wasn't doing anything illegal.
Well I finally caught a shad and hooked it up on my bigger spinning rod rig and waded out in the river to a point to where I could cast the shad into the channel where the bigger stripers were feeding. About the time I get to that point I hear someone holler at me. I turned around to see who it was and it was the GW. He said to come back to the bank so even though it was pizzing me off I waded back to where he was. He asked to see my license so I got them out and gave them to him. He looked them over and said that I was good to go. I said not really because by this time the shad was already lifeless and pretty much useless for bait. I asked why he waited so long to come and check on me since he had been there for over an hour. He said that he was just waiting for the mood to do so. I told him that he was just being a jerk and he said that I was entitled to my opinion and just walked back to his truck. He didn't check anyone else. For whatever reason he was just messing with me. I just packed up my stuff and went home. I was still to pizzed to fish any more that day.


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Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7416348 01/27/19 07:20 PM
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While dove hunting in Medina County. An already POed game warden showed up and checked everyone. My daughter was 13 and had her hunting license and proof of hunter’s education, but no formal ID as she was too young to have a driver’s license. The warden asked her how old she was; she polity said that she was 13. Later he asked her again and she reminded him that she was 13 and did not have any other kind of ID. I confirmed that she was 13 and he still asked her a third and a fourth time and she said “I have already told you 4 times that I’m 13 years old.” Needless to say, the warden is now even more POed. He checked everything and warned us that there would be no “pooling” of our dove and threaten to give us tickets for things that we might do.
He went to the truck where I had my dove up against the cab and my daughter's dove were on the tailgate. He fussed at us about combining our dove all in the same pile. I explained that they were clearly in two separate piles and that they were not pooled. He said that they were in the same truck and that was pooling. I asked him if he expected us to take the doves home in separate trucks and what was the law on how far apart our dove piles had to be and I would be happy to abide by that. He stomped off. He tried hard to find something on us.


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Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7416350 01/27/19 07:21 PM
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I was on a lease on a large ranch for several years. The guy that was the lease boss had had the lease since the 60’s. The game warden would stop by about once a year, check licenses and talk hunting. Never had any issues. Well one Saturday while about a dozen of us were there finishing breakfast, the game warden and his partner come by and starts grilling us about which one of us shot a goat. We have no idea what he is talking about. Adjacent to the entrance to the ranch was a small property that was full of goats. The wardens go on and on about how they know one of us shot a goat. They proceed to tell us that a goat on this adjacent property had been shot that morning and the only place the shot could have come from was from our lease. None of us were on that side of the ranch that morning. We proceed to tell them where each of us hunted that morning and none of us would have even driven by the property where the goat had been shot. Two of the guys in our group were attorneys and one of the attorneys was a former LEO. We continued to deny any knowledge or responsibility of shooting a goat, but the GWs were adamant one of us shot the goat, and they’d make it easier on us if we just admitted to shooting the goat. We asked the GWs to show us exactly where the goat was shot and where they thought the goat was shot from. There was no reason the goat could not have been shot from other directions or even from the highway. We repeatedly said that we had no reason to shoot a goat. After the continued accusations from the GWs, one of the attorneys politely piped up and said none of us had anything to do with the shooting of this goat and unless they had something else to discuss, we were done. We all gave the GWs our contact info and they went on their way. The lease boss called the landowner and told him what happened. The landowner said he knew we didn’t shoot a goat and to call him if the GW gave us any more trouble. A few weeks later we learned that the goat was shot by a neighbor’s kid on the other side of this property. It pissed us all off that the GWs had tried and convicted one of us with no evidence other than we were hunters. Only bad experience I have ever had.

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7416376 01/27/19 08:02 PM
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I will add to my original story this is a no big deal type deal but is similar to all my encounters with GW

Same boat as above maybe 2 years later.

I used to fish jackpot working mans tourney. They last 3-4 hours

I get “safety inspected” one tourney, which takes 15 min. Ok no big deal I was legal

The next week during another working mans tourney I get checked again! By the same GW, near the same spot bang Time is waisting on my tourney clock guess what...I was legal...again. Thanks

And that’s my issue w them.

When they show up they are 99 percent of the time looking to ticket you.

I work like everyone else, my time for hunting and fishing is limited.

I don’t want to give up my dove, deer or fishing time when I’ve not done any crime at least have some evidence I’ve comitted a wrong doing.

Nope, show up and run guys thru the ringer just looking to write someone for a ticket

There are some GW lovers on here and I’m not against them it’s just the truth.

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7416466 01/27/19 11:01 PM
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Living in Colorado, spotlighting at night was illegal, unless you got a permit. We planned on shooting coyotes in the grasslands. Nobody does it so my buddy and myself decide, hey it's our right so we get a permit but the warden doesn't want to give us one. He says he doesn't think we need to go to which we respond it is not his opinion that counts but what is written in their rules. He finally gives in and issues a permit to us but we must call everytime we go out and let him know exactly where we are going to be.
We go a couple of times and call him and he says he will find us and check on us. Well, we get tired of going because it takes a lot of time and effort but we continue to call him every week or so to let him know we will be out there. haha. I have no idea how many times he went looking for us in the middle of the night while we were in bed. The guy was a real jerk so we didn't feel too bad about it.


Just like Jesus, sometimes you gotta kill some hogs.
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Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7416521 01/28/19 12:28 AM
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That’s funny


Originally Posted by Sneaky
I believe in science and I’m an insufferable [censored]
Originally Posted by beaversnipe
Actually, BBC is pretty damn good

"You Cannot Simultaneously Be Politically Correct And Intellectually Honest!"
Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7416524 01/28/19 12:30 AM
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I worked with a GW's son. He told me about his dad coming up on a young man back inthe 60's who was fishing on the Canadian river in one of the deeper holes not too far from Highway 70. He said the kid was semi-concious and kept saying the worms were biting his hand. By the time he got the kid into Pampa he was unconscious. It turned out he had been snake bit on his hand by the snakes he had dug up where he normally dug his night crawlers. I can't verify it was true, but others I worked with knew the story too and some say they knew the kid

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Phlash] #7416672 01/28/19 04:36 AM
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I have been a ride along with a central Texas warden three different nights. They almost always have something interesting happening.

This story is second hand but a good one.

A former (now retired) Hamilton county warden was patrolling for night hunters. There’s a coastal field and rows of round bales across the county road from the coastal. No fence...just a county road separating the coastal and the rows of bales. Warden was hiding out behind the bales and standing/laying on top of the bales for a good vantage point. This was well into the night, 11pm to midnight.

A truck was approaching with no headlights. Ol warden was getting ready. To his surprise, the truck appeared and headed straight for the round bales. Reverse lights come on, a loud screeching noise was heard, and that truck just flew into those bay bales in reverse! The warden was startled and bailed off hay but had to keep his distance since this guy had backed up to within inches of the warden truck. It was when the game warden heard the hay spike lift that he realized what he had discovered - a hay thief! Turns out the guy was well known local and had fallen on hard times.

Last edited by TxAggie10; 01/28/19 04:38 AM.

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Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7416807 01/28/19 02:03 PM
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I suspect many of the older and more negative stories about game wardens came at a time when the requirements to be one were not as high as they are now. I could easily see where in times past when fewer people hunted and fished, not to mention the pay being probably far less, state governments did not see the position as critical as other LEO's.

Now it seems in our current state of political correctness the effort is look for candidates who in my opinion, have no use being in wildlife law enforcement.

Last edited by Texas Dan; 01/28/19 02:43 PM.

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Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7416870 01/28/19 03:01 PM
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I've told the story before and while it wasn't an actual game warden the two Houston cops were certainly acting as such.

Crappie fishing in a very narrow bayou near Lake Houston with a friend of mine in his small flat bottom. This body of water has a lot of yaks, boats in every bend, and No Wake signs everywhere.

We heard the Jet Skis coming from a distance and while they weren't wide open they were surely pushing huge wakes off every boat in that bayou. They came crashing up to us and started asking for our license, life vests, and fish caught. I did not want to cause a scene as I was a guest in another man's boat so I just complied and showed I was legal. Those cops had better things to do IMO and why they chose us of all the boats is still a question.


As you can guess we failed to catch another fish from that brush pile


realmad



Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Phlash] #7416885 01/28/19 03:13 PM
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Originally Posted by Phlash
I worked with a GW's son. He told me about his dad coming up on a young man back inthe 60's who was fishing on the Canadian river in one of the deeper holes not too far from Highway 70. He said the kid was semi-concious and kept saying the worms were biting his hand. By the time he got the kid into Pampa he was unconscious. It turned out he had been snake bit on his hand by the snakes he had dug up where he normally dug his night crawlers. I can't verify it was true, but others I worked with knew the story too and some say they knew the kid
Read that in the P&W magazine in school at that time line.

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: ChadTRG42] #7417055 01/28/19 05:45 PM
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That is a great story!

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7417163 01/28/19 07:17 PM
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In all the time I've hunted in Texas my only previous engagement with GWs had been casual (talking to a Menard Co. GW while both of us were gassing up our trucks, running into a Kimble Co. GW while stocking up on supplies at a store, or running into one of the Williamson Co. GWs while picking up an order at a local game processor). Last year, however, we were at our lease in Round Mountain, cleaning up a couple of deer that we'd shot that AM, when out of nowhere the GW walks up behind us (he parked by the county road and then walked down the dirt lane down to the cabin), politely asks for licenses and Hunter's Ed and checked on the tags (both deer were properly tagged immediately after shooting). He stayed for a short while asking about the hunting and even showed us a picture of the buck he'd shot himself earlier in the season. We gave him a soft drink and after saying goodbye, he walked back to his truck and took off to check the next place.

I've thought about this encounter a couple of times and I have nothing but admiration for these guys/gals, they're constantly walking into potentially dangerous situations, usually outnumbered, around a lot of loaded guns often in the hands of idiots, and I admire their courage. As with any group of people, I'm sure there are plenty of douchebags in their ranks, but that has not been my experience.


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Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7417226 01/28/19 08:42 PM
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Back about 30 years ago me, my brother-in-law and 3 of his buddies (they were all Harris Co. Sheriff deputies. I was a paramedic, chief of EMS where we lived ) got on a day lease across Hwy 41 from the YO ranch. We left Houston late because of work and got to the area about 2:30 AM. We were slowly driving down 41 looking for the lease gate with a spotlight. All of a sudden game wardens and sheriff deputies lit us up and pounced on us. We pulled over. They told us to get out and give them our IDs. All of them showed their badges. One of the wardens asked me where my badge was. I told him I was their hostage. He did not laugh at all. Then I told him I wasn't a cop, I was the one that would take care of them if they were injured.

He told us where the gate was and to leave the spotlight off.

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Phlash] #7417241 01/28/19 09:06 PM
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Originally Posted by Phlash
I worked with a GW's son. He told me about his dad coming up on a young man back inthe 60's who was fishing on the Canadian river in one of the deeper holes not too far from Highway 70. He said the kid was semi-concious and kept saying the worms were biting his hand. By the time he got the kid into Pampa he was unconscious. It turned out he had been snake bit on his hand by the snakes he had dug up where he normally dug his night crawlers. I can't verify it was true, but others I worked with knew the story too and some say they knew the kid


Wives tale that's been around since at least 1957.

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7417340 01/28/19 10:27 PM
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Our ex local GW told me about an experience he had. He was checking dove hunters, and came across one guy he suspected of shooting a quail. He counted his birds, checked his gun and license and then asked him where the quail was. The guy kept on and on about how he didn't shoot a quail. The GW finally told him he was taking him in for hunting quail out of season if he didn't tell him where it was. The hunter finally showed him where he had hidden a pair of quail in some brush.He was ticketed and as the GW was leaving the hunter said, we saw you coming down the road for over a mile and get out and walk up here, and those birds were hidden two hours ago. How did you know I killed them? The game warden told me he never told the hunter that at some point he had wiped his face, and there was a bloody quail feather stuck on his cheek.

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7417381 01/28/19 11:11 PM
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Our old deer camp was located down on the Lampasas River. And one night, like many night at deer camp, we were all hanging out around the campfire; the adults drinking coffee and their beverages, the kids drinking hot chocolate.As I sat there, it started cooling down outside. I was already all bundled up but Dad had decided that the heavy shirt and fire were no longer enough to keep him warm. He went into the cabin that had been put together for us to sleep in.
Dad came down from the cabin pulling on his jacket when we heard one of those wildlife sounds behind camp, but this one was loud. A flashlight came on from outside of camp and we heard "This is the Texas Game Department, NO ONE MOVE!!"

Everyone looked over to where the light was, and standing there was a Game Warden flashlight in one hand, gun out in the other. This poor guy looked horrible. He was covered in mud from the waist down, and he had this look that was a mix of angry, pride and fear, which was understandable. Here he was, in the middle of nowhere, walking into a camp of 6 to 8 possibly armed adults. He was all by himself. Even if he called for backup, we were in the middle of nowhere. “Everyone, slowly get your hunting licenses and ID out, and go stand by your Deer. Sir, on the stairs, finish putting your jacket on and move by the fire”

This warden was doing his best to get control of a situation that could go very bad for him. This was back before cell phones or GPS. He had his flashlight on Dad, as he finished putting on his hunting jacket. Actually, this was his hunter’s education jacket. It was hunter orange and was covered in patches. Some of them were law enforcement patches. Some of them were Game department patches. The Game warden went and looked at one deer of the 6 or so that we had taken that weekend. As Dad put the jacket on, the warden saw all of those patches. He looked at one ear tag, and one man’s license. He then just started shaking his head.

He told everyone to have a good night and started walking out of camp. We offered him a cup of coffee and invited him to stay join the fire for a bit.

He started telling us his story….

“I have been watching this camp for years, and I knew, JUST KNEW that it was full of poachers. Ya’ll had to be poaching as deeply hidden as this camp is. I decided that today, I was going to finally catch everyone. So I started walking from Highway XX. I took a compass reading of your campfire smoke and started walking. I have crossed the Lampasas River three different times. I have been walking, hiking and crawling for 4 hours to find this. And what do I find? A camp full of “by the book” hunters….. I thought I had the bust of a lifetime”

Uncle Jerry at this time spoke up. “Officer, you can’t get to our camp from Highway XX. You have to go to Highway AA….”

“Wish I had known that 3 hours ago……..”

We all got a laugh. We offered and gave him a ride back to his car. He stopped by numerous times over the years to visit and have coffee, now that he knew the way to camp. He never checked any of us for a license again though.

Re: Game Warden Stories [Re: Isom's_Duck_Dawgs] #7417574 01/29/19 02:33 AM
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Had one in east tx get fired for assaulting a guy already in cuffs. Another got fired for shootin ducks on a game preserve. Old man said one came in camp lookin for vietnam combat treaded boots. Ol boy in the camp got nervous and blerted out, You know everybody has boots like these and told off on himself. This was back in the real.


Recently got a gym membership, strange folks! I like to show up the roid zombies with my full motion curls with the 55lb. bells. Not their cheater short stroked light weights. It's holarious.
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