Game laws don’t apply to private property.

How is it possible that people still believe this?

And I mean believe it to the point of actually practicing it on whitetail in Texas.

Outside of Texas I hear it a lot, inside Texas not so much. Most states have a much lessor judicial system on wildlife laws

Are you talking about for the landowner or lease hunters? Or is it just 100% sarcasm?

Idiots that think they are above the law.

Very simple. Most people are stupid. And stupid people don't know they're stupid. They think they're just as smart as everybody else.

They just talk to people that think the same as them so at no point is their an opening for them to be corrected.

Some of it is partially true for fishing in your private tank. But hunting is different in that game animals belong to the people/state. That is I believe unless you have a special permit for raising deer like livestock. Correct?

Game Wardens like visiting people mentioned in the original post.

For serious. In this case, it’s a landowner.

The formal term is the Dunning-Krueger effect.

Tell us the circumstances

Weekend before last we got checked dove hunting two days in a row, on two separate properties. In over 25 yrs I have never been checked two days in a row here. The second check did aggravate me a little bit, for the first time ever. I was driving a Polaris Crew UTV with a high rack on it full of people on private property. Was moving folks from one area to another, pulling up behind a pond about to hunt but got intercepted. OK. Checked me first like always, and young Warden took my license. I have been checked A LOT between hunting & fishing in my life, and no Warden has ever kept my license before. Asked if anyone had been shooting pistols on our property, he saw the 22 pistol I was carrying on my hip. I answered him no Sir but what if I was shooting this pistol?? Asked him if there was some sort of complaint about pistol fire crossing fences or disturbing someone? He may have a legitimate reason to ask a question like that after all. No answer, he was nervous I could tell. Ok I see that and I get it, everyone starts somewhere. Young man didn't know that I have his back. I support our Game Wardens 100 % but I could tell these two young men had been watching a lot of Lone Star Law. What aggravated me was the way he took my license first, but gave it back to me last. Everyone else riding got their credentials back and was free to go hunt. It was prime time and the birds were flying. I asked the young Warden, " Sir, you've had my license for a while now is everything OK? The birds are flying right now and I am missing out on my evening hunt". His response was " Yes Sir, I'll give your license back to you when I'm finished". 30-40 minutes this went on, by the time I got my license back legal shooting light was over and my evening hunt was done.

I was never a smart azz, just asked a legitimate question respectfully. The fact that he kept me sitting there for over half an hour watching birds fly over my head aggravated the [censored] out of me. I have a clean record, am legal and stay that way. Thanks for blowing my evening hunt, Sir.

The gates will stay locked from here on out if you're going to act that way.




.

Way to derail a thread

That's my job Sir.

Yes, sometimes people believe laws that apply in one situation also apply in others. I could see people doing this with laws that apply to hunting non-native animals on private land and thinking they must also apply to native animals.

Skinner, yea, you know my stance on GWs and that was BS. You did the right thing as I knew you would. Still is not right but whatever. We live to see another day.

You should've told him you were on private property so game laws don't apply. It just might work if you're confident enough in your argument.

We know it doesn't work that way Sir, my bitch was the way this stop was conducted. My BIL said that I got profiled for having a beard, maybe he was right. Maybe I should shave my covid beard.

But seriously, c'mon man. This young man walked quick up to me while I was trying to unload my gun for him so that I could hand him a cleared unloaded weapon. I racked the first shell out and he grabbed my gun by the barrel. That was a weird moment for me. Don't touch my gun or my woman unless I give you permission. WTF.

He said "I'll take your gun, I'll take your gun. I need to check it". I said "Sir, I'm trying to unload it for you". He was the most nervous Warden I've ever seen. Lord have mercy. For some reason I guess I made him nervous.

That’s true. Confidence is key.

I don’t know the full extent of it, but some young man and his dad seem to believe this to be true. A good buddy of mine told me that this kid offered to take him hunting. I’ve tried to get him on his first deer, but it hasn’t worked out. I got the impression this was happening rather soon, and I know he doesn’t bowhunt. When I told him that he has until November, that’s when we got into detail about what was what. He had an idea the kid was off, but he didn’t know just how far.

Nope. Not okay. Maybe he’ll level off with time, but for now, I’d say some more training is called for.

Have to agree with you. I've had a lot of encounters with Game Wardens in my life, but have never had contact quite like this. I thought about calling a few well seasoned Game Wardens that I know, but to me that is drama so not gonna do it unless it happens again.

I’ve never understood what the difference was between high fence deer laws and high fenced fishing laws.

To me, if you high fence your property, then you are not allowing state game animals (white tails in this instance) to enter or leave. Same as private fishing lakes/ponds. So therefore, at some point, those white tails no longer belong to the state.

Those two will be back. It's not too late to call their superior officers just to let them know what happened, and that you will not pursue any further. Nothing will come of it, except they might leave you alone. Not everyone has the courage or wisdom to be a warden. The ones I've met have both.

My understanding in Oklahoma to high fence a property you have to make sure all game animals are gone. So technically then you would own what’s there because you bought it and game laws wouldn’t apply the same way. I don’t think Texas works that way but I’ve been wrong before.

I know a family that owns some land that belly aches about it. Stating it's wrong that they should own them etc.
Even migratory birds..... They would never act on those beliefs.

What's funny is they are also liberal. Now what a minute I don't own my money but you own a migrating dove?

Hunting from a vehicle......

How I lived to the age of 68 without knowing that amazes me.

"illusory superiority" could be a useful term on many of these threads

My view on this one probably isn't a popular one but the day the state starts building ponds, planting feed crops, putting out feeders, clearing out over growth on my place then they can claim them to be the states wildlife. Until that day I'm the one responsible for the wildlife on my place and I'm the one claiming them. The state doesn't have a clue as to the condition, the numbers or even the variety of wildlife on the place, other than a occasional visit from the Game Warden or the Rail Road Commission, they've never set foot on it in 25 + years.

This

I deal with stupidity every day, some of them highly educated. Education + knowledge = intelligence is a fallacy.

The others (probably the majority) don't care about laws.

^^Facts

And Skinner, SOME new law enforcement officers are nervous that way. Even some of our new Police are nervous like that. Usually the old guys will get them straightened out. I would call their office just to improve the level of service that young warden delivers in the future.

I like others know people like that.

From James Madison's seal - “truth, not the words of a teacher, or alternately, the truth, and not the master’s word for it.

The second lease i was on, the old land lady, God rest her soul, did whatever the F she wanted to on HER property, and she wasnt bashful about telling you it was hers. She inherited it from her parents and had lived on it her whole life, she was in her upper 80's at that time. Still miss that old lady.

just a thought, maybe the "kid" has access to MLD3 property where season starts this weekend???

Understandable, and not the least bit surprising since a lot of new LEO's aren't comfortable with their own firearms, much less anyone else carrying firearms. Particularly if they had no prior experience hunting or shooting.

fwiw, every GW I've seen that acted like an AH was new to the job. It's been my experience that once you've crossed paths a GW is pretty much hands off because they know you're squared away.

My FIL lived in the panhandle and had pheasants on his 30 acres. From time to time he would harvest a bird for dinner, most always out of season and always from the cab of his truck as they skirted the fence line. He always said, "They are mine; they live on my land." I would remind him but never changed his thinking.

I had family that years ago did the same with squirrels, rabbits and WT. During the depression, the only meat they ate outside of pork was what they caught or killed.

Grandma didn't have any laws. The woods passed the railroad track provided many a meal.

While on a road.

During the Depression is a different story. At a certain point, survival becomes the law.

Education is the ability to accurately repeat what one's been taught. Intelligence is the ability to distinguish the essential from the trivial, the true from the false.

The two terms aren't synonymous.

This helps explain why Socialism is popular at universities.

That’s a thought I had, as well, so I asked. Nope. He told me they can hunt year-round. Alright, maybe he’s talking about exotics? They do that, but he said they can hunt whitetail year-round because it’s private property.

?

Deep East Texas?

Some places in East Texas is about as close as you can get to a Deliverance moment without being in Northern Georgia

If I was a GW, there's places in Texas that would make me extremely nervous. I'd be puckered up good and tight.

Nope, no one was hunting from a vehicle, and we were not on a road. I was transporting hunters from one area to another on 120 acres. I left the gate unlocked and they drove into the property. Yes I understand they can do that, they've just never done it before.

I did figure the hunting from a vehicle thing was going to come up though, and I was prepared to defend against that, since no one was hunting from a vehicle but that was never brought up.

No. If that were the case, it wouldn’t have surprised me.

times have changed ..

Depression - hunting - Big Buck$

Private land vs public land..
On public land, even riding an ATV, gun is suppose ta be unloaded...

Yep, I understand that. It's totally legal on private property though. When I'm dove hunting and moving from area to area my shotgun always stays loaded in my lap for shooting rabbits and ring necked dove (non-game animals), which is legal.

^^^^


Exactly.

It's much like being DEAD:

"When you are dead, you don't know that you are dead. It is difficult only for the others. It is the same when you are Stupid"

Face it Skinner... your just one big ol' intimidating scary SOB.

C'mon, I ain't GUTTIT.

The whole time he kept me sitting there, he kept looking at me from his truck. Over & again. Figured maybe they were running me, which they probably did. It was a strange encounter. Normally I'm checked and done within a couple minutes. Look at license and check the plug in my gun, check my birds, ask a few questions, shake hands and done. Why he held my license for so long and kept eyeballing me is beyond me.

Smarter usually, look up "Dunning-Kruger Effect".

I try to remember that every time I get a little too convinced of my own facts...

Edit: I see it was mentioned earlier. Oh well, bears repeating...

I know a bunch of deer hunters that believe if they see a big buck on their land or lease that the buck BELONGS to them and they get outright pissed off if somebody else shoots it on another property or another part of the lease (another lease holder). So the game laws don't apparently apply. They 'own' the deer.

He immediately saw on license you were one of those sketchy pilgrims from Crackport....guilty until proven innocent

Probly so. I am the only one out of all of us who was asked "where are you from?"

I wonder what he would have said if you had asked him if you could go hunt while he checked you out? Probably not, but at least he would know that he was holding you up.

Just giving you a little crap.

You don't have to be a GW to get puckered when traveling in the wrong areas in Deep East TX

Skinner you can always make a thoughtful, respectful complaint with the agency. Might be a good coaching opportunity for the young officers.

While on private property.

I know Sir.

I know Sir. If it happens again I will. I was a young supervisor once and made some mistakes that I learned from myself, I understand. I like to keep the drama low if possible. These men were young and handled things differently than what I'm used to. They will be back. Hopefully they chill out, if not I will file a formal complaint if it comes to that. That's not my style, but I don't like being jacked with like that either.

The gates will be locked going forward. After this encounter they're going to have to walk in to check us, or risk cutting the lock and entering to check potential hunters. It's a shame, I've always believed in leaving the door open to Game Wardens.

He kept me sitting there for over 30 minutes for no reason while the birds were flying. That was stupid. There was no need for that.

Right. What about it?

Game laws that don’t apply to private property.

I would have told him to set it on the UTV when he was done with it and started shooting.

Gotcha.