Have Any of You Observed a Wildlife Law Violation ? What Did you Do ?

I (with my boys) turned in a guy driving illegally a few years ago. We had a great camera out and had face pics and license plate from a distance. The guy didn’t fight the charge after seeing the pics.

Not wildlife related, but I caught someone cutting firewood after the closed wood harvesting season this year. I had seen they had been cutting a tree here and there after January. They had a junk truck and were cutting green wood to burn. I was going to call the Forest service but decided if you’re life was in such a place that burning green wood was a good choice, you have my sympathy. It was a cold winter.
 
I turned myself in for shooting an elk on private land last fall. I was 100% sure it was on public when I shot, but right after shooting and getting ready to walk down to get him - I figured out that the bull had actually been standing on private. It was truly a sucky day. I called the poacher hotline, and waited around 3 hours for landowner and warden to arrive. When we went into the brush to recover the bull it jumped up and sprinted out of there, never to be seen again. There was some drops of blood around, maybe a couple tablespoons in its bed. I didn’t escape without a citation. They let me keep my license although the whole episode did really of suck the fire out of really getting after it for the rest of the season.

Pink X is where bull was standing. I was on the ridge to the west. He moved from the east, clearly on private, but I figured when he crossed the creek, he'd be solid on BLM. And he would have been. I assumed the red line on the image was the creek, and was very bummed to find out the creek was the blue line. Nobody to blame but myself. Will say the best punishment award was the warden letting me ride for a half hour in the back of his truck with a several day old dead black bear carcass that had been sprayed by a skunk.
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Greenhorn said:
I turned myself in for shooting an elk on private land last fall. I was 100% sure it was on public when I shot, but right after shooting and getting ready to walk down to get him - I figured out that the bull had actually been standing on private. It was truly a sucky day. I called the poacher hotline, and waited around 3 hours for landowner and warden to arrive. When we went into the brush to recover the bull it jumped up and sprinted out of there, never to be seen again. There was some drops of blood around, maybe a couple tablespoons in its bed. I didn’t escape without a citation. They let me keep my license although the whole episode did really of suck the fire out of really getting after it for the rest of the season.

Pink X is where bull was standing. I was on the ridge to the west. He moved from the east, clearly on private, but I figured when he crossed the creek, he'd be solid on BLM. And he would have been. I assumed the red line on the image was the creek, and was very bummed to find out the creek was the blue line. Nobody to blame but myself. Will say the best punishment award was the warden letting me ride for a half hour in the back of his truck with a several day old dead black bear carcass that had been sprayed by a skunk.
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That sucks man. Having the bear rugged? Tomato juice is your friend. mtmuley
 
F250 said:
I too have a couple. When I was 12, I was jump shooting ducks along a small stream. As I rounded a bend, a flock of Greenwing Teal jumped off the water. I fired one shot. Five ducks fell. The Limit was 4 ducks that year. I killed the two cripples, carried all 5 back home, and cleaned them. When my father got home, I self reported to him. We had a long discussion : The bad - I needed to consider better target acquisition, and never "flock shoot" birds. The good - I didn't hide anything, and didn't just toss the extra bird into the woods. My hunting license was suspended for a few weeks.

When I was 16, a buddy and I had a duck blind in a State owned marsh next to a private marsh. We watched the guys in the private marsh kill over their limits several days. We suspected the marsh was also baited judging by the way the ducks pounded in there. I called the authorities. The guy, let's call him Bill, that leased the marsh was arrested for several violations. A couple years later I was with a some friends in a local chit-hole bar (drinking age was 18 back then). I felt this huge paw land on my shoulder. It was Bill. Bill was 6'7", weighed 320 lbs. and worked heavy construction. He also did 2 tours in Viet Nam humping an M-60 machine gun. Bill said," are you the little Fck who turned me in to the Feds "? I had no place to run and couldn't have anyway as my legs turned to Jello !! I confessed that I was the one. Bill let go and took a step back. I thought I was in for a whoopin !! He said, " I just wanted to know if you had the balls to tell me to my face". He turned to the bar tender, told her to give me a beer, and walked away. Years later we became friends. He sponsored me when I joined the Masons.

After I retired I was hunting deer in a neighboring state. I found a tree stand over looking a bait pile on a farm where I had permission. Baiting is illegal in this state. No one else had permission to be on this farm. I called the local Warden. His investigation found the violator was a State Trooper.
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Why do so many violations of conservation laws seem to end up having State Troopers involved? I swear, when I worked for our state conservation agency, it seemed like every time I would find baiting, illegal signage, illegal snowmobile trails cut in wilderness, etc. there was usually a state trooper involved and that would usually lead to a lot of foot dragging when it came to consequences... It left a bad taste in my mouth, though I know it's a small sample.
 
F250 said:
I have read with interest the comments Hunt Talkers make after reading posted articles regarding poachers being caught. Mostly I note anger and disgust toward the offender. Rightfully so. But... how many of you folks have observed a violation of wildlife regulations while in the field ? What did you do : 1) Nothing 2) Call the authorities 3) Call the authorities and provide a written statement 4) Call the authorities, provide a written statement, and testify in court (these folks are my absolute heroes !!!).
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I have reported serious violations, however, I wouldn't report someone for a fish that is half inch too short.
 
I saw a state Trooper captain lose his job for hunting too close to a road, I thought that was a bit extreme punishment wise.
 
Greenhorn said:
I turned myself in for shooting an elk on private land last fall. I was 100% sure it was on public when I shot, but right after shooting and getting ready to walk down to get him - I figured out that the bull had actually been standing on private. It was truly a sucky day. I called the poacher hotline, and waited around 3 hours for landowner and warden to arrive. When we went into the brush to recover the bull it jumped up and sprinted out of there, never to be seen again. There was some drops of blood around, maybe a couple tablespoons in its bed. I didn’t escape without a citation. They let me keep my license although the whole episode did really of suck the fire out of really getting after it for the rest of the season.

Pink X is where bull was standing. I was on the ridge to the west. He moved from the east, clearly on private, but I figured when he crossed the creek, he'd be solid on BLM. And he would have been. I assumed the red line on the image was the creek, and was very bummed to find out the creek was the blue line. Nobody to blame but myself. Will say the best punishment award was the warden letting me ride for a half hour in the back of his truck with a several day old dead black bear carcass that had been sprayed by a skunk.
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Gotta respect that....and I would imagine that it cooled the flames for the remainder of the season.
 
Greenhorn said:
I turned myself in for shooting an elk on private land last fall. I was 100% sure it was on public when I shot, but right after shooting and getting ready to walk down to get him - I figured out that the bull had actually been standing on private. It was truly a sucky day. I called the poacher hotline, and waited around 3 hours for landowner and warden to arrive. When we went into the brush to recover the bull it jumped up and sprinted out of there, never to be seen again. There was some drops of blood around, maybe a couple tablespoons in its bed. I didn’t escape without a citation. They let me keep my license although the whole episode did really of suck the fire out of really getting after it for the rest of the season.

Pink X is where bull was standing. I was on the ridge to the west. He moved from the east, clearly on private, but I figured when he crossed the creek, he'd be solid on BLM. And he would have been. I assumed the red line on the image was the creek, and was very bummed to find out the creek was the blue line. Nobody to blame but myself. Will say the best punishment award was the warden letting me ride for a half hour in the back of his truck with a several day old dead black bear carcass that had been sprayed by a skunk.
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Sorry if this is a stupid question but how could you tell the separation between public and private land so clearly? I'm genuinely curious
 
Got invited on a duck hunt once by some younger guys and realized it was quickly turning into a roost shoot. First few attempted shots (emphasis on attempted) were legal but time elapsed and I realized they were intent on watching fire come out of the barrel. I was a few years older and more experienced shooting ducks so they were receptive when I told them we had to pack up and go, roost shooting is illegal and super disrespectful to the ducks. Did not report them.

Knew of another guy in our area who was bad about burning up wood duck holes, roost shooting and disregarding limits. He had posted on Facebook a big grip and grin with no waders or rubber boots, a Benelli and like twelve damn wood ducks on a strap. Just ridiculous. I called the warden, explained that I recognized he may have been holding several members of a party's limits but that this guy is always up to suspect chit. No surprise, the warden said they had had plenty of calls about the guy and were paying attention.

He did finally get caught too, but for poaching a couple of deer off of land owned by a large timber company, after being caught trespassing there before I think. I don't know many of the details but have heard it was bad enough to take a lot of that poaching business out of him.
 
OldSnort said:
I have reported serious violations, however, I wouldn't report someone for a fish that is half inch too short.
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In my 66 yrs and 20 dealing daily with a badge on I have let a ton of stuff slide.

It's just disheartening when the little old fisherlady regular turns out to be filling coolers and just loading a van up.

Lot's of "he's just trying to feed his family " crap too. Guy turns out to be under observation or has history.

Really disheartened recently to see so much firewood poaching and off atv trail use,reporting it and nothing being done by locals.
 
Mtnhunter1 said:
Gotta respect that....and I would imagine that it cooled the flames for the remainder of the season.
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Yeah, major kudos. I could VERY easily see myself making the same assumption as to points of reference there. Very.
Greenhorn said:
I “clearly” didn’t- which is what landed me a ticket. I was using the above map on my gps, and was wrong.
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I’m surprised a ticket was issued for they short of a distance with an un fenced boundary.
 
Yeah there's more to the story. There were 3 people that showed up, ranch employee, warden, and biologist. Local warden was on vacation, so another had to show up from farther away. There were some differences of opinions/personalities on some things that day, to say the least and I didn't hide my opinion that a bull elk that bled about a 1/2 cup total in 4 hours and didn't show any signs of being hit, bleeding, or limping, didn't need to be chased down and killed because he "wouldn't make the winter." Thankfully the bull ran up a hill, got on a huge flat and likely sprinted a mile, crossed a highway, then probably another mile into some breaks to hide from the local biologist that thought he needed to "finish it off". When I had my rifle in my hands and the bull initially jumped out and stood there looking at us before taking off one last time, nobody said a word about shooting it. They didn't make that call until finding a little blood. That ranch has a "zero tolerance" policy on any hunting related violations. Bottom line is I shot the bull and it was standing on private. I knew when I made the phone call I'd be getting a ticket and losing a license that took almost 20 years to draw. I'm lucky I still got out of there with my license. I thought the bull was laying in there dead and there wasn't really any other option to call the G&F.

On a positive note, I spent some time on the phone recently with some local wardens here on licensing (residency) questions/issues and they were super nice and helpful.
 
It was also a weird place to hunt for a bull elk in NW Wyoming. A friend with a deer permit spotted a couple jumbo bulls way away from the mountains in that draw, and on public. I spent several days there and saw the bulls a few times, but they were usually on private or too far out at last light to make a play. It was boundary game with GPS and rangefinder with no fences that separated public/private, I just was just not careful enough and rushed myself into believing he was absolutely on public. This photo was from the evening before, waiting for them to get up and head our way, but they went the opposite direction. That brush/Russian olives in the bottom are 10-12 feet high, it's bigger than it looks.
69BA2671-A747-4050-BD81-F111E9096839.jpeg
 
I hunted with a guy one year. Watched him shoot a decent Muley Buck. When we walked up on it and started to process I told him he needed to tag it. That was when he said he kept his Wyoming status and never bothered to buy a Utah tag. He took the buck back to his cabin and left it. Just took the rack. He knew where I lived and knew everything about my family. I put in an anonymous call and they didn’t do anything.

fast forward to the next year. The same guy shoots an elk and ask me to help. I asked if he had a tag and he just laughed. I turned him in again and asked to remain anonymous. The game warden literally caught him red handed. His hands were covered in blood and he had elk hair all over him.

Fast forward several months, my wife gets a threatening phone call from him. Turns out the game warden told him I had called. Let him off with a slap on the wrist.

The kicker...same game warden asked me to come to their office. He said I must be a poacher because I hung out with this guy. I explained that I had only hunted with him once and turned him in for poaching a buck. The warden refused to believe me. He followed me everywhere for the next few years until I moved out of Utah.

Going forward, I will still report the poaching but will block my number and refuse to give my name. When they literally catch the guy standing over a dead elk without a tag and he signs a confession there was no need to reveal my name.
 
Kudos to Greenhorn. I have never met him, but from his posts, he is obviously a very serious, very successful, and very experienced hunter. One of the best I would assume. It takes guts to self report. It takes more guts to put it out for the world to see on this forum. But in doing so, I hope that all of us understand how easily something like this can occur and learn from his experience. If you think you have a few years of experience and are thus immune....you are not. So remember this thread and take that extra step to make sure you know where you are and where that game animal is. I know that I will and I will be mentioning this to my kids as well.
 
I heard gunfire from an adjacent property whose owner had told me that he hated hunters and would never allow hunting. I called the GW. Somehow or another they had in fact managed to get permission BUT they were cited for hunting without a license, shooting across a county road, shooting cranes without a stamp, being over limit, shooting at migratory birds with a rifle, and shooting at migratory birds with a gun that would hold more than three shots.

They had been shooting at cranes in the air with an AK as they flew over a building that abutted a county road.
 
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