What is wrong with Wisconsin Hunters?

Years ago I had an old timer shoot what looked like a lever action of some sort right over my head at some mule deer. Whom were somewhere in the ball park of 800 yards from me. He was approximately 400 yards further away then I was. Couldn't tell how old the guy was. Was too busy ducking rounds flying a few feet above my head. He saw me well before he started shooting. Probably drunk. Wish I was kidding about that story, It was like I was in a fire fight.
 
i bet it is pretty dependent on the person.

girl i grew up with in my church randomly became a warden a few years ago, didn't even grow up hunting, but developed an interest as she was in this process of working for cpw temporarily and ultimately becoming a warden. was talking to her the other day via text and it sounds like she's already pretty jaded. but many wardnes i've talked to, especially some in wyoming, just seem to be high on life - they love interacting, they love being outside, they love that it's different every day, they love educating, and i think they love enforcing because they're doing good for a resource they're passionate about.

howver i'd still scared i'd rarely be able to ever set foot in the woods again with a 30-06 instead of a glock. maybe those fears are overblown.

I imagine getting jaded might depend on the support around you as well. If the prosecutors you have to work with aren’t willing to pursue wildlife violations, I would imagine it would be very difficult to stay enthused about your job and the work you are doing.
 
other problem is who wants to be a warden when it basically means you'll never have time to hunt ever again? maybe when you retire if your knees still work.
A common misconception, if it's a priority you find time. Still get a day or two off a week like everyone else. You miss every opening day and there's some busy weeks when it's a total loss, but the wardens I know hunt more than the average Joe.

A bigger hurdle is the low pay, long hours, and nationwide mistrust of law enforcement. High risk, low reward. Takes a special kind of person who really loves the job... or someone with a high earning spouse...
 
I was out in central Montana hunting for deer last week and had a couple unpleasant encounters with two groups of hunters from Wisconsin. The first two guys parked right next to my truck about 1/2 and hour after we started hiking and followed our tracks in the snow behind us. They ended up seeing us at our glassing location and cut around us to walk right through the bedding area we were glassing. They went in on the upwind side and blew out all the deer. Later that morning we saw them shoot a fork horn mule deer about a mile further down the drainage. They walked up to the deer took a few pictures then started walking back to their truck. We figured they were going to get a sled or game cart, but no, they decided to drive right in to the deer. This was a big chunk of state land that was clearly marked as walk in only. They even had to cut the wired shut gate to get in there . I called the warden and left a message with their vehicle info and offered to send some pictures and video his way but haven't heard back.

Two days later another couple hunters with Wisconsin plates parked right behind us and started following us in again. When we got to our glassing location we spotted a decent buck that my friend wanted to shoot. We were about 800 yards from him and quickly started to cut the distance. There was a big bowl we crossed to get to a little hill about 250 yards from the buck. When we were just about to start to peak over the hill I spotted the two Wisconsin hunters sitting where we had just left. There isn't a single tree in-between where we were and where they were. We were wearing orange vests and hats. I could see them plain as day and I made the assumption that they would see us as well. Just as we were cresting the hill rounds started wizzing past us. Some sounded like they were just feet away. We hit the dirt and started yelling at them as loud as we could. They kept firing. One round struck the ground about 6 feet from my friend. I was very close to returning fire. After 6-7 shots in our direction the shooting stopped and we decided to head over to them and confront them. They must have decided that we looked pretty pissed and quickly hauled but back to their truck.

Just saw this article. Doesn't surprise me one bit after what happened to us. I really don't have anything against non resident hunters coming to Montana as long as they follow the rules and behave ethically. In fact, for the most part I find that non resident big game hunters tend to be better behaved than a lot of locals.

I've seen the Utards do similar stuff, the 206ers from Seattle are notorious for that too, and the Michiganders never see anything bigger than a spike back home so they go nuts for forkies out west and will damn near kill each other to get shot at one.

Next time you get someone doing that just walk in a big circle and watch em lose their minds.

Now were you wearing Sex Panther cologne by chance? It'll get a midwesterner rutting pretty hot if you're applying it liberally. If they smell it near the truck they're likely to follow you into oncoming traffic if you're not careful.

2nd - did you have any Miller Lite cans in the back of your truck? Possibly some spicy meat sticks or cheeses? Those things will attract the Wisconsin crowd like fried walleye on a Friday night. If you smelled like beer, smoked meat and/or cheese you were inviting disaster.

Were they using Leupold optics? If so, it could've been a Wisco guy on this forum (I won't name names in case he's actually innocent) that's kind of a "predator" that I'd maybe pepper with a few questions. He might have an alibi but I'd take a real close look at that guy especially if you're using Vortex or anything besides Leupold.
 
Around here we can't even get people to apply to be wardens. Not to mention pass a background check, psych eval, and physical fitness. Our next cadet class will be half full at best
No offense to those on here in that profession, but there is zero chance I would be a warden. We're asking so damn much of them. How often to police go into an interaction knowing the other party has a gun? How often are guys drinking while armed? What is the frequency of violations (I gotta think incredibly high compared to State Patrol interactions).

CPW was doing their annual solicitation for District Wildlife Managers (game wardens) back in September or so and I clicked the link just to see what the salary was, as the comments on the social media postings were pretty derisive. I took the screenshot below of the State job page.

State of Colorado Job Opportunities  Departments Department of Natural Resources  Sorted by Jo...jpg
 
CPW was doing their annual solicitation for District Wildlife Managers (game wardens) back in September or so and I clicked the link just to see what the salary was, as the comments on the social media postings were pretty derisive. I took the screenshot below of the State job page.

View attachment 251888
A lot of states pay even less then that. Around here warden trainees are in the 30k range then go to 40k after graduation, college degree required. Hard to compete with... well... everything else
 
I spent 36 years as a Warden. Mostly in uniform, but also did a fair amount of covert work in the US and Canada. 95% of the folks I contacted in the field were awesome people. That other 5% made things interesting ! My hunting and fishing time was planned around my work time. Usually done before or after my busiest times. That would mean early September in Saskatchewan for waterfowl, or January caribou in Quebec. I made it a point to become personal friends with prosecutors. I was always able to discuss prosecutions with them. That career is certainly not for everyone. I have plenty of war stories : being shot at, held at gun point, attacked with knives, attacked with an ice chisel, attacked with a beer bottle, attacked physically. One night a poacher t-boned my truck so hard he drove me across two lanes of traffic. I can’t think of any other job I would have rather done.
 
I spent 36 years as a Warden. Mostly in uniform, but also did a fair amount of covert work in the US and Canada. 95% of the folks I contacted in the field were awesome people. That other 5% made things interesting ! My hunting and fishing time was planned around my work time. Usually done before or after my busiest times. That would mean early September in Saskatchewan for waterfowl, or January caribou in Quebec. I made it a point to become personal friends with prosecutors. I was always able to discuss prosecutions with them. That career is certainly not for everyone. I have plenty of war stories : being shot at, held at gun point, attacked with knives, attacked with an ice chisel, attacked with a beer bottle, attacked physically. One night a poacher t-boned my truck so hard he drove me across two lanes of traffic. I can’t think of any other job I would have rather done.
Listening to stories over a couple beers would be an awesome time...
 
They are a plague here. Rude, law breaking, unsafe. I have never seen anything like it.They tresspass, shoot from the roads, cut off other hunters, argue with land owners, etc.
My hunting buddies, rancher friends and guides I know all have negative experiences with Wisconson folks... lots of them.
It's like they all get training on being mindless thugs prior to coming West.
No kidding. I bet 95% of violations and negative experiences we observe are by Wisconson people.
 

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