# conservation officers



## tclark4140 (Aug 8, 2006)

i know there is a fine line between ethical and breaking the law.....
but alot of post on here, makes me believe the law is getting broken.
so the wardens must work 24 hours aday. i have never in my 12 years been to n.d. and not been checked, either at the motel, driving down a back road or in the field. soo i would assume laws are being followed pretty well or there is one heck of alot of tickets being written.
i will add the officers r very thorough and extremely professional. and i thank them for that. as i do not like to see laws broken.
but my point is how does alot of this stuff happen with out the officers being involved.


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## shiawassee_kid (Oct 28, 2005)

what on this site makes you make that assumption?


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## riverview (Sep 1, 2009)

I hunt from to garrison to the north west cornor of the state at least 30 days a year and in 25 years i have never been checked by a warden.


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## wingaddict (Sep 16, 2009)

theres not enough wardens plain and simple. Like riverview, I've hunted Central ND for 25 years (Average of 30+ days per year) and have been checked 3 times.


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## drakespanker12 (Aug 28, 2006)

hell i was checked last season by the same officer 6 times between opener an nov. 14, the sixth time he asked me for my license i said to him you should know me by my first middle and last name just by seeing my truck an trailer!!! that got him a lil ****** off and he sat in his heated truck for about 15 minutes with my license jus tryin to get me on somethin i know it.


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## teamshakeandbake (Oct 14, 2008)

heck i have been checked 3 times this early season alone in sodak. They are just doing there job just like any of us would do if we were in there shoes.


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## Fred_Bear (Oct 24, 2008)

If you've never been checked before then start hunting during the week more often. I've been checked by the same CO, a federal guy, 3 times this year, the last time being on Thursday, and as he was checking us he got radioed by a state CO who had been watching our hunt from the other end of the field. I have to say the guy is very nice and have nothing but good things to say about him. He doesn't even check my license or gun anymore, just my friends' and counts up our birds. Last time he was actually asking me advice on decoying tactics because every time he's talked to us we've had our limit of birds. Now he even tells me about different areas that he sees throughout the day holding good numbers of birds. All in all a great guy, the outdoors in general needs more people working for it like this man. He's even taken these two pictures us.


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## TK33 (Aug 12, 2008)

teamshakeandbake said:


> heck i have been checked 3 times this early season alone in sodak. They are just doing there job just like any of us would do if we were in there shoes.


Exactly, most people who have issues with wardens are forgetting that most of the problems/issues are legislative not enforcement. Most of them I have come across are doing the best they can do with what they have and the laws and repercussions that are there.


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## fhalum (Oct 7, 2008)

I've been checked a time or two here or there by wardens, and have always found them friendly and professional. Last Saturday, though, I was actually "checked" by a farmer from the area I was hunting.

I was packing my stuff out from a posted stretch of land, and a guy was sitting in a truck waiting on me. I thought he just wanted to see how I did, but he didn't really care. He wanted to know my name and who I got permission from to hunt the field. I told him my name and the farmer's name (and yes, I had gotten permission prior to going). I thanked him for checking, though, because it was posted and I had been hunting it. Looking out for his neighbor, I guess...


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## tclark4140 (Aug 8, 2006)

nice post/story fhalum. my opinion that is how life should be neighbors taking care of neighbors. if more of that would go on it would reduce trespassing. and probably other violastions as people would know somebody is watching.
however the vehicle waiting would make my heart do a flip flop, wondering if i really was on the land i had permission to be on,


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## kingcanada (Sep 19, 2009)

i have only had one officer i took exception to. a friend had just taken a passing shot on a sharptail grouse and it fell onto posted ground. he left his gun behind and retrieved his bird as per north dakota law. an officer pulled up and started to cite him for trespass. i then pointed out the law. he then said that we were within 1/4 mile of a residence (not by much). north dakota law states that an adjacent land owner can not prevent shooting within 1/4 mile if the neighboring land is not his. the shot was taken in a direction away from the residence and i also was well acquainted with the landowner. he did not mind and was accustomed to having hunters along the edge of his property since he lives next to a wma. the officer stopped trying to bully my friend and was more cordial after that. i think he saw my buddy's new mexico plates and thought he would be ignorant of the law. i lost a lot of respect for that man. we share mutual acquaintances in that town. every other officer i have ever met has been pleasant to deal with and i appreciate that greatly, they have a very high stress job.


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## ryandoulgas81 (Sep 14, 2009)

Last year my group got checked 4 days in a row by the same CO. It just so happened it was on a different slough each day and some one different had drove each day also. He was very nice, and gave us crap that we should drive the same vehicle so he didn't have to keep checking us. He took a couple pics for us on the 4th day and we mentioned about getting some breakfast and he asked if we would mind if he tagged along. Long story short, since then I have ran into him many other times while hunting and fishing and he always treats everyone with respect and even gives out a few tips of areas we should try the next day.


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## motherducker (Oct 6, 2009)

All in all my run-ins with COs have been a good, but there are definitely some hard-ons out there too. I had a Fed CO check me near Devil's lake and he was a total jackass. He tore our whole operation apart, and mind you I take a lot of pride in following the rules. He checked everything and when it was all done he had nothing.. we checked out fine. You could tell that he was searching for anything to tag us on, and he actually got more frustrated when he couldn't find anything. Then he asked us about the jon boat we had and if we had life jackets. We were field hunting and the boat was in our truck. He gave us a lecture on the importance of a life jacket like we were 3 years old. I told him that I had been in the Coast guard for 8 years and I probably know that better than he does. He didn't like that, but I didn't care because I didn't like him. He was just trying to find something. There are plenty of guys breaking the rules, so how about check us and move on. What a dick!


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## ND trapper (Nov 14, 2006)

drakespanker12 said:


> i said to him you should know me by my first middle and last name just by seeing my truck an trailer!!! that got him a lil ticked off and he sat in his heated truck for about 15 minutes with my license jus tryin to get me on somethin i know it.


He most likely sat in his truck that long just to irritate you since you gave him an attitude.


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## blacklabs2 (Aug 2, 2009)

motherducker said:


> All in all my run-ins with COs have been a good, but there are definitely some hard-ons out there too. I had a Fed CO check me near Devil's lake and he was a total jackass. He tore our whole operation apart, and mind you I take a lot of pride in following the rules. He checked everything and when it was all done he had nothing.. we checked out fine. You could tell that he was searching for anything to tag us on, and he actually got more frustrated when he couldn't find anything. Then he asked us about the jon boat we had and if we had life jackets. We were field hunting and the boat was in our truck. He gave us a lecture on the importance of a life jacket like we were 3 years old. I told him that I had been in the Coast guard for 8 years and I probably know that better than he does. He didn't like that, but I didn't care because I didn't like him. He was just trying to find something. There are plenty of guys breaking the rules, so how about check us and move on. What a dick!


Sounds like he did his job.


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## ReeceCampbell (Sep 23, 2009)

The one time I was checked in ND the officer was extremely courteous and polite. We could see each other for the last hour of the hunt but he even waited till we started packing up before he checked us, just to not disturb our hunt.

When we got to the field my buddy realized he forgot to plug his gun so he made a make shift plug with a stick, he used two 3" shells to measure the length. When the warden checked us he actually used 2 3/4" shells of his own to check our plugs. We weren't carrying a single 2 3/4" shell. But of course, he was able to cram a third shell into the gun. You do the math, my buddy probably f'ed it up.

He ticketed my buddy, personally i would have let him go with a warning, but thats a friends opinion. And truth be told, he did break the law. Funny thing is that even after getting a ticket we still walked away talking about how nice of a guy he was.


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## kingcanada (Sep 19, 2009)

good thing that the english 2" shells aren't popular here! :lol: it does sound like the man you dealt with was a true professional who conducts his work with courtesy and dignity. that can be tough, considering the wide range of people they deal with. those who conduct themselves in a manner that does not let the bad seeds change their attitudes towards others are the ones we need to keep around. i wish all were that way, but a few are not. if i were to hold that against them in general, then i would be guilty of being the jerk.


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