westcoastr
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2008
- Messages
- 164
- Reaction score
- 3
[begin rant] tried a new central Cal hunting area after my old honey hole went "dry". hear a shot 13 mintues after shooting time is offically over, not neccessary illegal but suspect. I know there is a hunter or two up near the private land boundary.
upon reaching my car, two wardens drive up and nearly give me a cavity search, accusing me of tresspassing, poaching, growing pot, and killing jimmy hoffa. I explain that I'm a really nice guy and that no I didn't fire a shot, haven't poached anything, don't grow pot, and wasn't anywhere near the private land (i'm not telling where hoffa is). In fact I'm a great stewart of public lands by picking up trash (I'm sure you've seen my rants before) and turning in pot gardens that I have found.
They explain "you are our prime suspect", wow I haven't even had a speeding ticket in 10 years! Now I feel like I'm on CSI or something. I start to hear the CSI theme music in my head and keep waiting for David Caruso to pop out and deliver some cools lines in that sexy raspy voice while wearing sunglasses at 10 pm.
So then I tell them my rifle bore is clean, so I didn't fire the shot, 2nd I have written down the license plants of the two trucks in the lot. why? because the first guys kept talking about hunting a pond that is clearly on private land and kept talking about hunting quail 2 months after season was over. other guys had some dead small game wasting away next to their truck. But also I was afraid they were going to break into my car.
And then I show then my GPS track of where I was that day, over 2 km's from the private land. At this point they get super nice and explain that the guys that hiked out 30 minutes before me were super sketchy but they couldn't pin anything on them. I on the other hand hadn't pre-filled in my pig tags (I swear on a stack of bibles I never even read the things!!). But they actual just give me a verbal warning - way cool guys! My GPS just paid for itself.
I also gave them the location of yet another section of plastic tubing used for pot frms on public land, it was 300 meters from the road and was kinda suprised they hadn't heard about it yet. This section had been partially buried but it was cut and obviously not being used at the time. They said they found one place were the pot farmers had buried 3 MILES of tubing! Guess the growers are getting a bit agressive. I guessing they will be coming for me for ratting on them so many times (this is #3).
the wardens were pretty cool in the end, they obviously have a crappy job and are spread pretty thin. We ended up trading pig hunting tips, seem brush drives are about they only "reliable" way to get pigs these days. Might have to get a 44 mag revolver and go crawling one of these days.
P.S. just glad they didn't search my car, I had piles of condors shot with lead ammo in there:stir pot:
upon reaching my car, two wardens drive up and nearly give me a cavity search, accusing me of tresspassing, poaching, growing pot, and killing jimmy hoffa. I explain that I'm a really nice guy and that no I didn't fire a shot, haven't poached anything, don't grow pot, and wasn't anywhere near the private land (i'm not telling where hoffa is). In fact I'm a great stewart of public lands by picking up trash (I'm sure you've seen my rants before) and turning in pot gardens that I have found.
They explain "you are our prime suspect", wow I haven't even had a speeding ticket in 10 years! Now I feel like I'm on CSI or something. I start to hear the CSI theme music in my head and keep waiting for David Caruso to pop out and deliver some cools lines in that sexy raspy voice while wearing sunglasses at 10 pm.
So then I tell them my rifle bore is clean, so I didn't fire the shot, 2nd I have written down the license plants of the two trucks in the lot. why? because the first guys kept talking about hunting a pond that is clearly on private land and kept talking about hunting quail 2 months after season was over. other guys had some dead small game wasting away next to their truck. But also I was afraid they were going to break into my car.
And then I show then my GPS track of where I was that day, over 2 km's from the private land. At this point they get super nice and explain that the guys that hiked out 30 minutes before me were super sketchy but they couldn't pin anything on them. I on the other hand hadn't pre-filled in my pig tags (I swear on a stack of bibles I never even read the things!!). But they actual just give me a verbal warning - way cool guys! My GPS just paid for itself.
I also gave them the location of yet another section of plastic tubing used for pot frms on public land, it was 300 meters from the road and was kinda suprised they hadn't heard about it yet. This section had been partially buried but it was cut and obviously not being used at the time. They said they found one place were the pot farmers had buried 3 MILES of tubing! Guess the growers are getting a bit agressive. I guessing they will be coming for me for ratting on them so many times (this is #3).
the wardens were pretty cool in the end, they obviously have a crappy job and are spread pretty thin. We ended up trading pig hunting tips, seem brush drives are about they only "reliable" way to get pigs these days. Might have to get a 44 mag revolver and go crawling one of these days.
P.S. just glad they didn't search my car, I had piles of condors shot with lead ammo in there:stir pot:
ersonName>t mean to imply that the wardens were out of line ( was just being a bit humorous), they were just responding to I think a land owner complaint, and were in interrogation mode where they accuse you of everything and most perps will self incriminate. They were entirely professional and as far as I can tell stayed within law. for example, the asked if they could search my backpack, I refused consent on constitutional grounds, but their request was purely a courtesy as they are had my tags that I didn<st1
