How far is too close? Can't find anything in the regulations and wondering what the rule of thumb is.

There's no rule. Its supposedly enforced as- if it is close enough to influence the birds, it's a problem. If you're shooting birds going to bait and you're cutting them off on their flight path 500 yards away, it could be an issue.

my opinion this is one of the rules that can be applied if you are running your mouth and/or not being cooperative with the GW.

ought1ag said:

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my opinion this is one of the rules that can be applied if you are running your mouth and/or not being cooperative with the GW.

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the other side is this just one of the tools that GW can arbitrarily give you **** about.

Yep, there are dick GWs, just like there are dick hunters/fishers. In my experiences with GWs they treat you just like you treat them. Most thorough check I have ever been involved with was when I went fishing with a dude from work that couldn't keep his mouth shut and just like pushing the GWs buttons. Thankfully my boat was 100% legal because he checked everything.......PS - never took that dude fishing again.

ought1ag said:

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Yep, there are dick GWs, just like there are dick hunters/fishers. In my experiences with GWs they treat you just like you treat them. Most thorough check I have ever been involved with was when I went fishing with a dude from work that couldn't keep his mouth shut and just like pushing the GWs buttons. Thankfully my boat was 100% legal because he checked everything.......PS - never took that dude fishing again.

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Yes there are...like the two checking us after duck hunting. One starts talking to me while the other one pulls my 9 year old son off to the side and starts trying to trip him up on what deer he had killed earlier in the year.

I put my son in the truck and then followed them to their truck and gave them an earful. But by all means let's make sure to kiss the "public servant's" a$$ or prepare to be screwed....that mindset is dangerous for the population in the long term.

I have worked with lots of GW's over the years. One thing they are trained on is to pick up folks intentionally lying to them. They will typically give you a break unless you lie to them.
We had poachers next to our ranch that leased the land next to us. I had them on a game camera across our fence.
I knew where their camp was and my neighbor had given me permission to keep an eye on the hunters.... so the GW's put me in their back seat and I opened the gates and showed them how to find their camp.
Upon arriving they had a nice ten point hangin. It was tagged with one of the guys little 10 year old tags.
Little boy was standing with his moma at the door of their camp trailer.
While one GW was talking to the dad the other went to get the little boy to tell him about his deer hunt and his big buck. It was evident the little boy knew nothing about the deer or that he shot it.
That GW came back to the truck and ran a check on the little boys tags. Come to find out they were filling all their kids tags with deer they were shooting.
GW's gave the dads a chance to come clean but they kept lying. It did not end well for them.....especially when they found the turkey hen in the ice chest hid under their travel trailer.

Animal said:

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ought1ag said:

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Yep, there are dick GWs, just like there are dick hunters/fishers. In my experiences with GWs they treat you just like you treat them. Most thorough check I have ever been involved with was when I went fishing with a dude from work that couldn't keep his mouth shut and just like pushing the GWs buttons. Thankfully my boat was 100% legal because he checked everything.......PS - never took that dude fishing again.

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Yes there are...like the two checking us after duck hunting. One starts talking to me while the other one pulls my 9 year old son off to the side and starts trying to trip him up on what deer he had killed earlier in the year.

I put my son in the truck and then followed them to their truck and gave them an earful. But by all means let's make sure to kiss the "public servant's" a$$ or prepare to be screwed....that mindset is dangerous for the population in the long term.

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While the GW side seems to be less so, the barrier to entry for law enforcement is pretty low. In some cases as long as you can run a mile in less than 3 days, you're good to go. Couple that with the fact lots of people aren't qualified for other jobs and that the law enforcement side is always understaffed and needing people....it's rife with losers.

Most aren't like that, but when you get one, you get a real gem.

Our game wardens are in my phone and are regulars at the local 4H events. They are involved in a lot of stuff. I think I have only been harassed by one warden during dove season who fiddle f-ed around forever while the birds were flying. I think he may have just been incompetent, but I couldn't tell.

Yep. There is bad apples in every line of work.
It's been my experience with GW's that they usually purge the bad apples themselves.

I'm sorry for your bad experience with the GW's. I think I understand what they were trying to do. It's still inappropriate in my opinion. Im sure sometimes there are officers that do things that are shady, to try and nail someone on anything they can. Other times, I'm sure there is a miscommunication or misinterpretation of what is being done, and people get upset and run with it. I wasn't there, so I'm honestly not saying it was one way or the other. Taking your word for it.

That being said, why direct anger and vitriol at the whole lot of them, and anyone who appears supportive of them? No one here is "kissing their *** for fear of being screwed", that's just how you are choosing to interpret any support for the GW's in general. There are plenty of people here who have had a great number of positive encounters with Game Wardens, across many counties and many decades. For them (and me), that is ample evidence to be supportive. Just like for you, your experience is ample evidence to be critical.

As Gunny said - there are bad apples in any bunch. But I also concur that the TX GW's are one of the most consistent and respectable groups of LEO's we have. I'm just trying to respectfully say that there is no reason to start lobbing grenades at the general populous here on the OB because you had a bad experience.

Well said. The old Game Warden Academy used to be held on campus at TAMU. I wanted to be a GW and one of them took me to TAMU. While there I met Dr. Teer and he said I should become a WFS biologist instead of being a GW. The rest is history.
My dad made a statement to me when I thought I wanted to be a GW..... he said " Son, most of the time a GW is having to mess with a guy who usually has a gun with him..... even cops don't have those odds against them".
He has a point. I have always respected them. We deal with them constantly both on the ranch here and in Missouri. I guess I'm blessed to have never met a bad apple. In fact I have fostered many a good friendship with about all of them.

Perhaps I should have given a little more context here....we had just come off the lake and had our limit of ducks and they gave us a very thorough going over, which I have no problem with. We were completely legal because that's how I run. My son even spouted off "I wanted to shoot some more but Dad said we had to quit" and they got a chuckle out of that. If you have done much duck hunting you know that between the boat, the guns, the shells, the different duck species, the license, the stamps you damn near have to have a law degree to stay legal and honest people can mess up easily and unintentionally. We were completely legit.

Gunny - I respect your posts so I am giving you the benefit of the doubt that you aren't implying that I was lying to them/trying to trick them. I too think they are pretty well trained and can know pretty quickly who is on the up and up and who is playing games. This is part of what bothered me. They knew we were legit and still tried these tactics on my son.

Cupofjoe - I think you are reading more into this than what I typed. Where did I condemn the whole lot? I worked well with a lot of Game Wardens through the years. Go back and re-read the specific comment I was replying to. You do not always get treated like you treat them and the inference is that if they are a dick to you then you must have been a dick to them first. I'm sorry but I am polite and courteous to them just like I would be if I met you or anyone else here on the street. No more - no less.

What I told the two Game Wardens was that there is a kid sitting over there in that truck who idolizes you guys. Now I have to have a conversation with him and tell him that you were not just trying to be friendly in asking all about his deer and that you weren't asking him the same questions over and over multiple different ways because you were having trouble understanding him. You were trying to get him to incriminate himself. For his own good, I am going to have to tell him this and all the while I'm pretty sure you knew within the first 3 minutes of contact that we were on the up-and-up.

I guess by having this conversation, very professionally by the way, I deserved a screwing by the GW's because I didn't follow the "Yes Sir, No Sir, Whatever you say Sir" protocol. So be it...to their credit they took the feedback and left it at that. My hope is that they gave it some thought and discussion later.

Animal said:

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ought1ag said:

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Yep, there are dick GWs, just like there are dick hunters/fishers. In my experiences with GWs they treat you just like you treat them. Most thorough check I have ever been involved with was when I went fishing with a dude from work that couldn't keep his mouth shut and just like pushing the GWs buttons. Thankfully my boat was 100% legal because he checked everything.......PS - never took that dude fishing again.

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Yes there are...like the two checking us after duck hunting. One starts talking to me while the other one pulls my 9 year old son off to the side and starts trying to trip him up on what deer he had killed earlier in the year.

I put my son in the truck and then followed them to their truck and gave them an earful. But by all means let's make sure to kiss the "public servant's" a$$ or prepare to be screwed....that mindset is dangerous for the population in the long term.

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this and the pervasive belief there are only a "a few bad apples" in these law enforcement positions. BS. we've seen the amount of bad cops out there. game wardens just don't interact with most of the population, so they don't garner attention for their BS.

I have had more negative encounters with game wardens than positive or neutral. Even had an encounter with federal game wardens many moons ago. Mostly it was their attitude and how they came off right out of the gate. Only 1 b.s. ticket given to my dad out of the encounters.

justnobody79 said:

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I have had more negative encounters with game wardens than positive or neutral. Even had an encounter with federal game wardens many moons ago. Mostly it was their attitude and how they came off right out of the gate. Only 1 b.s. ticket given to my dad out of the encounters.

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what was the ticket and why was it BS if you dont mind me asking?

Fishing without a saltwater license. We were in my uncle's boat and dropped off my uncle and older cousin to wade fish while my dad took me and younger cousin for a cruise. There wasn't a fishing line in the entire boat.

damn, that is BS

My Mom took my boat out to read a book. No gear was on deck but I have lots of tackle storage and a huge rod box with rods in it. She wasn't fishing. No gear not even a hook or anything on deck. Everything stored away. She is at anchored reading by herself.

Game Warden comes up and immediately hassling her for a fishing license. She says sir I don't fish I'm just reading this is my son's boat.

He says we'll I'm going to have to write you a ticket for No fishing license. She repeats sir I don't fish I don't know how to fish this is my son's boat. He says we'll I have to write you a ticket for fishing without a license cuz you have all the equipment.

So she calls the sheriff. They answer and she says I need to report a rape. GW says WHAT I HAVENT BEEN NEAR YOU.

MY mom says we'll you have all the equipment.....

He quickly left. Not gonna win that argument with my Mom. No way.

SGrem said:

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My Mom took my boat out to read a book. No gear was on deck but I have lots of tackle storage and a huge rod box with rods in it. She wasn't fishing. No gear not even a hook or anything on deck. Everything stored away. She is at anchored reading by herself.

Game Warden comes up and immediately hassling her for a fishing license. She says sir I don't fish I'm just reading this is my son's boat.

He says we'll I'm going to have to write you a ticket for No fishing license. She repeats sir I don't fish I don't know how to fish this is my son's boat. He says we'll I have to write you a ticket for fishing without a license cuz you have all the equipment.

So she calls the sheriff. They answer and she says I need to report a rape. GW says WHAT I HAVENT BEEN NEAR YOU.

MY mom says we'll you have all the equipment.....

He quickly left. Not gonna win that argument with my Mom. No way.

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wow your mom is a super star