07-03-2006, 02:32 AM
Oh heavens no harm no foul. I wasn't there on any of the said experiences that is what they said to me. So, if they get caught and they aren't guilty they fight it.
I had an experience like yours Brian, in my own state with a rather rude officer. While duck hunting one night in my teenage years I shot at a black bird at the end of shooting hours. There wasn't anything else flying and being 16 or 17 years old hunting isn't any good unless you shoot at something. I picked up my decoys with my hunting partner and looked at my truck that was parked about 200 yards away and I saw an officer parked there. I went down to the truck and he proceeded to ask me questions about all sorts of things...he then asked if I had any lead shot on me. I didn't. He asked if I would unload my gun and all of my shells, decoys, ect. I did and he couldn't find any lead shot. He asked if I had thrown it all away in the pond. He had been watching me for some time apparently. I had been throwing cattails and my hunting partner out of boredom. I told him and told him again that I didn't have any and he asked if I had some in my truck. I said, I don't know. He gave me the answer that he wanted by saying by the dashboad there was a box of lead shells. Well, I had been hunting grouse the previous evening and must have forgot to unload the shells from my truck. He loooked and looked and gave me a warning citation for some bogus things and then told me he could have taken my truck and everything else. I hadn't broken the law and I knew it and he just tried to get something out of me. I was very cooperative with him until he admited that he opened my truck and looked around. I got less nice after he told me that. He asked my why I was acting nervous....I said "you're talking to me...wouldn't you be nervous if you were getting interrogated for nothing?"
I haven't ever personally got a ticket for anything but one speeding ticket so I'm all for following the rules. It's easier to do that than look over the shoulder.
In response to the landowner issue, he has land both in Idaho and Utah and wasn't particulary sure where the state line is. So, if the landowner didn't know then how were the hunters on his land supposed to know? These guys aren't crooks, in fact, all of them are commercial pilots who have to have clean records to land or maintain jobs...they are good citizens. Oh well.
I do, however, find it too bad that people from out of state can be and probably are targets for the F&G. I feel like Idaho F&G are a little more, shall we say thorough, with out of staters. It's the same on both sides of the border so I'm not saying that we're getting picked on. I've seen people that had in state license plates that were a little liberal on the interpretation of the regs and out of staters that were following the regs when checked by F&G had to prove their innocence rather than a regular check from the F&G.
If you're breaking the rules then your breaking the rules and there should be fines for it. I'm all for it, but I think that out of staters get tickets easier because the propensity to pay the ticket rather than actually let the system work is much higher. Thus, less court costs and more revenue for the state. It's the same with Cops and most other things. Just kinda the way it is....
The moral of the story is that there are plenty of people breaking the rules all of the time. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I get treated rudely by any officer in any state. We follow the rules and it's easier that way...I was just saying in the last post that there are enough major rules and regs being broken blatantly that I don't think there is much of need to go commando to try to trap unknowing sportsmen to give them a ticket unless there have been reports or tips given by watchful sportsmen.
No one likes being treated like a criminal and it never leaves a good taste in anyone's mouth from any state to be raked up and down the coals by an officer trying to find something wrong that you have done. That's harrassment in my book. We don't need to be harrassed by over zealous officers trying to give tickets to people who don't deserve them. I'll get off my soap box now....
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I had an experience like yours Brian, in my own state with a rather rude officer. While duck hunting one night in my teenage years I shot at a black bird at the end of shooting hours. There wasn't anything else flying and being 16 or 17 years old hunting isn't any good unless you shoot at something. I picked up my decoys with my hunting partner and looked at my truck that was parked about 200 yards away and I saw an officer parked there. I went down to the truck and he proceeded to ask me questions about all sorts of things...he then asked if I had any lead shot on me. I didn't. He asked if I would unload my gun and all of my shells, decoys, ect. I did and he couldn't find any lead shot. He asked if I had thrown it all away in the pond. He had been watching me for some time apparently. I had been throwing cattails and my hunting partner out of boredom. I told him and told him again that I didn't have any and he asked if I had some in my truck. I said, I don't know. He gave me the answer that he wanted by saying by the dashboad there was a box of lead shells. Well, I had been hunting grouse the previous evening and must have forgot to unload the shells from my truck. He loooked and looked and gave me a warning citation for some bogus things and then told me he could have taken my truck and everything else. I hadn't broken the law and I knew it and he just tried to get something out of me. I was very cooperative with him until he admited that he opened my truck and looked around. I got less nice after he told me that. He asked my why I was acting nervous....I said "you're talking to me...wouldn't you be nervous if you were getting interrogated for nothing?"
I haven't ever personally got a ticket for anything but one speeding ticket so I'm all for following the rules. It's easier to do that than look over the shoulder.
In response to the landowner issue, he has land both in Idaho and Utah and wasn't particulary sure where the state line is. So, if the landowner didn't know then how were the hunters on his land supposed to know? These guys aren't crooks, in fact, all of them are commercial pilots who have to have clean records to land or maintain jobs...they are good citizens. Oh well.
I do, however, find it too bad that people from out of state can be and probably are targets for the F&G. I feel like Idaho F&G are a little more, shall we say thorough, with out of staters. It's the same on both sides of the border so I'm not saying that we're getting picked on. I've seen people that had in state license plates that were a little liberal on the interpretation of the regs and out of staters that were following the regs when checked by F&G had to prove their innocence rather than a regular check from the F&G.
If you're breaking the rules then your breaking the rules and there should be fines for it. I'm all for it, but I think that out of staters get tickets easier because the propensity to pay the ticket rather than actually let the system work is much higher. Thus, less court costs and more revenue for the state. It's the same with Cops and most other things. Just kinda the way it is....
The moral of the story is that there are plenty of people breaking the rules all of the time. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I get treated rudely by any officer in any state. We follow the rules and it's easier that way...I was just saying in the last post that there are enough major rules and regs being broken blatantly that I don't think there is much of need to go commando to try to trap unknowing sportsmen to give them a ticket unless there have been reports or tips given by watchful sportsmen.
No one likes being treated like a criminal and it never leaves a good taste in anyone's mouth from any state to be raked up and down the coals by an officer trying to find something wrong that you have done. That's harrassment in my book. We don't need to be harrassed by over zealous officers trying to give tickets to people who don't deserve them. I'll get off my soap box now....
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