friday i was going to a spot on p-land. as i paked on the road side so i can walk up in there not to spoke the deer as i was walking up the muddy road i looked back and saw a conservation officer more or less rinning up to me . he said hi and looked at my permits and we talked about guns he liked my twenty i had then he took a black rod and wanted to check the gun to see if i had the plug in it .so that was it never had that happen in twenty nine years of hunting .mostly around zone 3 never checked my . what the hell was that all about to run up to me???[confused][confused]
conservation officer come running at me!!!!
rugman
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16,048 Posts
I've been stopped numerous times in 3 weeks , by different officers, Then I have gone over 15 years with out being stopped. There just doing their jobs. They werer always polite and deserve my respect. If he came up to you and acted like a jerk then you would hate being harrased. He probably had too many complaints from that area and was checking everyone . After all if there were no complaints he would have been somewhere else. Cudos for the man doing his job and just not collecting a check. By the way some of the CO's are volunteer. I've heard numerous guns go off without plugs. The only way to know who's got them and who doesn't is to check. When they checked mine I prayed my plug somehow didn't break or dislodge, I check myself periodicaly but $h!t happens . Glad things worked out for yoiu.
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10,355 Posts
I have been checked more times fishing especially ice fishing than hunting. I have been check while phesant & deer hunting though.
me, a friend, my cousin, and my uncle go pheasant hunting every thanksgiving morning for the past 4 years. this year we had really crappy weather but we went anyway. an hour in to our hunt it started downpouring so we headed for the truck (suv). we unloaded the guns, broke them open, and laid them in the back of the suv and then took cover inide the truck to get out of the rain. i stayed outside bc i had rain gear on. 2 minutes later i see a truck pull behind ours and sure enough its a CO. he got out and walked up to me and asked what we were doing. i said pheasant hunting. then my partners got out of the truck. he checked our licenses and of course we're all legall. he then asked why our guns were in the back of the suv. we said bc it started pouring rain so we took cover. he then said what we were doing was wrong with the guns uncased. we said we werent done hunting, just taking shelter from the rain but he was being really unfriendly about how WRONG we were. we tried bs-ing with him but he wanted no part of it. eventually he left. when we went back to the office, the owner told us he stopped in and bit#$ed about us. give me a break. sometimes these guys seem like they have an agenda to bust peoples balls no matter what.
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15,837 Posts
It is against to the law to have an uncased weapon in a vehicle. You were WRONG! The guy could have wrote you up, but he didn't. Did you ever think that maybe it was his way of telling you not to make that mistake again. Don't take a stern lesson for unfriendly.
It seems like the problem for most is that the CO's are looked at like they are the "bad guys"!
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15,837 Posts
It does not matter pv216 it is against the law. I heard of people getting ticketed for laying an uncased gun on a bed cover or leaning it against the vehicle.
As for the pouring rain, I was bottom fishing for Lake Trout at Merrill Creek one heavy downpour morning when two game wardens showed up behind me. I had my Bimini top up and was playing a small laker and never saw them approach. I thought they were a little overboard (no pun intended) as they were not wearing any rain gear in an open boat.
I played the fish into my net as they watched and thanked god it was not bleeding as I torpedoed it back in the water. The driver of the boat pulled alongside and threw out his bumpers to protect my boat and quipped about the fish. Didn't really hear what he said as the rain on the top was noisy as all get out.
I admit I did get a little annoyed when the one wanted to see everything from my license to my fire extinguisher. I even went as far as to invite the guy to get in and check it out for himself. I didn't need my gear that was stashed in the open areas of the boat to be getting soaked. He then said " No, I'll take your word for it, but I need to see the live well." I opened it for him, he looked, and that was it. They wished me a good day and I did to them as well.
Thinking about it later I realized that these guys were doing their job in the best interest of the resources of the state and in my well being on making sure that I had all the safety equipment on board.
About a half hour later I saw them towing a small 12 ft boat with three linebackers (big boys) in it to shore. I found out from the ramp attendant that the wardens ticketed them for not enough life vests and exceeding the load limit. Who knows what they may have prevented by their actions.
Next time case the guns.
As for the pouring rain, I was bottom fishing for Lake Trout at Merrill Creek one heavy downpour morning when two game wardens showed up behind me. I had my Bimini top up and was playing a small laker and never saw them approach. I thought they were a little overboard (no pun intended) as they were not wearing any rain gear in an open boat.
I played the fish into my net as they watched and thanked god it was not bleeding as I torpedoed it back in the water. The driver of the boat pulled alongside and threw out his bumpers to protect my boat and quipped about the fish. Didn't really hear what he said as the rain on the top was noisy as all get out.
I admit I did get a little annoyed when the one wanted to see everything from my license to my fire extinguisher. I even went as far as to invite the guy to get in and check it out for himself. I didn't need my gear that was stashed in the open areas of the boat to be getting soaked. He then said " No, I'll take your word for it, but I need to see the live well." I opened it for him, he looked, and that was it. They wished me a good day and I did to them as well.
Thinking about it later I realized that these guys were doing their job in the best interest of the resources of the state and in my well being on making sure that I had all the safety equipment on board.
About a half hour later I saw them towing a small 12 ft boat with three linebackers (big boys) in it to shore. I found out from the ramp attendant that the wardens ticketed them for not enough life vests and exceeding the load limit. Who knows what they may have prevented by their actions.
Next time case the guns.
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5,493 Posts
Well, which was it? Sounds to me like he did his job just fine...perhaps your story wasn't clear, as it isn't here....
And bit#$ing to the owner may have been his way of laying out a stern warning, rather than writing you all up, including the owner of the property for allowing you to hunt in such a manner. Case the gun=problem solved
G
Guest
·That brings up a question I have for the law knowing folk. Yesterday after coming back from our waterfowl hunt I leaned the gun against the truck while fishing my pocket for my keys. He kiddingly mentions "ooh your breaking the law". And goes on to explain to me that leaning a gun against a vehicle, loaded or not, is against the law?
He's been hunting 20 some yrs. and I wouldnt challenge his knowledge of hunting or it's laws. But I've just never heard of this law in my own 24 yrs. of hunting. I read the compendium 3-4 times front to back every yr and have never seen it mentioned. I realise not everything is listed in there but never heard it mentioned even from anybody else? After being told though I do believe that it's a good safety rule to practice[up] and will be more careful in the future
G
Guest
·My thoughts exactly I've been checked twice by the same officer last yr and again this yr. and both times he was very professional and very friendly at the same time. We spoke both times for some time about numerous topics w/ NJ hunting along w/ some good leads for public land, and he did mention how under staffed they are!
Thats why we as hunters have to help do our part and report wrong doings when they are witnessed. Just a month ago I tried to educate a fellow hunter about driving on state land but he blew me off and still drove onto the land. Had he parked and walked in and educated the others that had already drove in. I would never have called but his attitude was just negative and wrong so I made the call.
But even with that, when I posted here about that situation you still get some people calling you a rat, AND TO THEM THEY SHOULD BE BANNED cause that frame of mind should not be tolerated! but thats just my own $.02
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10,151 Posts
I,ve been checked a bunch of times. in zone 3 and 8 so many times in fact they know me by name. Never had a problem. When I'm Pheasant hunt or duck hunting the very first thing I do is case the gun. or if I'm bowhunting case the bow. The law says no uncased weapons in a vehicle. It doesn't say it has to be moving or not. so just case it and there's no issue. I was told once to do that by a CO. now I do it every time.
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14,886 Posts
wrong you can lean the gun against the vehicle...how are u supposed to case it if u didnt get the keys out of your pocket yet....but as soon as the gun goes in the car/truck it has to be cased,,,,
when we got back to the parking lot a few weeks ago, a CO wanted to check our license and do the check to see if we were over our limit, check our guns, etc. we talked to him for 15 minutes with our guns leaning against the truck and he didnt say a word. so i dont think its illegal to lean your gun against the truck uncased. now uncased in the car is a different story.
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534 Posts
a couple years ago while hunting in a remote swamp at about 3:30 pm,i heard a mushing sound coming thru the swamp,feet in mud! I got excited when all of a sudden i looked over and saw a game warden.He must have found my stand prior because he looked right up where i was and said how you doing? I got down said hi,he checked my license and we talked for a minute,and he left.He was nice enough,and didnt bust my stones(some can be real hard cases),but i wish he had just waited for me to come out of the woods instead of coming down at prime hunting time and ruining my hunt for that evening.
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6,834 Posts
Any gun in a vehicle must be cased, no exceptions. Leaning against a vehicle or lying on a tailgate is not "in" the vehicle.
If you had your gun uncased, on the back seat, the guy was giving you a break by not giving you a ticket. You should be posting a than you note, not a CO bashing post.
If you had your gun uncased, on the back seat, the guy was giving you a break by not giving you a ticket. You should be posting a than you note, not a CO bashing post.
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14,886 Posts
maybe it was your grammar school teacher chasing you
so for $20 you let him use his black rod on you
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