who dealt with the law

Mike

Glad to hear you didn't get any tickets. What happens a lot of times. The law enforcement officers sent by the feds are not from the area their working. So you might know the laws of your area better then them. They only know what they are trained for which is Federal law . Same thing happen to me when I was told I couldn't hunt this one spot. I was hunting it for years. But they didn't care until a State Warden drove up and told them it was ok. You'll find out most Police don't know where you can or can't hunt. Their just acting on phone calls to check out a problem in a area. Keep your cool like you did and most of the time you will be fine. Notice! I said most of the time. Thanks for your post.
 
Hunting the coastal marshes of New Jersey it always pays to have some "walk in" spots for those days when the tides or winds preclude safe boating, or when you just don't need to take a boat out for a successful hunt. As a teenager in the 90's I can remember some of these walk in hunts with my Dad when we would be told by the local police that it was illegal to hunt certain marshes due to a municipal "No discharge" ordinance. I think this is fairly common in my State. This occurred for a few seasons and infuriated my Dad because he had hunted these places since a teenager in the 50's, but we would comply and go elsewhere. After a few hunts had been ruined in this fashion he went to speak with the Chief of Police, but without success. Finally he wrote a letter to the Governors office where finally this was clarified in favor of the hunter. I have tried to attach the response. Apparently, even though tidal marshes may be privately owned, the riparian rights to use tidelands by the public requires an additional conveyance. We still hunt these marshes to some success. I will always hunt these locations, not because of the "bag", because it surely isn't the stuff of legends, but rather because of the family connection and out of respect for my Dad's efforts. View attachment Riparian Rights Letter.pdf
 
Bob

Great post, here sometimes in upstate New York State along the Hudson we run into stuff like that. Good for your dad and for all of you he helped. Thanks for the post.
 
Late in November more then ten or so years ago. My older brother and I are hunting on the Hudson River in Up State New York. It was a cold and very windy day. The tide was out and we were out of our boat hunting off the shore. My yellow Lab Henry was with us .He was having a good morning running down cripples. As the water started coming in so did the ducks. A flock of mallards came over and we dropped two of four. A flock of Blacks came in right after we shot. We let them pass, At the time you couldn't shoot Black Ducks. Less then a minute later we heard a shot right behind us. We watch as one black fell right in front of our decoys. As a few minutes went by. The duck still was flapping around in our decoys. Those hunters didn't even try to get that bird. I finally got so mad! that I sent my dog out to retrieve the bird. As the dog is out in the water my brother yells to me. Here comes two guys in a boat. But these guys were coming off the open river. As my dog is coming in. I see that these men are not hunters. Their camo is to new and their boat isn't a duck boat.
It was the Feds. The first officer jumped out of the boat and told us to drop our guns. In the mud we said: yes drop your guns. Both of us told the officers we are not putting our shotguns in the mud. We already showed them they were empty and we would hand the guns to him. Thank God!!!!!!! the second officer was in charge and told the first to back off. He came over checked our guns and took them to their boat. Then he said they saw us shoot that black duck. I was so mad, I told them we didn't shoot it. I sent my dog out to retrieve a cripple like a good hunter does. But the first officer wasn't buying our story. Just as he was getting his ticket book out. A pair of swans flew over the heads of the two officers. That's right! less then a minute later bang! bang! bang! those jack asses in the back unloaded their guns on those swans. The officers told us they were sorry gave our guns back. Took the black duck and off they went. They arrested both of those guys. I really never heard what happen. But there was a tow truck at the launch picking up a truck and trailer. It could of been theirs , But I really can't say for sure.
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Mike

Henry the hunting dog is long gone now, (Rest in Peace my friend) Many of his pups are fathers and mothers . I think we all can say that we had that one dog in our lives. And Henry of the Hudson was mine. Have pee will travel. A story of a life time for me. Thank you![angelic]
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I had an experience with the law. We used to layout hunt a large bay on a Great Lake that would hold tens of thousands of bluebills. We launched the boat with 6 dozen herters decoys, and a layout boat. As we exited the small bay where the ramp was, I noticed that I was turning up mud. I later learned this happens in a west wind. We got out to the lake and noticed sand islands off the channel which was unusual but we thought nothing of it having limited experience in this area. We got 5 ducks and as the sun began to set we picked up the decoys and the layout boat and head back in. The boat in front of us turned into the bay where we launched, went a little ways and then turned around and back out into the channel and ran up the river. We came around the corner and saw two small hover crafts, the fire department, and police at boat ramp. The hover craft went between the island and peninsula as we made our way to the boat ramp. We agreed that a duck hunter had an accident (heart attack). They came back through the cut and into the ramp. By this time we had run aground. Being younger, mid 30's, we got out and began pushing a 16 lund alaskan, with decoys, layout boat, etc. (not the first time we pushed the boat) We made it 50 yards before the hovercraft came out to us. They had come for us and we explained that we did not need rescued and that we would push the boat to the ramp, 100 yards. The hovercraft went to the ramp for a couple minutes and came back. By this time we were stuck in the mud. The rescue crew said we would be arrested if we didn't come with them. We asked if we could bring our shotguns. We were told that they could not transport weapons. We weren't willing to leave our shotguns in the boat overnight. They radioed back to the ramp and were told they could transport our shotguns and told us to grab our ducks. We tossed an anchor, jumped into the hovercraft and went to shore. We got a lecture about being rescued by the city police. The back story was that a woman had called 911 having seen someone in the water off shore. My guess is that she saw one of two layout hunters standing up in a layout boat because the other hunters were shore hunters. We went to our hotel, got up early and waited for duck hunters to launch so we could get a ride to the boat that was now floating. Of course we hunted that morning.
 
Good morning, Christopher~


Your tale reminds me of one of my own experiences from the mid-80s - except the authorities figured out that there was no "emergency" before they ever spoke with us.


We were pursuing Broadbill all day on Great South Bay. We had left the dock at first light and soon found that we shared the Bay with tens of thousands of birds but the cold northwest wind was making ice before our eyes; most of the Bay was choked and the ice was on the move. We were in a 28-foot tender (mother ship) with a 2-man scooter in its cradle on the foredeck. It had no problem with the ice but we could not find a spot where the rig would not be swept away by drifting floes. After crossing the Bay during the morning, we finally headed back toward the mainland and decided to rig in the lee of a big cove - a big cove that was lined with houses.


My partner and I were first in the scooter. I remember dropping a Drake that gave me a nice tall belly shot as he passed high over the scooter in the afternoon sunlight - one of those shots I'll recall fondly throughout my days. After 45 or so minutes in the scooter, we gave others a chance and watched the goings-on from the comfort of the heated pilothouse. Seeing the other gunners wave their flag occasionally barely caught our attention - but it apparently did catch the attention of a waterfront resident. We were totally unaware until we spotted police cars and then an ambulance making their way counterclockwise around the shore. We first concluded it was probably a heart attack suffered by one of the well-fed occupants of this prime real estate. We began to realize something was amiss, though, when our ears detected the unmistakable throbbing of a chopper.... It was about this time that we saw the hook-and-ladder, too.



The arm-waving of a policeman on shore finally got our complete attention. We were too far away to converse, but somehow used hands and body language to convey that "No, the boat was not capsized." and "No, the flagging was not a summons for help."


Lots of public dollars expended that day - but I think we need to rack it up to "better safe than sorry".


All the best,


SJS





 
Sandy, it is not uncommon for duck hunters on Champlain to build shore blinds out of hay bales. They probably figured that's what you were up to.

John Bourbon
 
During the 1990s my friends and I hunted a lot at The cape hatteras nat'l seashore, public blinds on Bodie Island, NC. We got to know the NPS rangers well. The rangers knew my friend Billy was a straight-up hunter, and wouldn't bend the law. Of course we still got checked from time to time.
One day, about '96 or '97, Billy and I were hunting from blind #14 when we saw a park ranger wading across the pond toward us. Expecting to be checked, we unloaded and were ready with licenses and so forth. The ranger got to our blind, greeted us, and chatted for a minute. The ranger produced a couple of cans of Coca-Cola, and two packs of Lance crackers, and gave them to us. The ranger said they thought we might like a snack. We visited a bit.; enjoyed the snacks, and the ranger waded back toward the truck. I always enjoyed hunting there back then.
 
Was floating out in an open bay hunting over decoys. Warden approached our boat to check our licenses.

Had my Chessie with us and we had been floating for 2-3 hours. as soon as the warden's boat came along side my dog jumped into his boat the greet him. I thought it was kinda weird but she was a "nice" Chesapeake.

I looked over his shoulder as he was checking our licenses and she was balanced and bowed up dropping a deuce on his ctr. console seat.

My dog knew better than to go in our boat but had no issue at all about somebody eles's boat.

Oh boy I thought this could be bad. He quickly pulled out his citation book and starting ripping off tickets to clean up the mess. He kept saying "I knew these were good for something". Was funny as hell and we all laughed our asses off.
 
Tv

That my friend is a dang good story. I had one pretty close story .When my Lab jumped in the Police boat and peed in the lunch bag of a female officer. The old male officer laughed his butt off. The rookie female wanted to write us up for anything she could. She was the B word. No tickets and the male officer gave my dog half of his sandwich. Which had no pee on it. lol
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tvbrewster said:
Was floating out in an open bay hunting over decoys. Warden approached our boat to check our licenses.

Had my Chessie with us and we had been floating for 2-3 hours. as soon as the warden's boat came along side my dog jumped into his boat the greet him. I thought it was kinda weird but she was a "nice" Chesapeake.

I looked over his shoulder as he was checking our licenses and she was balanced and bowed up dropping a deuce on his ctr. console seat.

My dog knew better than to go in our boat but had no issue at all about somebody eles's boat.

Oh boy I thought this could be bad. He quickly pulled out his citation book and starting ripping off tickets to clean up the mess. He kept saying "I knew these were good for something". Was funny as hell and we all laughed our asses off.


Bwahahahahaha[w00t]
 
Hunting is hard enough with out the law getting into your grill. But I really have to say that most of the time there pretty fair. Once may Brother and I was hunting on the Hudson at low tide. Pretty muddy where we were. The law was out on the open river and was watching us for a little while. They must of got bored! they beached their boat and walked over to us. The one office told us to drop our guns. We first unloaded them and told the officer we are not putting our guns in the mud. He said again put down your weapons. As the other officer walked over he started sinking in the mud up to the top of his boots(NOT WADERS) . He yelled to the other officer do not tell them to drop there shotguns. They will lose them in the mud. They finally got to us and checked the guns for plugs. It was funny because my brother had a over and under. I had a side by side. They then checked are shells and paperwork and moved on. It got even more funny when their boat was on the mud. They couldn't push it out and had to wait with us until the tide came in. Good guys after that. Just doing their jobs.
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Most of my dealings with the law involve the right of way law in SD. If you have never hunted in SD the right of way law simply states that all rights of ways in SD are public property (except where specifically marked) for the hunting of upland bird and migratory birds. The birds must take flight from or be flying over the right of way. You can retrieve on private property as long as your gun stays on public property. You must be 660 ft away from livestock, occupied dwellings, etc. For pheasants this opens up a TON of area to hunt if you are careful and follow the rules. Most people don't use this law for migratory birds, except maybe for me, and this is where I deal with the law.

There was a particular property just north of a town I used to live in. It was a prime feeding grounds for late season honkers. They would roost in the towns warm water ponds which never froze over and fly low over the river and into her cattle fields to eat corn. When they would leave they would swing wide over the local highway before heading south into town. Now this was no little highway, it was and is a main 2 lane paved highway that is 65mph (I never take a dog here). After years of asking for permission from the landowner I said screw it I'm going to shoot from the highway ditch when they fly overhead, which was completely within my right according to SD law. So the next morning I drove my little Toyota Corolla up and parked on a pull off in the right of way about 10am. I got my gun out and just sat there looking into the field waiting for them to leave like clockwork at about 10:30 am. Sure enough they start leaving. First two waves get up and are too high and down the fenceline farther. They three groups getup and there is a flock of 5 that are being pushed low and straight at me by a larger flock above. I duck down behind the weeds and wait for there approach. They get closer and closer finally I lift up from the weeds when they are 10 yards out. They staring flaring straight up and parallel to the fenceline. I drop two and quickly retrieve them both landing in the ditch. I settle back in and wait some more picking off a single as well. I drop another single but this time it lands in the field as it banks away. As I'm retrieving I see the landowner hollering from her porch. I can't hear anything as she is 1/2 mile away but I'm sure is isn't pleasant things. I see her rip out of her driveway as I am walking back towards my vehicle with my 4th bird. She pulls up behind my vehicle blocking it in and rips me a new one telling me she is calling the Game Warden, Police, etc. I drop one more bird as she is in my earhole yelling. I'm really shooting bad at this point due to laughing while I'm puling the trigger as the last group I shot at should have been at least a double. At this point her yelling, honking of horns, and running into the field has sent all the birds into the air and away towards the roost. She continues to berate me as the game warden pulls up. I explain the hunt to him, show him the 5 birds, license, shells, etc. He asks the woman politely to move her vehicle from behind mine. He says I am free to go. She was red in the face, spitting mad, yelling at the warden as I drive off into town. I really felt bad for the warden and never repeated that hunt again. Although I will occasionally shoot some sharp-tails from her ditch just for fun.
 
Great Story Kyle thanks for sharing. DON'T YOU HATE WHEN YOUR RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!! That my friend is a really nice tale. Glad you came out on top. It helps to know the law.
 
Back a long time ago when ducks filled the sky around here. My Brother and I were hunting in a bay north of Catskill NY. A Bay where we have hunted for around forty five years or so. We have had many days of slamming ducks and geese in this bay back then. On this one opening morning of the second half. The tide was very low and there was no water in site for hours. We had to drag the boat on the mud to get to our spot in the bay. As any duck hunter knows this is hard work. Know joke! if I tried it today it would kill me for sure. Anyway! when the water started coming in the ducks started to fly. With less then six inches of water in the bay we were in heaven. There wasn't any other hunters in the bay because of the low tide. We had some good shooting for a few hours. We heard some noise on the shore behind us. We thought it was just someone walking down the shore line. It wasn't ! it was the feds and they called us to shore. We walk all the way to them. And left our boat on the mud in the middle of the bay. They ordered us to put down our shotguns on the shore. The shore mind you ,was nothing but nasty mud and water. We told the law we were not going to set our guns in the mud. We will unload them and hand them to you. One officer said ok ! so we started to unload them. My brothers gun was a over and under that he paid a good some for when he was in the Navy overseas . I had a browning bps shotgun new that was a gift. So as we got the guns unloaded the other officer said: Now put them down!. This is after his partner told us to hand it to him after they were unloaded. So the two officer started going back and fourth over which way to do things. Never caring about all the ducks that we had back at the boat. As this was going on the tide was coming in strong. A pair of Black ducks flew over our heads. Back then you couldn't take any black ducks. All of a sudden two shots rang out and one duck dropped. The Feds left us there and headed for the back of the bay. I don't know if they ever got the guy who shot the duck. But they never came back and we went back to the boat and hunted the rest of the day. Good Cop bad Cop didn't work that day. But it sure saved us from being harassed anymore.
 
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