Have you been stopped by F & W

[beansgunsghandi]

If you hunt 408 or 410 you will have many conversations with various conservation officers. Uniformly positive and reasonable people in my experience, two even helped load an elk for me one year, I really respected that. Same with the trunk road, not quite so positive sometimes but always reasonable and decent. Rifle, license, tags, done.

[ogger]

I've been stopped a number of times. I find that as rule they're doing their jobs. Licenses in order, guns not loaded, proper tags for area that sort of thing. One disturbing encounter. Two FW approached my vehicle after I pulled over. One I had met before and he came to my window. The other run around the truck and without asking opened both doors, reached in and grabbed my BLR by the barrel and pulled it towards himself to check and see if it was loaded. Annoyed I looked at the other officer and made the comment that maybe you should send scooter over there to a hunters safety course. He nodded and told me to have a nice day.

For those who hunt with yours teenage kids, I have been asked to produce their tags. When they showed them, the officer commented good to see your father doesn't have them in his possession or I would have to fine him. Keep it in mind.

[Sneeze]

Originally Posted by Saltmania

There, I fixed it for you.

I've never been stopped while hunting, but while fishing I have been flagged down and asked to bring my canoe to shore so they could check my barbs and measure my walleye.

My post didn't need fixing.

Poaching and its definition by F&W is not necessarily the common sense version you & I might assume it to be.

A great example is the fellow that is an AO member who was charged under WAPPRITA.

[Bartfache]

why do they seem to not care, or check for PAL?

[Saltmania]

Originally Posted by Sneeze

My post didn't need fixing.

Poaching and its definition by F&W is not necessarily the common sense version you & I might assume it to be.

A great example is the fellow that is an AO member who was charged under WAPPRITA.

Well I guess if you want to be paranoid about it. My perspective is that F&W is usually after the bad guys and not too interested in manipulating the situation to investigate and ticket innocent hunters. But I suppose it happens on rare occassions.

[hal53]

Originally Posted by Bartfache

why do they seem to not care, or check for PAL?

because they and a vast amount of police thought it was BS...and they were right...

[SkytopBrewster]

Never been asked for a PAL,just checked licences,ID, and checked to see if gun was loaded in vehicle.

[srp71]

I was stopped once when I was a teen.Was on trike with loaded gun.My screw up.Got a stern lecture and a tkt.Was stopped in the boat at Smoke lake about ten yrs ago.Both were positive experiences tho.Called in a few poached and left animals a few times.Was the busy season so it took several hrs both times for them to respond.Same guy picked me up both times and I rode with him to scene of crimes.And went for a short tour with him one of those times.I hunt local for last 12 or so yrs(338,340,342)and I have never seen a F&W officer let alone been checked by one.

[ishootbambi]

yes ive been stalked by one. still not sure why that loony was rooting through my garbage can like a hobo??? he has creeped around my house a few times, and gone so far as to grill my better half.


ooops.....my bad. i just realized you said stopped. yes, many times. the guys up in the areas i hunt are some pretty good dudes for the most part. met an arse or two over the years, but remember they are just people like any other. some are good at their jobs, some suck....some are good guys, some not so much....some are pretty smart people, others ya gotta wonder how they breathe when they sleep with so few functioning brain cells.

[Zaden]

Was hunting pheasants the first weekend season opened for them,Rcmp and F&W had a checkstop on the highway in the 108 zone, Took my liscence and checked all my paperwork and then took my gun and cycled it a few times made sure wasn't loaded.

[J-Driver]

Ive never had any bad dealings with the COs. They've always been friendly and never really asked of anything outside of the simple tags and unloaded firearms. Usually have a little chat about how things in the area have been going and that's all.
Have had very good dealings with the range patrol in camp wainwright as well, all they wanted to see was that firearms were unloaded, and actually told me where they had been seeing more deer.
I was once pulled over by the rcmp in season (a neighbor of mine), just to see if Id filled my moose tag and to see how I thought the whitetail season was going

[H380]

For the most part my encounters with F&W has been good , The usual , get licences , check for loaded guns , that sort of stuff . Have a very good and considerate officer in the area now , too bad he is eligible for retirement in the near future . His possible replacement who is also here seems to be efficient to the pint of being obnoxious . Only bad encounter I've had was a number of years ago , 6 of us were quadding into our spring bear hunting area and were pulled over by an older officer that raked us over the coals for riding ATV's with guns before noon . Detained us for over an hour while he waited for another officer to come help write out the tickets . When the other officer arrived , he was embarrassed corrected the situation and sent us on our way .No apology from the first officer . I complained to the second guy about what had happened , as we had a couple kids with us that really got a scare out of it .First officer was gone in a week .

[Hunter1602]

I've been stopped a few times now. Every encounter they were very easy to deal with.

[gitrdun]

I have been checked a few times over the years. All have gone without a hitch and been pleasant. Last year, the officer got his truck stuck on a road allowance, I give him a tug out of his predicament. He still checked my license etc. and I wouldn't expect any less, it's his job to do so.

The other hunting party that he checked on had firearms with rounds in the mag. in the back seat of the truck. They got a warning and everyone went on their merry way.

[Mike_W]

I got to admit I am always happy to see officers in the area I hunt and fish .....I wish there were more to be honest.

[anorthernhunter]

Thanks everyone for your input.

I gain from this: unloaded gun, tags, license

By the way - this was one thread that didn't get unrailed and negative!

Wow - way to go AO folks

[NEWB]

Originally Posted by Mike_W

I got to admit I am always happy to see officers in the area I hunt and fish .....I wish there were more to be honest.

X2.

I have never had any issues with F&W.

I rarely encounter them however when I have, they have always been respectful and courteous upfront.

I find the F&W officers "can" be a good source of information. Most, not all, have a very good idea as to what is going on and provide a few ideas and locations to check out.

[fickell]

me and my wife where stopped by F&W a couple days before the thanks giving long week end after we where on our way home from a evening of hunting after the wife spotted a large bull moose at the back end of a borrow pit she screamed stop so I stopped she got out loaded her gun walked to the tree line and shot the moose as soon as she shot I started laughing as it did not move I said you just shot a sting decoy !!!! then around the corner came the flashing lights we where treated very well by the officers right from the start, they checked the fire arm and the wifes draw tag and my license and wished her luck in finding her moose and sent us on our way .every aspect of what we had done was on the up and up so no problem they did look at us kinda funny as I poked jokes at the wife for shooting the dummie and afew days after that she took a nice 40 inche bull after turning down two fork bulls

[AbAngler]

I was checked last year at the taxidermists' shop while I was dropping off my deer. He just checked the tag on the deer, and my license, nothing else. Don't think the taxidermist was too pleased...

[J-Driver]

Originally Posted by anorthernhunter

Thanks everyone for your input.

I gain from this: unloaded gun, tags, license

By the way - this was one thread that didn't get unrailed and negative!

Wow - way to go AO folks

Thank god, it seems hard to speak on here.

[bonecollector10]

Like everyone's said, check to see if my gun is loaded and that all proper licenses and tags are within. If an animal is tagged they will check the animal.

I had one sour encounter where I had the feeling the CO was doing everything possible to find something on me. After he didn't he left only to call me back and ask if he had left his range finders in my truck... he did... I returned them...

[biggameassassin]

Ya I had 3 so far. First time was a few years ago when I was 17 me and the girlfriends family were camping at crimson lake and me and my buddy had our bows out for everyone to see them (not shooting) had them laying on the table as we were going to go practice at an area just outside the park because we were getting ready for hunting season, when the co's came by... Little did we know we couldn't have our bows uncased .... Oops we were new to bow hunting that year and hadnt checked the regs. But they just let us know of that rule and gave us a warning and told us to put it away. Second time I was out in sheep country by the road went for a hike with the girlfriend, seen a grizzley 70 yards away no gun as I didn't know the boundaries out there at the time, so we got down to the road and we saw an officer drive by, so I pulled HIM over and told him about the sighting and asked a few questions about the area. The last time was driving through a wildlife corridor with my dad after a sheep hunt, he pulled us over and explained that we had seen our game cart in the back and that's why he pulled us over. We had old your case for the 303 down a deep trench in the mountains, it blew off the side and we didn't know what to do for transporting it so we took the bolt out. We told him about it and he was nice about it, asked us if he could see it, told us to get out and go to the front of the truck, he told us we did the right thing in that situation. After that talke about a few things of our trip, asked if we seen anyone else hunting and sent us on our way. all good experiances

[graymatter]

was stopped the thanksgiving weekend in Caroline
had the liver of a whitetail my brother had taken
he was enroute to edmonton, I was enroute to calgary
officer gave me the going over asking for a bill of lading for the liver I had.
I did not have one as it does not say in the regs its edible meat, so he did let me go. but did give me a solid talking too.

they usually ask to see your tags, that's all,
have never been asked to show my pal


if you got an animal and you have skined it or quartered and skinned it
then

1) make sure if there is no hide to show its a whitetail or mule, then you have at least left the tail on to identify species or the head

a deers carcase with no hair, cant be identified if its a white or mule

2) in the case of a male, leave the evidence of sex attached to the animal and if you have quartered the animal and its a male, make sure the evidence of sex is on the quarter you have tagged.

3) if is a doe, leave a part of the teets attached to prove its a doe.

was talking to the guy from victoria fancy sausage house in edmonton, he cuts a ton of animals each season
he tells me srd regularly sits and waits behind his shop at the end of the weekend and looking for evidence of sex attached to animals being delivered. prove of species, and if its a big animal like a moose or elk, and its a bull, make sure the male genitals are attached to the hind quarter you have tagged.

[herc]

Stopped a number of times. Never any problems. Now i mainly hunt my trapline. Last time i got stopped was by the new CO in the area. Told him i was the trapper in the area. Never checked any tags, licences or guns. BS'd about hunting and trapping for an hour though!

[elkhunter11]

I have been checked exactly twice in Alberta in over 30 years, both times being at combined RCMP/F&W checkstops, just outside of Fort McMurray. On both occasions, F&W asked to check licenses and checked animals and tags,and both times the RCMP checked my PAL and one one occasion, my registrations for my rifles.

[ishootbambi]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

I have been checked exactly twice in Alberta in over 30 years, both times being at combined RCMP/F&W checkstops, just outside of Fort McMurray. On both occasions, F&W asked to check licenses and checked animals and tags,and both times the RCMP checked my PAL and one one occasion, my registrations for my rifles.

just lucky i guess. i have been on three week long trips to your neck of the woods....and been checked twice. of course, once was when they were investigating someone killing a cow moose and quartering it all up. someone must have scared em off before they got loaded though and they abandoned it. no antlerless tags in that zone....

[Swangin]

I get stopped at least 2 or 3 times a year. Seems like a lot but for 2 reasons. I hunt pretty much every day of the season and one of the local officers just plain dosnt like me and pulls me over every time he sees me. This year I bought a cheap little Ford Taurus for running back and forth to town, been driving that for a couple weeks, seen him 3 times and he has yet to pull me over

[droptine894]

Not entirely sure how I should take this in. Was drawn for trophy antelope from the 21st to the 26th. Was fortunate enough, my partner and I, to tag out on day one. (Thread and pictures to be posted later.) Anyway, after hanging and skinning our lopes, the next morning we deboned and stored away the meat, capes and horns. Brought along a 100 liter cooler with ice jugs just for this purpose. We then went for a drive to dispose of the carcasses around 11:00 AM, when we got back to our camp there was a truck with two fellas in it. We got out and started talking hunting, as they were drawn as well, we gave them several locations as to where we had seen some lopes that they might be interested in. When they found out that we had tagged out, they asked if they could see them. We gladly obliged and opened the cooler and showed them our prizes. They congratulated us and then headed out to find there own. Being day two and later in the day we decided to go for a good drive and look for other antelope as well as take in the beautiful and different landscape. Armed with a coyote gun and video cameras we were off. It was a great afternoon. Near the end of the day we approached the main highway to see a fish and wildlife truck parked at the intersection. He was outside and waved us over. Once stopped he came to the window and asked how we were doing. We mentioned that all was good and that we were just enjoying the landscape as we had already tagged out. His reply was that he had already knew that. This is when we realized that he was one of the fellas from the morning. I asked him if that was his normal routine, hunt in the morning then work in the afternoon. I also jokingly mentioned that it was pretty sneaky. I am not really sure how he took this as his reply was that we had offered to show them the Lopes that we had, I quickly corrected him and said that it was they who had asked to see our trophys. The regular formalities then took place, licenses, and guns. The only part of the whole episode that really bothers me is at the very end, he wrote both of our names down with no explanation as to why. Not really thinking about it we went on our way. A little later I began to question as to why he would do that. Any thoughts????