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Tennessee game wardens no longer able to go on private property without a warrant

Most states consider the wildlife to be "property" of the state, until you want the state to pay for the property damage "their" wildlife did to your car or crops.
Wildlife that transiently moves through properties are a part of the Public Trust that is state flora and fauna. It's not owened by the state, but rather all the people. Game wardens are supposed to be stewards of this trust for the sake of the people. They're supposed to make sure that guys who are running dogs and killing 100 deer a year to send the meat up to markets in NY for profit aren't ruining the trust for future generation to enjoy and recreate with.
That's the outlook FL game wardens are supposed to take anyways. Many of them do in North FL. South FL is a whole different game.
A cooler in your truck is probable cause. this from a GW friend
Cooler by itself? No. A state attorney will throw that out.
A cooler with blood, fur, or scales on it or around it? PC all day. After all, game wardens are there to regulate the taking of game & fish.
 
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I patrol my posted property the first day of deer and dove season and always find someone who claims the owner said they could hunt it. 🙄

I’m not a big land owner or a celebrity. I just don’t want idiots hunting on my place or my neighbors places. And there are tons of fudds trying to.

I told my local Texas game warden he was welcome anytime. He has my gate combos to my land and my leased properties. Most everyone I know who has land does the same.

I am glad to see him and believe he is a huge deterrent to criminals.

He has recovered a lot of stolen property over the years for a lot of people.

Funny how those who don’t own land always complain about the game wardens. No one who has dealt with fudds for years complains.
For safety reasons. I prefer to be the only one shooting dogs on my property if I need backup I know who to call.
 
Trust that is state flora and fauna. It's not owened by the state, but rather all the people.
That makes sense once they can be billed for
Car destruction
Car accident injuries and death
Lyme and other disease injuries and death
Ornamental and other garden destruction
Crop destruction
Etc

Oh then the state doesn’t own them^
 
That makes sense once they can be billed for
Car destruction
Car accident injuries and death
Lyme and other disease injuries and death
Ornamental and other garden destruction
Crop destruction
Etc

Oh then the state doesn’t own them^
I think we're on the same page.
The state does not own them. You do, as does your neighbor. That's what a Public Trust is and that's why you can't bill the state for damages.
 
I think we're on the same page.
The state does not own them. You do, as does your neighbor. That's what a Public Trust is and that's why you can't bill the state for damages.
The state is the collection of people. That’s who enforces the bs and theft schemes.

The same “representatives” of the people that
-steal our tax money to pay gw to keep people from shooting the rats
-steal more of our money to pay other people to shoot the rats.
If the people own them the people can pay for the damages.


I need to wear Orange and go through some bs to get a license to shoot a groundhog on my own property? Shows how f ed up everything is
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Wildlife that transiently moves through properties are a part of the Public Trust that is state flora and fauna. It's not owened by the state, but rather all the people. Game wardens are supposed to be stewards of this trust for the sake of the people. They're supposed to make sure that guys who are running dogs and killing 100 deer a year to send the meat up to markets in NY for profit aren't ruining the trust for future generation to enjoy and recreate with.
That's the outlook FL game wardens are supposed to take anyways. Many of them do in North FL. South FL is a whole different game.

Cooler by itself? No. A state attorney will throw that out.
A cooler with blood, fur, or scales on it or around it? PC all day. After all, game wardens are there to regulate the taking of game & fish.
PC how?
What probable cause exists that a crime has been committed by the mere presence of a cooler with fish scales around it?
Is having a dirty cooler a crime?
Cam you positively identify those scales, by sight alone, as coming from a game fish or protected species?
 
As a TN resident, with property that is surrounded by TWRA land, this is great news.

I've got a decent relationship with most of the wardens I've seen in the area, but there are a few that are real pieces of shit. I've never directly seen any of them on my land, but have had a convo with one and he made mention of a feature of my property that you can only know about if you've been deep across the property line.....:mad:
 
No. Certain people are drawn to jobs that let them exert power over others

It’s not a cross section of society.
If it was 40 percent wouldn’t do something that only 10 percent of the general public do
The game warden I knew personally was the outlaw I knew growing up; he was the sorriest chickenshit that grew into a bigger, sorrier chickenshit when he was grown. 5-6" and 240lbs and wearing thick rubber lift kits on his boots to make him taller, he suffered from major Short Man Syndrome. He was the Eric Cartman of the bunch that wanted his authority respected and when we laughed when he got on his belly and 'high centered', unable to do one push-up to get up, he vowed to someday arrest us all.

He started by sucking up to a local warden and snitching on his circle of close friends. He sucked so hard he got a job at the TPWD Game Warden academy as an 'intern'. The only problem was, he never changed his own habits, which also included selling drugs for his older, hippy brother, raping a girl at a party, smoking dope, driving under the influence, ignoring game laws and poaching and trespassing.

We went to Colo. deer hunting to a usual camp on a mountain in the San Juan Nat'l Forest right next to a big private ranch and just like years prior, opening morning he was the first over the fence trespassing and without the required hunter safety orange.

He ran face to face with some of his former poacher friends that he vowed to arrest from back home and I watched with binoculars a quarter mile away as he crossed back over the fence and high tailed it back to camp first morning with his distinctive short man waddle.

When I returned to camp later I found him hiding in his sleeping bag under a TPWD trailer he had borrowed that we had towed behind his Jeep. He said if anyone shoots him, it would be so and so and so and so. He was scared shitless. I asked him WTF was he doing trespassing when he now worked for TPWD as a snitch and his response was he was 'keeping an eye on' the old gang from back home. He then said I needed to take him down to Cortez because he was having chest pains. I drove him down to Cortez in his Jeep where he rented a motel room as I returned and hunted. I'll never forget the fat loser cowering in the back of the Jeep, hiding under an Army blanket as I drove him past the camp of the former friends and fellow poachers from Austin he said he was going to arrest..

The next hiring class at TPWD, he made Game Warden and was assigned to a sector that included the King Ranch in South Texas. One sorry POS. He would later die of brain cancer.
 
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I've had exactly 2 encounters with a game warden. The first was during/after a duck hunt, and was only a couple of years after Texas went to electronic licenses- and only a couple of years after they introduced harvest information program certification. Back then, the license looked like a receipt from CVS- you know, the 3 ft long one for one item bought. Yeah, that one, except that if you requested HIP certification they printed out a second that was just for that. Now you have about 6 ft of shit to wad up and stuff into your overstuffed wallet. Well, I went out hunting but didn't realize that the second 'license' was the HIP cert, and left it at home. We got stopped by the warden after pulling the boat off the ramp.

"Hey, you gotta be HIP certified to hunt migratory birds."
"I am."
"Doesn't say so on this license."
"Well, I told them and did the little survey when I bought the license... Oh, crap, they gave me 2 of these long ass receipts. I bet it was printed on that other one."
"Make sure you have it with you next time or I'll have to give you a ticket."

The second was at a gas station as I was draining a cooler in the parking lot. He checked licenses (my wife and I) and asked to see what we shot (The bloody water draining out on the pavement was a give away.) He looked at the head/antlers and checked the tag. "Have a nice evening."

We did have a game warden check our deer camp a couple of years ago. My son and I had just left so only got the after action report. One of the guys nearly got a ticket for an improperly filled out harvest report (on the back of the license). He thought he got more of an ass-chewing than was necessary.

All in all, my interactions have been pretty tame and I don't have much to complain about. Do I want game wardens patrolling my property, coming onto my (owned or leased) property, and/or cutting locks on my gates? Hell no.

As with all law enforcement, you are not getting a true cross section of the population (true with any profession really, though you get different subsections in different fields). You're getting 3 slices. Those that actually want to serve their community. The hall monitors that didn't get the respect they thought they deserved in early life. And, those that couldn't get a job doing anything else.

My BiL was a firearms instructor at a small(ish) city police academy. The stories he tells straddled the line between comical and scary.
 
Other than that POS I knew growing up that slashed one of my tires and told all the other Barney Fifes in my small town to harass me, which they did, I've had good rapport with game wardens. Most are now younger than me, educated and more professional.

The ones I knew before in my younger years were part of a good ol boy system and acted like they were made men in the Mafia and the law didn't pertain to them. I knew one old warden that caught us fishing on a private tank in '74 and hauled us before a judge at his home in Georgetown that fined us $35.00 apiece. That same warden would later get busted for shooting a buck and using his wife's tag on it. He was suspended for a short time and was then reinstated.
 
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The state is the collection of people. That’s who enforces the bs and theft schemes.

The same “representatives” of the people that
-steal our tax money to pay gw to keep people from shooting the rats
-steal more of our money to pay other people to shoot the rats.
If the people own them the people can pay for the damages.


I need to wear Orange and go through some bs to get a license to shoot a groundhog on my own property? Shows how f ed up everything is
View attachment 7835761
I never said every law was just or that they all make sense. I was just making a statement on the game warden concept. The boards of directors and politicians that are involved in the conservation of a state have nothing to do with the statements I've made.
PC how?
What probable cause exists that a crime has been committed by the mere presence of a cooler with fish scales around it?
Is having a dirty cooler a crime?
Cam you positively identify those scales, by sight alone, as coming from a game fish or protected species?
The idea is that when you participate in the taking of any game, you open yourself up to being checked by the regulators of the local conservation effort. Otherwise there would be no way to regulate any taking of game, short of the game warden fishing or hunting with you and watching you take something you shouldn't or take something out of season. If all a poacher had to do was get a poached creature out of sight [in a cooler or a sack] then many species that we hunt would be endangered or even extinct by now.
It's a little different than a standard LEO's PC.
It's not a perfect system, but it seems to be the best that we have to maintain adequate populations of game species for us to continue to hunt.
 
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The idea is that when you participate in the taking of any game, you open yourself up to being checked by the regulators of the local conservation effort. Otherwise there would be now way to regulate any taking of game, short of the game warden fishing or hunting with you and watching you take something you shouldn't or take something out of season. If all a poacher had to do was get a poached creature out of sight [in a cooler or a sack] then many species that we hunt would be endangered or even extinct by now.
It's a little different than a standard LEO's PC.
It's not a perfect system, but it seems to be the best that we have to maintain adequate populations of game species for us to continue to hunt.
People like you are why the constitution is pretty much gone

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2BF3AA7D-5E7E-4A41-9C12-587542EB5DAF.jpeg


Your same flawed line of thinking is why boaters and commercial vehicles are harassed incessantly, illegally
 
I never said every law was just or that they all make sense. I was just making a statement on the game warden concept. The boards of directors and politicians that are involved in the conservation of a state have nothing to do with the statements I've made.

The idea is that when you participate in the taking of any game, you open yourself up to being checked by the regulators of the local conservation effort. Otherwise there would be now way to regulate any taking of game, short of the game warden fishing or hunting with you and watching you take something you shouldn't or take something out of season. If all a poacher had to do was get a poached creature out of sight [in a cooler or a sack] then many species that we hunt would be endangered or even extinct by now.
It's a little different than a standard LEO's PC.
It's not a perfect system, but it seems to be the best that we have to maintain adequate populations of game species for us to continue to hunt.
A little different?
I can assure you, if a police officer or deputy used what you describe as "PC", the cases would be immediately dismissed and they very well may find themselves in federal court on civil rights violations.
You either believe in the constitution, or you don't.
 
I never said every law was just or that they all make sense. I was just making a statement on the game warden concept. The boards of directors and politicians that are involved in the conservation of a state have nothing to do with the statements I've made.

The idea is that when you participate in the taking of any game, you open yourself up to being checked by the regulators of the local conservation effort. Otherwise there would be now way to regulate any taking of game, short of the game warden fishing or hunting with you and watching you take something you shouldn't or take something out of season. If all a poacher had to do was get a poached creature out of sight [in a cooler or a sack] then many species that we hunt would be endangered or even extinct by now.
It's a little different than a standard LEO's PC.
It's not a perfect system, but it seems to be the best that we have to maintain adequate populations of game species for us to continue to hunt.
Replace game with drugs.
 
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People like you are why the constitution is pretty much gone

View attachment 7836258

View attachment 7836257

Your same flawed line of thinking is why boaters and commercial vehicles are harassed incessantly, illegally
I get it. No one wants to be hassled by authorities. I'm pro individual freedoms in almost every sense accept when it comes to conservation of nature. I don't think people should be stopped on the street and checked for drugs or papers, or something similar; I do think that people wouldn't self regulate the taking of game on their own though.
I know of the illegal multi billion dollar industries that game wardens keep at bay. I've seen them. Imagine a world where deer, bear, good tasting fish, and even turtles from neighborhood ponds are extinct or so endangered that most people would never see one. That's the world we would potentially live in if an authority couldn't check people who were obviously recreating and taking said animals.
That's not a world I want to live in friend.
 
Replace game with drugs.
If I'm a cop walking down the street and I see people participating in something to do with drugs, I'll probably aproach them and figure out what's going on. If I pull someone over and I see drugs, drug paraphernalia or evidence of distributing, that's PC.
It's really not that much different. Drugs are regulated too, that's why there are pharmacies, doctors, etc... Another imperfect system, but it's all we got.
 
You’re smoking craxk if you think those long legged disease carrying rats are ever going extinct
Historically speaking, it almost happened on the east coast. And that was with guys wielding Kentucky rifles, shotguns, and bows.
But if you don't believe it can happen then that's where we're at an impasse. I guess I would agree with you wholeheartedly if I believed that a lack of game management wouldn't turn everything upside-down for hunters and fishermen.
 
A little different?
I can assure you, if a police officer or deputy used what you describe as "PC", the cases would be immediately dismissed and they very well may find themselves in federal court on civil rights violations.
You either believe in the constitution, or you don't.
I agree 100%.
I'm explaining it how it is. Not right or wrong, or consistency of the government entities defining PC for different enforcing bodies.

Edit:
Just to be clear, when a game warden uses this kind of PC, what they're doing is saying I see that you've been taking game, therefore I want to check your game. They are not saying that they have reason to believe the individual has taken illegal game. Checking people who have been participating in these highly regulated activities is the job of the game warden. It is different in that way.
 
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Not just isolated to game wardens. That's any group of humans.
Except there is supposedly some kind of screening/background check/polygraph/psych eval that LEOs must pass before getting the job... So one's expectations ought to be higher for LEOs than any group of humans (hint: the agenda of the hiring agency will dictate).
 
If I'm a cop walking down the street and I see people participating in something to do with drugs, I'll probably aproach them and figure out what's going on. If I pull someone over and I see drugs, drug paraphernalia or evidence of distributing, that's PC.
It's really not that much different. Drugs are regulated too, that's why there are pharmacies, doctors, etc... Another imperfect system, but it's all we got.
Can you go into someone's house without a warrant on suspicion of drug charges?
No you can't. Game is no different.
 
Except there is supposedly some kind of screening/background check/polygraph/psych eval that LEOs must pass before getting the job... So one's expectations ought to be higher for LEOs than any group of humans (hint: the agenda of the hiring agency will dictate).
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.
 
Can you go into someone's house without a warrant on suspicion of drug charges?
No you can't. Game is no different.
That's fair. And a good counter example.

Edit:
The fact of the matter is that game wardens have the authority [for better or for worse] to check people who are in the act of participating in these activities. This is by far the most effective way to catch people abusing the natural resources. Game wardens still can't just walk into people's homes. The example I was using initially was an unsecured cooler with evidence of participating in a highly regulated activity on it.
 
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That's fair. And a good counter example.

Edit:
The fact of the matter is that game wardens have the authority [for better or for worse] to check people who are in the act of participating in these activities. This is by far the most effective way to catch people abusing the natural resources. Game wardens still can't just walk into people's homes. The example I was using initially was an unsecured cooler with evidence of participating in a highly regulated activity on it.

Reply to edit.
If you're a game warden in the field, you can still do Carrol seach just like every other LEO.
Before this ruling, game wardens could search your house w/o a warrant for illegal game, but a cop couldn't search your house w/o a warrant to search for drugs.

4th amendment applies, no matter which government department you represent.
 
Do you own any land ?
I don't see what that has to do with this conversation.
Also, I apologize to the OP for hijacking this thread with this conversation that has ensued.
 
I don't see what that has to do with this conversation.
Also, I apologize to the OP for hijacking this thread with this conversation that has ensued.
Exactly.

You want to tell people that have to house and feed your entertainment what to do.

Once again. You want them for the positives. You should pay for the negatives.

And to top it off you help destroy the constitution for your special interest.
 
Exactly.

You want to tell people that have to house and feed your entertainment what to do.

Once again. You want them for the positives. You should pay for the negatives.

And to top it off you help destroy the constitution for your special interest.
I don't understand what you're trying to tell me. I'm not prescribing anything, nor am I considering this entertainment. I was merely giving a perspective based on how the west is handling conservation. This topic is not my "special interests", it's in the interest of all who harvest game or fish, and those who want to appreciate and enjoy natural resources in the future.

Perhaps we should take this into our PM's to not further murk up this thread.
 
I don't understand what you're trying to tell me. I'm not prescribing anything, nor am I considering this entertainment. I was merely giving a perspective based on how the west is handling conservation. This topic is not my "special interests", it's in the interest of all who harvest game or fish, and those who want to appreciate and enjoy natural resources in the future.

Perhaps we should take this into our PM's to not further murk up this thread.
You've been nothing but respectful.
I UNDERSTAND what you are saying, I disagree with the premise.
I also understand WHY it is so heavily regulated, because if it wasn't, we wouldn't have much of what we do.
I disagree with the fact that GW's are given carte Blanche to enter private property to conduct searches without probable cause, let alone a warrant.
 
You’re smoking craxk if you think those long legged disease carrying rats are ever going extinct
At the turn of the 20th century, market hunting had pushed many of our native species, including deer and elk and turkeys, to the brink. Conservation efforts spearheaded by sportsmen brought them back. The unregulated taking of game was the cause.

Those that do not understand history are doomed to repeat it.
 
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At the turn of the 20th century, market hunting had pushed many of our native species, including deer and elk and turkeys, to the brink. Conservation efforts spearheaded by sportsmen brought them back. The unregulated taking of game was the cause.

Those that do not understand history are doomed to repeat it.
It’s not 1920s anymore
People are too lazy to cook let some hunt
If things get so messed up a significant portion of people go to hunting to eat your laws won’t matter anyway.

There’s enough suburbs parks city borders thar hunting is banned etc you would never extinct them now
 
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there was an incident here in wisconsin about 15 years back where a cop from illinois was doing some shore improvement on his lakefront property. game warden was watching nearby, and decided to enter the cop's house to surprise confront him. once inside, cop came up from behind, disarmed and took down the game warden. legal pissing match ensued, and the cop ended up on the losing end of it.

now...i dont like that outcome for two different reasons. first being, fucker entered his house, and i see that as one of the few things a person can do that will cause me to kill you. i wont ask questions, intruder gets shot instantly. second reason is, the game warden was a GIANT douchebag.
 
Except there is supposedly some kind of screening/background check/polygraph/psych eval that LEOs must pass before getting the job... So one's expectations ought to be higher for LEOs than any group of humans (hint: the agenda of the hiring agency will dictate).

Pretty naive to think there aren't people who can beat those tests and slip through.
 
That's fair. And a good counter example.

Edit:
The fact of the matter is that game wardens have the authority [for better or for worse] to check people who are in the act of participating in these activities. This is by far the most effective way to catch people abusing the natural resources. Game wardens still can't just walk into people's homes. The example I was using initially was an unsecured cooler with evidence of participating in a highly regulated activity on it.
With this logic, my vehicle is subject to an unwarranted search at any time for driving on the roads.
 
Pretty naive to think there aren't people who can beat those tests and slip through.
Like I said, when the outlaw pos in my OP applied he was 'sponsored' and groomed by an older GW who was just as crooked. During that time he got not one but two DWI's that were somehow ignored or swept under the rug. I witnessed one of them as I saw him passed out in his truck in a bar parking lot and just when I was leaving I saw a TCSO deputy pull up to his truck.

Hopefully things have changed because hiring GW in Texas in the 70's was based on the good ol' boy system, especially if your family had money, was a big land owner and or had political connections. Not sure if it's still on the application but in the 'References' section there was a question that asked, in so many words, who do you know?
 
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My interaction with GW's have been minimal, but the ones I've talked to seemed to have an attitude. They think everyone is a poacher until proven innocent. Kudos to Tennessee. No probable cause, no warrant, no entry. Even the Feds, as big of assholes that they are, have to get a search warrant, and it has to be for something specific. They can't just come in and start opening everything and looking.
 
You can't possibly expect any public servant to:

Do thier job within the laws

Do thier job at all if they don't feel like it

Or respect the Constitution of the United Sates.

It seems a 50 / 50 chance at best these days and detierorateing fast. Ultimately there is no recourse as the remaing good ones will defend the bad ones above all else and you will be targeted for retaliation.