I was told that there was some Federal Game Wardens in the area of Graham opening day of dove season. He said they were driving black trucks and wearing black combat looking clothing. He also said they caught some hunters baiting a area for dove. I have never seen a federal game warden. Has anybody else seen or been confronted by the FED's. Just Curious.

we had one show up at our deer lease one day. but he was dressed like the others. he was a sob though. he decided he wanted to go through my camper. but he left the others alone because their wifes were asleep. his name was lee roy.

I've had several check me over the past 20 years on the prairie. The most memorable was a woman, who I thought at first was a man She sliced her finger wide open on the slide of my Benelli, as she was attempting to check it.

Were talking federal, not state. What were they driving?

I am also talking FEDERAL. One of them drove a black Ford Bronco. Another a Suburban, and the others- no idea, never looked.
The difference between a state and federal warden, besides dress,vehicle, and vehicle color is their attitude.Complete jerks.

This aint one I would want to mess with


"The Act of July 3, 1918; The Migratory Bird Treaty Act: Affords protection from commercial exploitation to both migratory waterfowl and other species of birds. This act expanded the duties of the "Federal Game Warden" whose existence began in 1900 with the passage of the Lacey Act and continues to be a major priority today."

Yeah, seen a lot of the fed guys in south texas. and yeah, they can be real jerks. Basiclly, same power as state wardens, but can issue federal tickets as well(not fun). Saw one fella down south last year with his 9 yo son. THe father limited out. The kid was hunting with a .410 and SHOT about a half limit. Some of the other hunters shot a few birds they couldn't find or where undersome brush and they let the kid pick them up- so the kid left with a limit of birds as well(father has a limit, son has a limit, both licensed and fully legal). When they were getting ready to go the feds pull up to check him out. They pull the kid to the side and interogate him and ask how many birds he shot. The kid said 6 or 7 (whatever he had actually shot himself). The feds turned around and nailed the father with a fine(state and federal!!) for shooting over his limit. To add insult to injury they took all of the birds!!
We saw all this in the distance and got the whole scoop after the fact. The poor kid was shaken beyond belief.

larrywoodson- That wouldn't happen to be leroy of the brownwood area fame. He is notorious for being a jerk. There have been T-shirts made about that guy(with a picture of the south end of a northbound mule on it)! No joke!!

loventexas,you got it bud thats him. i knew about the t-shirt but didnt post it. doesnt the t-shirt also say I BEEN LEY ROYED.

we have friends that hunt right next door. well a new warden showed up the other day while one of them was there. he was working on his camper. my friend said the warden had been down to our camp 11 times trying to find us. im sure he has already been through camp. but im not worried i dont do anything wrong . well see opening weekend of deer season

I've only seen one in the field. But they have an office in the Arlington area, and one at DFW airport. If you ever want to talk to one, the airport office number is 972-574-3254. Glen Pye used to be the lead FED there.

I know all too well the type of wardens you are talking about, even some of our state guys can be real jerks. Just never forget you have rights as well. They must still have probable cause for coming on your property, no matter what the rumors are that you have heard. Gun fire will be sufficient in most cases, or an upset neighbor calling you in. The important thing to do is stay legal, and you have no worries. Most of our state officers are nice individuals just going about their jobs, but there are ways to respond to the ones that are not so friendly. Recently we had one show up in the dove pasture unexpectantly. Everyone was legal, we always lock the gate behind us, so if you want in, you are gonna have to walk in. Well he showed up after about a mile long walk trying to catch us doing something wrong, "no chance of that" checked us and found everything to his liking. He was however very impersonable, and rude. So when he asked for a ride back to the gate, we kindly told him that "you walked in, you can walk out". This did not set well, but what choice has he got. We also reported it too his captain. My point to this whole rambling is not to incite you to be rude to all the game wardens you come across, just let them know that you will treat them like they treat you, and if you come across one that is unusually rude, report it to his commanding officer in a certified letter. Oh and by the way Lee Roy has been that way his whole life. My family knows his. If it is the same one that used to patrol Lake Brownwood.

Seen a lot of them while goose hunting in the rice fields, been stopped at a road block twice by them.....no problem at all, we were all legal.....However, we did have one come out in hunting cloths,,camo etc and the badge hanging from his neck two years ago at our dove lease in Graford.
(which is not far from graham)

I have had a few instances with the federal game wardens down around winnie. most of them are real nice guys but dont know very much about what they are doing. I think all they care about are giving tickets. I once had a state warden give me a waste of game ticket for 2 birds that were not even mine. But for the most part i think most of them are pretty reasonable guys.

Failure to retrieve or make an effort to retrieve?

Well that is right but there is more to it than that. we retrieved the birds fine but my buddy left them in the back of my truck, the next day we went out to shoot skeet and game warden pulled up and gave me the ticket even though he knew that they were not mine. It was definatly one of those things that I could have taken to court but with some help I got the ticket down to 50 dollars and some community service.

In all the years that I have been hunting I have NEVER seen a game warden. I allways try to be legal because there is a first time for everything. I did pull up to get fuel beside one in Brady about 10 years ago. I had two deer on the back of my flatbed dually. He made a comment on how nice the buck was and then he got in his truck and left.

I guess over the years I have been fortunate (lucky) that I have not been checked by a federal game warden. From what I have read that is a good thing. What state game wardens that have checked me they been pretty cool. I know they got a job to do, but you don't have to a jerk doing it.

Just so nobody takes this thread the wrong way- I do beleive the majority of game wardens are great guys. Some are just bad apples. They have a very challenging and dangerous job to do(if they decide to be jerks it might make their job all the more dangerous). They come from all walks of life and all have their own temperaments and peaves. Even with a few bad experiences, I've also had some very good experiences as well. One has eliminated a problem of trespassers fishing out my very well stocked bass pond. They have helped me in missing persons searches and have given me tips on where he has seen the largest deer in our leases. Mainly, they are just there to uphold the law and protect our wildlife for future use. State or Federal, you have to respect them, but like others have said, don't let them abuse their authority.

I see game wardens EVERY year dove/duck/goose etc hunting and have never had a bad experience with any of them. Very nice guys doing a very dangerous job. Even had a hunt in Strawn one year where a red tail hawk was shot ended up with 5-6 game wardens there the sheriff and all were still very professional.

Yes, I have run into the federal wardens for the first time opening day of teal season this year. We hunted Madd Island and started to see a fair amount of birds 30 min. into the hunt. We (the three of us) shot one bird a piece when two federal wardens strolled up and asked us to clear our guns pull out the license's. I thought "ok" no problem they will check our birds, shotguns' and license's and be on their way. I was dead wrong, after checking everything and separate us to question us separately they just kept hanging around. 20 min. past when one of the wardens asked if we knew why they were there and if we knew what we did wrong? We replied no, whats seams to be the problem? After all the birds, shotguns, and license's checked out. Thats when they dropped the bomb. The wardens accused us of shooting large ducks out of season. Apparently the wardens had been watching us the whole morning (30 min. worth) through binoculars. Their story is we shot two mottled ducks. So I asked where are the birds? The warden explained he tried to search for the birds but could not find them. And they enlisted the help of a dog and still came out short. We tried reasoning with the Wardens but to no avail. We explained we haven't even seen a large duck that morning. They were having none of it. So we received our tickets for atempting to kill game out of season. The weird part of it was the wardens didn't give us any paper work or even ask for our signature's. I'm the last guy to do something stupid like shoot big ducks on a WMA opening day of teal season in front of my friend's 9 year old son. The wardens kept telling us just to pay the fine. I think we are going to protest the ticket and go to court. The last time I looked at the constitution you are innocent until proven guilty. I'll let you know how it turns out. I don't want to sound jaded about federal wardens but I guess theres bad apples in every profession. I talked with the state warden on the way out, he suggested we call the two wardens commander and file a compliant.

They wrote you a ticket with no evidence except their eyes? That is crazy. Where was their video camera?!? Don't they video everything now?? You can get off of that one hopefully.

I would definitely take it to court and complain to their commander. It sad that some of them think they are above the law. Occurrances like that just blows your whole hunting trip. Your probably taking it better lot better than I would have, basicly calling you a lyer in front of your son. I hope the rest of your hunting season goes better. And let us know the outcome.

We ha the exact same thing happen to us while hunting in a FWMA, they tried to tell us that we had shot big ducks and after arguing with them they finally went on about their buisness, but not after standing in our decoys for 1/2 hour and ruined our hunt, As far as if game wardens are good guys or not, I think that there are somegood ones out there, but I have been hunting a long time now and i have not found very many that are really extrordinary at what they do. I have come into contact with a few game wardens that could not even identify a duck, also had one give me a ticket for a fire extinguisher that was in the boat but I had no idea that it was empty, and come to find out my boat didnt even require one in the first place. There are some real nice ones out there but i just havent found them yet, as far as saving lives and stuff like that, that is something that I think all people would do if they had the chance.

My grandfater used to be a wildlife biologist, and did alot of work with the game wardens , and he was telling me that he went out with one one time and, to trick the other hunters, he fired a shot about 15 to 20 before shooting time just to trap the other hunters, now that is a real jerk.