Running traps on one of the holiday doe weekends on my four wheeler so I was wearing orange so I could be seen. Unloaded at a friends house drove the 1.5 miles up to the property with the traps...........ran traps, couple of grinners, shot both with .22 pistol. Pulled out of the gate and headed back, as I approached the intersection, there were two GW trucks blocking the road.....both from out of county and covering for the local GW....................long story short, I was accused of hunting/shooting deer from an atv, and ditching the rifle when I saw the GW trucks. GW claimed to have seen the rifle, which was my dispatch snare(and still on my atv), got huffy and in my face and said "we can do this the hard way, or the easy way".........GW's first and exact words, GW's chin about 4" from my forehead while speaking. GW heard two shots, I told them about the grinners, GW continued to hound me about telling the truth, I told the GW what I was doing and that I'd show them the dead grinners. So I rode with the GW back to the property, all the while looking in the ditch for the rifle the whole time. Walked to the first grinner, checked my trap, all good, went the second trap with grinner, and the wire that I use to make it offset, was gone................ $168 for and illegal trap and other accusations dropped, kept trap for evidence in case of dispute.
Told the GW I didn't mind paying for what I was guilty of but the rest was uncalled for. I'd hunted there for 10+ years at the time, had a good rapport with GW who lived 1 mile from the property we were on.
Paid the fine, got the trap back a month later, local GW brought it back to me. Pulled my wildlife tag off my truck and my wife's truck, wrote a letter to the ODWC along with the plates, explaining what happened, and that I refused to support that kind of attitude...........that I'd gladly buy my local GW's and their wives a steak dinner for working their a$$'s off day and night during season, and for being professional at what they do.......never heard anything back.
Been checked a couple of times by the same GW since with no issues, and the GW was professional. I couldn't be more happy with the current and previous GW's in my area, we visit regularly, compare notes on things going on, vehicles seen, hunt together some, even do some reloading for one of them. Grew up in Washington Co with David Strang, great man, pretty sure his son is a GW also in the OKC area............so this one incident that didn't go well, didn't ruin my respect for the rest. Between hunting and trapping over several counties, I run into several of them, I've had to call on several of them, and they've been nothing but professional and helpful every time.
Told the GW I didn't mind paying for what I was guilty of but the rest was uncalled for. I'd hunted there for 10+ years at the time, had a good rapport with GW who lived 1 mile from the property we were on.
Paid the fine, got the trap back a month later, local GW brought it back to me. Pulled my wildlife tag off my truck and my wife's truck, wrote a letter to the ODWC along with the plates, explaining what happened, and that I refused to support that kind of attitude...........that I'd gladly buy my local GW's and their wives a steak dinner for working their a$$'s off day and night during season, and for being professional at what they do.......never heard anything back.
Been checked a couple of times by the same GW since with no issues, and the GW was professional. I couldn't be more happy with the current and previous GW's in my area, we visit regularly, compare notes on things going on, vehicles seen, hunt together some, even do some reloading for one of them. Grew up in Washington Co with David Strang, great man, pretty sure his son is a GW also in the OKC area............so this one incident that didn't go well, didn't ruin my respect for the rest. Between hunting and trapping over several counties, I run into several of them, I've had to call on several of them, and they've been nothing but professional and helpful every time.
