AR15 and game warden

Originally Posted By: Brandon SneedOriginally Posted By: treed86In Texas suppressors are legal for non game animals. As far as being pulled over by a game warden, none of them that I know would have any problem with you having one.

You are partly correct. It's important to have a copy of regs available. Silencers for nongame species such as pigs, exotics, and varmints is okay. Magazine restrictions on game species are not existent except on migratory birds.

http://tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/annual/hunt/means/


Man I really have no idea what made me think that was right. You are correct, there is no magazine restriction except for migratory birds. I apologize for the misinformation and will correct it.
 

I have never had a problem with a game warden, period. I
don't violate, and do turn in violators regularly. Part of
the reason is I am a state certified firearms safety
instructor, and we have the game wardens visit each of our
Hunter's Safety Classes. I have mentioned to several that I
hunt coyotes with an AR-15s. They want to see my AR-15s.
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And they want to shoot my 6.8mm SPC, and my 6mm WOA.

The problem I had is I teach Hunter's Safety on two different
teams where one head instructor is ex-Army, is quite
comfortable with AR-15s and me teaching kids about them. The
other head instructor is EXTREMELY liberal, and thinks anything
beyond a nice wood and blued deer rifle has no place in
civilian hands. On one open range day for the kids, I
brought my CQB AR-15, in 5.56 NATO. Several of the young
students, including one adventurous young lady wanted to
shoot an AR-15. The head instructor had to leave early,
so I told the students, with their parents permission and
when the head instructor left, we could shoot the AR-15.
So I had an eye/ear protected student line form to the rear
of the shooting bench, and had a closely supervised student,
with one round each in the mag, on the bench...The head
instructor returned to pick up something he forgot at the
range. I thought we were have to call an ambulance for a
heart attack. He called me into the "office" and was chewing
on me...It brought back memories of a DI that use to chew on
me when my hair was really short. A couple of parents came to
my rescue when they heard the elevated conversation. Last
year a directive came down from the DNR that we should be
adding AR-15s to our teaching, as they are showing up in the
field...Mr. Liberal Head Instructor asked me if I wanted
to teach the AR-15 section.
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Squeeze
 
The range that I shoot at is on public hunting and the local LEO's use it to requalify. I have had alot of run ins with everyone from the DNR, county conservation officers, to Sherrif and hiway patrol. Almost all the time they want to know what kind it is and half the time when I am shooting my 20pr they want to know more about it and even shoot it. Have talked to many of the officers many times and now they will bring others over to the bench when I an there shooting to show one of them or ask if they can shoot it. The last time I was out I had my 6x45 and they all came over and wanted to see it. They wanted to shoot it. I had to tell them that next time. I was working on loads for it and didn't have any extra rounds. So I guess that wardens/LEO's in my area are not opposed to them.
 
I have never had an issue with any game wardens or state troopers while in the field. Yes I have been checked, and even called in ,but being calm and collected as they approach and once we can converse face to face I tell them who I am, what I am doing, where the weapons are located at that moment and that I have landowner permission in writting to be there, then I ask them what they would like me to do.
 
I have to hand it Wardens, they are the only law enforcement who contact armed people 99% of the time. I have only been contacted by a warden 1 time, this past year when quail hunting. He was very nice, asked if I would mind showing him my quail and when he saw how successful I had been that day, asked for some tips. He could have demanded to see them and my license, asked me to take off the pistol from my hip, but instead he was extremely polite.

How you approach someone is the key. I am a police officer and I have found that even if I am going to ticket someone, or take them to jail, I can get much much farther being kind and civil, answering questions and being fair in my enforcement.

I also agree with an earlier post that a lot of Feds are less than cordial. The air up there must be thinner...
 
Game Wardens in AZ are issued AR's for police rifles and I would not be surprised if some are used to whack a coyote on their lunch hour. No big deal hunting with an AR here. Just do not have a silencer on it and use a 5 round magazine.
 
I was out calling on federal land and a Fed game warden pulled up and asked to see my papers. Not real friendly to start but I thought what do I care as long as this guy moves a long afterward. I will say I do not have a lot of good experiences with them, mainly just hassle issues. After I showed him he asked what I was hunting and I told him predators and we started talking about predators.

He asked what I was using and I told him I was using my 25AR and at that he had to see it and look. He really liked it and we ended up chatting for a while and I got lots of tips on areas to try in. Now when I see him he usually just chats and moves on.

Happy it turned out that way.
 
I have to say that my experiences with game wardens has been entirely positive. the ones I've dealt with have been professional & reasonable.
 
Originally Posted By: Stu FarishI have to say that my experiences with game wardens has been entirely positive. the ones I've dealt with have been professional & reasonable.



Same here.


Chupa
 
now, I'll add that there was this one "ranger rick" down in FL. this fool was an utter disgrace & the dive shop intended to pursue legal action. That incident was in Key Largo about 2 years ago. I need to shoot Gary an email & ask what ever worked out with that.

This didn't involve any game or fish concerns, he just went off on a power trip that resulted in our dive boat not going out. Our boat was the only one canceled that day.

he was an officer newly assigned to that area & I guess it went to his head. I still think we owe him an [beeep] whooping for it.
 


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