The thing is by law, you cannot even track and recover the animal without a firearm after legal shooting time ends.
 
I understand, officer discretion comes into play here as well.

That little magazine you get with your hunting lic. ( with the laws isn't the real deal).You can get the big phone book size one. Thats the one the wardens use.It will open your eyes to the laws that can be created.

ORIGINAL: BloodyHand

Wow, that's a new one for me. Yer not allowed to bring a fire arm with you while tracking an animal at nite? Considering the high bear and coyote populations where I hunt, I will NEVER go into the woods at night without a piece. I learned that lesson the hard way! As for it not being legal, well officer, I am out here coyote hunting. Case closed.

rule will not apply for possessor of PA LTCF w handgun.

It is generally viewed as a Law Enforcement entity by myself, and most other agencies/writers and sportsmen outside of Pa. It appears to be trying to convert to a Law Enforcement/Enviromental organization which is not in the best interest of the states sportsmen IMO.

Not being able to track a hit game animal (legally shot) after dark has got to be one of the dumbest laws on the books.
Not saying armed. But making it illegal to recover a legal harvest after dark is just plain stupid. The poachers are still there but the responsible Sportsman has to leave his harvest in the woods over night. You shoot a deer in archery the last 10 minutes of shooting time and it would be against the law to retrieve it, unless it fell within sight or you jumped right up on the track and chase it for 5 minutes.

We tracked many deer after shooting hours and until recently didn't even know it was illegal.
And I'll bet if you polled all the Goons, thugs, liars and not so good guys you would find that most wouldn't even know if it was illegal and many would still do the ethical thing and retrieve their harvest even if they were breaking the law.



Dardys-- I always thought they were a Wildlife Management Agency/w a Law Enforcement Branch.

303. Game Commission officers and employees.

(a) Appointment.--The director shall select competent persons as Game Commission officers, assigned to field, administrative or office duties, and other competent persons for other duties as may be necessary to fulfill the requirements of this title.

(b) Status.--Except for the director, all personnel shall be employed in accordance with the classification and compensation plans of the Commonwealth and regulations of the commission.

(c) Power and authority.--Every officer, employee or representative of the commission in the exercise of their powers and duties shall have the right and authority to go upon or enter any property, posted or otherwise, outside of buildings.


How do you interpet this?

Can we get the PGC's definition of competent?  

The moral to this story is: Always keep your mouth shut, don't bother other people, only go to the law if you have exhausted all other avenues, and certainly never offer up any information unless you absolutely have to.

Being a Goon, I have recovered many animals after dark and had no idea I couldn't do that until now.Now, where would the "line" be between dragging out and tracking?...WF..Goon

---Be kinda neat if Mary down in payroll can pinch ya---

Don't know about Mary in payroll but not too many years ago when I was more involved, food and cover guys, land managers, and other PGC outdoors types were involved in more than one bust or investigation plus until recently the DWCO's had a minimum of training and made more arrests then the WCO's in this area.

The moral to this story is: Always keep your mouth shut, don't bother other people, only go to the law if you have exhausted all other avenues, and certainly never offer up any information unless you absolutely have to.

I could not have said it any better myself.

ORIGINAL: RhnstnCowboy

The moral to this story is: Always keep your mouth shut, don't bother other people, only go to the law if you have exhausted all other avenues, and certainly never offer up any information unless you absolutely have to.

x2 - loose lips sink ships.

if you ever find yourself under arrest - by a WCO or any Cop, the only words you should speak are "I want my lawyer". Don't even talk about the weather.

ORIGINAL: draketrutta

ORIGINAL: RhnstnCowboy

The moral to this story is: Always keep your mouth shut, don't bother other people, only go to the law if you have exhausted all other avenues, and certainly never offer up any information unless you absolutely have to.

x2 - loose lips sink ships.

if you ever find yourself under arrest - by a WCO or any Cop, the only words you should speak are "I want my lawyer". Don't even talk about the weather.

 
That isn’t always the best advice at all. I have seen many occasions where had someone simply told me the truth it would have worked out very much to his or her advantage.
 
Once such case was when I came up over a hill just in time to see three guys closing the tailgate of a truck, jumping in a heading down the road ahead of me. As I got to where they had been I could see the drag mark and the blood on the embankment so I knew they had just loaded a deer. It was deer season but it also appeared the deer had probably just been shot from the roadway.
 
I stopped the truck and found a doe that hadn’t even been gutted yet with a deer tag just stuffed in the ear and not even tied in. They wouldn’t tell me anything. The tag wasn’t even for the unit where the deer was killed, but I didn’t feel that the guy with the rag on the deer had even been the one that shot it since he was the back seat passenger of a two-door truck. A little investigating produced a spent a casing in the ditch where the deer had been dragged down to the road and the drag mark only went up the hill about 50 yards so it was pretty clear the deer had been shot from the road.
 
The rifle used to shoot the deer belonged to the front seat passenger and the deer was being transported in the truck owned by the operator. Then the backseat passenger tagged it. That put them all very much involved in a deer that illegally killed in the wrong unit from the road.
 
I tried to get them to tell me what happened but they basically told me I couldn’t prove who shot it and they weren’t going to say anything. If they had told me who shot the deer I would have been happy just charging that person with the illegal deer and perhaps the other two with a using a motor vehicle to hunt and lending a tag. But, they decided to keep their mouth shut so the easiest thing for me to prove was an illegal deer on all three guys. That is what I ended up charging them with and all three were found guilty of that charge. Had they simply told the truth two of them would have had much lower fines and not have lost their hunting privileges but as it turned out they all paid the maximum fine and lost their licenses for a year.
 
I have a case pending right now where I can prove, with witnesses and store surveillance video that two felons got into a truck with a rifle on the front seat. I can also prove that a deer was shot from that truck at about 4:00 am while a passenger was casting a spotlight over the roof of the truck and that they loaded the deer in the truck before they ran out of gas. I ended up with the truck impounded after they abandoned it, getting a search warrant and processing it for evidence.
 
Neither one of them are talking at all either. I am pretty sure from other information I have that the driver also owned the rifle they used. If the passenger had talked, other than to tell me I can’t prove he hadn’t gone home before the deer was shot, I would have been willing to just charge him with his part in killing a deer through the use of artificial light. That is a serious summary of the first-degree offense but it is not nearly as serious as the felony I am going to be able to prove once I get the DNA results back from the items I recovered inside the truck that I am sure is going to prove he was the one running the spotlight and using the passenger’s door handle.
 
Forcing me to prove his involvement instead of manning up is going to get end up with his being charged with both the summary and felony plus having to pay for a lot of very expensive lab fees if he is convicted and then there is the mandatory five years in prison for a felon being in possession of a firearm.
 
Nope, sometimes just following my dad’s old advice would be the smart way to go. He always told me “the shortest way out of trouble is always the truth.” I certainly agree with that old advice.
 
R.S. Bodenhorn

ORIGINAL: Cold

So...you can rat out your buddies, and lose a friend in the process, or you can keep your mouth shut, take your lumps, and lose your license for a year...a license to do something legally that you're already pretty morally okay with doing illegally anyway...

"Yeah Officer, My buddy said you dont need a license to poach deer"

ORIGINAL: RSB

 
I have a case pending right now where I can prove, with witnesses and store surveillance video that two felons got into a truck with a rifle on the front seat. I can also prove that a deer was shot from that truck at about 4:00 am while a passenger was casting a spotlight over the roof of the truck and that they loaded the deer in the truck before they ran out of gas. I ended up with the truck impounded after they abandoned it, getting a search warrant and processing it for evidence.
 
Neither one of them are talking at all either.
 
Forcing me to prove his involvement instead of manning up is going to get end up with his being charged with both the summary and felony plus having to pay for a lot of very expensive lab fees if he is convicted and then there is the mandatory five years in prison for a felon being in possession of a firearm.
 
R.S. Bodenhorn

I'm surprised that you didn't say "when he is convicted" instead of saying "if he is convicted" since you have witnesses and store surveillance video, and can prove that they killed this deer jacklighting?

I suppose even with all the evidence, conviction is questionable unless they just fess up.