# My public thanks to our hard working CO's.



## gander311 (Dec 23, 2008)

I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank the conservation officers that work for our state. I had a few good experiences with them this season, capped off by a great one this last weekend. 

First was the mentored youth hunt they did in conjuction with volunteers through Delta Waterfowl and the Utah Airboat Association. I volunteered as a mentor that day with my boat, and got to see and meet many of our CO's as they spent the day mentoring all those lucky youth for the hunt, feeding them a big lunch afterwards, and just ensuring those kids had a great day/hunt/ and introduction to waterfowling. 

During the season, I was checked by 2 other officers, actually on the water, by boat(not just back at the boat ramp or on the way out), by 2 other officers. I for one appreciate being checked, because I follow the rules, so it is nice knowing they are out trying to enforce to the best of their capabilities actually inside our WMA's. 

Last, just this last weekend on the extended goose hunt, I was with some friends on our late season spot. It is a SERIOUS trek to get out there, over an hour walk through some tough country, and literally in the "middle of nowhere" in the marsh. Imagine my surprise when an officer showed up at our spread to check us. I was absolutely DUMBFOUNDED that he put that much effort into doing his job. I literally thanked him to his face for his efforts and hard work, and let him know I would be calling his supervisor to give positive feedback on how impressed I was, which I did today. His efforts were far above what I would have expected, and he was incredibly friendly and helpful as well. 

I was very, very impressed, and just had to share it with him, his superiors, and others here. I feel like there tends to be a lot of complaining about the CO's not doing enough, etc, and I think that often times comes down to them being understaffed and overwhelmed, which I don't think can be held against them. It was fantastic seing such efforts made by those I interacted with this season, and again, I just wanted to say thanks for their hard work.


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## rjefre (Sep 8, 2007)

You are spot on Jeremy. There are only a few of them and they work very hard to be everywhere at once without causing too much interference in our activities. They are very good people.
R


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

The CO's are good people for sure. Now if I can just get the county Sheriff and Highway Patrol to leave me the hell alone where I goose hunt things would be much better. :?


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## Finnegan (Sep 7, 2007)

Got to agree with you guys...every one I've ever dealt with has impressed me, and I've dealt with quite a few over the years. I sometimes imagine how cool it would be to have one of their jobs, but I don't imagine long because the truth is, I wouldn't last a week. I don't have the patience. :lol:


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## wileywapati (Sep 9, 2007)

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I was hiking out and saw the CO pull in as I was unloading the gun a hundred yards from the parking lot. I walked up to his rig and he said man you look farmiliar. I looked him over and thought the same. Well once he reads the name on my license he reminds me that Jeff and I hosted him and his daughter on the youth hunt... It was pretty comical.


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## Jeff Bringhurst (May 20, 2009)

I couldn't agree more with the statements above!! They do a great job! 

Interestingly enough, I was checked only twice this year by CO's, once in Idaho and once in New York.


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## gander311 (Dec 23, 2008)

Jeff,
The CO that I mentioned in my story from this weekend who worked so hard to get out to where we were to check us, was the same guy who rode in your boat on the mentored hunt. When I told him he looked familiar, we got to talking and figured out it was from that day/event.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

I was also impressed by them this year; I reported a wasting scene and the CO from Duchesne was there about as quickly as one could drive. He handled it all very well and even reported back to me about the charges about a month later.


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## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

They go a great job. I was only checked one time this year and it was on opening night and he bs with us for a little bit. Now the feds on the other hand wow.


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2012)

them do do a good job; that why the baconaters for the sstate troopers should just do thier job; always been treated fair by co's;


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## shaun larsen (Aug 5, 2011)

i never got checked by an officer this year. first time that has ever happened to me. i will say that MOST of them do an outstanding job, but i have ran across a few that were less than impressive to say the least. 

i do agree with dustin, the fed guys are another story....................


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## greenman (Jan 31, 2012)

Hi all,

Never posted, but been reading this stuff a while. Gets a bit lively at times, which gives all of us at work a major laugh. Never been checked once in 16 years of waterfowl hunting, bag check or by the warden. Seems a bit odd. Nice to know they are out there, just makes me wonder how often.

Thanks for the laughs


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## Clarq (Jul 21, 2011)

shaun larsen said:


> i do agree with dustin, the fed guys are another story....................


Which fed guys are you talking about? I've been checked by the one at Bear River Bird Refuge a few times and he's never given me any problems.


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

Clarq said:


> shaun larsen said:
> 
> 
> > i do agree with dustin, the fed guys are another story....................
> ...


That would be Greg Mullins, he's a stand-up guy, and he does an excellent job up at BRBR.

I never got checked this year, not even a bag check. Didn't have any problems with State Troopers either despite talking to several of them.

I have found that if you are an A-hole to CO's/LEO's, they will do their dead level best to return the favor!


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## 1BandMan (Nov 2, 2007)

I don't remember the last time I was checked. 
I wished there were more of them to go around. I called this year to report an infraction and they responded. As far as I'm aware, they did a great job of taking care of the situation (they reported that they cited the offenders, but I wasn't there to witness it).

I've has some bad experiences as well. Out in the Cedar Fort area 5 years ago or so hunting doves, I watched a CO checking others for licenses, watch some guy shoot a dove off a fence post out of the window of a truck from a paved road. The CO did nothing and acted like he didn't see it happen!!!???!!!


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

greenman said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Never posted, but been reading this stuff a while. Gets a bit lively at times, which gives all of us at work a major laugh. Never been checked once in 16 years of waterfowl hunting, bag check or by the warden. Seems a bit odd. Nice to know they are out there, just makes me wonder how often.
> 
> Thanks for the laughs


Welcome to the forum and you are welcome!


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## shaun larsen (Aug 5, 2011)

Clarq said:


> shaun larsen said:
> 
> 
> > i do agree with dustin, the fed guys are another story....................
> ...


the one at BR is a great guy and hes been very pleasant to deal with the few times that i have been checked by him. its the jackasses at FB on opening weekend that i cant stand. those guys are a nightmare to deal with!! i could go on and on with things ive gone through with those people :roll: "guilty until they can prove themselves innocent" is their motto, im convinced!

i did watch one fed guy learn a valuable lesson one day tho...... never wear anything but chest waders. hip boots wont cut it in areas that MMs travel through frequently :mrgreen: :O•-: he was pIssed at the world before he took a swim, you should have seen him after the big dip! :lol: ....he deserved it :twisted:


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## GoneGoosin (Aug 17, 2011)

I would have to agree with MoJo in regards to Greg at the BRBR. I have been face to face with him twice over the years. The first time was a few years back while taking my son there for his first ever youth hunt and quit frankly, one of my first waterfowl hunts. We had no idea where to go or what to do. He took the map of the refuge that we had and he circled areas on units 1 and 3 and proceeded to give us pointers. Super helpful. He was thrilled to meet a couple newbies. Fast forward to late October 2012. Myself, my son and a friend with his 2 sons are way out on a small WMA. I now have a boat so we were searching out new areas. It was about 330 when here comes Greg walking alongside the marsh. Long story short. He checks everything he needs to and sees our pile and I mean, pile of birds. He simply asks us to seperate them into categories of who shot what. Luckily we had kept a mental count of where we were and knew we were not over on any species or our daily 7 each so everything worked out just fine. My pal did walk away with a fine that day as one of his shotguns happened to have no plug and on top of it, his son who had just returned from his Mission was using it. What did I learn from this experience, check your crap and make sure you are prepared. This alone can determine your experience with the law. Now if my friend were telling this story it would be completely opposite as he has nothing but bitter feelings over the whole deal. The last thing I learned and I learned it later in the year while hunting with Tony Smth & Jeff Bringhurst; while hunting in groups and piling up the birds, put a zip tie on their legs so that each hunter knows who shot which one. Lasty and we all have our days with this one, the attitude we pack with us on any particular occasion will also add to the outcome when we come face to face with one of these gentlemen. What an amazing season, too bad even great things must come to an end.


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## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

Clarq said:


> shaun larsen said:
> 
> 
> > i do agree with dustin, the fed guys are another story....................
> ...


Greg at brbr is a great guy.What I can tell by talking to him at a couple meetings. the feds Im talking about are the one they bring in from out of State.


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

Dustin is talking about the Feds that fly in from Washington DC, and I would have to agree with him, those guys are some real stand up ding dongs. They have hassled us at BRBR for no reason and they drove an airboat right through our decoy spread on the GSL and did donuts in our spread. Believe it or not, it happened and we had decoys scattered from hell to breakfast. Our state CO's do a great job with the limited resources they have and I am glad to see them out and about.


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