# Opening day, shooting early tickets!



## drakebob01 (Jun 25, 2008)

My friends boy was is court a couple days ago for a speeding ticket. Anyway there was ten early shooters ahead of him! The judge gave each of them a 235.00 ticket!!! LMAO, tell me a ducks worth that kind of money!


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

drakebob01 said:


> My friends boy was is court a couple days ago for a speeding ticket. Anyway there was ten early shooters ahead of him! The judge gave each of them a 235.00 ticket!!! LMAO, tell me a ducks worth that kind of money!


Only one with a Jack Miner band!


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## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

Awesome!


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## Hoopermat (Dec 17, 2010)

That's good to hear. To ruin an opener for that many people that's a small fine. 
I wish those people got it worse.


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## dubob (Sep 8, 2007)

I think the fine is way to small to be effective in preventing the practice in the future. If it were bumped up to say $100/minute early or late, THEN you would make people stop and think about it.
:mrgreen:


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## Hoopermat (Dec 17, 2010)

I would like to see a fine for the idiot taking the 150 yard sky bust.


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## KennyC (Apr 28, 2010)

WOW! That is awesome, I didn't even know that they gave tickets out. EVER!! That is great news. To bad that money doesn't go back into the WMAs.:grin:


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

And somebody replied to me saying it wasn't about enforcement or the money....with the cost of gas, shells and everything else, guaranteed those ten will be watching the time a little closer, lol. If those tickets were handed out left and right, people would wait longer to shot and I doubt funding for waterfowl would be so hard to come by. Good to see some of those "early" folks getting tagged.


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## dubob (Sep 8, 2007)

*Tickets*

Try putting it in perspective; there were several thousand hunters in the marshes and way less than 100 Officers. Just how many tickets can be written by just a handful of Officers spread out over a dozen marshes?

It is the hunters responsibility to know the law no matter how poorly publicized or written. You can say the DWR did a poor job in writing the Guidebook, but they did put ALL the information you needed in there. They did their job by giving us the information. Hundreds of Neanderthals made a choice to either not read it or totally ignore it. The DWR is NOT responsible for that decision. The Neanderthals are responsible.

This was NOT a new change this year. Stop trying to pretend it was. I have last years Guidebook right here in front of me and guess what - the sunrise start on the opener is the same as this year and the same as in 2011. Granted, the table this year contains sunrise and sunset times instead of start and stop times. But an asterisk is used in all Guidebooks to call the hunters attention to the different start time on opening day in Box Elder, Cache, Davis, Salt Lake, and Weber Counties than the rest of the state.

I'm not buying even a little bit that the fault resides in whole or in part with the DWR. The fault rests squarely on the shoulders of each and every hunter.

I've been duck hunting Utah marshes since 1977 and early shooting has occurred on opening day every single year I've been out there. It will continue in the future as best I can tell from history. The only thing that I can think of that will curtail it is to make the fine for doing so higher than the average Joe can possibly afford and to publically announce the offenders. Instead of a set fine of $200 + regardless of how early or late, try making it $200 to $300 for every minute early or late. And post the names on the DWR website every week of every person found guilty and how much it cost them. Then you'll start to see an immediate reduction in the amount of offenses occurring during any part of the season.


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## Huntoholic (Sep 17, 2008)

$300.00 Fine, 18 month Hunting suspension........All hunting

DWR saturate a different area each year, Like the DUI.

My guess in 2 years early shoot would be pretty much a thing of the past.....


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## dubob (Sep 8, 2007)

Huntoholic said:


> $300.00/minute Fine, 18 month Hunting suspension........All hunting
> 
> DWR saturate a different area each year, Like the DUI.
> 
> My guess in 2 years early shoot would be pretty much a thing of the past.....


Your fine is STILL too low - I changed it.

:mrgreen:


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

dubob said:


> Your fine is STILL too low - I changed it.
> 
> :mrgreen:


And just like dui's it won't stop it!:shock:


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## dubob (Sep 8, 2007)

Mojo1 said:


> And just like dui's it won't stop it!:shock:


You're absolutely, 100 % correct Jimmy; it won't stop it entirely. But it will go a long ways towards curtailing it - just like increased fines, suspensions, and jail time have lessened DUI's over the last couple of decades. It is not possible to take all the idiots, Neanderthals, and just plain stupid folks out of the gene pool.

And by the way, how the Hell are ya?

:O--O:


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## hossblur (Jun 15, 2011)

I really like the saturation idea, perhaps we should address this at a RAC. Here we are 3 weeks in and I still haven't been checked, which irritates me, howard slough should be checked a least once a weekend. I take the time to license, stamp, plug, pick up my empties plus handfulls more, and I even own a watch, and I would love to be checked. I like to BS with the DWR, even when I have disagreed or had issues with them we have always left on good terms. I have a young one with me all the time, I want him to see how we the hunters and them the "fish cops" need to have interactions, which usually benefit both of us. I think $300 is pretty good, go home and tell the wife why your out $300 to shoot a duck early. But I do like the idea of posting who gets pinched on the DWR website. I am entertained by those newspapers with all the people arrested, posting early shooters and their fine might help with a bad issue.


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## Utmuddguy (Aug 25, 2013)

Fines won't even phase it. It would be impossible for DWR to catch even a small percentage of the early shooters even if the saturated the area. The have to actually see the individual shoot early not just know that it came from a certain blind. With the amount of it on the opener they would have their work cut out for them in the short time they have between the actual start of shooting and legal shooting hours.


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## nk1nk (Nov 15, 2011)

Wait, I have an idea lets make it a 1 million dollar fine, that will stop it for sure plus maybe a 10 year prison term, mandatory!! The DWR does not have the resources to deal with the number of hunters plain and simple. The ticket money does not go back to any waterfowl improvements which if it did I think you would see DWR officers ticket more people, even contract off duty police officers to help out. And im sure all the **** haters will disagree but the early shooting always starts out in the marsh with the boat hunters because they know there is no officers keeping an eye on them. And my personal stance is deal with it and shut up because the most effective way to control the problem is limit the hunters which means a lottery system which would suck a$$ but keep b itchin and watch it happen.


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## dubob (Sep 8, 2007)

Utmuddguy said:


> Fines won't even phase it.


Really?!? If the fine were say $300/minute X minutes early and you got pinched 15 minutes early for a cost of Four THOUSAND, five hundred bucks and that was posted for all to see that it wouldn't make hunters even think about NOT shooting early? Interesting.


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## dixieboy (Jul 26, 2013)

They are lenient here, my dads been a game warden in La for 30 years.I told him about this thread and he chuckled saying that the judges there will throw the state and federal book at you for waterfowl violations. My brother got caught shooting early when we were teenagers and lost his license, gun, ducks.....and a ton of other freedoms when he got home.


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## Utmuddguy (Aug 25, 2013)

nk1nk said:


> Wait, I have an idea lets make it a 1 million dollar fine, that will stop it for sure plus maybe a 10 year prison term, mandatory!! The DWR does not have the resources to deal with the number of hunters plain and simple. The ticket money does not go back to any waterfowl improvements which if it did I think you would see DWR officers ticket more people, even contract off duty police officers to help out. And im sure all the **** haters will disagree but the early shooting always starts out in the marsh with the boat hunters because they know there is no officers keeping an eye on them. And my personal stance is deal with it and shut up because the most effective way to control the problem is limit the hunters which means a lottery system which would suck a$$ but keep b itchin and watch it happen.


 85% of the fines collected goes right back to the DWR so each of those tickets paid the DWR a couple hundred bucks. Plenty incentive to ticket.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

dubob said:


> Really?!? If the fine were say $300/minute X minutes early and you got pinched 15 minutes early for a cost of Four THOUSAND, five hundred bucks and that was posted for all to see that it wouldn't make hunters even think about NOT shooting early? Interesting.


Faze.....

And Dubob... 8) Ummm, nailed it.


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## Huntoholic (Sep 17, 2008)

I don't need to see you pull the trigger to identify that a shotgun has been fired. A single hand held device will tell you that it has been fired. At that point one of two things can happen. You can say it is not your gun and the officer can confiscate it on the spot because it was used in a crime and is abandoned in the field or you can be given a ticket. Either way I doubt most people would do it again. 

Yes it will be a small percentage, but after a couple of years of doing it, all they will need to do is go to the media and say they will be patrolling FB and the majority of people will be good. Then you can focus on the worst.


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## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

the early shooting will never stop.even the late shooting will not shop ether.


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## Huntoholic (Sep 17, 2008)

Especially if NOTHING is ever done.............


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## Utmuddguy (Aug 25, 2013)

What's gonna happen? $300 fines that they can make payments on? I just stay home opening day and let the idiots have it that way I can spend some time hunting instead of stressing about what other people are doing.


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## Huntoholic (Sep 17, 2008)

Yep, do nothing......................Motto for todays society..........

That is sadder then early shooting..........


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## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

Huntoholic said:


> Especially if NOTHING is ever done.............


they are doing there best. You know they bring in fed from Colorado in for are hunting season and those guys dont mess around.Like said before it not easy covering all of that ground out there to bust people. You know if you see some body shooting early or late you can turn them in and they will get a ticket.


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## Huntoholic (Sep 17, 2008)

dkhntrdstn said:


> they are doing there best. You know they bring in fed from Colorado in for are hunting season and those guys dont mess around.Like said before it not easy covering all of that ground out there to bust people. You know if you see some body shooting early or late you can turn them in and they will get a ticket.


I appreciate the DWR, but on this topic they are not doing their best. They do the same predictable thing every year. Hence people shooting not just a few minutes early, but more then 30 minutes. That is not a person making a mistake in reading the proc. That is a piss on you I will shoot whenever I want too.

PS: I onced asked a CO why he was not going out and issuing tickets to a hand full of guys that were shooting late. His response was they have guns.


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## Utmuddguy (Aug 25, 2013)

The Utah DWR Officers have never been shy about writing tickets in fact sometimes they are a little too determined to enforce laws. So I have a hard time believing that one refused to act and if he did he had a good reason. People are gonna break the law and DWR is going to do their best to cite them. As for me I'm going to enjoy my season not complain about how everyone else screwed it up by shooting early or sky busting.


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## Huntoholic (Sep 17, 2008)

No complaining on my part. I went pheasant hunting.......

And after 30 years of hunting ducks, the only place I've been check at, is in the parking lot. Sorry not want I would call the best effort.


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## Clarq (Jul 21, 2011)

Huntoholic said:


> And after 30 years of hunting ducks, the only place I've been check at, is in the parking lot. Sorry not want I would call the best effort.


Same here (besides that part about the 30 years :shock: ).

I've been far more impressed with the officer at the bird refuge. I've probably been fifteen or twenty times in my life and I've been checked five of them. It's always good to see him in a boat or on a bike doing his job.

I've been checked three times while hunting state WMA's (out of maybe ~60 outings), and once hunting private land during the snow goose season.

I'm not really mad about it since I know they're way understaffed, but I would like to see them out in the field, patrolling in boats or on bikes, etc. like the guy at the refuge. I'll bet far more could be accomplished through those means.


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