[Rapier]

No one mentioned these guys, so thought I might.

About 4 years ago we had been out dove hunting and were on the way back to my buddy's house which was down the road from the field. We were on our 4 wheelers. We were riding off the road and off the right of way, we were legal in FL. I was in the lead and saw out of the corner of my eye a dark blue Jeep Wagoneer, with blacked out glass, kinda keeping pace with me, up on the paved road. So, I looked over and saw nothing, no shield, no sign, no lights, nothing. I increased my speed and the Jeep increased speed for about 100 yards, then the carnival came to town, the whole inside of the Jeep lit up with blue lights. I stopped as did my buddy behind me. The Jeep pulled off the road and came down the embankment towards us. When the Jeep stopped next to me, out stepped a young fellow dressed in Levis, a white Polo shirt, wearing a duty belt and a gun, no badge or uniform. Out came a wallet with a large badge, just about the time the fella says "I am John XX and I am the Federal Game Warden for this district, I would like to check your birds." His district turned out to be 11 counties.

That was the first time in my life I have ever even heard of a Federal Game Warden, much less seen one. We had no violations, or so we thought. My buddy had a little young dove in his trash bag that his wife had shot, but was to small to eat. That young dove turned out to be a little dove species that is on the federal list of prohibited birds. My buddy upon being told it was a prohibited bird says to the fella, If I had know it was a prohibited bird, I would not have brought it out of the field with me, which made perfect sense, so he was allowed to go on. However, he was told that the little dove was a $500 bird. Later I was told by two hunters that our Federal Warden had cought them in violation and was real tough on them.

Moral to the story: Do not shoot a little dove by accident and if you run into a guy in the field or on the shore (they do migratory birds), wearing a gun and looking like a cop out of uniform, he probably is a Fed. If you get on his wrong side, you get to meet a Federal judge, which might get real unplesant.
Ed