Red Lion

Yeah I get your point, but how many peopledrive versus have anything to do with hunting? How many people are likely to know laws/regs regarding driving versus hunting? How many "kids" stranded at night by the woods, with a flashlight, with noweapon orintenthave the potential to cause damage or death versus and "adult" driving a car that can easily cause great damage and death?
I guess an officer is entitled to be a Richard....I just hope that he does not expect anyone in authority, such as a teacher to give his child any sort of sensible break when a simple mistake is made.

GMMAT

Red Lion:

I think this has run its' course. Have a good one.

Red Lion

You have a good one to. Thanks for the debate.

Killer_Primate

GMMAT,
I did ask a GM, well more like whomever answered the phone at the department. The answer that I received was different than yours. I was told that if an officer thought I was hunting that I could be charged, and to be safe, I shouldn't enter the woods until legal hunting time had begun.
If I were to show a picture to just about anyone in the world of a man in a tree stand, dressed in camo with a bow (not even in his hand) hanging from a hook on a limb "what is he doing"? I'm pretty sure they would reply "hunting" and not "sitting and waiting to hunt". I'm also pretty sure if I were to elaborate and say, "what if we askedthe man in the tree,and he said that he wasn't hunting yet, but would be in a little while" they would probably laugh and say that you're lying. I'm glad that you feel comfortable with what you're doing, and I'm also happy for you that you have a GM to talk to. And I'm not questioning your intentions, at all! But, if a different GM walks up, all he has to do is perceive that you're hunting.
In fact what you're doing in the tree stand is exactly what you would be doing if you were hunting, except that you'd knock and arrow.
When I stalk or still hunt I don't knock an arrow. I keep my bow in my left hand and an arrow in the right. I do this because if the arrow is knocked I hit it on everything and it snags anything it comes into contact with, but I'm hunting. If I were to keep the arrow in the quiver during the same activity, I'd still be hunting.
To on-lookers we're doing the same exact thing, except there is an absence of light, which "I" think "MAY" be viewed as "ILLEGAL" by people who might matter.
Webster;
Hunt - To pursue game or other animals to capture or kill them.

There were other definitions for "hunt", but this one I think was the closest to what we do when we "hunt". And I think it would be at least wise to take note of the fact that some could think that this is what you're doing. And if those people were in a position to convict you of a crime, well then you'd be a poacher; by definition of course.

And I'm not trying to be a jerk, but if your argument is "I was simply sitting there, I wasn't hunting" and you look up "sitting" or "waiting" in ol' Webster, you're going to match the description under "hunting" a lot more so than "sitting" or "waiting".

I'll do some more asking, but I'm pretty sure that in my area, you get caught heading into the woods at 3:30am, you're in trouble. Could you beat it; maybe, maybe not?

GMMAT

Charlie:

If you have a problem with the officer upholding the law.....there isn't much I can say, is there? the bottom line is.....when he saw them....he had NO IDEA of why they were shining the light. When the kids parents arrived.....he approached. Maybe they smarted off to him when he told them what they were doing was against the law? Who knows??? it really doesn't matter, though. it's not up for interpretation. They CLEARLY were breaking the law. Why he cited them...I don't know.....but I'm willing to give HIM the benefit of the doubt. I won't automatically assume he's a ****head.

brucelanthier

What if he was in a tree lounge and was sound asleep LOL? And then has his little vibrating alarm wake him up a 1/2 hour before sunrise. If the GW had to wake him up to give him a ticket could he accuse him of hunting before prescribed hours LOL?

GMMAT

KP:

I'm "Waiting".....would be my answer. I'm waiting to hunt. It's illegal to HUNT until 30 minutes prior to sunrise.....so I must "wait".

According to YOUR definition, then.....the MINUTE I practice.....I'm "preparing". ANY time I don camo.....I'm hunting (If I have my bow and arrows).

I gave a treestand safety seminar at my shop owner's Church a few weeks ago. I had on full camo.....I had my bow (quiver full of arrows)......and I climbed up that tree to 20' and hauled up my bow and put it on the bow hook.

WAS I HUNTING? NO! Any "sensible" person could figure out I wasn't hunting. BUT....I met your definition (Take a picture and show it to someone and ask them what I was doing, right?????). There was also deer in the area (It's not far from my house....so I KNOW there's deer in those woods!!...lol)

OH YEAH....It was ALSO out of season. And heck....the GW was there!!

It really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. I have my governing body's appointed representative's blessing.

Charlie P

Just as any sensible person could figure out that those kids weren't spot lighting.

Your reading comprehension can't be that bad can it?

I just answered how easy it would be to figure out he wasn't dealing with a poacher.

Why wait for parents he didn't even know would arrive?

Come on you ticket stranded kids for spot lighting your the defnition of a Richard Cranuim. He had to know that they were stranded and that their parents were there to help and they weren't poachers before he ticketed them.

Charlie P

I go to my stand before legal hunting hours and I believe it to be breaking the letter of the law.

I watched a guy get aticket coming out of state land because he waited to unload until he was near his car.

No different then you and I walking in the woods well before light with a bow, it would be easier for a bowhunter to get away with a shot then a gun hunter ,no sound.

Let's say I walked out of the woods 1.5 hours after legal hunting hours and told trhe DEC officer I was waiting for deer to leave on a nice full moon night with snow on the ground, you think he might write me up for hunting after hours?

Until he's out sick and you run into his buddy that doesn't know you.

So a kid that lips off should get ticketed but you get a blessing from a dec officer to do what you want.[8D]

GMMAT

HOW were they NOT spotlighting, Charlie? They had a spotlight on a deer! It's against the law! How were they NOT doing it??? NC law states NOWHERE that they have to have a weapon....OR...that they have to mean the animal harm. I assume the law was written the way it is to take ANY INTERPRETATION out of it. Heck...there doesn't even have to BE deer in the area. It just has to be an area that is known to hold deer. Which....by that county being on the NO SPOTLIGHTING list....should give any sensible person a clue.

How were they NOT spotlighting???? This is ridiculous!

I don't know and don't care. It's irrelevant.

I thought you just said they WEREN'T spotlighting. Which is it? What part of the law are you having trouble with? Do you know the law I'm speaking of? Were you there to know how he was treated (the officer) ....or...ae you just trying to stir ****? I think I know the answer to all of those questions.