Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Calling foul on bag limits
Unlike the US, the UK lacks trained wardens to keep an eye on fowl bag sizes, but is such scrutiny necessary? Matt Cross investigates
Game Warden’s Lament is the story of Mike Hart’s years as an Ontario fish and game warden. It is a series of wonderfully wild tales; there are killer bears, poachers, wolves and Mounties. The book culminates with a fist fight between a game warden and a poacher on a beaver dam.
Among the tales of enforcing the fish and game laws in Canada’s back country, the author describes making a spot check on duck hunters in a hide. Despite their guns being legal and their licences being in order, the hunters seemed nervous. As Mike prepared to leave, the reason for their ill ease began to bob up from the bottom of the lake.
Ducks the hunters had wedged into the mud floated free, rising to the surface with a slight pop. The ducks were collected, citations issued and in time fines were paid. It was their defiance of the bag limit that put the Canadian fowlers on a collision course with the game warden. Unlike the limits imposed by clubs in the UK, legally enforced bag limits are part of the culture of wildfowl hunters in the US. They are broken down into two components, a daily limit day and a possession limit.
Hunters in New York can shoot up to six ducks in a day and can have no more than 18 “in total in the field, at home, in transit, or in storage”. There are additional regulations beyond this; the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation helpfully explains: “The daily limit of 6 ducks includes all mergansers and sea ducks (scoters, eiders, and long-tailed ducks) and may include no harlequin ducks and no more than 4 mallard (2 of which may be hens), 3 wood ducks, 2 black duck, 2 pintail, 2 scaup, 2 redheads, 2 canvasback, 4 scoters, 4 eiders, 4 long-tailed ducks, or 2 hooded mergansers.”
Someone felt the need to involve the lawyers.
Across the Atlantic, bag limits are taken very seriously. In April 2017,