Maxxy
Active Member
- Messages
- 210
Alright, so this past week I spent a week hunting Elk in a general unit in UT. I typically hike from camp while doing so and return the same way. My brothers and father have 4-Wheelers and go to and from the spot they start their hunts as I am assuming a lot of people do. We do NOT road hunt. On Sunday last week I was walking close to camp on a dirt road with my gun slung on my back. I was stopped by UDWR officer and asked to present my permit. I did so and he studied the 5 lines of information for a good minute and made some remark about my age and then said good luck.
The following day I hunted from camp and my brother had started his day by driving his 4 wheeler 2 miles and then hunted back to camp. He had sent me a text asking me to bring his 4-wheelr back to camp for him. I hunted back to the spot of his ATV and headed back to camp, with my gun slung on my shoulder. I was about 1/4 mile from camp on the dirt road when the same UDWR officer stopped, got out of his truck and walked over to me. He grabbed the barrel of my gun and said he needed to make sure it wasn't loaded and proceeded to take it off my back.
I immediately told him it there was a bullet in the chamber. He then fumbled around to try and open the bolt to remove the ammo and then sat it on the front of the ATV and talked to me for a good 5 minutes about how it was going, where i should hunt, if I had seen any Wild Turkeys, etc, and then walked to his truck wrote me a citation for have "a loaded firearm in a vehicle".
I just kept my mouth shut and took the ticket and headed back to camp.
Today i called to see what the damages were going to be. It is a mandatory appearance in front of a judge, (I recently moved out of state less then 2 months ago) a Minimum $623 fine/bail and up to 6 months in jail.
I just moved out of state for work and this will be terms for termination with my company.
Can I fight this and have a shot to get it removed? Has anyone else had this happen to them. Any advice (other than the obvious)? This is a life changing mistake in a lot of ways for me. I can't just plead guilty, although it seems I am.
Help anyone? My record is clean, I have never had a single run in with law enforcement of any kind. Just a freak incident in my eyes.
The following day I hunted from camp and my brother had started his day by driving his 4 wheeler 2 miles and then hunted back to camp. He had sent me a text asking me to bring his 4-wheelr back to camp for him. I hunted back to the spot of his ATV and headed back to camp, with my gun slung on my shoulder. I was about 1/4 mile from camp on the dirt road when the same UDWR officer stopped, got out of his truck and walked over to me. He grabbed the barrel of my gun and said he needed to make sure it wasn't loaded and proceeded to take it off my back.
I immediately told him it there was a bullet in the chamber. He then fumbled around to try and open the bolt to remove the ammo and then sat it on the front of the ATV and talked to me for a good 5 minutes about how it was going, where i should hunt, if I had seen any Wild Turkeys, etc, and then walked to his truck wrote me a citation for have "a loaded firearm in a vehicle".
I just kept my mouth shut and took the ticket and headed back to camp.
Today i called to see what the damages were going to be. It is a mandatory appearance in front of a judge, (I recently moved out of state less then 2 months ago) a Minimum $623 fine/bail and up to 6 months in jail.
I just moved out of state for work and this will be terms for termination with my company.
Can I fight this and have a shot to get it removed? Has anyone else had this happen to them. Any advice (other than the obvious)? This is a life changing mistake in a lot of ways for me. I can't just plead guilty, although it seems I am.
Help anyone? My record is clean, I have never had a single run in with law enforcement of any kind. Just a freak incident in my eyes.