Alabama Landowners Take On Game Wardens in Landmark Property Rights Lawsuit

I’m currently at the “it’s Thursday already?” phase of the workweek and am unsure as to whether or not that is a good thing as of yet.

With that in mind, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get this Thursday morning dispatch out the door.

Here's what's worth reading about today:

• No trespassing - The Open Fields Doctrine is under attack, this time in Alabama 🧑‍⚖️

• New record grizzly - Wisconsin man downs new B&C record bruin (and a moose too!) 🏆

• Fined and banned - ND couple nailed for sneaky killing of Montana mulie 👮

• Gators and dog fights - Things got weird at one Jacksonville home 🐊

• Big, beautiful cat - Watch this unreal footage of a beautiful cat along a roadside in Santa Barbara 🐈

OPEN FIELDS DOCTRINE UNDER ATTACK
ALABAMA LANDOWNERS TAKE ON GAME WARDENS IN LANDMARK PROPERTY RIGHTS LAWSUIT

In yet another a bold challenge to state authority, three Alabama residents filed a lawsuit against five employees of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources just last month. 

The case, backed by the Institute for Justice, targets a controversial Alabama statute, Ala. Code 9-2-65(a)(6), which grants game wardens the power to enter and search private land without a warrant or landowner consent. The plaintiffs, Dalton Boley, Regina Williams, and Dale Liles, allege repeated unauthorized intrusions on their properties in Lauderdale County, raising critical questions about the balance between wildlife enforcement and constitutional protections of private property.

The incidents sparking the lawsuit paint a troubling picture that began in November of last year when Boley and Williams discovered game wardens had entered their 40-acre property in Killen, Alabama, despite prominent “no trespassing” signs and a locked gate. The wardens issued a warning for alleged deer baiting, a claim Boley vehemently denies, asserting no hunting was occurring on the land…

🏆 Boone and Crockett confirms new record Alaskan grizzly. Last fall, Wisconsin hunter Brian Van Lanen, guided by Lance Kronberger, harvested a record-breaking grizzly bear near Norton Sound, Alaska, during a hunt for both moose and grizzly. After spotting a massive boar in an alder patch, they pursued it the next morning along a riverbank. A tense encounter unfolded when two large bears clashed, and Van Lanen, using a .338 Lapua, shot the grizzly at 400 yards, felling it after several shots. The bear, estimated to be between 20 and 25 years old, was covered in scar tissue with worn teeth and a split lip, indicating its age and rugged life. After skinning, the skull was green-scored at over 27 inches, and after the mandatory 60-day drying period, it officially scored 27-9/16, making it the largest hunter-killed grizzly in Boone and Crockett Club records, surpassing all entries since B&C started keeping records in the 1920s.

Remarkably, Van Lanen also filled his moose tag days later with a 73-inch-wide bull (you kidding me?!?) that scored 233-4/8, also earning a place in the Boone and Crockett record books. The grizzly’s record was confirmed at the Club’s 32nd Big Game Awards Judges Panel, highlighting its significance in their conservation-focused records program, which has tracked nearly 60,000 trophies since the 1920s to support wildlife management research.

👮 North Dakota Couple Fined and Banned for Illegal Mule Deer Hunt in Montana. In September 2022, Montana game wardens received a tip about a potential bait site north of Plevna, leading to the discovery of a cellular trail camera and tree stand used by Justin Wiseman of Sentinel Butte, North Dakota. The investigation revealed that Wiseman had set up the bait to attract game animals illegally. Further scrutiny uncovered social media posts showing his wife, Robin Wiseman, posing with a trophy mule deer buck killed in November 2022, which she harvested without a license and was tagged by Justin, violating Montana hunting regulations.

Standing in front of a judge in Aprile, the Wisemans pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a game animal in Montana’s Seventh Judicial District Court. Each was fined $300, sentenced to six months in county jail (suspended), and ordered to pay $8,000 in joint restitution for the mule deer. They also lost their hunting, fishing, and trapping privileges for two years.

🐄 A 9-Foot Alligator was Fed a Diet of Random Animals to Fuel an Underground Dog-Fighting Ring in Jacksonville. We’ve covered off a lot of stories from the Sunshine State over the last few weeks (it’s busy down here), but this one seems to take the cake.

After a March drug raid by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at a Northwest Jacksonville home, officers revealed a disturbing scene: a 9-foot alligator confined in a small, waterless cage, surrounded by animal bones, suggesting it was fed a number of unsuspecting animals on the property. In addition to the illegally housed and fed gator, the operation also uncovered a suspected dog-fighting ring, with multiple neglected dogs—some chained, others in skyboxes—showing signs of abuse, including open wounds, infections, and flea infestations. Other animals, such as young raccoons and turtles, were found in similarly poor conditions. Marquis Williams, 49, was arrested and faces over a dozen felony charges, including illegal possession of an alligator, promoting dog fighting, and animal abuse, alongside drug-related offenses.

The alligator was safely removed by a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission nuisance alligator wrangler, and the dogs were taken for medical care. JSO’s investigation began with a tip about drug activity, but the discovery of the alligator and dog-fighting evidence truly put the case into a league of its own.

Williams was booked into the Duval County jail for “putting lives, human and animal, at risk,” the sheriff’s office said.

🐱 These big cats are such beautiful killing machines. Watch as this lady’s roofer pulled up alongside a beautiful cougar in Santa Barbara. The scenery, the cat - wish I could have been there.

As long as there was a wall of some kind between us, of course…

🎯 Raising an American Sniper: The ring tone on my iPhone is Monty Norman’s inimitable 007 theme in E minor. I stole a glance and noted that it was the Boss. Hers was the only number that would take me out of an exam room. I stepped into the hallway and was surprised to find my 13-year-old son on the other end of the line. Slightly alarmed, I said, “What’s up, buddy? Is everything OK?”

“He’s back,” my son said cryptically. I knew exactly what he was talking about.

It took me a lifetime to get there, but I raised my kids on 100 acres of heaven in north central Mississippi. One of the few downsides to such idyllic wilderness living was the freaking water moccasins. The scaly monsters breed like rats. As of this writing, we have lived here 18 years and have wasted 64 of the legless beasts. If that offends your sensibilities, you have likely not seen a great many snakebite victims. My kids played in that lake. We killed venomous snakes on sight. Read the full story.

🍳 Frying Pan Elk: My mother was all of 5 feet tall, 120 pounds, and tough as a bag of hammers. Helen Francis Berigan was her maiden name; she had brilliant red hair, fair skin, and was as Irish as Paddy’s pig and proud of it. She married my father at age 16 in Missoula, Montana, and I was born nine months to the day after that. A pair of years later, my little sister came along, and we settled as a family on 160 acres northwest of Dillon, where my father scratched out a living farming and ranching.

Both of my parents were stern taskmasters, but my mother had a way of making mundane chores seem tolerable with smiles and lots of laughter. When the world hit us hard, she would remind me of the challenges my father was enduring, and we were compelled to keep moving forward.

Then, in 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor, my father joined the U.S. Army. Before he departed, his commands were crystal clear: I was the man of the house and would take care of my mother and sister. I was only 12 years old, but it was my duty while he was away doing his. We didn’t set eyes on him again for four years.  Read the full story.

⚡️ Lightning Strikes Twice – Two “Once In A Lifetime” Tags In Same Season:  To call it a stroke of good luck would be a gross understatement. Maybe a double or triple dose of good luck is more appropriate, but even then, that doesn’t do justice when you hear that Jason Inman was drawn for not one, but two “once in a lifetime hunts” for the 2015 hunting season in Oregon.

The Mulino, Oregon resident drew a Rocky Mountain goat tag, and a bighorn sheep tag two seasons ago and filled both with two impressive animals.

Inman, who sent in photos for the Bone Yard Photo Contest, graces the cover of this issue with his Rocky Mountain goat. When we reached out to him to ask permission to use his photo on the cover, that’s when we learned he struck lightning in a bottle twice that year.

Inman, 38, drew the Elkhorn No. 3 Rocky Mountain goat tag, and the Aldrich No. 1 bighorn sheep tag, defying odds that are too astronomical to comprehend. It has happened only one time before. In Oregon both bighorn sheep and mountain goat hunts are random draws. Preference points do not apply and once a hunter is drawn for these highly coveted tags they are no longer eligible to apply.  Read the full story.

Oh, and one more thing…