Oh, now my head hurts with all the mistakes made here. And I'm not talking about the DNR LEO!
A) No dialogue! You were accused of "shooting" on your own property. 1. It's not against the law to "shoot" on your property, but - it IS against the law to "hunt" outside of the date/time restrictions. 2. If he threatens to violate you, just say 'go ahead'. 3. He was there investigating a potentially legitimate hunting violation, but - again, shooting is not the same as hunting. Goes to intent. 4. You voluntarily handed him your weapon? GAH! No, no, no, no. Make him ask for it. 5. Ask for the warrant. He will not have it but we do have an 'exigency' in this case, because 6. you ADMITTED to hearing someone shoot. He may TAKE your weapon, but not with your consent. 7. You know his the south end of a north facing horse, so suppose he chambered a round, fired it in the air, and then took you off to the hoosegow? 8. You then involved a 3rd party, disclaiming your own guilt, but putting someone else in the crosshairs(so to speak).
B) The right way.
LEO shows up on your land. accuses you of 'shooting'. So what? You ask him politely to leave. He will not, and use the sound of the shot as pretext for investigating. Tell him again, you want him to leave, and that you are going back up in your blind. He will DEMAND to see your weapon. Ask for the warrant. He will tell you to put your weapon down, and step back(or, he may cuff you, it's now custodial). He might start asking a lot of questions, you are under no obligation to answer any of them. He'll check your weapon. If not fired, he'll want to know if you have other weapons in your blind, or other hunters around. Again, advise that you want him to leave, and ask to go back about your business. If he does chamber and fire your weapon, you're still ahead of the game, as his prints will be on the cartridge(or there will be NO prints on it when it gets to the evidence locker, hmmmmm?)
Now, he's got a decision to make. How far to push it. He is likely within his power to go up in your blind to check for other weapons, BUT you've asked him to leave already, so now we get into a very murky area of evidence. Very murky indeed, since your first weapon was NOT fired. Eventually, you'll be standing there, face to face, not answering anything, and he's got to make a decision about arresting you with ZERO evidence, and likely knowing that he's way, way out on a evidentiary limb here. No dialogue!
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Today's Featured Article - Grain Threshing in the Early 40's - by Jerry D. Coleman. How many of you can sit there and say that you have plowed with a mule? Well I would say not many, but maybe a few. This story is about the day my Grandfather Brown (true name) decided along with my parents to purchase a new Ford tractor. It wasn't really new except to us. The year was about 1967 and my father found a good used Ford 601 tractor to use on the farm instead of "Bob", our old mule. Now my grandfather had had this mule since the mid 40's and he was getting some age on him. S
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