I've been folowing this thread since it started, and I can honestly say I can understand both sides. Let me share a true stry that happened to me last year. Bear with me...

I was hunting on a WMA in Virginia (I was a resident @ the time),my partner and I hunted until dark and then met @ a prearranged location to walk back to the vehicle. We were walking on the road and heard deer on one corner of the woods. We stopped, listened, and even shouldered our guns. We were whispering to each other about them, where did they come out, where to set up tomorrow, etc. We came up with a plan, and then walked on to the vehicle.

We unloaded our guns and then : Bright light in our faces. Yep, GW.

He said he heard us the whole time and could get us on night hunting, hunting from a road and harrassing wildlife. My thoughts at the time was "sh!t; iwasnt hunting, I was done for the day".

He went on to warn us only.

Bottomline: I was damn lucky. I could have been royally flushed. The GW would have been justified for charging us with the whole shebang. TECHNICALLY we broke all those rules. However, the fact that he overheard our conversation, he could tell that we had no intention of shooting (unless we were charged at) and could tell we weren't hunting but TECHNICALLY SCOUTING for the next day.

I reitterate: we were lucky.

Btw, he got to know us and would ask us if we noticed anything goofy going on
(carcasses of illegal kills). I guess he turned us into informants

Moral of the story: on public land, I now follow every "jot and tittle" of any rule, regulation, whatever. Walkng in a questionable area w/ rounds in my weapon is not worth losing my privilege to hunt...