August 28, 2008Time to test the Bushnell Videoscope
When the PR folks at Bushnell said they had loaners for testing, I bit. It came today. Has anyone else used one of these? Now, I know this isn't going to give me HD video. But I'm wondering if it might be OK for shooting for Web clips such as those I post here from time to time. After all, I shot one Web video with my Canon Powershot G9 point and shoot and it turned out just fine. I plan to start testing this out soon, and ideally will have it mounted to my bow stabilizer come opening day. Stay tuned... August 5, 2008Trailcam (troughcam, actually) picture of a big bear
This feeding station is clearly set up to attract wildlife. (Note the game cam in the background.) I guess it could be for deer, as long as those aren't donuts in there. But as soon as it starts attracting bears it becomes illegal since feeding bears is unauthorized. I hate to be too cynical. But anyone want to place odds on whether or not there will be a treestand set up near this thing come opening day? August 1, 2008It's time to apply for Virginia's quota huntsMy Outdoors page in The Roanoke Times today featured a piece on some of Virginia's most interesting quota hunt opporunities. It ran long so I had to cut one of the hunts I wanted to feature. Here's the information on the hunt, which is at Featherfin wildlife management area near Appomattox. More information on Quota hunts is on the DGIF Website, while you can click here for Virginia State Parks information. Also, if anyone else has any quota hunts they would recommend (or discourage), please comment. Featherfin Wildlife Species: Any legal species during designated hunting days Hunt dates: 18 separate hunting periods starting in November and running through early January. Application deadline: Aug. 29 More information: www.dgif.virginia.gov/wmas/
Prior to becoming public property the area was a hunt club that was carefully managed for quality deer, and the DGIF has continued to manage the area under those goals. To be legal, a buck must have at least four points on one side. The lottery will select 14 hunters for each 3-day hunting period during muzzleloader and general firearms seasons. (The first hunting period Nov. 1-5 is four days, not including the non-hunting Sunday.) Each hunter may bring one guest. Knox said the DGIF hasn’t gotten a good handle on how the hunting is going on the property because it’s still early in the state’s management of Featherfin. "It’s so new it’s sort of an unknown," he said. But he said that, anecdotally, the area seems to have great potential. "The people who are working on it are seeing lots of deer," he said. July 29, 2008A cool trailcam shot of a nice gobbler
I love this picture. Not only does it show the gobbler really well, but it appears this is just set up on a path, rather than over a bait pile. I realize that putting out bait can be a great way to get game cam shots. And it's legal (at least until Sept. 1). A problem I see with bait is that it doesn't offer a fair representation of what's out there because it's causing artificial movement. Once the bait is gone, the deer (or turkeys) will move on. Another problem is that pre-season feeding could tempt some hunters to push things into the season. There is a saying that lawbreakers are going to break the law no matter what and honest people will follow the rules. I tend to believe that. But I could just see some pix of big bucks or gobblers over a corn pile proving too tempting to someone who does their best to play by the book. I know that's not always the case. I have one friend who feeds in the off-season, knows the feeders attract temendous numbers of deer and turkeys, but turns off the switch long before the season. I hope that's the rule rather than the exception, and it probably is. I don't have any game cams out but if I did I think I'd put them along normal travel corridors. Of course, a normal travel corridor this time of year won't necessarily be a normal travel corridor come October and November.
July 9, 2008Who wants tickets to the Va. Outdoor Sportsman Show?Denny Quaiff of the Virginia Deer Hunters Association (VDHA) just mailed me pair of tickets to this year's Virginia Outdoor Sportsman Show at the Show Place in Mechanicsville. The show, which is sponsored in part by the VDHA, is Aug. 8-10. I can't make the show so I'll give the passes to the first person who e-mails me their mailing address. The headliner is hunting personality Larry Weishun. Also on the show front, things are coming together for the Virginia Outdoor Sportsmen's Classic, which will be held at the Salem Civic Center on Aug. 22-24. Featured talent includes John O'Dell, Chris Ward and Eric Hale from Drury Outdoors, coyote guru Tom Bechdel and Fincastle outdoor writer Bruce Ingram. I'm meeting with the show's promotor next week and will have more details after that. July 3, 2008A video from the North Dakota prairie dog huntHere's a short video from a June 25 prairie dog hunt near Bowman, N.D. I don't know that I would go to North Dakota (or Wyoming or Montana) just to hunt prairie dogs -- something plenty of folks do. But I'm glad I got out there on the prairie to check this out. February 27, 2008Breaking news: Fall deer, turkey and bear kill numbersThe DGIF has released preliminary number for last season's deer, turkey and bear kills. The deer kill topped 240,423 -- the highest ever recorded. That's not necessarily good news. Big numbers mean the state's deer population is not as well in check as the DGIF wants it to be. The good news for biologists is that the doe kill also was a record, and most importantly was higher than the antlered buck kill for the first time ever. So that means the state's hunters are getting the message that they need to kill does. The other good news, for hunters and biologists alike, is that it appears hemmorhagic disease didn't severely impact herds, as some feared. Interestingly, in Bedford and Roanoke counties, which will have earn-a-buck regs next year, the doe kill didn't hit 45 percent -- the benchmark. So, clearly, the earn-a-buck reg is needed. The turkey kill was 4,759, up 15 percent over last year's paltry kill of 4,143. That's still pretty low and I think is mostly a function of lack of hunter interest in the fall season. The bear kill was 1,517, down a bit from last year's record but still the second best on record. I'll have more on the numbers on Friday's Outdoors page in The Roanoke Times. February 4, 2008Triple kiss of death dooms goose hunt
My good buddy Freddy McGuire sent me a note Friday asking if I wanted to tag along the next morning on a goose hunt with him and Dale Harless (pictured above) on the New River. When I said "yes," his next note included this line: "We saw a ton of geese last time and really should kill them pretty good." He had the sense to add this note after that sentence: "(Warning: kiss of death.)" And that wasn't the only one. It's a pretty well-known fact that if you want to ruin a hunt or fishing trip, you just have to invite an outdoor writer. Making matters worse, both Freddy and I were bringing video cameras. So, Dale noted, we had the triple kiss of death working against us. We were on the river before 6 a.m. (which required a 3:15 a.m. wake-up for me, which is about as bad as it gets). Things started getting worrisome early. The previous weekend Freddy and Dale had bumped a bunch of geese while floating down to their hunting area. Saturday, we bumped two. About 7:30 a pair of geese came in to our spread. They were crossing overhead and maybe we should have let them go in hopes of getting them to come back in. But they offered me a decent shot so I took it. And missed. Twice. We had pairs -- possibly the same geese -- come back a couple more times, but couldn't get shots. That was it. It could have been worse. The weather was actually pretty decent (which certainly didn't help the hunting). And at least when you're sitting in a blind (or blinded boat) you can talk, drink hot coffee or cocoa and eat. We saw a few geese on the river on the drive home so they haven't all headed south. But I'm guessing it will be pretty slow for the final days of the season, which ends Feb. 15. January 28, 2008Will tiny change get ball rolling for Sunday hunting?Most Sunday hunting-related bills die quick deaths in the General Assembly, but one bill is actually making its way through the system this year. As I wrote about in my Sunday column in The Roanoke Times, Senate Bill 708 would essentially bring the urban archery rules in line with those governing shooting preserves -- the only places in Virginia where Sunday hunting is allowed. This is the epitome of baby step. Only 21 localities even participate in the urban archery season. And they wouldn't be required to offer Sunday hunting. It would be up to them. And, of course, relatively few hunters actually participate in the seasons. So should this pass -- and it has passed the Senate and is now in the House -- the impact would be tiny. In fact, it would be pretty much transparent. One advantage this bill has is that it doesn't butt up against one key concern of many Sunday hunting critics -- that allowing hunting on Sunday would be disruptive to rural churches. Critics who say hunters will interfere with other recreationists on Sunday also will have trouble faulting this change. With booming whitetail herds in these localities -- which is why they have the urban archery season in the first place -- even the non-hunting public would like to see as much hunting as possible. The question is, will this get the ball rolling down that so-called slippery slope? You know, if things go smoothly, will it open the door for further liberalization of the ban? If it does initiate movement, it seems it could still take years before Virginia's rules are in line with those in nearly every other state. For those of you who would like to see the ban lifted, is this little start -- and it's not a sure thing yet -- better than nothing? Do you think this could get things going? Or will it turn out to be like the shooting preserve allowance? One little thing that will have little effect on the majority of hunters? Of course I'd also like to hear from those of you who support the Sunday hunting ban. January 18, 2008No rabbits were killed in the making of this videoI spent a good part of a recent Saturday hunting rabbits with brothers Marshall and Walter Meadows in Franklin County. Seth Gitner, the mulit-media editor for Roanoke.com, came along with his video camera. We jumped only one rabbit, and didn't kill it. Seth pointed out that on the hunting assignments he's been on with me, nothing has ever been killed. It's not like he jinxes us. That's just hunting. Despite the slow hunting, Seth put together a great video of the experience. January 15, 2008Speaking of coyotes, here's Todd Burton with one
Yesterday afternoon I had a good conversation with Abner Druckenmiller (no relation to Jim) at Foxpro Hunting Calls. He gave me some more pretty good tips. I'm hoping I can get my hands on one of their calls for a while for some field testing. Thanks again to everybody who offered some advice on hunting coyotes. Those of you who get out there after them, send reports when you can. January 14, 2008Any coyote hunters out there? Need a little helpI went rabbit hunting in Franklin County on Saturday. It was slow. Really slow. They had nine beagles and in three hours of walking perfect-looking -- and I mean PERFECT-LOOKING -- rabbit cover we had one chase. I actually saw the bugger for a split second but couldn't get a shot. The guys who invited me felt bad but it certainly wasn't their fault. I'm pretty sure coyotes were to blame. Everywhere there was mud there were coyote prints. I had planned to give coyote hunting a try this winter anyway and have a couple places in mind. But this place seems to have some real potential. One of the rabbit guys said he was willing to get us back in there. I've been watching the first Primos Predator video and that's been fairly helpful. I've got a couple mouth calls and have been practicing. Plus a buddy loaned me his old CD-based predator call. Another guy who I met through this blog is also just starting and we're hoping to get out there soon. Before I go out there and educate the coyotes on my spots, I'd appreciate any suggestions or tips from those of you who have hunted coyotes. January 11, 2008Proposal seeks to increase blaze orange requirementsAmong the hunting-related bills proposed this week in the General Assembly is one that would change blaze orange requirements and which could have a major impact on hunters. House Bill 872 would change the current blaze orange law. It would require that hunters and anyone accompanying a hunter wear blaze orange during any deer firearms season, including muzzleloader seasons. It would increase the minimum amount from 100 square inches to 250 square inches, and eliminate the provision that allows someone to display blaze orange at their hunting spot (by tying a ribbon around a tree, for example). Now, we all know why the current law was implemented for general firearms seasons and not for archery or muzzleloader seasons. The thinking was that because bows and muzzleloaders were close range weapons, hunters would be less likely to mistake a hunter for a deer. That was then and this is now. Most of us also know that modern muzzleloaders are not exactly close range weapons. Just look back through this blog at pictures of big bucks shot with muzzleloaders and see the ranges at which those deer were shot. So if blaze orange is a good idea for general firearms hunting -- and I think most of us agree it is and safety statistics bear us out -- isn't a good idea for muzzleloading hunting? But here's the rub. Black powder seasons sometimes -- often, actually -- run concurrently with other seasons during which blaze orange use would not be embraced. While archery deer hunters wouldn't be crazy about blaze orange, I think folks would eventually get used to it when the realize it isn't hurting their hunting. (And, I really think it wouldn't.) Turkey hunting is another thing. I'll be honest. I don't know how well turkeys see blaze orange. I plan to ask the experts. But I do know that turkeys have amazing eyes, which is why we wear head-to-toe camo when turkey hunting. I also know that I had turkeys hang up at about 40 yards this fall one day when they saw the blaze orange flap on my hunting pack. They didn't spook, but they didn't come close enough for a bow shot. Anyway, I'm working on a column on this and other proposed legislation. I'd be interested to hear what you all think about the blaze orange proposal. Is it fair? Could it be better crafted? Should the rule be left as is? December 13, 2007Kristopher Peters with a mountain of a black bear
Killed by Kristopher Peters (right), the bear weighed 467 pounds, live weight. Also pictured is Peters' hunting buddy, Andrew Greenway. Peters was hunting with the Benny Shires hunting group. October 25, 2007A special pheasant hunt in South Dakota
Dad grew up in Aberdeen, a town of about 27,000 in northeast South Dakota -- in the heart of pheasant country. According to state officials, the pheasant population is at historic highs, and the Aberdeen area is Ground Zero. The kill in the surrounding county last year was something like 136,000 birds. Dad and Uncle Jeff spent a lot of days knocking arounds those fields back in the late 50s and early 60s. But while Jeff still lives there and runs the family business (a seed supplier) Dad bolted west to Oregon in the summer of 1966 and hadn't been back to hunt since. The pheasant opener in South Dakota is almost surreal. Not only is it huge with the locals, but it's a huge tourist draw. Last year the state had nearly 100,000 non-resident pheasant hunters, about 10,000 more than residents. Most businesses in Aberdeen displayed "Welcome Hunters" banners. I think there might be some local resentment towards out-of-staters in certain circles. In fact, that might have contributed to my uncle getting bumped from two areas he planned to take us on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Personally, the hospitality I experienced was incredible all the way around and I think that's normal. A hunter I met on the plane yesterday told me he was asking directions to a public hunting area on opening day when the landowner he was asking invited him to hunt his property. When our weekend plans fell through we had to scramble and the results weren't pretty. Fortunately I was able to hook up with lifelong Aberdonian Casey Weismantel, who works for the Aberdeen Conventions and Visitors Bureau. He invited us to hunt his family's property on Monday and Tuesday and it was quite an experience. We had to work pretty hard for our birds on Monday, but we got them. Tuesday's hunt was even better. At one point we were working a food plot and the pheasants were just pouring out of the thing. I shot some pictures and video and hope to get some of that stuff up here in the next few days. A big part of the fun was meeting new friends. One of the guys in the party was Dino Athanasiadia, a doctor from Greece who hunted the area for the first time last year and loved it so much he came back with his dog for 20 days of hunting this fall. The trip wasn't just about hunting, of course. I hadn't seen my uncle for nearly 20 years and it was great to reconnect with him. My cousin Ashley also came in for a couple of days with her three young ones. As always, it was great to spend time with Dad, too. I hope we can do something like this again, and sooner than later. August 14, 2007Losing a follower in a cloud of dustThis monring I met DGIF biologist Dan Lovelace in Buchanan to talk about the state's Deer Management Assistance Program. I figured the best place to talk DMAP would be at a property that uses the program, so I asked him to follow me out to a friend's place a few miles from town. (I wanted to scout out a couple of stand sites afterward, which is why I suggested we take separate rigs.) After we left blacktop the road was super dusty. I couldn't even see Dan behind me. After a few miles I got to the property, stopped and waited. And waited. And waited. I called Dan's cell phone and didn't get an answer. This is a pretty twisty road so I started fearing the worst, that maybe he'd slid into a ditch. So I backtracked back to the blacktop. No Dan. By then I was on the phone with his office, and they couldn't raise him on his NEXTEL walkie-talkie. There's one fork in the road so I went down it. I was nearly at the end when my phone rang. It was Dan. He had taken that wrong fork, turned around, and gone the right way when I was back at the hardtop. He said there hadn't been any dust at the fork. When I drove back through there I saw he was right. There's a house there and they must spray the road with something to keep the dust down. The mishap delayed us by maybe 15 minutes, but it actually worked out OK. Just inside the gate I spotted a yearling black bear that had just crossed the road in front of us. We wouldn't have seen him if we'd gotten there earlier. The bear stood and looked at me from about 35 yards away, but I didn't have my 400mm lens on my camera and by the time I got situated he had moved off. July 18, 2007Game Department meeting holds a few surprisesI was in Richmond for a meeting of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' board of directors. These can be long days because I usually head down in the morning and come back after the meeting, so that's six hours on the road plus the meeting. Fortunately, my friend Bill Cochran and I usually make the trip together and that makes the time on the road pass pretty quickly because we always have plenty to talk about. (He retired from this job in 1998, but still writes a weekly outdoor report on our Roanoke.com Web site. You can see his stuff HERE.) Yesterday's meeting was a marathon. A bunch of hunters who run deer with hounds in Central and Eastern Virginia thought the DGIF was planning to try to sneak some restriction on their sport past them. Their concern was fueled by a postcard from the Eastern Virginia Deer Hunting with Dogs Hunters Club of Eastern Virginia (or something nearly as unwieldy) that exclaimed in part that "this is an anti-Hunting meeting!" Somewhere around 300 of these folks showed up, and they were ready to fight for their right (some guy actually used that phrase in his remarks to the board, and I was really wanting him to finish with... "to paaarrrrttty.") Continue reading "Game Department meeting holds a few surprises" » March 28, 2007Have coyote, will travel (for bounty)Franklin County's board of supervisors just narrowly approved a coyote bounty. Hunters who nail one of the critters will get $25 for taking it in to be registered. Most experts say that coyote bounties don't work. People kill a bunch of coyotes, localities run out of money, and the coyotes are still out there. Not as many at first, but they come back. I guess the bounty-setters just want to feel like they're getting something accomplished. Maybe it's better than nothing, but biologically speaking, nothing seems to be just about as effective. With this $25 bounty, it seems possible that someone could burn that much gas just driving in to get the bounty. I'm sure people will do it, just so they can say they got the bounty. A few years ago a guy called me with a question. He'd just killed coyote. I think it was in Franklin County, which didn't have a bounty at the time. This guy wondered where the nearest county that had a bounty was, which isn't really the purpose of bounties, is it? I couldn't find a master list anywhere (is there one?) but I did eventually figure out that a county way out near Kentucky had a bounty at the time. I kid you not, the guy said he was going to drive out there, and we're talking hundreds of miles, to collect his reward -- a whopping $75. March 2, 2007Salem cop's buck one of Virginia's biggest in 2006
The buck had 15 scoreable points, and racked up a score of 172 (unofficial) in the Boone and Crockett system. It wasn't the highest-scoring buck shot in Virginia this past season, but it was up there. I lead my Roanoke Times story about Virginia's big game kill with a short re-cap of Wynn's hunt, but I didn't get to use this picture on today's Outdoors page because technical issues kept me from getting the pictures until the page was already done. As for the big game kill numbers, I wasn't too surprised. I figured the abundant mast might negate the effects of liberalized antlerless hunting regs, but that didn't happen. If it had been a poor mast year, which would have made deer even easier to locate, I bet we would have seen a record kill or close to it. The record bear kill is proof that Virginia's black bear population is incredibly healthy. I realize plenty of people don't care for the idea of killing bears, but without hunting these big animals would be causing big problems. As it is, bears could be one of the big wildlife management challenges of the near future. The turkey kill was dismal. Abundant mast was partly responsible, but the big thing is a lack of hunting pressure. Many deer hunters will still shoot turkeys when the opportunity presents itself, but the number of hunters who specifically chase the birds in fall is going down, down, down. Since the numbers were released I've heard from a couple of folks who blame the low turkey kill on coyotes, which these folks assume are devastating the turkey population. Coyotes certainly do get some birds, but biologists say the impact is minimal. January 19, 2007Guest entry on Sunday HuntingA couple of days ago I got an e-mail from a reader of this blog who wondered why his comment on my entry "More Thoughts on Sunday Hunting" hadn't been posted. I had no good answer. For some reason his original post had disappeared into oblivion. Fortunately, he still had the original and was able to resend it. "B Patrick" clearly put a lot of time into this post, which may be the best-written comment I've ever seen in support of Sunday hunting. (If he had written that eloquently in support of the ban I would have given him the same compliment.) Rather than post it as a comment now on a topic that's already week old, where it won't get the reads it deserves, I'm going to run this as an entry. Again, the words below aren't mine. They're from "B Patrick."
Sunday hunting has no detrimental effect on wildlife populations. The 43 states that allow some form of Sunday hunting have healthy wildlife populations in those areas that can sustain them. In fact the states with the most abundant game populations allow Sunday hunting. Those states that have recently removed prohibitions on Sunday hunting have not seen a negative impact on game populations. Allowing Sunday hunting will give state wildlife agencies more flexibility in managing populations. The extra day a week for hunting will give the agencies the ability to increase hunting in areas of overpopulation by encouraging hunters to go afield." January 11, 2007More thoughts on Sunday huntingThe debate regarding Sunday hunting has intensified since results of the DGIF study were released, and one issue has been brought up a lot: landowner rights. A number of people have pointed out that landowners weren't surveyed. How can the law be changed, they wonder, if landowners didn't get to voice their opinion? Whoa! Yes, two Sunday hunting related bills already have been introduced to the General Assembly. Will the mood of the majority of the General Assembly, which has been very timid regarding this issue, shift based on this one survey? I doubt it. I don't think the Sunday hunting ban will be lifted without giving landowners -- and other outdoors enthusiasts, and the general public -- a chance to weigh in on this. Can that happen in the next 45 days? I'm not betting on it. On the specific issue of surveying landowners, I plan to follow up on this with the DGIF. In the meantime I have some thoughts on why it didn't happen this time. In short, properly surveying landowners would have made the survey job more complicated and pricey, and would have taken longer. Clearly, the agency wanted to get this done before the General Assembly got rolling. The survey results might not change what happens with those bills, but at least the DGIF has the information. For this survey, mining the DGIF's list of licensed hunters – easily available thanks to the DGIF’s new point-of-sale system – was a quick way to come up with a sample. It was so quick and affordable the department was able to sample a much larger group than necessary to produce valid survey results. (To answer concerns of one caller, who wondered who authorized the DGIF to spend his "license dollars" on the study: The department's board authorized it by a unanimous vote. It was money well spent. Obviously, this is a hugely important, controversial issue and the board members know that they need current data to support whatever direction they might ulitmately take with this. The same caller wanted to know why he wasn't surveyed. He wasn't surveyed for the same reason I've never won the lottery. Bad luck.) As it was, even though landowners are license-exempt when hunting on their own land, plenty have licenses so they can hunt other properties. So a good number of those approximately 2,950 respondents were probably landowners. What was the breakdown? I'd like to know as much as you would. I'll try to find out. Still, I suspect a survey of only landowners, especially those who own good-sized parcels, would produce a higher percentage of those who don't support Sunday hunting. Some of the reasons – in addition to religious convictions, that is -- have been noted in comments to my Monday entry on this topic. For example, it's a day for landowners to get things done on their land, whether it’s work or play. If they are willing to put up with hunting the rest of the week, don’t they deserve a break? Sure, they can make the rules. But, as one friend who opposes Sunday hunting said, it’s one more thing for them to worry about, and they already go above and beyond the call to let us hunt. It also allows non-hunters who may use the property for recreation a chance to get out there without worrying about gunshots. Speaking of gunshot-free Sundays, where are they? I know I hear plenty of gunshots on Sundays when I'm out mountain biking, hiking or moving treestands. And it's not like I'm next to licensed shooting preserves -- where, interestingly enough, Sunday hunting is LEGAL. Of course, because hunters account for roughly 10 percent of the population in Virginia, many of those landowners aren't hunters. Non-hunters seem far less likely than hunters to care whether or not hunting is allowed on Sundays. There's another reason that some landowners, even those who hunt, probably aren't particularly eager to see the law change: access. In fact, I think if you could make a blanket statement about Sunday hunting it would be this: Access is the most important determining factor in a hunter's opinion. The numbers indicate as much. Hunters who are most likely to favor Sunday hunting are those who face the biggest hurdles getting out to the woods -- city dwellers and younger hunters. Consider that 76 percent of those surveyed hunters under 30 support Sunday hunting. Is that because they're not religious? I don't think so. Many of those hunters work full time, so unless they take vacation (which plenty do, of course), they get one day a week to hunt. If they have kids, it gets even tougher thanks to other family commitments. On the other hand, hunters over 60 overwhelmingly oppose Sunday hunting. Certainly, part of it may be their attachment with tradition. The older we get, the less we like change. But it's also a simple matter of practicality. Many older hunters are retired. Under the current system they already have access to hunting six days a week. They don’t crave that seventh day because they don’t need it. Landowners, be they working age or retired, have an access advantage if they reside on their huntable parcels. It's relatively easy for them to slip out for a quick early morning or late afternoon hunt. It takes much more time for a hunter who lives in a town or even the suburbs. Interestingly, one of proposed bills would legalize Sunday hunting only on private land. I don't predict a long life for that bill.
January 10, 2007The Ironman
This 7-point buck was Lazenby's second buck of the year, which started with a crossbow-killed double drop tine monster featured in this blog a couple months ago. Hunting the rugged North Mountain area near Catawba, he also killed a couple of does, and also took a bear with his crossbow. That number of tags he punched isn't what I really noticed. In Lazenby's recent e-mail the Salem resident said he hunted all but six days since the archery opener on the first Saturday in October.. By my rough calculations that's about 70 hunting days. Seventy days! It wasn't like he was out all day every day. He blamed having to work late for keeping him out of the woods on a couple of those days he missed. Even if some of those 70 days were just quick after-work hunts, that's some serious dedication. In fact, maybe dedication is too mild a word for it.
January 8, 2007Sunday hunting surveyThe Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries just released preliminary findings for its recent survey to gauge hunters' opinions about the state's ban on Sunday hunting. The findings were pretty remarkable. Of the respondents, 62 percent favor Sunday hunting, while only 34 percent oppose it. Making the numbers even more significant is the huge shift that's occurred in opinions since 1996, the last time hunters were surveyed on the subject. That survey found that 48 percent of Virginia hunters opposed Sunday hunting while 45 percent supported the idea. You don't have to be a statistics whiz to realize that's a big shift over a short period of time. As DGIF officials have told us about 3,567 times, they don't control the Sunday hunting ban. It's a state law, so changing it requires legislative action. What the game department can do is provide legislators with information that can help them make educated decisions on outdoors-related bills. The department's governor-appointed board members can, however, actively lobby politicians. Several board members are clearly in favor of lifting the ban, at least to some degree. I always enjoy covering the General Assembly and its approach to outdoors bills. It looks like this year could be even more interesting than usual. Because I'm going to be covering this as a news story I can't go public with my opinion on Sunday hunting, but I love to hear other hunters' thoughts on the Sunday hunting ban. January 4, 2007Time offWhen I first asked the folks in our Roanoke.com department about starting a blog, they liked the idea. One of the producers wrote in an e-mail that I'd need to file two or three entries a day. I thought it was a typo. It wasn't. I figured I could do four or five entries a week, and I never promised more. I pretty much kept that pace throughout the fall, but the past few weeks I haven't. It was pretty easy in the fall when I was doing a lot of hunting, and receiving a lot of reports and pictures from other hunters. But toward the end of November everything slowed down. I wasn't getting out much, and apparently no one else was, either. I was out of town on vacation for close to a week. Then came the Christmas and New Year holidays and a few more vacation days. I plan to do better keeping this rolling, with those four or five entries a week. I may not be doing much stuff worth chronicling, but I'll find things to write about. I actually have been hunting a few times the past couple of weeks. Saturday morning I went to my favorite farm in Bedford County and sat in a stand in an area I hadn't hunted all year. It's a big travel route for deer, but Saturday morning it was an even bigger travel route for cattle. With the cows in there crashing around no deer wanted anything to do with the area. I saw only one, skittishly passing by in the distance. I went back with the muzzleloader on New Year's day and decided to still hunt. I thought I might get a shot but mainly I was planning to look for sign in some areas I hadn't hunted in order to get a jump start on scouting for next season. Plus, it was just a good day to put in a few miles of walking. The ground was soggy so I was able to stay pretty quiet. I ended up jumping seven deer -- all antlerless. I could have shot a small doe at about 40 yards but passed up the shot. More importantly, I identified a couple of areas that could be productive for bowhunting next October and November. Deer and turkey seasons end after Saturday. I may try to get out once more before then. If don't, it won't hurt too much.This season has already turned out better than I could have hoped for. November 17, 2006Think he was rutting?
One other thing about Richie's story really caught my attention. He was discussing his dilemma about where to put a stand in a promising area. He ended up improvising, and it paid off. The point is, if you find a good spot, figure out a way to hunt it. Here's what he did, in his words: "I had not hunted this particular part of our farm very hard in the past several years. There have been some nice bucks killed there so I know the travel routes were used by the bucks. I tried to find what I thought would be a good spot during the upcoming rut but I just could not feel good about anything that I had tried. I was looking around several days and I finally happened upon a spot that had several good rubbed trees. I was looking for a place to use my climbing stand among some oaks. I found a great looking spot but I just couldn't find the right tree. What I did find was three oaks that had grown together out of one trunk and that looked very inviting. What I decided to do was pretty unconventional. I went and got a climbing stick and then I used a ratchet strap to secure my climbing platform in place as a fixed position stand. I just would have to raise and lower my seat platform as needed to get into and out of the stand. The climbing stand seat is very adjustable and allows me the comfort to sit all day if I want to." His instincts were right. In addition to the buck, he also killed a nice doe out of the stand. I haven't hunted since Tuesday evening. I hoped to hunt this morning but decided to work to try to free up some time early next week, when the weather looks really good (cold). I am going to get out for a short hunt this afternoon with my friend Freddy McGuire. I've got to watch my kids but Freddy's wife, Amy, has agreed to watch them -- they'll play with their daughter -- so Freddy and I can slip out for a couple of hours. Last time we teamed up I got video of Freddy killing a doe and an eight-pointer. This time he's agreed to carry the camera. However, he's also taking along his muzzleloader. So if we see a good buck but it doesn't look like I'll get a bow shot, he'll try to shoot it with his muzzleloader. It may be an ambitious plan but it's worth a try. November 14, 2006Bad luck bulls
The tags are good for cow elk only, of course, so that's what Greg was looking for this past Saturday when he headed out to the ranch. Here's what he saw when he got to his hunting area. The five big bulls were within easy range of Greg's high-powered rifle. Of course Greg didn't see a single cow all day. Greg's rancher buddy, who gave him the tag, has a bull tag. He could be sitting pretty when his season opens this weekend. |
