New regulations reshape the way we hunt and fish
By Bill Cochran
ROANOKE.COM COLUMNIST
Dozens of new regulations that affect the way we hunt, fish and trap have been approved by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Some already have become law, while most will go into effect July 1.
Since the new regulations can be found on the DGIF website, there is little need for me to post them one by one. Rather, I will make comments on what is behind some of the regulations and why other proposals failed. I will address hunting and trapping regulations this week and fishing and nongame next week:
SATURDAY OPENINGS: Hunting seasons in Virginia traditionally have opened on Mondays. That’s been good for the guy who is retired or who can make his own schedule, but it has been tough on school kids, blue collar workers and people who have no choice but to be in the office Monday mornings.
A few years ago, deer seasons were switched to begin on Saturdays, and the world didn’t end. So, beginning next season, DGIF has voted to do the same for turkey, grouse, quail and rabbit seasons. It is a good move in that we must do everything we can to attract young people to our sport.
In its most recent survey, DGIF found that 50 percent of the fall turkey hunters wanted a Saturday opening. Nearly 30 percent opted to continue the Monday beginnings. The rest didn’t care. The Saturday opening is expected to boost the turkey kill, but not enough to impact the population.
GROUSE IDEA DIDN’T FLY: Some hunters want the grouse season to extend through the end of February, rather than conclude the second Saturday of February, as it now does. But they didn’t want it badly enough to work for it. Very few grouse hunters supported the change during public hearings or via website comment.
Grouse hunter Charles Yates, a DGIF board member from far southwest Virginia, proposed extending the season by two weeks, making it more attuned to the seasons of surrounding states. On his side was fresh research that said hunting had little impact on grouse numbers, even though the population has been declining by nearly 3-percent annual due to habitat loss.
Biologists said that while the current season doesn’t harm the grouse population they couldn’t rule out that an extra two weeks would have an impact. So the proposal failed.
“Obviously, this is not a good time to extend the grouse season,” said Yates, who backed off from his recommendation and challenged the DGIF to look for way to “return this bird.”
TAKE YOUR BUTCHERING TOOLS: No longer can you shove the carcasses of the deer or elk you killed into the back of your pickup or SUV and head back to Virginia with it if you killed the animal in a state or Canadian province in which Chronic Wasting Disease has been found. A new rule, which became law Nov. 1, is designed to help keep dreaded CWD out of Virginia by leaving behind parts of deer that may spread the disease.
At first glance, I didn’t think this would have much impact on sportsmen living in Virginia, except those who might travel West to hunt elk. But then I remembered that West Virginia is a CWD state. There are a bunch of Virginia hunters who travel to the Mountain State to take advantage of it swelling deer herd.
So how do you get your deer back across the border under the new regulation? You can quarter it or cut it into other portions as long as there is no spinal column or skull attached. You can bring back hides if there is no skull attached. You can return with skull plates with antlers attached as long as there is no meat attached to the skull. Antlers can be transported as long as they are free of meat or tissue.
In addition to these rules, you much affix a label telling where the animal was killed and who owns it.
BEAR FACTS: Bear hunters got an extra two weeks added to their training season. Beginning next year, the season will open the second Saturday in August rather than the last.
Leaders of the Virginia Bear Hunters Association attended the DGIF meeting to say they were happy with the new dates, but back home some of the rank-and-file were peeved that they didn’t get the entire month of August for chasing.
In reality, the extra two weeks is the result of association leaders hammering out a deal with U.S. Forest Service officials.
The deal is this: Bear hunters will get a longer chase season, but if they mess up they will lose the extra days and possibly more. That was a promise from John Bellemore, the environmental leader of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. Bellemore says too much damage, in the form of broken gates and other acts of vandalism, occurs during the chase season.
BAITING: I have a difficult time understanding hunters who claim that planting food plots is no different from baiting. I’m guessing that most who say so aren’t purists, but are people who want to bait.
Few DGIF proposals brought more comment than one that would make it illegal to feed deer Sept. 1 through the first Saturday in January. Surprisingly, there appeared to be more who opposed it than supported it. Even so, it passed.
Some sportsmen said the regulation fell short. It should have advocated no feeding year-round and should have included turkeys. Bob Duncan, chief of the wildlife division, said DGIF biologists reserve the right to come back with additional feeding restrictions in the future.
There simply are more negatives to feeding deer than there are positives.
QUALITY DEER: Greg Patton is a relatively young man, but he wonders how old he will be when the DGIF fully advocates quality deer management, something called QDM.
Patton is part of the Shenandoah Valley Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association who for several years has advocated regulations that would require hunters to pass up small bucks in order to let them grow into trophies. DGIF has been slow to embrace the idea because of concern over how it would impact hunters who just want to kill a deer—period.
So the DGIF enacted a compromise with a regulation that says next year in Shenandoah County you can take one buck of any size, but the second one must have a minimum of four points on one side.
The regulation won’t have much impact, because it will apply to a single county, and most hunters have a hard time killing one buck, much less two. Still, Patton and other QDM supporters were grateful.
“This is a great stepping stone,” he said. “We aren’t where we want to be, but we are getting there.”
Many hunters are practicing QDM on a volunteer basis across the state, and it is having an impact.
THE TRAP: Can you dog-proof a trap? Kirby Burch doesn’t think so. “If a dog wants to get at bait, he is going to find a way,” he said.
William Ernstes disagrees. “I know of no dog—I am a beagle owner—who can get into this.”
The debate was over a DGIF regulation, generally supported by trappers and opposed by dog owners, that would allow the maximum jaw spread for a baited body gripping trap set above ground to go form 5 to 6.5 inches. The regulation was approved; however, such a trap only can be used on private land and it must be in a dog proof box.
The bigger trap will make trappers more selective and efficient, said Brian Nelson, president of the Virginia Trappers Association. There have been no problems of such traps catching dogs in other states, he said.
The Virginia Hunting Dog Owners’ Association was on record in opposition to the regulations, saying there is no such thing as a dog-proof box
Monday, December 05, 2005
Deer hunting: What's in and what's out
Deer hunting: What's in and what's out
By Bill Cochran
ROANOKE.COM COLUMNIST
Deer hunting has changed. So have deer. And deer hunters.
I know that for a fact, because I have covered all three as a writer for 40 years and have been a hunter longer than that. Here’s what’s in and what’s out:
WHAT’S IN: Women hunters. They have been gaining in number. I believe that women are vital to the future wellbeing and growth of hunting and shooting sports. The growth and acceptance of hunting is in the hands of women. Back in the Pleistocene Era of the 20th century, when I covered opening day, I hesitated interviewing the rare woman who brought a deer to be checked. I knew it could be a great story, but chances were her husband had killed it and she was checking it in to save his deer tag for later. Even if that weren’t the case, people thought it to be true.
WHAT’S OUT: The concept that deer hunting is a high-testosterone, masculine-only affair and that women have no place in the deer woods. In the November issue of Buckmaster Whitetail Magazine, which is about as hardcore deer hunting as you can get, there is an article titled “Hunting With Your Better Half.” I know the joy of that firsthand. Last year my wife, Katherine, hunted for the first time and killed a buck with a muzzleloader.
WHAT’S IN: Treestands. Most bowhunters use one -- and so do many gun hunters. When I got started, no one even thought about hunting from an elevated stand.
WHAT’S OUT: Deer drives in the western part of the state. I remember in places like Bath County it was common to hear the shouts, whistles and sometimes shots of hunters attempting to drive deer to standers placed along roadsides.
WHAT’S IN: A business-like approach to deer hunting, where a hunter puts in a couple morning hours in his treestand then departs for work or leaves work early for a couple hours of hunting before dark. The hunter eats dinner at home, sleeps in his own bed and showers regularly.
WHAT’S OUT: Deer camps, where friends gathered in a masculine world filled with smoke haze, belches, crude jokes, greasy food, the smell of onions, unwashed dishes, no shaving or bath taking; where cards were played, and fewer people got up to hunt every morning, and most everyone managed to make it home for Thanksgiving Day.
WHAT’S IN: Quality deer management, or QDM. Growing numbers of hunters are passing up shots at small bucks with the idea that if you let them go they will grow. Game regulations are slow to keep pace with this movement, but, in time, regulations mandating the protection of young bucks will be common. Starting next season, Shenandoah County will have a modest QDM regulation.
WHAT’S OUT: Killing just any spike, or three or four point, or gnarly six-pointer that happens to come along unless you are a kid or a first-time hunter. If you didn’t see a trophy buck this season, maybe it is because it got shot as a spike.
WHAT’S IN: Killing does. This is part of QDM. The feeling is, if you want a deer for your freezer your best bet is a doe. Some hunt clubs now require that you kill a doe before you have the right to kill a buck. If you want big bucks you have to keep the doe herd in check. Venison comes before vanity.
WHAT’S OUT: The idea that if you kill does you will harm the deer herd. I recall years ago when hunting with a certain club for the first time, I was told that if I killed a doe I would promptly be ushered off the property and never invited back. Maybe worse.
WHAT’S IN: Checking the deer you kill by telephone. From what I can tell, this trend, which was started last season, has been growing rapidly in popularity this year. About 45 percent of the deer checked last season were phoned in. I’m guessing that will hit the 60 percent this time and more than 80 percent in the future.
WHAT’S OUT: Taking your buck to a country store or fishing and hunting shop to check it, where you shoot the breeze and buy a hotdog and drink and make the proprietor’s cash register ring.
WHAT’S IN: Hunting on private land. Today, you are much more likely to see a nice buck flashing its white tail around the corner of a barn than you are to see one in the wilderness.
WHAT’S OUT: Hunting on the national forest. When I was young, national forest land was the place to hunt, because that’s where the deer were thanks to stocking programs. I killed my first deer with a bow in the Patterson Creek area of the Jefferson National Forest. Places like Patterson Creek, Potts Mountain, Tub Run, Barbours Creek, Jennings Creek are names that come to mind where hunters in the Roanoke area and beyond flocked to hunt. I traveled across Potts Mountain this week and found hunting activity to be so sparse that it was difficult to tell the firearm’s deer season is in progress.
WHAT’S IN: The concept that killing a deer is no big deal, unless you kill one massive enough to take to a trophy show. After all, there is no shortage of deer and the season goes on forever, so why wouldn’t you get one?
WHAT’S OUT: Asking everybody you know, “Get a buck?” I can remember when people would run me down in the grocery store, or church or at the PTA to ask that question. When I said “No,” it reflected on my manhood, and I was fearful that I might lose my job as outdoor editor at the newspaper. Now you could wear antlers around your neck and no one would ask, “Get a buck?”
WHAT’S IN: The rut. Well, the rut, which is the time of sexual activity for deer, has been around since the creation of deer; however, most hunters didn’t pay much attention to it until recent years. Now outdoor magazines, September through January, are jammed with articles on the pre-rut, the rut, the post-rut, the second rut. Skillful sportsmen plan their hunts around the rut.
WHAT’S OUT: Guys like me who didn’t learn about the rut until after several years of hunting. In the old days, it was something people just didn’t know about, or if they did, didn’t talk about. It was an older hunter who told me about how to hunt the rut, and I was amazed, like a kid being told for the first time where babies come from.
WHAT’S IN: Hunters transporting their deer tastefully in SUVs and in the bed of pickup trucks with the tailgate closed.
WHAT’S OUT: Tying dead deer to the roof or hood or fender of a car, their belly split, their tongue hanging out, blood dripping for everyone to see, including those who don’t want to see it. Gone is the brown river of deer rolling down 220, 460, 311, soft fur strapped to cold steel in grotesque positions of death.
WHAT’S IN: A deer season with hunting opportunities from early October to early January, with an abundance of deer and uncrowded hunting conditions.
WHAT’S OUT: The big opening day, when deer hunting was squeezed into a single week, then two weeks, and the result was traffic jams, closed schools, missed work, stores and campgrounds full of hunters, many from the other side of the state where there were no deer, and death. Not just the death of deer but the death of hunters who were part of this brief, crowded attraction.
WHAT’S IN: A deer heard that provides hunting in every county of Virginia and tallies an annual kill that averages more than 200,000. Bedford County was the top deer county last year, accounting for a kill of 7,748.
WHAT’S OUT: Time was, if you saw a deer in Bedford County it was so rare that you would call the newspaper. The county didn’t establish a hunting season until 1962. Some 26 deer were reported killed that season. The take had increased to 136 by 1970 and 497 in 1975.
WHAT’S IN: Innovate, but ancient, ways to hunt deer. We have gone from bow, to compound bow, to side-lock muzzleloaders, to inline muzzleloaders, to crossbows. What next? Blowguns? Don’t laugh. The Pennsylvania Game Commission is drafting proposed regulations to allow hunters to use the atlatl, a small wooden device that propels a 6-foot dart as fast as 80 mph.
WHAT’S OUT: The .30-30 and .35.
WHAT’S IN: Non-detachable big game tags. You simply notch the appropriate tag on your big game license when you kill a deer. Just hope your hands aren’t gloved, cold or bloody. If you are a neat-freak, carry a pair of scissors.
WHAT’S OUT: The old-style detachable big game tag, which you had to remove and attach to your kill before moving it. The tag had a way of dragging off, which meant it was gone when you reached the check station where you were required to present it. Some hunters would put the tag into the ear of their deer hoping it would survive the trip to the check station.
WHAT’S IN: Blaze orange. It not only is prudent to wear it, but is required by the law for the general firearm’s season. At first, I was not happy to be forced to become the Great Pumpkin, but I soon had to admit that it made hunting safer and should be mandatory for people too stupid to wear it on their own.
WHAT’S OUT: Black, as in the bold headlines that once occurred, like “TWO HUNTERS KILLED IN CRAIG COUNTY.” Hunting has become safer, thanks to blaze orange and hunter education, along with longer seasons and more deer which spread hunters out over the calendar and over the terrain. Nowadays, falls from treestands are a major factor in deer hunting accidents. If we just could do something about gravity.
WHAT’S IN: Chronic Wasting Disease or CWD, a deadly brain and nervous system ailment found in deer and elk that is knocking on the door of Virginia.
WHAT’S OUT: The smug feeling that the deer herd has grown to the point that it is abundant and invulnerable, and we always will have it. The major topic in West Virginia last week, when the deer season opened, was the scarcity of deer compared to recent years.
WHAT’S IN: Better quality hunters who frown on rogue hunters.
WHAT’S OUT: Spotlighting, road hunting, exceeding the limit, and hunting out of season. Maybe education or sportsmanship or hotlines or peer pressure have weeded many of the slobs from the ranks of hunting. Or maybe it is a matter that the deer season is so long and the limit so generous that you no longer need to cheat.
WHAT’S IN: A deer season without a picture of a dead deer in the newspaper, at least the larger newspapers. If you pine for deer pictures, go to the excellent Web site compiled by Mark Taylor, outdoor editor of the Roanoke Times. The address is http://buckshots.buzznet.com. If dead deer pictures turn you off, no one is forcing you to go there.
WHAT’S OUT: When I became outdoor editor of the Roanoke Times in the 1960s, I inherited a tradition of hunters parking in front of the newspaper office with deer tied to their cars in order to have a picture taken and published in the paper. Many of the pictures were published, and they captured the City Hall building in the background along with men in business suits walking along the sidewalk, not to mention blood running down the hood of vehicles. I put a stop to this, and it wasn’t easy. I didn’t give up deer pictures, but I insisted on ones that were taken in their natural element.
WHAT’S IN: A public acceptance that deer hunting is necessary to keep the herd healthy and in line with the carrying capacity of the land. The prevailing thought, even among non-hunters and people opposed to hunting, is that it is better to let hunters kill deer than to scrape them out of the grill of your SUV.
WHAT’S OUT: Those angry letters and calls I once received from anti-hunters when I covered the deer season for the Roanoke Times.
By Bill Cochran
ROANOKE.COM COLUMNIST
Deer hunting has changed. So have deer. And deer hunters.
I know that for a fact, because I have covered all three as a writer for 40 years and have been a hunter longer than that. Here’s what’s in and what’s out:
WHAT’S IN: Women hunters. They have been gaining in number. I believe that women are vital to the future wellbeing and growth of hunting and shooting sports. The growth and acceptance of hunting is in the hands of women. Back in the Pleistocene Era of the 20th century, when I covered opening day, I hesitated interviewing the rare woman who brought a deer to be checked. I knew it could be a great story, but chances were her husband had killed it and she was checking it in to save his deer tag for later. Even if that weren’t the case, people thought it to be true.
WHAT’S OUT: The concept that deer hunting is a high-testosterone, masculine-only affair and that women have no place in the deer woods. In the November issue of Buckmaster Whitetail Magazine, which is about as hardcore deer hunting as you can get, there is an article titled “Hunting With Your Better Half.” I know the joy of that firsthand. Last year my wife, Katherine, hunted for the first time and killed a buck with a muzzleloader.
WHAT’S IN: Treestands. Most bowhunters use one -- and so do many gun hunters. When I got started, no one even thought about hunting from an elevated stand.
WHAT’S OUT: Deer drives in the western part of the state. I remember in places like Bath County it was common to hear the shouts, whistles and sometimes shots of hunters attempting to drive deer to standers placed along roadsides.
WHAT’S IN: A business-like approach to deer hunting, where a hunter puts in a couple morning hours in his treestand then departs for work or leaves work early for a couple hours of hunting before dark. The hunter eats dinner at home, sleeps in his own bed and showers regularly.
WHAT’S OUT: Deer camps, where friends gathered in a masculine world filled with smoke haze, belches, crude jokes, greasy food, the smell of onions, unwashed dishes, no shaving or bath taking; where cards were played, and fewer people got up to hunt every morning, and most everyone managed to make it home for Thanksgiving Day.
WHAT’S IN: Quality deer management, or QDM. Growing numbers of hunters are passing up shots at small bucks with the idea that if you let them go they will grow. Game regulations are slow to keep pace with this movement, but, in time, regulations mandating the protection of young bucks will be common. Starting next season, Shenandoah County will have a modest QDM regulation.
WHAT’S OUT: Killing just any spike, or three or four point, or gnarly six-pointer that happens to come along unless you are a kid or a first-time hunter. If you didn’t see a trophy buck this season, maybe it is because it got shot as a spike.
WHAT’S IN: Killing does. This is part of QDM. The feeling is, if you want a deer for your freezer your best bet is a doe. Some hunt clubs now require that you kill a doe before you have the right to kill a buck. If you want big bucks you have to keep the doe herd in check. Venison comes before vanity.
WHAT’S OUT: The idea that if you kill does you will harm the deer herd. I recall years ago when hunting with a certain club for the first time, I was told that if I killed a doe I would promptly be ushered off the property and never invited back. Maybe worse.
WHAT’S IN: Checking the deer you kill by telephone. From what I can tell, this trend, which was started last season, has been growing rapidly in popularity this year. About 45 percent of the deer checked last season were phoned in. I’m guessing that will hit the 60 percent this time and more than 80 percent in the future.
WHAT’S OUT: Taking your buck to a country store or fishing and hunting shop to check it, where you shoot the breeze and buy a hotdog and drink and make the proprietor’s cash register ring.
WHAT’S IN: Hunting on private land. Today, you are much more likely to see a nice buck flashing its white tail around the corner of a barn than you are to see one in the wilderness.
WHAT’S OUT: Hunting on the national forest. When I was young, national forest land was the place to hunt, because that’s where the deer were thanks to stocking programs. I killed my first deer with a bow in the Patterson Creek area of the Jefferson National Forest. Places like Patterson Creek, Potts Mountain, Tub Run, Barbours Creek, Jennings Creek are names that come to mind where hunters in the Roanoke area and beyond flocked to hunt. I traveled across Potts Mountain this week and found hunting activity to be so sparse that it was difficult to tell the firearm’s deer season is in progress.
WHAT’S IN: The concept that killing a deer is no big deal, unless you kill one massive enough to take to a trophy show. After all, there is no shortage of deer and the season goes on forever, so why wouldn’t you get one?
WHAT’S OUT: Asking everybody you know, “Get a buck?” I can remember when people would run me down in the grocery store, or church or at the PTA to ask that question. When I said “No,” it reflected on my manhood, and I was fearful that I might lose my job as outdoor editor at the newspaper. Now you could wear antlers around your neck and no one would ask, “Get a buck?”
WHAT’S IN: The rut. Well, the rut, which is the time of sexual activity for deer, has been around since the creation of deer; however, most hunters didn’t pay much attention to it until recent years. Now outdoor magazines, September through January, are jammed with articles on the pre-rut, the rut, the post-rut, the second rut. Skillful sportsmen plan their hunts around the rut.
WHAT’S OUT: Guys like me who didn’t learn about the rut until after several years of hunting. In the old days, it was something people just didn’t know about, or if they did, didn’t talk about. It was an older hunter who told me about how to hunt the rut, and I was amazed, like a kid being told for the first time where babies come from.
WHAT’S IN: Hunters transporting their deer tastefully in SUVs and in the bed of pickup trucks with the tailgate closed.
WHAT’S OUT: Tying dead deer to the roof or hood or fender of a car, their belly split, their tongue hanging out, blood dripping for everyone to see, including those who don’t want to see it. Gone is the brown river of deer rolling down 220, 460, 311, soft fur strapped to cold steel in grotesque positions of death.
WHAT’S IN: A deer season with hunting opportunities from early October to early January, with an abundance of deer and uncrowded hunting conditions.
WHAT’S OUT: The big opening day, when deer hunting was squeezed into a single week, then two weeks, and the result was traffic jams, closed schools, missed work, stores and campgrounds full of hunters, many from the other side of the state where there were no deer, and death. Not just the death of deer but the death of hunters who were part of this brief, crowded attraction.
WHAT’S IN: A deer heard that provides hunting in every county of Virginia and tallies an annual kill that averages more than 200,000. Bedford County was the top deer county last year, accounting for a kill of 7,748.
WHAT’S OUT: Time was, if you saw a deer in Bedford County it was so rare that you would call the newspaper. The county didn’t establish a hunting season until 1962. Some 26 deer were reported killed that season. The take had increased to 136 by 1970 and 497 in 1975.
WHAT’S IN: Innovate, but ancient, ways to hunt deer. We have gone from bow, to compound bow, to side-lock muzzleloaders, to inline muzzleloaders, to crossbows. What next? Blowguns? Don’t laugh. The Pennsylvania Game Commission is drafting proposed regulations to allow hunters to use the atlatl, a small wooden device that propels a 6-foot dart as fast as 80 mph.
WHAT’S OUT: The .30-30 and .35.
WHAT’S IN: Non-detachable big game tags. You simply notch the appropriate tag on your big game license when you kill a deer. Just hope your hands aren’t gloved, cold or bloody. If you are a neat-freak, carry a pair of scissors.
WHAT’S OUT: The old-style detachable big game tag, which you had to remove and attach to your kill before moving it. The tag had a way of dragging off, which meant it was gone when you reached the check station where you were required to present it. Some hunters would put the tag into the ear of their deer hoping it would survive the trip to the check station.
WHAT’S IN: Blaze orange. It not only is prudent to wear it, but is required by the law for the general firearm’s season. At first, I was not happy to be forced to become the Great Pumpkin, but I soon had to admit that it made hunting safer and should be mandatory for people too stupid to wear it on their own.
WHAT’S OUT: Black, as in the bold headlines that once occurred, like “TWO HUNTERS KILLED IN CRAIG COUNTY.” Hunting has become safer, thanks to blaze orange and hunter education, along with longer seasons and more deer which spread hunters out over the calendar and over the terrain. Nowadays, falls from treestands are a major factor in deer hunting accidents. If we just could do something about gravity.
WHAT’S IN: Chronic Wasting Disease or CWD, a deadly brain and nervous system ailment found in deer and elk that is knocking on the door of Virginia.
WHAT’S OUT: The smug feeling that the deer herd has grown to the point that it is abundant and invulnerable, and we always will have it. The major topic in West Virginia last week, when the deer season opened, was the scarcity of deer compared to recent years.
WHAT’S IN: Better quality hunters who frown on rogue hunters.
WHAT’S OUT: Spotlighting, road hunting, exceeding the limit, and hunting out of season. Maybe education or sportsmanship or hotlines or peer pressure have weeded many of the slobs from the ranks of hunting. Or maybe it is a matter that the deer season is so long and the limit so generous that you no longer need to cheat.
WHAT’S IN: A deer season without a picture of a dead deer in the newspaper, at least the larger newspapers. If you pine for deer pictures, go to the excellent Web site compiled by Mark Taylor, outdoor editor of the Roanoke Times. The address is http://buckshots.buzznet.com. If dead deer pictures turn you off, no one is forcing you to go there.
WHAT’S OUT: When I became outdoor editor of the Roanoke Times in the 1960s, I inherited a tradition of hunters parking in front of the newspaper office with deer tied to their cars in order to have a picture taken and published in the paper. Many of the pictures were published, and they captured the City Hall building in the background along with men in business suits walking along the sidewalk, not to mention blood running down the hood of vehicles. I put a stop to this, and it wasn’t easy. I didn’t give up deer pictures, but I insisted on ones that were taken in their natural element.
WHAT’S IN: A public acceptance that deer hunting is necessary to keep the herd healthy and in line with the carrying capacity of the land. The prevailing thought, even among non-hunters and people opposed to hunting, is that it is better to let hunters kill deer than to scrape them out of the grill of your SUV.
WHAT’S OUT: Those angry letters and calls I once received from anti-hunters when I covered the deer season for the Roanoke Times.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Columbus Day weekend
Friday, October 07, 2005
Monday, August 29, 2005
August Work trip
The August work trip was a major success, at least in terms of attendance, fine meals, and alcohol consumed, if not actual work performed.
Here are some pictures of the crew. click on them to view a larger version.
Here are some pictures of the crew. click on them to view a larger version.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Robert Ange Membership Application
Virginia Archery and Rifle Club
Liberty Furness Virginia
August 22, 2005
To: VARC membership
Attention: Donald Rembert
Subject: Membership Nomination for Robert Ange
Don, I am hear by submitting the name of Robert Ange for membership in the Virginia Archery and Rifle club.
Two years ago, Robert retired as a paramedic from the Fairfax County Fire Department, and has since taken up hunting with a passion. As a hunter he is now expressing a strong interest in club membership.
Robert Ange has visited with me to the club many times over the last 15.years, shooting and working around the cabin and working at improving the food resources.
He hunted with me during the spring turkey season.
He attended the spring work trip and was well liked by the membership.
I have known with Robert since high school and can vouch for his integrity.
Sincerely,
David W. Shaw
Vice President VARC
Liberty Furness Virginia
August 22, 2005
To: VARC membership
Attention: Donald Rembert
Subject: Membership Nomination for Robert Ange
Don, I am hear by submitting the name of Robert Ange for membership in the Virginia Archery and Rifle club.
Two years ago, Robert retired as a paramedic from the Fairfax County Fire Department, and has since taken up hunting with a passion. As a hunter he is now expressing a strong interest in club membership.
Robert Ange has visited with me to the club many times over the last 15.years, shooting and working around the cabin and working at improving the food resources.
He hunted with me during the spring turkey season.
He attended the spring work trip and was well liked by the membership.
I have known with Robert since high school and can vouch for his integrity.
Sincerely,
David W. Shaw
Vice President VARC
Monday, August 22, 2005
A message from the president
Gang,
On my calendar I find this coming Saturday, 27AUG05, your requested Summer VARC Workday.
I hope to arrive about 0900 Sat morning [Randy may make it up to camp Friday night]. I'll bring a few sandwich fixings for lunch on Saturday. If we work hard maybe Sat evening we can encourage Randy to grill a pork loin, and I'll again bring some sweet potatoes for baking, rolls, butter, etc.. . . if someone can bring the 'green beans' or corn for me to fix, it would be appreciated. Sunday morning you may have to suffer again, but I'll bring eggs, sausage, scrapple, milk, etc. and maybe get Randy to make some of that good sausage gravy, while I cook up enough scrambled eggs and hot biscuits for all those workers, . . . remember no work Saturday, no eat. Ha!
Looking forward to seeing each of you and another fun weekend at VARC.
Thanks,
John Uecke
Please telephone others that I don't have their e-mail or just forward this msg on if you do have their e-mail address and please send (cc) their address to me.
On my calendar I find this coming Saturday, 27AUG05, your requested Summer VARC Workday.
I hope to arrive about 0900 Sat morning [Randy may make it up to camp Friday night]. I'll bring a few sandwich fixings for lunch on Saturday. If we work hard maybe Sat evening we can encourage Randy to grill a pork loin, and I'll again bring some sweet potatoes for baking, rolls, butter, etc.. . . if someone can bring the 'green beans' or corn for me to fix, it would be appreciated. Sunday morning you may have to suffer again, but I'll bring eggs, sausage, scrapple, milk, etc. and maybe get Randy to make some of that good sausage gravy, while I cook up enough scrambled eggs and hot biscuits for all those workers, . . . remember no work Saturday, no eat. Ha!
Looking forward to seeing each of you and another fun weekend at VARC.
Thanks,
John Uecke
Please telephone others that I don't have their e-mail or just forward this msg on if you do have their e-mail address and please send (cc) their address to me.
Monday, August 15, 2005
Work Party August 27, 2005
The next work party for the club is Saturday August 27th.
Projects include completion of upgraded water system and the construction of the storage shed on the side of the main building.
Other possible projects include rebuilding of the gun range bridge.
Projects include completion of upgraded water system and the construction of the storage shed on the side of the main building.
Other possible projects include rebuilding of the gun range bridge.
Gun Show in Woodstock Oct. 8-9
Woodstock, VA Gun Show Oct. 8-9, 2005
Show Location: National Guard Armory
Directions: From I-81 North, take Exit 283 (towards Woodstock), Right on VA-42 (Reservoir Road). Right on Ox Road. Right on Hoover Road.
From I-81 South, take Exit 283 (towards Woodstock), Left on VA-42 (Reservoir Road). Right on Ox Road. Right on Hoover Road.
2nd Building on Left.
451 Hoover Road
150 six-foot tables abailable at $50 each.
Gun Show Hours:
Sat. 9am - 5pm - Sun. 9am - 4pm
When on Friday, Setup: Until 5pm
http://www.olddominionshows.com/gunshowsvirginia.asp?Month=10&Year=2005#Woodstock
Show Location: National Guard Armory
Directions: From I-81 North, take Exit 283 (towards Woodstock), Right on VA-42 (Reservoir Road). Right on Ox Road. Right on Hoover Road.
From I-81 South, take Exit 283 (towards Woodstock), Left on VA-42 (Reservoir Road). Right on Ox Road. Right on Hoover Road.
2nd Building on Left.
451 Hoover Road
150 six-foot tables abailable at $50 each.
Gun Show Hours:
Sat. 9am - 5pm - Sun. 9am - 4pm
When on Friday, Setup: Until 5pm
http://www.olddominionshows.com/gunshowsvirginia.asp?Month=10&Year=2005#Woodstock
Friday, August 12, 2005
Hello and welcome to the blog!
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