You know how sex offenders have to register online so they can be kept track of by authorities and the general public? Then in Baltimore and Prince George’s County there are registries for people who use a firearm when committing a crime.
I think that hunters who kill big bucks, say more than 120 Boone and Crockett points in this part of the world, should be required to register online with their state’s natural resources police. Under oath, they would provide the date, time and location of the kill, all of which would be made public. Location, I believe should be in the form of GPS coordinates.
Horizontal, baby
I am no expert when it comes to hunting with a crossbow. However, after hunting deer with such a bow in 2010 and again in 2012 and taking two bucks and one doe, I can tell you this. Crossbows rock.
I probably went overboard. I bought two of them. One is the compound style and one is recurve style. Each one flips an arrow at more than 300 feet per second.
Each of the three deer has not made it out of sight before crashing. I know there are vertical bow shooters who can do that consistently, but I am not one of them, although on these three deer it would have been possible, considering that the farthest shot was 15 yards.
I got two of the deer while hunting from a treestand and one while seated in the PHT (Pappy’s Hunting Tent, so named by grandson Brady James Sawyers).
The recurve is too wide to comfortably use in the PHT.
I’m happy that Maryland offers us the crossbow opportunity. And so is my jerky dehydrator.
In the zone
You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead — your next stop, the Maryland General Assembly.
A few hunting/fishing bills are being introduced in Annapolis. We’ll try to keep you informed either in this column or by way of our Bill Watch feature. If you have thoughts about legislation, let your state senator or delegate know.
The West Virginia legislative session will not begin until mid-February.
Still just one
The last time I checked with George Timko, a biologist with the Maryland Wildlife & Heritage Service, there were no additional deer discovered in Maryland that had contracted chronic wasting disease.
The total of deer testing positive for the fatal ailment remains one.
Early doe hunt
It will be sometime in March before we have a count of how many antlerless deer were killed during West Virginia’s special firearms hunt for baldies in late October.
Anecdotal evidence indicates that the hunt did not draw a lot of participation.
Contact Outdoor Editor Mike Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.
Michael A Sawyers - Outdoors
Related Photos
-
MIKE SAWYERS
Big buck registry needed
- Michael A Sawyers - Outdoors
-
-
Md. has greater natural resources police presence than W.Va., Pa.
Whether you hunt and fish
in West Virginia, Pennsylvania,
Maryland or all three,
I’m sure
you have
heard the
lament that
more natural
resources
police officers
are
needed. -
FEATHERED NIRVANA
They’ve started, you know. The gobbler seasons.
Well, actually, one has, that being Maryland, and two will, one in West Virginia tomorrow and then another in Pennsylvania soon after that. -
Bill that would up cost of Md. hunting license dies
The senators and delegates who converge on Annapolis each January and stay there for three months as they decide how we should live our lives would do well to subscribe to a portion of the Hippocratic Oath taken by physicians.
-
The size of the fight in the dog
At the beginning of my book, “Native Queen,” there is an author’s note in which I point out that I believe, as did my father, that there are three seasons in a year, not four.
-
New W.Va. doe hunt works out
The new, three-day, October, firearms hunt for antlerless deer instituted by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources accounted for a harvest of 3,525 animals, according to Chris Ryan, supervisor of Game Management Services.
-
W.Va. ag chief has coyote plan
The only thing I can figure is that Walt Helmick has been watching the Diamond Jim thing unfold in Maryland during the past several years.
-
SMILE You just might be standing in front of somone’s trail camera
I admit to a little bit of obsessive behavior, though in my mind I am still within the normal range.
-
Bird dog survives killer trap, keeps hunting
Bari is one lucky 33-pound, female French Brittany spaniel, having survived unfazed the jaws of a Conibear trap this past November near Piney Reservoir in eastern Garrett County.
-
These are spring’s true harbingers
Unfortunately, there is a chronological coefficient to energy, otherwise I would be primed and raring to go for the upcoming season of Hillbilly Surf and Turf, the dynamic duo of hunting and fishing, the cool combination of feathers and fins.
-
All points bulletin! Deer antler bill introduced at Md. General Assembly
If House Bill 990 passes the Maryland General Assembly and gets signed by the governor, people who hunt deer in Garrett County will all become trophy hunters.
- More Michael A Sawyers - Outdoors Headlines
-
