Each year when I return from Lewis County, W.Va., and the deer firearms season it is the day before Thanksgiving. I usually head home about midday so it is plenty light enough to see. And, what I usually see are any number of deer, both bucks and does, getting rides in the backs of pickup trucks and headed for butcher shops in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and various other places.
This year, driving the 120 miles of interstate highway from Weston to LaVale, I didn’t see one vehicle with a deer in it.
Accuracy
I plan to do some more bowhunting, especially in Maryland where the season runs through January, but my 90-yard pin is hitting a little high. Any suggestions?
Checking in
After experiencing a few years of Maryland’s check-in system whereby hunters use the computer or the telephone to report their success, I find it a bit cumbersome in West Virginia where I have to physically take the deer to a gas station or a grocery store. The person never looks at the deer anyway.
And, in Weston, you better get to Stout’s Bait Shop before the owner/lady decides it’s time to lock the door or you will be looking for another spot.
On the other hand, had I not been able to check in a couple bucks at Stout’s this year, I wouldn’t have learned about her truck-driving son-in-law and other aspects of her life. You don’t get that on a computer or telephone.
Research
Someone should do a study explaining why the deer hunting hills get steeper with the passage of time. I thought that erosion took eons.
How old?
We have youth hunts when we set aside one day when only people below a certain age can whack a deer. Why not allow hunters above a certain age to go out that day too. How old? I dunno. Maybe anybody above 80. Just thinking that it would be pretty neat if grandpap and grandson could both score. The guy who is the generation in between could do the dragging.
More syrup, please
Question: Does anybody make better pancakes than Little Sandy’s Restaurant in Bruceton Mills, W.Va., where we always stop the day before the West Virginia rifle season?
Answer: No.
Zzzzzzzzz!!
I still don’t sleep very well the night before the opening day of deer season, but the next night I need two alarm clocks.
Meat pole
You know you are in West Virginia when the motel at which you are staying has dead bucks hanging from the lattice work.
Dinner or supper?
You know you are in Buckhannon, W.Va., when you are seated in C.J. Maggie’s and the waiter brings your chicken chimichanga order along with a 20-ounce amber frosty.
Tired
You know it has been a good deer season when it is time to write an outdoors column and you come up with something like this because you are too tired to think straight.
Contact Outdoor Editor Mike Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.
Michael A Sawyers - Outdoors
Good deer season
Interstate deer
- Michael A Sawyers - Outdoors
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Worm dunkers still persona non grata
The studyWhen Bob Hilderbrand was an undergraduate student at Frostburg State University, he had a part-time job electrofishing the upper tributaries of the Savage River and reporting the results to Ray Morgan at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science - Appalachian Lab. -
They have their ways
“Brrrrrrrt! Brrrrrrrt!” my phone vibrates in my shirt pocket. Sometimes when that happens I think that I just burped.“Hello?” -
Md. hunt rules being formed
The Maryland Wildlife & Heritage Service, currently in the early stages of setting hunting regulations for the next two years, envisions no changes to the deer bag limits in Region A (Garrett, Allegany and western Washington counties).On the other hand, substantial changes are being eyeballed for Region B, which is all of Maryland from Clear Spring eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. -
Officers allowed to enter
Is it legal for Maryland Natural Resources Police officers to walk onto your private land?
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Wapiti survey begins
What’s up with this elk stuff anyway?
I’m speaking, of course, about the news announced this past August that some folks are going to look around Garrett and Allegany counties to see if it would be feasible to reintroduce Rocky Mountain elk. Elk used to live here, you know. -
Jury still out on Marcellus shale drilling
Mother Earth, having been around as long as she has, should be given the right to choose elective surgery when needed rather than have exploratory surgery forced upon her.
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Gobblers hunted on Sundays; sun still rises
See. It wasn’t the end of the world.
Well, wait a minute. I better check before I speak too quickly.
Getting on the Internet, hmmmm, hmm! Yahoo now. Hmmmm! Nope, nothing there. Checking Bing. OK. Now MSN. -
2011 was a very (insert adjective) year
As January started, grumbling could be heard on both sides of the North Branch of the Potomac River.
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Progress in eye of beholder
Folks in the state-run hunting and fishing industry are always looking for ways to attract new license buyers.
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W.Va. buck kill up
I have always thought that the wildlife biologists for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources were brave. Each year, about the middle of November, they predict the buck kill for the upcoming firearms season.
- More Michael A Sawyers - Outdoors Headlines
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