Michael A Sawyers - Outdoors
Good deer season
Interstate deer
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
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We hunt, therefore, we are!
It was the day before Thanksgiving.
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Before 11:59, Sept. 1
If you are a Maryland hunter and have not yet applied for a bear permit, I encourage you to do so.
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Learn how to hunt!!
Like many of you, I hope that more and more young people choose to hunt so that this wonderful lifestyle that we enjoy continues through the generations.
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Hookless trout flies are the next big thing
A few weeks ago I wrote a column suggesting that the Maryland Fisheries Service was considering a regulation that would require trout anglers to pick only one type of bait or lure or fly with which to fish.
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Come out and see us
How many of you out there know what the Maryland Wildlife Advisory Commission is?
That’s what I thought. -
Deers & beers? C’mon, man!!
I know. I know.
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$24.50 can buy years of memories
On Monday, I bought my 2010-2011 Maryland hunting license. It is an annual ritual that I very much enjoy.
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Misty taste of moonshine
Visualize the shape of West Virginia.
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What is real story about coyotes, deer
Most interesting, an article in a recent edition of The Journal of Wildlife Management about coyotes and deer.
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She’s a natural shopper
My grandson, who is 5, is teaching me how to fish. I mean it. Brady is a natural fisherman.
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