Muzzleloading season appears to have fewer bucks – MariettaTimes.com
January 11, 2010
By Brad Bauer, bbauer@mariettatimes.comPOSTED: January 11, 2010 “Muzzleloading season appears to have fewer bucks” For the past several weeks Joseph Hendershot had been seeing a large buck roaming around his Stanleyville-area home, but the buck disappeared – sort of.Hendershot, 48, hoped to take aim at the impressive 10-point buck during the state's muzzleloader deer season, which opened Saturday and continues through Tuesday.”I froze all day Saturday and most of Sunday looking for him,” he said. “I saw lots of deer, but nothing with horns.”Hendershot said he began to theorize his buck may have been killed by a bowhunter or moved to another area. But on his way out of the woods for lunch on Sunday, Hendershot said he found a clue to the mystery.”I looked down and found a shed,” he said. “It looked like half of the rack from my buck… That buck probably walked past me 10 times and I didn't know it because he's already dropped his horns.”Nearly all bucks shed their antlers each winter, but the shed generally doesn't occur until late January or later. Wildlife officials said the difference this year is likely related to a food shortage.Many parts of the region encountered the worst crop of nuts and other wildlife foods in the last 40 years this past fall.Hunters in West Virginia said they noticed fewer bucks during their muzzleloader season last week.”There's a definite biological reason for it,” Chris Ryan, wildlife management supervisor for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources told the Associated Press. “When bucks are malnourished, they tend to shed their antlers earlier than usual.”Hendershot said he planned to go back out to the woods on Sunday in hopes of finding the other half of the shed and maybe another buck that hasn't lost his rack yet.”I'm going to be afraid to shoot a doe, just because I don't want to accidentally shoot that buck,” he said. “If that guy can make it through the rest of the season, he should be a real dandy come fall.”A total of 227,748 deer have been harvested so far this season in Ohio when combining the adult and youth gun seasons, early muzzleloader season, gun weekend, and the first nine weeks of the archery season.That compares to a total of 218,890 killed last year during the same time period. Hunters took a total of 252,017 deer during all of last year's hunting seasons.Prior to the start of the hunting season, Ohio's deer population was estimated at 650,000. The Division of Wildlife expects as many as 210,000 hunters will participate in the muzzleloader season.Ohio's statewide archery season continues through Feb. 7.
Kentucky Afield Outdoors: Cold Weather Now Could Make Better Fishing Later
January 11, 2010
Frankfort, Ky. – Snow is blowing across much of Kentucky right now, and forecasters predict we won’t crest the freezing mark for a while.
While this week’s arctic winds are making life more difficult now, our current conditions should make for better fishing in the future.
“This cold snap will help the float-and-fly pattern for smallmouth bass,” said Gerry Buynak, assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Once water temperatures drop below 50 degrees, shad – especially threadfin shad – get stressed and start to die. The float-and-fly presentation perfectly mimics a shad or other baitfish in distress.”
The float-and-fly technique requires an 8- to 11-foot fishing rod, and a small craft hair jig or duck feather jig suspended 8 to 14 feet beneath a bobber. This presentation is one of the most effective ways to catch winter smallmouth bass since the advent of the vibrating blade bait.
Smallmouth bass in reservoirs learn to suspend near schools of shad so they can pick off those baitfish struggling to survive the winter. With help from waves on the water or manipulation by the angler, the small jig twitches and quivers almost in place, just like those besieged shad.
The cold-water stress on shad will also improve the fishing in the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam at Lake Cumberland.
“All of those distressed shad and alewives coming through the dam and into the Cumberland River will help the trout, walleye and sauger,” Buynak said. “The fishing below Wolf Creek Dam should be really good over the next couple of months.”
Mother Nature thinning the numbers of shad with this recent cold blast holds another benefit for fishing later this year.
When shad numbers contract after a cold winter, the survivors respond with strong reproduction in the spring. “Shad are very fertile,” said Ron Brooks, director of fisheries for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “They respond and reproduce well after a cold winter.”
This means food for predator fish such as bass, walleye, white bass and crappie will be not only be abundant, but also a beneficial size for fish.
“The shad will be smaller because there will be many more young ones,” Brooks said. “They are more vulnerable to being eaten when smaller. The predator fish should be in a better condition.”
Bass, crappie or other predator fish feed with abandon when they sense conditions are in their favor. That is a good situation for an angler. This may be a good year to pare down the size of your lures in general. Try throwing lures that imitate small shad, such as spoons, smaller lipless crankbaits and in-line spinners.
Don’t despair because of the cold. Once nature takes its course, it should make for better fishing later in the year.
Kentucky bear hunters are skunked because of Mother Nature | Los Angeles Times
January 3, 2010
The first black bear hunt held in Kentucky in more than 100 years ended with hunters reporting zero of the animals shot, on account of a major storm that moved through the area and dumped enough snow to make hunting impossible.”Most secondary roads were impassable due to snow or fallen trees,” Steven Dobey, Kentucky Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Resources bear biologist, said in a news release.”Hunters simply couldn't get to the areas they intended to hunt — and likely would have taken bears.”The two-day bear hunting season was scheduled for Dec. 19 and 20 in Harlan, Letcher, and Pike counties in southeastern Kentucky.Black bears were nearly absent from Kentucky for about 150 years after intensive logging and unregulated hunting diminished their habitat and population. Today, however, black bears are reportedly more abundant than at any point since then.“Bears are now well established in eastern Kentucky and research shows that population growth has risen steadily over the last 20 years,” said Dobey.No word as to if next year's season will be scheduled to take place earlier in the month, though the quota of 10 male or five female bears does come into play on the timing. Ongoing tracking of radio-collared bears shows that most females enter dens during the first week in December, thus concentrating hunting efforts on male bears.– Kelly Burgess
via Kentucky bear hunters are skunked because of Mother Nature | Outposts | Los Angeles Times.
Ohio Deer Hunters Prepare for Statewide Muzzleloader Season, January 9-12
January 3, 2010
COLUMBUS, OH – Ohio's popular muzzleloader deer season is set to open statewide January 9-12 according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife. Last year, hunters checked 20,659 white-tailed deer during the statewide hunt.
A total of 227,748 deer have been harvested so far this season when combining the adult and youth gun seasons, early muzzleloader season, gun weekend, and the first nine weeks of the archery season. That compares to a total of 218,890 killed last year during the same time period. Hunters took a total of 252,017 deer during all of last year's hunting seasons.
Prior to the start of the hunting season, Ohio's deer population was estimated at 650,000. The Division of Wildlife expects as many as 210,000 hunters will hunt deer during the muzzleloader season.
Ohio deer hunters must possess the proper permits. Regardless of zone, method of taking or season, hunters may take only one antlered deer during the 2009-2010 deer hunting season.
Legal hunting hours during the statewide muzzleloader deer season are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset. Deer must be checked by 8 p.m. on the day after harvest, except those killed on January 12, which must be brought to a deer check station by 8 p.m. that day.
Ohio's small game, furbearer and waterfowl seasons also will be open during the muzzleloader season. During those overlapping four days, small game hunters and deer hunters must visibly wear a coat, jacket, vest or coveralls that are either solid hunter orange or camouflage hunter orange in color.
Hunters have been encouraged to kill more does this season and donate extra venison to organizations assisting Ohioans in need. The division is collaborating with Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry to help pay for the processing of donated venison. Hunters who give their deer to a food bank are not required to pay the processing cost as long as the deer are taken to a participating processor and funding for the effort lasts. Counties being served by this program can be found online at www.fhfh.org.
The white-tailed deer is the most popular game animal in Ohio, frequently pursued by generations of hunters. Ohio ranks 6th nationally in annual hunting-related sales and 4th in the number of jobs associated with the hunting-related industry. Each year, hunting has a $1.5 billion economic impact in Ohio. Hunting related retail sales in Ohio total more than $700 million.
Additional hunting regulations and maps of deer zones are contained in the 2009-2010 Ohio Hunting Regulations. This free publication is available where hunting licenses are sold and from the Division of Wildlife by calling 1-800-WILDLIFE or on the Internet at wildohio.com.
The 2009-2010 licenses will not be printed on weatherproof paper. Sportsmen and women should protect their licenses and permits from the elements by carrying them in a protective pouch or wallet.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources ensures a balance between wise use and protection of our natural resources for the benefit of all. Visit the ODNR web site at www.ohiodnr.com.
via ODNR News Releases.
Indiana needs to fix seasons for hunters and deer alike | PHIL POTTER COLUMN» Evansville Courier & Press
January 3, 2010
Last year, the political buzzword was “change.” Perhaps “change” in deer regulations and permit fees should be advocated in Indiana this year. Consider tweaking the firearms segments which many hunters consider over-the-top.Hoosier hunters have firearms seasons set for the peak of the rut. The argument is that it brings most bucks out of hiding, allowing anyone wearing an orange hat a crack at them. But is encouraging hunters to target bucks of all sizes the best way to “manage” deer? The correct answer is not in the slightest.Buck hunting success dramatically drops off after the first weekend and continues to slide the rest of the season. Due to hunter numbers and shrinking habitat, someone somewhere will bag a trophy buck the last second of the last hour of the season, but for most, the next 14 days are futile.Resting deer for seven days then opening a 16-day muzzleloader season makes no sense, either. Most hunters still want to kill a big buck and wall hangers didn't grow whopper racks by being stupid. By then, a vast majority of bucks and does have learned to be nocturnal.Not long ago, Indiana had a shorter muzzleloader season from mid-December until the end of the month. This gave the southern end of the state a chance to hunt when there was snow cover and deer had re-grouped. Compare that to now when most guys are swatting mosquitoes while peering through green leaves hoping to spot a deer.Once, Indiana was rated as one of the top states to bag a trophy buck or trophy doe. Now, Indiana ranks below Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio in terms of trophy bucks and total harvest.State deer managers defend long seasons, saying more of the does need to be taken, but not all agree how. They need to examine Illinois management strategy especially, regulating the amount of deer licenses per county in terms of buck and doe permits and start-stop season segments.Illinois has a three-day firearms season in November that doesn't open on a weekend and permits taking a buck and a doe on a single license. They follow up with a four-day firearms season in early December, opening on a week day and allowing license holders to tag a buck and a doe provided they didn't get a buck in November.There is a three-day December muzzleloader season with the same bag limits. Illinois also has two late December-January hunts for does only if the hunter has unfilled tags. Each county sells bonus doe tags prior to the seasons for $5 for residents and $15 for non-residents.Kentucky has tried various changes and for the 2009 modern firearms season extended it to 16 days and immediately took flack from many resident hunters who asked for split seasons and late December doe only seasons. Some Kentucky deer hunters also requested that non-resident hunters pay higher fees.Obviously deer hunters have mixed ideas on what makes a better hunt even if it means restricting the number of licenses being sold. If you think Indiana needs to change deer tactics, contact the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Kentucky Deer Rifle Season 2009
January 3, 2010
By KentuckyHunter
I was really looking forward to the upcoming rifle season this year. I had so little time to hunt throughout the fall and only made it out a handful of days during bow season. Luckily for me I had vacation time scheduled for the first week of Kentucky’s deer rifle season, and I hoped to spend most of that time filling tags. The way the season fell on the calendar this year, I was able to get out on Veteran’s Day before the opener to set up my stand locations. My uncle has a 200 plus acre farm in Robertson County, Kentucky and that was where I was headed to on Wednesday morning.
I spent the first few hours of early morning hunting with my bow. Turkey season was also in, so I made a few calls while sitting in my ground blind. I heard a few birds a long way off, but there was no action in my area. Eager to clear out a few tree stand locations for Saturday, I left the woods around 11. The first order of business was to set up a target and see if my rifle scope was still zeroed. I have an old Remington Model 700 in .270 Win that I have used for the past eight or so seasons. With multiple rust pock marks in the outer barrel surface and scratches in the stock, it is not a looker. I am not sure of its exact provenance, but it definitely shows some abuse of previous owners. What it lacks in beauty it makes up for in accuracy. I have taken many deer past 200 yards with the rifle and I am confident that it will do its job if I can remain steady. It is finicky on what loads it likes though. For the first few years I had it I used inexpensive Federal Classic loads that have since been discontinued. The Classic line featured excellent bullet choices though and my gun really liked the Sierra Pro Hunter bullets. Sadly, I used the last box I could scrounge off the internet four years ago. I then tried some Remington Core-Lokt bullets, but they were all over the paper. Another guy at the range saw my predicament and gave me half a box of Federal Premiums with the Sierra GameKing bullets. My rifle also shoots these very well, but they are twice the price of the old Classic rounds. Being confident in my shot is important to me, so it is worth the extra price.
I tacked a target to a cardboard box and set it up on the edge of a wood line. The day was very windy and I was hoping that the woods would help buffet the worst of the wind. I set up about 100 yards away. On top of my cooler I set up my shooting rest and lined the rifle up with the target, which promptly blew over. After setting the target in a small depression, I lined everything back up and made a few shots. The zero was still true so I packed everything back up and started looking for my tree stand gear. I looked everywhere for my folding saw, but couldn’t find it and had to make a quick trip to Mt. Olivet. The town doesn’t have many businesses, but luckily an old hardware store was open. He had a cheap Chinese made bow saw for $5 and I left with hopes of getting a few shooting lanes ready.
One of my favorite locations on the farm is a gas line easement that is cut through two patches of woods. Robertson County is old cattle country. The land has large rolling hills which are typically clear at the crests for hay and the hill sides are grown up in hardwood and cedar thickets. The easement cuts a 70 yard swath down a hill side and back up the other that normally would be uninterrupted woods. Looking to the north from one hill side to the other along the open easement the distance is about 175 yards. To the left and down hill there is a large patch of woods where most of the deer come from. To the right and slightly uphill is a smaller 3-5 acre patch of woods that is a sanctuary for deer. It is littered with buck rubs and scrapes. Around the top is a hay field that winds its way around the small patch of woods and back around to the opposite hillside. The deer travel between the woods along the bottom of the hill where they feel hidden from view from the open hay fields. I normally sit on one hill side and use my pop blind. This year though the gas company hadn’t bush hogged the easement and the sumac trees were too tall to see over. I decided to set up my climbing tree stand in a tree along the easement so that I could look down into the cover. There weren’t many candidates to choose from, but I finally found a small pin oak that would do the job. I spent the next hour cutting back vines and scrub red bud trees in order to open up some shooting lanes. My stand was located on the edge of the smaller patch of woods. I didn’t have much of a shot along the easement on my side because of several large trees with limbs stretching out into the open, but across to the larger woods I would have many opportunities. Using my safety belt, I eased up the tree in my Ol’man climber and surveyed my situation. I made it up about 12 feet in the tree before I had to cut a limb out of my way. Moving up the tree a little more, the diameter of the tree began to lessen to where I didn’t feel safe going any higher. I would only be 15 feet off of the ground, but my vantage gave my views all the way to the bottom of the drainage and also the hayfield surrounding the woods. I was very confident in my setup.
Since I finished up at a reasonable hour, I decided to head to the Ohio River and Meldahl dam in Bracken County, Kentucky to see if the sauger were biting. There were a few guys up on the dam wall that seemed to be hauling them in every other cast. I had some small white Gulp minnows and made a few casts from the bank. Hang-ups are really horrible at this dam and you have to be in constant contact with your bait. After a few casts, I switched to a chartreuse minnow and got a hit. The sauger was the biggest I have ever caught and I estimate it weighed about 2-3 lbs. The rest of the afternoon was pretty slow, but I caught a 12 inch cigar shaped sauger around 4:30 pm. As I was packing up to leave two of the guys on the dam were also leaving. Looking at my sorry stringer, I asked if they would sell me a couple from their bulging fish basket of sauger so that I could have enough for dinner. Those guys were really cool though and just gave me a couple of fish so that I would have a mess.
Saturday couldn’t come soon enough for me. I don’t think I slept more than a couple of hours Friday night, and those with one eye on the alarm clock. Loaded up with coffee, I hit the road early. Parking my truck in a hayfield near the road, I got out my gear. I slipped on my blaze orange hat and vest. In one pocket I slipped a length of small diameter rope to hoist up my rifle with. In the other pocket I slipped my can type bleat call and small grunt call. In my pants pocket I stashed my deer drag. I call it my poor man’s Glenn’s Deer Handle. Using a 6ft piece of heavy nylon rope, I strung it through a hand width length of bamboo and tied a knot in it. I slipped a few bullets into my pocket and headed to my stand. The walk was only a couple hundred yards and only a little way to my stand, I heard a deer blow and crash into the woods! The deer must have been bedded down in the high grass and brambles of the easement. I slowly made my way down the hill and into my tree. As quietly as possible I climbed the tree with my stand and hoisted up my rifle. Before I did anything else, I pulled out my bleat call and turned it over. In the woods across from me I could hear deer walking around in the leaves reacting to my call. I quietly worked the bolt of my rifle, chambering a round and waited for daylight.
Just as the limbs of the trees were becoming visibly distinct, I pulled out my can call again and gave it two short bleats. Again, deer were moving in the leaves in the woods opposite me. Then, in an opening I could see a deer step out into the edge of the easement. I could tell it didn’t have antlers, which was perfect since I wasn’t really looking for a buck necessarily. If a big deer walked out, I would be happy to take it but my real goal was a young doe. I raised my rifle scope to my eye and could see the deer much better with the lack gathering ability of my scope. Bringing the cross hairs on its chest I squeezed the trigger and the deer headed back into the woods. Adrenaline had me shaking a little bit, but instead of getting down from the tree, I decided to wait a little bit and see what else would come out. About 20 minutes later, I heard some whimpering and baying from up the hill and it was getting louder. Soon I heard footsteps running in the small patch of woods behind me and a big doe emerged from the woods and ran up the opposite hillside of the easement. The barking continued and the deer looked at its back trail. The limbs of the trees were blocking my shot as the deer was on my side of the easement. I picked a small opening in the limbs and waited for the doe to give me a shot. Picking her way up the hill she entered my scope and my shot put her right down. At the base of my tree I soon had a mixed breed bird dog and an old beagle looking up at me. They looked up seemingly disappointed that I had ruined their fun. Within half an hour I had two deer down. What a great opening morning!
I climbed down the tree and tried to catch the dogs. They didn’t have any tags on their collars from what I could tell and they dodged my makeshift lasso. I walked down the hill and back up the other side toward my doe. As I looked around for the dogs, I could see that they had found my other deer on the edge of the woods. I headed over to my first deer and spooked the dogs away with a stick. The deer ended up being a button buck, which ideally I would not have shot, but in the early morning light I had mistaken it for a doe. I made short work of the field dressing and then placed his hooves above his head to make the drag easier. He was reasonably light and I headed up hill through the briars to my doe. After field dressing her, I finished dragging the smaller button buck to the top of the hill and the hayfield where I could load him up into my truck. I walked back to the truck and drove it around the hayfield to the deer. I heard a couple of shots not too far away and hoped my cousin or dad had some luck too. I then headed back down to the doe and started to drag her up. She was a big doe and I broke the bamboo handle on my deer drag half way up the hill. After I had the deer loaded in the bed of my truck, I heard a couple more shots and couldn’t help but think that we might have a really successful morning on tap. I drove back to my cousin’s house and saw him headed in from the field. He said he had just seen a huge buck tending to a doe a couple of hundred yards off and headed his way, when two dogs had run in and split the deer up. He had taken a running shot at the buck as it closed within 100 yards of his spot but had missed. We both looked across the road and my dad was heading out of his blind. He had also tagged a large doe and a button buck. We hung the deer up in the old tobacco barn and quartered them out for the ride home where the real work would begin of cutting, grinding, and wrapping.
I decided to take the next few days off and do some fishing instead. I had one deer already from the early muzzleloader season, so I now had three deer in the freezer. I went several mornings to Meldahl Dam and met an older fishermen there every morning who said he fished there almost every day starting at 4 a.m. When I got there he was always set up right on top of the dam wall. The dam runs out from the shore and then makes a right angle out into the river for 40 or 50 yards. The water rushes over the dam on the other side of this concrete wall and makes an eddy of water that runs back along the face of the wall and then circles back along the beach. The older fisherman was always right up again the wall and fished that area where the eddy started. We both caught a bunch of sauger and also some crappie and white bass. It usually only took a couple of hours to get a limit because he was nice enough to give me a few fish for my basket.
As my week was ending, I decided to try deer hunting one more morning. I went to the same stand I had on the opener and waited. The morning was pretty slow at first, but about 9 am I could see three deer walking through the woods to the easement. They started munching on some shoots of green grass at the bottom of the hill and I brought my rifle up ready for one to turn broadside. A large doe started up the hill and I put the cross hairs on her chest and snapped off a shot. She ran back into the woods, but one of the other deer ran a few feet and just looked around. I guess I was too shaky because I shot at that deer three times. I waited about 20 minutes before getting out of my stand and was really feeling unsure. My last shot seemed to hit the deer but it had not fallen in sight. I walked to the spot where I had shot the first deer and didn’t see any blood at all. I made a note of the spot and headed to where I had shot the second deer. At first I didn’t see any sign, but then I saw some hair. I headed off into the woods along the path it had taken, but I didn’t see any blood for the first 20 yards. I was beginning to get desperate when I saw a small pool of blood. Not a lot of blood and it was a dark color. I was not encouraged.
Instead of pushing the deer, I went back to the spot of my first shot and started to look for that deer. I couldn’t find any sign at all. I just started blindly walking where I thought the deer might go, and then I saw the white belly about 80 yards from where I had shot her. The shot had been perfectly placed, but she just hadn’t bled until she stopped. The spot where she had fallen had a huge pool of blood, but there had not been any sign leading up to her. I field dressed the deer, and she was absolutely huge. I hooked up my rope to her and started to drag her through the woods. I was drenched in sweat within a few steps. I got to a good shady spot and decided to let her cool in the morning air and I headed back to look for the second deer. I started searching again at where I had seen the hair. There was a good amount of hair, but no blood. I walked in circles for the next hour looking for more sign, but I never found that deer. I think I must of just grazed the deer and didn’t mortally wound it. The lesson for me is that I need to get myself calmed down before I attempt to make a shot. I was way too juiced after making the first kill and was not in any shape to take a clean shot. I think the deer was probably fine, but I should have made a better decision.
Dejected, I headed back to my deer and started to drag her out. I don’t know if I could have found a steeper, more briar choked hollow to drag a deer out of if I had tried. Just as I made it to the hayfield and was headed toward the road, the neighbor drove by and asked me if I needed help. He drove me back to my truck and I was able to get her loaded up. It took all I had to pick her up and swing her over the tailgate. Now with four deer in my freezer and my buck tag still unfilled, I might just call this season over. I don’t have any antlers for my wall, but I have many great meals of venison and sauger waiting in my future.
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