Crossbow good option for some hunters | Tulsa World
July 7, 2010
Read Kelly Bostian’s blog
THE COMING archery season will mark the first for Oklahoma in which a crossbow, previously legal only for handicapped or elderly hunters, will be a legal weapon for any hunter.
This spring, Oklahoma became the 14th state in the nation to roll crossbows into the column for legal means, and North Carolina is close to becoming No. 15.
Under the new Oklahoma law, crossbows can be used in any season when it is legal to use other forms of archery equipment. That means some hunters may be out there this summer looking to purchase a new crossbow for the season to come.
So what should we expect from this change? Daniel James Hendricks, CEO of the American Crossbow Federation and editor/publisher of Horizontal Bowhunter magazine, said it will have an impact, but probably a small one. He has dedicated the past 15 years of his life to the crossbow controversy.
“It’s just another kind of bow and arrow,” he said. “Regardless of what some people will call it, what they’ll tell you, it’s a short-range weapon that gives you one more way to help control the deer population and to get more people out into the woods.” Click Link Below for Full Story!
via Crossbow good option for some hunters | Tulsa World.
Kentucky Afield Outdoors: Women Post Big Year For Trophy Deer During 2009 Season
June 4, 2010
By Hayley Lynch
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Every year, during production of Kentucky’s annual hunting and trapping regulation guide, I get to peruse photos, letters and official scoring sheets from hunters who took Kentucky’s largest deer the previous season. I always enjoy seeing these incredible animals, all of them evidence of a healthy and thriving deer herd. These deer and the hunters who spend months or even years pursuing them put Kentucky in the top five states in the country for deer considered trophies under the Boone and Crockett Club scoring system. But this year, something else stood out.All of our previous trophy deer lists had one thing in common – the hunters were almost always male. In fact, in five years of producing our guide I had received only one trophy deer taken by a female hunter. But this year was different. Four of the 40 deer currently on the list were taken by women. Even more impressively, three of those women are teenagers. Andrea Davis, a 19-year-old hunter from Ohio County, took a 14-point buck with typical antlers that scored 165 1/8 in the Boone and Crockett Club’s official scoring system. She thinks this year’s results are part of an overall trend. She says more girls and women are hunting deer.“I’m seeing a lot of kids going hunting with their dads,” Davis said. “I think women are seeing what’s out there, what they can bring home.”Davis herself was hunting with her father Thanksgiving morning in Muhlenberg County when they heard antlers crashing near the edge of a Conservation Reserve Program field. They were on their way to a tree stand, but the sound of nearby deer changed their plans.“We just sat down right there,” Davis said. “We saw two does, but they busted us. Then we saw a 9-pointer. I was getting ready to shoot him, but decided to wait.”The wait paid off when the trophy 14-pointer stepped out of the woods. “All I could say was, ‘Horns!’” Davis remembered. “My dad told me, ‘Please don’t look at the horns.’ I braced my gun on a little sapling and took a shot.”The deer ran only 40 yards after the 20-yard shot from Davis’s .30-06.Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Bryant of Meade County shot her first buck on opening day of the 2009 season. The 22-point deer with non-typical antlers scored 196 6/8.“I’ve always wanted to get a buck because of my dad and my uncle,” Bryant said. “It’s always been in my family. And I’m not going to stop.”Two more female hunters round out this unprecedented year. Spencer County’s Michaella “Mikie” Monroe was just 14 years old when she shot the biggest deer taken in Kentucky for the 2009-10 season. The buck scored an incredible 219 5/8, putting it in the top 30 deer with non-typical antlers ever taken in Kentucky. Mitzi Mobley of Berea shot a 160 4/8 typical buck in Madison County.I hope these four women are a sign of even better things to come for Kentucky hunting. More women in the field may be one of our best chances to turn around a decline in hunter numbers. And with deer like these, it’s easy to see what’s in it for the hunters themselves.“I’ve hunted since I was 12 and the only bucks I’ve gotten have been spikes,” Davis said. “So anything can happen at any time.”The 2010-11 Kentucky Hunting and Trapping Guide, available in early July, will include a complete list of trophy deer from the 2009-10 season, as well as several photographs of the deer and their hunters. The guide will be available online at fw.ky.gov and wherever hunting licenses are sold.
Poached Ohio trophy buck costs Johnny Clay of Minford, Ohio record $23,572 in restitution | cleveland.com
May 11, 2010
By D’Arcy Egan, The Plain Dealer
Johnny Clay, 37, of Minford, Ohio is no stranger to southern Ohio wildlife officials, cited for 10 deer hunting violations over the years. The huge trophy deer he illegally killed in September, 2009, set a Buckeye standard when Clay was ordered Friday to pay $23,572 in restitution in Adams County Court.The deer’s trophy antlers measured 197 2/8 inches according to Boone & Crockett 
Club guidelines, the largest typical white-tailed deer harvested in North American in 2009. It would have ranked fourth in Ohio’s Buckeye Big Buck Club standings. It is now the property of the Division of Wildlife.Clay pled guilty to taking a deer out of season, hunting property without the landowner’s permission and a failure to have a valid hunting license or deer permit.A confidential informant contacted wildlife officers Chris Rice and Chris Gilkey last March, said district law enforcement supervisor Dave Brown. Clay had checked the Adams County deer in Kentucky, reporting it as a legal kill during the Kentucky archery season, but trail camera photos revealed it was killed in Ohio.”It was the largest amount of restitution we’d ever sought,” said Brown. Clay, who has served jail time for deer violations in the past, was also fined $1,500, forfeited his bow to the state and lost his hunting privileges for life. Ohio is a member of the 34-state Wildlife Violator’s Compact, which makes it illegal for Clay to hunt in all of those states.
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources – Two Christian County Poachers Caught After Nearly A Year
November 18, 2009
Frankfort, Ky. – Resolute determination and a timely tip from a local citizen helped Christian County Conservation Sgt. James Nason close a deer poaching case last week, just three days before the statue of limitations on the charges would have expired.
Two Christian County men entered guilty pleas Monday, Nov. 16, in Christian District Court to charges related to killing a deer on the day prior to the 2008 firearms season opener and then Telechecking it one day later as if it were a legal kill.
Chris Brown, 28, of Hopkinsville, and his father-in-law, Sammy Gilliam, 55, of Pembroke, pleaded guilty in the poaching of a Boone and Crockett Club trophy class white-tailed buck. Brown admitted poaching the deer out of season and then illegally Telechecking it a day later, while Gilliam pleaded guilty to assisting Brown after the kill.
Telecheck is a system used by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife for hunters to report their game harvest by telephone.
Nason said he had been aware of the poaching for quite some time. But it was information he received from a community member during last month’s muzzleloader deer season that allowed him to seek arrest warrants for Brown and Gilliam.
Brown and Gilliam each paid fines and court costs of $409. In addition, Brown received a 30-day jail sentence that was probated for two years. He also forfeited his deer rifle, the mounted deer and was stripped of his hunting privileges for two years. Gilliam lost his hunting privileges for one year.
Kentucky’s modern-gun deer-hunting season opens Saturday | The Courier-Journal
November 10, 2009
Modern-gun season for deer set to open By Gary Garth • Special to The Courier-Journal •
Deer season has been open since September, and archers, crossbow hunters, muzzleloader hunters and youngsters who participated in the October youth hunt have already bagged about 20,000 whitetails.That’s a good start and one that’s put a smile on Tina Brunjes’ face.“It’s been an average harvest so far, but I’ll take that,” she said.Brunjes is the large-game program coordinator for the state game agency. Part of her job is to guide the policies that keep deer numbers under control while offering hunters optimum hunting opportunities.Deer action will ramp up across the state around sunrise Saturday, which is when the modern-gun season opens. Gun season will run through Nov.29 in zones 1 and 2 but closes Nov.23 in zones 3 and 4.State game officials expect about 252,000 or so hunters to swarm the woods this month. Brunjes said that number is based on license sales and the knowledge that about 90 percent of Kentucky’s deer hunters gun hunt the rest are assumed to be archery purists.How many deer the hunters will sack is unknown, but Brunjes expects about 82,000.“That would be about average, but I’d take more. Especially more does.”Most of the action will happen opening weekend. Hunter success or lack thereof will largely hinge on a couple of factors: Weather and the availability of hard oak mast acorns. Click link below for full story!
via Kentucky’s modern-gun deer-hunting season opens Saturday | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal.
Kentucky Afield Outdoors: Modern Gun Deer Season Looks Promising If Weather Cooperates
October 24, 2009
Frankfort, Ky. – A cool, wet summer followed by an even cooler and wetter fall makes excellent conditions for deer breeding and produces lots of deer foods and cover. Whether this bounty makes for good hunting on the Nov. 14 opening day of modern gun deer season remains to be seen.“It could be challenging to hunt them,” said Tina Brunjes, big game program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Deer are fat and happy this year. Fat, happy deer don’t move as much.”If Kentucky receives cold, dry weather on opening weekend, the hunting should be productive. “I am expecting an average modern gun season for this year,” Brunjes explained. “The archery harvest has been very average this year, not bad, not great, just average. I expect gun season to be about the same. It is weather dependent as always. Clear and cold weather would be the ideal situation. ”Average hunting sounds like a negative, but it isn’t in Kentucky. “Our average years are still good,” said David Yancy, deer biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “Although we were down a little from last year, we still had one of the better October muzzleloader seasons we’ve ever had in the last several years.”This year, hunters took 7,215 deer during the Oct. 17-18 early muzzleloader season. Last year, Kentucky hunters reported taking 8,384 deer during the same season. The total harvest this year so far is about 18,000 deer.Soft mast, such as wild berries and tree fruits, abounds this year in the woods as a result of the rain, but the acorn crop is spotty across the state.“The acorn crop is all over the place this year,” Brunjes explained. “It is totally localized; it’s farm to farm. No area of the state is one way or another. I don’t know if it was the ice storm, a late freeze or wet weather, but acorns this year are highly variable.”If you have acorns on the farm or public area you plan to hunt, expect good hunting. Brunjes said deer gorge on acorns and devour food plots as the weather cools. “They think less about food and more about breeding as the season wears onward,” she said.The Bluegrass Region the state’s deer harvest so far this year, with nearly 7,000 deer taken. The Green River Region produced the second most deer taken, with nearly 3,600 reported.Hunters looking for large, mature bucks during this gun season should concentrate their efforts where does female deer lounge. Does like areas that provide food and protection from the elements such as creek bottoms, draws or a brushy gulch.“Hunters should also target deer travel routes during modern gun season,” Brunjes said. “Deer are moving in November. Saddles, draws, ridgelines and logging roads all should be productive. Where you would walk, the deer walk. When you are scouting any area, think about how you would get from point A to point B. That is where the deer trails are located.”Hunting during modern gun deer season will improve if we can avoid a repeat of what we’ve had nearly all year: cold and wet weather. “That kind of weather keeps hunters out of the woods,” Brunjes said.Modern gun deer season opens Nov. 14 statewide and closes Nov. 29 in Zones 1 and 2, and on Nov. 23 in Zones 3 and 4. Consult the “2009-2010 Kentucky Hunting and Trapping Guide”, available wherever hunting licenses are sold, for more details on deer hunting in Kentucky.
Thirty-two point buck downed in Ripley hunt by South Haven, Minn., archer | StarTribune.com
October 19, 2009
By Dennis Anderson
Scott O’Konek, 29, of South Haven, Minn., near St. Cloud shoots his Matthews bow about 300 days a year. So perhaps he was deserving Oct. 15 at Camp Ripley when a 32-point non-typical whitetail presented itself near his bow stand.
O’Konek has hunted Ripley five times previously, but never killed a buck there.
His wife, Susan, was in a nearby stand when O’Konek went to full draw, holding that position for about a minute.
“Bow hunting is something my wife and I do together,” he said.
The big buck, which field-dressed at 192 pounds, was quartering away when O’Konek took his 44-yard shot. The buck was estimated by the Department of Natural Resources to be about 5 years old. It fell shortly after being arrowed.
“It was a clear shot,” O’Konek said. “There weren’t any trees in the way.”
O’Konek was hunting from a tree stand. He figures the buck was bedded down nearby before he saw it about 9 a.m.
“I had always wanted to hunt that part of Ripley, but there were too many people there before,” he said, without being more specific about where he hunted.
O’Konek and his wife pulled an ice fishing house to the military installation and camped in it.
“Bow hunting is more of a lifestyle for my wife and me than a sport,” he said. “We hold a weekly 3-D shoot at our place for friends. Between 12 and 20 of us get together. We shoot a lot.”
O’Konek has mounted two previous deer, both 10-pointers. This will be the third buck he has mounted in four years.
The 32-pointer was dragged about 200 yards to a nearby road by the O’Koneks.
“It was the day I’ve dreamed about since I was little,” he said.
via Thirty-two point buck downed in Ripley hunt by South Haven, Minn., archer | StarTribune.com.
Maine Outdoor Journal | Deer-hunt permits get swapped on the Web
September 7, 2009
TRAVIS BARRETT
Proof positive once again: Necessity is the mother of invention.
Jeff Zimba didn’t invent DoeTagSwap.com because he was looking for a get-rich-quick scheme or a loophole in the system. The Master Maine guide from Fairfield simply found himself in a pickle.
“Last year I got drawn (for an any-deer permit) in a district I had no intention of hunting in,” Zimba said. “I’d purchased a piece of land in a different district. I’d scouted it, and I’d spent all my time there.
“It’s where I was going to hunt.”
Zimba had the same problem that hundreds of Maine whitetail deer hunters face every season. His name had been pulled in the lottery for a permit, but in a district where he didn’t want to hunt.
“In my case, I had a landowner permit in District 23. I wanted a landowner permit in District 16,” Zimba said. “I had to find somebody who wanted to trade for that, and it’s very, very, very specific.”
Which means it could be both costly and time-consuming to locate one other deer hunter out there willing to swap for the precise requirements Zimba wanted – and vice versa. Advertisements could be placed in newspapers, trade publications, swap and sell guides and even on Internet message boards with no guarantees.
“That’s a needle in a haystack,” Zimba said.
So he started DoeTagSwap.com with a friend of his, introducing a database in which hunters could find people who wanted to swap their permits with others in different districts.
For less than a $10 annual membership, DoeTagSwap.com members can search databases broken down by districts and find hunters who want to hunt in districts other than where they were drawn for any-deer permits.
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife endorsed the project, having last year issued a press release encouraging hunters to use the Web site once it debuted.
This year’s any-deer permits will be chosen Friday.
“The big picture for them is that the harvest is balanced,” Zimba said.
“You are allowed to swap your tags (by a certain date), and all this does is provide a mechanism for that. You enter what district you have (a permit in), where you are and what district you want to hunt. When you find what you’re looking for, all we do is facilitate that swap through a link.
“And when you’re done with that, it takes you directly to the IF&W site to complete the transaction.”
Zimba believes that one of the things IF&W likes best about DoeTagSwap.com is that it is not a site for bartering or auctioning off permits among hunters. It’s simply for direct trades of permits from district to district.
Last year, Zimba said he started the site late and found himself with less than a month’s lead time to get word out about the site and facilitate permit swaps. He’s hoping that last year’s success – coupled with getting the early word out about the Web site – will allow more hunters to use it.
“It was just a trial balloon that we launched, and it all came from the necessity of me needing a tag for the area I wanted to hunt,” said Zimba. He said there has already been interest expressed in a MooseTagSwap.com, and interest from other states looking to set up similar databases for their own permit systems.
“It’s the perfect example of necessity being the mother of invention,” he said. “I needed a permit, and there was no mechanism out there for me finding one.”
But it wasn’t all flowers and tea for Zimba.
“The funny back story in all of this is that I never did get anybody to swap with me,” he said with a laugh. “I helped people all over the state get theirs, but I never got my own.”
Staff Writer Travis Barrett can be reached at 621-5648 or at:
tbarrett@centralmaine.com
via Maine Outdoor Journal | Deer-hunt permits get swapped on the Web.
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