MikeHanback.com

Louisiana's New Crossbow Deer Regulations

Finally, all the bitching and moaning over the crossbow can stop!

Louisiana got it right when Governor Bobby Jindal (on McCain’s VP short list BTW) recently signed a new bill that allows the state’s wildlife commission to “establish the following special deer hunting seasons: (1) a bow and arrow only season, and (2) a bow and arrow and crossbow season.”

Prior to this only handicapped hunters or 60-year-old guys could use crossbows in La. After this, a lot more crossbows will be sold and used in the state (and more does especially will be killed, though probably not a significant harvest number in year one of the new law) .

Hmm, why didn’t somebody think of this years ago? Possible scenario this fall: Regular vertical bow season opens around Oct. 1 and runs for weeks, so those guys get first shot like always. Then a special season allows crossbowers to come into the woods alongside the vertical guys. Special bow/Xbow seasons can be set to run into January along with gun season. The deer rut late down there, so there is ample time and chance for everybody.

If this is done right, I believe it will become the pilot program for setting and refining special archery/Xbow seasons in all the whitetail states. You give both constituancies opportunity to do their thing, and a fair shot at the bucks. What's not to like about that?

BTW, full disclosure: I hunt with a compound, but I want to see any and all opportunities opened up and expanded for deer hunters, and this includes the Xbow. We need it to recruit/retain hunters and to harvest more deer in many areas.

Minnesota Proposes Tighter Deer-Shining Law

Mike, here in MN you can “shine” deer until 10 p.m. during hunting season, and all night the rest of the year. But because a lot of people associate it with poaching, they are thinking about changing the law and restricting shining to one-half hour after sunset. What do you think? George in MN 

George, my proposal: Restrict all spotlighting from August 1 until January 31. A lot of bucks with new big racks are shined/poached pre-season in August and September, when they are visible in fields near roads and haven’t been hunted for a year. IMO, no hunter needs to shine deer during the season—use trail cameras, good old scouting, etc. to find your buck, not a super light. By January 31 surviving bucks have lost their racks everywhere, thus they aren’t vulnerable to illegal spotlighters.

This would give your “recreational shiners” 6 months to do their thing, but I have to wonder, how many good people really shine deer as their hobby?

No doubt spotlighting gives legitimate hunters a bad name. It can be damn dangerous too. Here in my VA county some years ago, sheriff’s deputies and COs did a sting on a notorious summer shiner group;  one night a gunfight broke out and, tragically, people were killed.

All landowners and most hunters I know would have no problem with tighter spotlighting laws and would in fact welcome them. What about you? Is poacher-shining a problem in your area?

Blood-Tracking Deer Dogs

Awhile back I posted on whether or not you should leave a bow-shot deer overnight. Ken blogged:

Dogs are a great way to recover marginally hit or just plain old hard to find animals. I have been raising and using dogs for blood tracking for several years now. I have tracked many deer here in GA that were left over night. Some I would not hesitate to put on my table; others it was obvious that they had already started to spoil.

United Blood Trackers is a national organization that promotes the use of tracking dogs. For those interested in learning more about it, check out their website. They have a tracker map page for anybody who needs the services of a tracking dog (come bow season).

I've had blood dogs (one Lab, one black-tan mutt) find a couple of deer I shot down in MS. Man, it was fun to watch them pick up the trail and find a buck I might otherwise have lost.

The hard-core blood-dog owners, like a lot of bird dog guys, would rather run their dogs and find somebody else’s deer than hunt themselves. (In the photo: Neal Meyer of IL with a super buck recovered by his dachshund Chloe.) It is fun to be around those guys and to watch their dogs; it's a cool niche to the sport.

Anybody got a deer-tracking dog, or maybe watched one work?

The Earn-a-Buck Truck

Earlier I asked if some people were trying to beat the WI earn-a-buck system... I don't know if this is proof that they were, or maybe it's just for fun. Anyhow, pretty clever in blaze orange and 900 number and all :) Thanks to Ian for sending it along, he actually saw the van while he was out hunting one day last fall.

Wisconsin Earn-a-Buck (what do you think of it?)

From the AP and startribune.com:

Hunters in much of the southern two-thirds of Wisconsin will have to kill an antlerless deer this fall before they can take a buck under new regulations… The annual revisions to the state's fall hunting rules set up 35 earn-a-buck zones. They generally fall along the state's Minnesota border…

The earn-a-buck program requires hunters to shoot an antlerless deer before taking a buck. Hunters generally dislike the program because it forces them to pass up trophy bucks if they haven't killed an antlerless deer, but state wildlife officials say the requirement is a crucial tool in controlling a burgeoning deer herd.

Is that true, “hunters dislike the program”? I give the WI deer managers props for trying something innovative and different.

Also, I hear that people have learned to cheat the system by registering road-killed does or re-checking a doe (whose ear was not cut at the check station) that a buddy had killed. Rumor has it these cheaters are bragging online and offering “tips” for beating earn-a-buck. I hope this is not true in any significant number, but it would not shock me if it were, there are always a------- that ruin it for the rest of us.   

More Crossbow Hunting in New York?

New York is the latest state to consider opening up crossbow opportunities for deer hunters, possibly as early as this October. The NY DEC has submitted a bill (#A01154) with language:

…it would be desirable for the Department to have authority  to  allow  the  use  of crossbows… crossbows  (have) the potential to be a key factor in achieving desired deer harvests in specific locations such  as suburban  areas… Concurrently, the legalization of crossbows could expand the  number  of  hunting  participants. The Department would propose, if granted regulatory authority , that crossbows be allowed for use for deer hunting in regular big game seasons, and for use in all seasons by senior  and  handicapped hunters. Further, the  Department  would propose allowing crossbows in some archery-only areas where deer harvest is inadequate.

DEC notes that hunting license sales have declined during the past 20 years in NY while deer populations have increased by some 75%.

I started with a recurve, now shoot a compound and have never killed a deer with a crossbow. With that background I say no-brainer—enact the law, as they did similarly in my home state (VA) a few years ago. Times have changed, man. If the Xbow allows options to thin/control suburban deer, and if it recruits a few new hunters and, more likely, keeps some old guys in the woods a couple more years, why not?

I am sure there is howling that the sky is going to fall from old-school vertical hunters and anti-Xbow organizations. I respect their opinions, but I believe they are fading into minority. Every time I write a mag story or blog on this issue I see a pro-crossbow trend. We’ll see if that holds this time, let your comments rip. 

NY Should Lower Kids' Deer-Hunting Age

Marc from NYbowhunter.com emailed me:

Mike: Along with other NY hunters, I am pushing to get the restrictive junior big game hunting requirements lowered. While juniors can obtain a small game license at age 12, they are not permitted to hunt big game with a firearm until they are 16. By the time kids are 16, they have grown tired of waiting for the day when they can finally get out into the deer woods; they have filled this void with other activities like video games, sports and trying to get a date for Friday night. I believe this is part of the reason why NY's hunting population has been on a steady decline for the last decade.

The NY DEC Commissioner has submitted a bill (#A01154) to lower the junior big game hunting age from 16 to 14 with a firearm. There is no telling if this will get passed in time for the 2008 deer season, but a push now from sportsmen would help tip the odds in our favor. Thanks, Marc

Click here to email the DEC and voice your support for expanded deer-hunting opportunities for kids.

Marc is right, 16 is too old to make an honest, well-raised kid wait to shoot a deer with a gun. 14 would be better, 12 best and more reasonable yet, don’t you think? BTW, supporters of this bill say that lowering age requirements and recruiting more hunters is the only practical way to control deer populations in the coming years; I also agree with that.

How Many Deer were Killed in your State in 2007-08?

I just saw where hunters in Pennsylvania killed 323,070 deer last season, an 11 percent decrease from the 2006-07 harvest. The buck kill (109,200) was down 19 percent overall, and a whopping 50 percent on opening day of firearms season. Bad weather must have been the big factor. BTW, did you know that in many states 60 to 70 percent of the annual buck harvest occurs on the gun opener?

One buck that didn’t get away last fall was Jerry Simkonis’ 36-point Allegheny Co. giant (photo), the new No. 1 non-typical archery buck in PA.

Which leads to this question: How many deer were shot in your state last fall? Was the buck harvest up or down, and why? Let’s start a database of the 2007-08 whitetail harvest.

Why Do People Shoot Signs?

I have never understood why stupid people do this, it is incredibly destructive, illegal and could be dangerous. Yet the majority of road signs you see in rural areas, even on the main highways, have one or more bullet holes. Why? BTW, this is a pellet-hole from a shotgun fired at close range. Wonder if the genius got any blowback?

WY Man Busted for Killing Antelope (with his truck)

Stupid criminal trick, courtesy of Wyoming Game and Fish:

Nearly 3 months after intentionally hitting and killing 2 antelope with his vehicle and posting the photos on the Internet, a Rock Springs man was sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Victoria Schofield. Jonathan L. Hefner, 24, pleaded guilty Feb. 29 to 2 counts of wanton destruction of a big game animal. His sentence included: $6,000 ($3,000 for each antelope) of restitution to the Wyoming Game and Fish Depart., a 5-year suspension of hunting privileges, 12 months unsupervised probation during which time he can have no wildlife violations and a 360-day suspended jail sentence.

Game and Fish Dept. got a tip that Hefner posted photos on the Internet of the 2 antelope he creamed with his truck. Officers recognized the vehicle and location, contacted the man's employer and identified Hefner as the hit-and-run goat motorist. Good work!

Motto to poachers: Be careful what you post/brag about on the Web, Big Brother is reading and blogging 24/7 and ready to bust some ass. Also, good sentence Judge Schofield. 6 grand, a year's probation and 5 years no hunting is a pretty tough deterrent.