My biggest and most enjoyable Deer so far

I started out on opening day for CT. State Land Shotgun season by getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get dressed and load my truck and head out. In this area where I am hunting it sometimes gets busy with hunters, especially on opening day. I wanted to get there early just in case, ok maybe I just couldn’t wait so that is why I left at 5:00 a.m.

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Grandfather gives Rifle to Grandson as momento of his first successful Deer hunt

Not only did this youngster tag a 8 point buck his first time out but he also was given the rifle that helped him do it. The story is very memorable for sure not only for him but his father and grandfather.

Teen with Elmira roots bags 8-point buck in first hunting trip

By: Jeff Murray – Star Gazette

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CAA has posted it’s shooting schedule for 2008

With Deer hunting season coming to an end and old man winter starting to act up we can all look forward to spring and the summer months. The Connecticut Archery Association has posted their 2008 shooting schedule.

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Backpacks or Fanny packs can keep all your gear in one place

When I go out hunting I like to carry a backpack for one reason and that is I don’t like to be held down with full pockets. My backpack carries everything you can think of and once on stand you can hang it from a limb out of the way. Here are just a few things that I bring along with me,1. water

2. lunch

3. knife

4. extra gloves

5. ammunition

6. orange raincoat

7. cell phone

8. drag rope

9. mini mag flashlight

10. extra hand warmers

11. orange surveying tape for marking a blood trail

12. disposable camera

The list can go on and on. It is easier than filling all your pockets and can be hung out of the way till you need it.

Deer Poaching Probe Leads To 247 Charges Against 20 People

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas game wardens this month concluded an investigation into an illegal deer hunting ring in Southeast Texas, filing 247 criminal charges against 20 offenders.

The case involves illegal activity spanning four counties. A total of 27 animals are known to have been killed, with 13 sets of antlers and one doe head seized as evidence. Game wardens uncovered 606 possible criminal charges ranging from Class C misdemeanors to felonies, although ultimately 247 criminal charges were filed in late November and early December. A team of nine game wardens participated in the investigation, which eventually led to two search warrants and charges filed with six courts in four counties: Montgomery, Edwards, Liberty, and Houston. Two assistant district attorneys from Montgomery County assisted with most of the investigation. The suspects face paying approximately $15,000 in civil restitution, a process that compensates the people of Texas for each illegally taken wild animal.

The suspects range in age from 16 to 25 years old. Most of the charges filed against them were for hunting deer at night, hunting from a public roadway, hunting during closed season, hunting from a motor vehicle and possession of illegally taken deer. “We did consider the ages of those involved when preparing to file charges, and more charges could have been filed,” said Col. Pete Flores, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department law enforcement director. “We understand that young people occasionally make mistakes. But the scope and nature of this activity goes way beyond a youthful prank, and wildlife crimes cannot be tolerated in Texas. I would add that this illegal activity is not hunting, and it is not representative of youth hunters in our state.”

The case began three months ago, when a man who was aware of ongoing poaching activity by a group of young men in the Splendora area northeast of Houston was driving on Highway 59. He drove by a highway billboard advertising Operation Game Thief, the Texas wildlife “crime stoppers” program that offers rewards for tips that lead to convictions. The man later told game wardens he began thinking about the message on the billboard and the ongoing poaching activity, whereupon he turned around and drove back to get the telephone number off the billboard and called OGT.

Game Wardens Dean Fitzpatrick and Brannon Meinkowsky of Montgomery County then began leading what became a two and a half month investigation of illegal hunting dating back to fall 2006. Most of the illegal activity took place in Montgomery and Edwards Counties, with one episode each in Liberty and Houston counties. The primary targets of the illegal hunters were white-tailed buck deer. Secondary targets were exotic wildlife species such as axis deer and black buck antelope. Most of the incidents occurred at night, from a vehicle on a public roadway. The majority of the animals were retrieved by the suspects, but some were left behind because the animal’s antlers were not considered big enough or the poachers were scared off by oncoming vehicles. The illegal hunting took place in developed urban subdivisions as well as rural areas.

Participants were caught poaching by two different game wardens during the course of the investigation. Game wardens had been investigating the killing of a deer on the Splendora High School football field. A few days after that incident, Montgomery County Game Warden Alan Biggerstaff caught three suspects after they shot and killed a deer in a subdivision near Conroe. Edwards County Game Warden Cody Hatfield caught four of them hunting from the roadway near Rocksprings in Edwards County. These two incidents were instrumental, providing a big break in the investigation that yielded names of many of the suspects. The two incidents also show how Texas game wardens are able to communicate and share information across the state.

Written by TPWD-Lonestar Outdoor News

Group urging program to cull deer

Odds are if a Connecticut resident falls prey to an animal, it won’t be from an attack by a shark, bear, copperhead or mountain lion. It will be a deer.

Deer, according to a group trying to control the animals’ numbers, can be the cause of death to motorists in the region or they can be the source of chronic illness by spreading Lyme disease.
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Freshman hunts down ‘dream buck’

THS freshman Jacob Ostermeyer catches the deer he shot at a park in Osage City earlier in the month. The deer weighed in at more than 200 pounds at Cabela’s in Kansas City, Kan. Its antlers were 178 inches long.Jacob Ostermeyer grew tired of waiting for deer on his hunting expedition, so he decided to grab some food.

As the Tonganoxie High freshman bit into a doughnut, a 16-point, non-typical buck appeared out of nowhere at a park near Osage City.
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Curbing TB to revive deer hunting

editorial from: Traverse City Record-Eagle

The deer herd in northern Michigan is down. The number of deer killed during the firearms hunting season is down. The number of hunters is down. But the number of deer infected with bovine tuberculosis — which led to smaller herds in the first place — is up.

So what is a DNR to do?

Despite the competing interests of hunters, hotel, motel and restaurant owners and farmers, they do have one thing in common: a demand that the Department of Natural Resources do something.

What that might be — which problem do you solve at the risk of making another worse — is the multi-million dollar question. So far, no one sees to have claimed the prize.

Despite years of trying to thin the deer herd in northern Lower Michigan in an effort to curb the spread of bovine TB, the incidence of the disease in deer herds — a threat to both white tail deer and cattle — increased in 2006 for the first time in four years, according to the DNR.

It’s a puzzling and frustrating situation that can’t be ignored. So what’s next? More thinning of the herd?

At the same time, hunters are chafing at the overall reduction in the deer herd from the levels in the mid-1990s. They’re even more fed up with the precipitous drop in the number of deer killed. Although the DNR claimed the herd in the northwest and northeast sections of northern Lower Michigan was up or at least the same as in 2006, the deer kill in northwest Lower Michigan was down 7 percent and 5 percent for all of the north. And that’s a 7 percent reduction from a less-than-stellar 2006.

The result is that hunters are voting with their feet and heading for more deer-friendly pastures. As the number of hunters declines, so do the cabin and motel rentals, the restaurant meals, the groceries and beer purchases. It’s a declining tide that is costing the region millions in lost revenue.

The DNR cannot ignore the TB threat to deer or, more importantly, to cattle. The disease spreads through animal-to-animal contact or when an animal eats feed tainted by a TB-carrying deer or cow. Fewer deer can presumably reduce the number of deer-cow contacts and, in turn, infection rates. But that didn’t happen from ‘06 to ‘07.

The DNR has to find out why those numbers rose, and do it soon; then it must to come up with a better TB-eradication plan.

The sooner the DNR can stop issuing large numbers of doe permits used keep down the herd the sooner numbers will rise and the hunters return.

There must be a new target, a new strategy and better tactics if the DNR is to eradicate TB and raise the herd. Farmers, hunters and business people want nothing less.

Merry Christmas to one and all.

From Connecticut Hunting Today and Tails and Trails I personally just wanted to wish every one a very Merry Christmas. May everyone enjoy this time with friends and family and be safe while traveling.

States seek money for deer hunting tree stand research

By JULI PROBASCO-SOWERS • REGISTER STAFF WRITER

Money is being sought for an eight-state survey of hunters who used elevated stands, whether a platform in a tree, an old windmill, a power transmission tower or a haymow, said Rod Slings, recreational safety supervisor with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Last week Slings attended a meeting in Wisconsin with natural resources safety officers from eight states – Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio. One main topic was tree stand safety.
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