In depths of winter, think small-game hunting
It’s the time of the year that outdoors people usually hate. One day it is 40 degrees and raining, the next the temperature runs closer to 10 and it’s windy.
What to do, what to do? Sitting in front of the television watching the outdoors channel is like a lesson in fiction. The fisherman catches 5-pound-or-larger bass and gets a strike on every cast. The hunter on the shows sits on a stand for five minutes and sees a buck so large it makes most of us cry with envy. I would call these shows entertaining but hardly reality.
In my world, I toss a rattle trap for hours just to hook one 13-inch bass and far more casts to feel the tug of a 30-inch muskie. I bet my readers who hunt typically stand leaning against a tree for eight hours only to see one undersized doe. You know how it is, your beard or chin is frozen with nose drippings and your feet feel like they are a part of the root system of the tree itself. Very few persons would put up with those conditions for any other reason than the hope of a monster buck to appear.
Deer hunting, and most Pennsylvanian hunters stay out for the main draw to hunting, is anticipation. The season ends and suddenly the hunter is sitting in the living room watching some stranger in a tree watching unlimited huge bucks walk by. No wonder some are driven to drink.
Have heart because there are things to do. An example is the small-game hunts being held by various sportsman’s clubs in the area. The annual coyote hunt by the Ellsworth Sportsman’s Club is going on as you read this. Don’t forget the annual rabbit hunt held by the Canonsburg Sportsman’s Club Feb. 17. The doors will open at 1 p.m. and check-in terminates at 6 p.m. There will be refreshments and prizes and all that for a $10 charge. For more information, call Bill Brooks at 724-986-1414 or Brian Brooks at 724-986-2115. Line up a field of briar patches ahead of time and have at it, bunnies beware.
- • Well, here we go. The Game Commission is changing the title of those officers who spend time in the field back to an old familiar name. It has taken me such a long time to get used to the new old name Conservation Officer. I still find myself referring to them as Game Wardens. Now they are going back to Game Warden and I can relax.
Honestly, it has raised a bit of a ruckus. Does the name really matter that much? Remember that line by Shakespeare: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” It doesn’t improve or set back proper game management except in a trivial matter like time spent arguing over a name or title. This stands in the way of spending time on important matters.
One other thing of note from the Game Commission meeting was a preliminary vote on the use of semi-auto shotguns with slugs statewide. The semi-auto shotgun has been legal for deer hunting in special regulation areas, such as Allegheny County, for some time. I really don’t like to see slug hunting in any area and consider them more dangerous than certain rifles. Speed in a projectile prevents ricochet and the big and heavy lumbering slug tends to bounce around and penetrate brush quite a bit. The slug will travel 2,000 yards and the rifle bullet more than 4,000. Sounds like a good reason for favoring a shotgun doesn’t it? But the penetration and ricochet factor neutralizes any advantage the shotgun has. This leads to another article for another time about ballistics and drawing conclusions.