king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Hunting Illustrated April/May 2008 - Index

Scott Grange
W e’ve
been so busy battling
the anti-gun and anti-hunting
forces that we might have
missed a big one right under our
noses - state fi sh and game agencies
that establish our hunting seasons.
Huh?
I’ll admit this may be a
reach, but maybe not. The way many
hunting seasons are set up is eroding
our gun rights and jeopardizing our
hunting heritage. For instance, you
cannot hunt deer in Ohio, Iowa or
Illinois (and probably a lot of other
states) with a modern, centerfi re rifl e.
Ostensibly this is for safety reasons,
but I’ve seen no statistics that show
higher accidents per participant in
Missouri, South Dakota or Minnesota
where centerfi res are legal. How
many .270s, .243s and 300 WSMs
languish on dealer shelves because
thousands of deer hunters in these
anti-rifl e states aren’t allowed to use
them?
But wait! There’s more.
Many states, coincidentally overrun
with whitetails, hold open fi rearms
deer seasons for just three or four days
per year. As the kids ask, “What’s
up with that?” If a crowded Eastern
state like South Carolina can host an
open rifl e deer season that’s nearly
three months long, why must Illinois
18 HUNTING ILLUSTRATED.com
THE
DUELING DUO
Choose Your Weapon
Are hunting seasons pushing anti-gun?
CON
By Ron Spomer
Views from both sides of the fence
restrict theirs to one three-day season
followed by another four-day season a
week later? Such tight schedules lead
to frenetic if not frantic behavior in
which frustrated hunters are pressured
into cutting corners and bending, if not
breaking, laws. Quick. Shoot before
someone else does. Take a risky shot
because it might be the only one you
get before the season is over. There are
no second chances, no time to pattern a
buck, no time to gain permission to hunt
the other side of a fence line, no time to
wait for a better shot, no time to practice
the highest, ethical woodsmanship and
hunt a deer properly. Just shoot. Such
crazy, ridiculously short seasons don’t
justify unethical or illegal behavior, but
they sure encourage it.
Another example of anti-gun
regulations are archery deer seasons. In
most jurisdictions these seasons open in
September or October and sometimes
run right up to the abbreviated gun
season in late November or early
December. Then they reopen for another
month or two. Naturally, this provides
wonderful opportunities for bowhunters
who get the time to hunt the right way.
They also get the fi rst opportunities and
the best opportunities. They hunt the
summer pattern bucks, pre-rut bucks,
rutting bucks and often wintering bucks
that are concentrated on low elevation
fi elds and valleys. They kill many of
the biggest, oldest, monster bucks of the
year before rifl e hunters are allowed out
of the house.
That’s all well and good if the
5DUELING5
Ron Spomer
resource isn’t compromised by the
pressure, and it rarely is. But why
the bias in favor of bowhunters?
Why should they get all the breaks,
all the best opportunities and all that
time in the fi eld? Because rifl es are
more effi cient at harvesting game?
That’s the only semi-legitimate
reason I can think of. But who gave
government bureaucrats the power
to tell us, the unwashed masses who
own the wildlife in this country, that
we must limit ourselves in weapon
selection for harvesting our meat?
And if they can, why don’t they
shorten the bow season and offer a
spear season? That would bring in
even more license sales and impact
the resource even less. Take this to
its conclusion and we’d all be limited
to camera seasons.
Am I overreacting? Sure.
But these are still legitimate points.
As our out-of-control human
population continues to gobble up
wildlife habitat, gun restrictions
continue to limit hunting options.
Idaho, for goodness sakes, already
has bow or shotgun-only deer hunting
zones. So does Montana. Certainly
we don’t want 338 Magnums going
off in suburban deer habitat, that’s the
place for arrows. But why must rifl e
hunters stay home for three months
while archers roam the backwoods
and wilderness?
A simple argument is
to shut up and start bowhunting.
Sorry. Been doing that since 1967.