Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 29, 1990 TAG: 9004300259
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: bill cochran/outdoor editor
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In mid-March, department board members proposed a week-long black-powder deer season for Nov. 12-17, which would put hunters with primitive firearms in the woods a week before the regular deer season.
Some board members admitted they weren't excited over the proposal, but they said they wanted to see what hunters thought about it before taking final action at their May 11 board meeting in Richmond.
With decision time nearing, what are hunters saying?
Not much.
The proposal has brought a rather low-key response, which means the board is left on its own with the task of finalizing the season.
Some of the sportsmen contacting Leon Turner, a board member from the Roanoke Valley, are saying, "We don't want the special license."
That's not the issue, Turner said.
"There is no use calling me and opposing the license," said Turner. "I can't do anything about it. It is a law for the coming season."
The question to be decided: What should hunters get for their $12?
Most board members say it should be something in addition to the current Dec. 18-Jan. 6 black-powder season, which puts hunters afield after the regular deer season and during a time when the weather can turn nasty.
A $12 license with no benefits would be an unfair move against black-powder shooters, said Dr. John Eby of Roanoke, an official of the Virginia Muzzle Loader Rifle Association.
"I think that would be a terrible, terrible thing," said Eby, a proponent of an early season. "It would ruin muzzle-loading hunting. It would take something that is already at an unpleasant time of the year and add $12 to that."
State game biologists had recommended an early muzzle-loading season for the eastern part of the state only, but board members expanded it to statewide. The biologists worried that an early season west of the Blue Ridge Mountains would put too much pressure on public hunting lands, particularly in areas where deer herds only recently have been established.
"We already have had complaints of too much hunting pressure on the public lands before this issue came up," said Jack Randolph, assistant chief of the game and fish department. "I think the question being asked by most managers is: `Can public lands take an extra week of hunting pressure?"
Board chairman Ely Jones Jr. of Tazewell believes the answer is no.
"I don't think right now our deer herd [in Western Virginia] can stand five weeks of gun hunting," he said.
Jones said he had no opposition to an early season in the east, but his reservations about the west are based on the input of wildlife biologists.
"If they don't recommend it, I don't think it is a wise thing to do," he said.
But how can you charge hunters in the western part of the state $12 without giving them something in return, Eby and Turner ask.
What you give them, Jones said, is a more liberal late season.
Under the proposal, the new license would contain one deer tag, good for a buck only during the black-powder season. Officials say that once the tag is filled, a hunter could use tags from his regular big-game license during the black-powder season.
Denny Quaiff, an official of the Virginia Deer Hunters Association, said his organization will support the board's proposal for an early season. The association won't argue if board members recommend it for the east only, he said.
"All the eastern clubs I have had any dealings with have been supporting it," he said.
The season still would afford an opportunity for hunting in the east, where hunting with hounds is a tradition, said Quaiff. It also would bring the game department additional revenue.
Estimates suggest that the license could net the agency $250,000 annually.
An early season would add advocates to the ranks of muzzle loaders, Randolph said.
"I am a muzzle loader myself," he said. "Once you get into the sport, you are taken by it."
To go with the infatuation, an early season would put muzzle loaders afield when deer are undisturbed, when the rut is peaking and when the weather is favorable, he said.
So many hunters may be attracted that the special season would upstage the regular gun season, Jones said.
"If that early week is instituted, basically all that we are going to be doing is moving the deer season a week early," he said. "If that passes, I predict in a three-year period you are going to see the muzzle-loading deer kill about as high as the first week of gun season is now."
by CNB