WHAT HUNTERS NEED IS A NOVEMBER WITH 16 WEEKS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 21, 1993                   TAG: 9302220276
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Bill Cochran
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
WHAT HUNTERS NEED IS A NOVEMBER WITH 16 WEEKS
Wildlife biologists have been traveling across the state listening to what sportsmen have to say about regulations that will govern the coming hunting seasons.
Before the town meetings began, many people were saying that the big problem was an overabundance of deer. As it turned out, that wasn't the case. The real problem is, there aren't enough weeks in November.
Here are some of the more popular suggestions under consideration:
Add an extra week to the two-week firearms deer season west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Lengthen the five-week early bow season.
Make the one-week-early muzzleloading season a two-week affair.
All this sounds nice, but how do you put it on the calendar? Remember, you have to allow some time for small-game hunting. Grouse hunters say they don't want to take their dogs afield while there is a deer season in progress. And bear hunters, who enjoyed their very first Sept. 5-Oct. 3 chase season, want that doubled in size.
The two-week firearms deer season traditionally opens the third Monday in November. It would be difficult to expand it by starting it a week earlier. For one thing, many hunters already have marked down the third week of November as vacation time. And if you did start it a week earlier, that would bump it into the muzzle-loading season. So about the only thing left would be to extend the firearms deer season into December.
That means, if you were to double the size of the muzzleloading season, you would have to begin it a week earlier - the first Monday of November rather than the second. So bowhunters would be sharing the deer woods with muzzleloaders for two weeks instead of one. Some archers don't like that idea.
Well, you could begin the bow season earlier if you wanted to avoid conflict with the muzzleloading season. That would push its opening date to the first Saturday in October. And if you wanted to lengthen it, as many suggest, you'd have to start even earlier, say mid- to late September.
Bowhunters don't like that, because it would mean they would have to share the woods longer with squirrel hunters. If you are a bowhunter in a tree stand, you can get a little queasy when squirrel hunters are stalking the forest floor beneath you.
Besides, bowhunters don't want to give up the November portion of their season. That's when the rut hits, that magical time when big bucks are most likely to be on the prowl during the daytime - and doing stupid things in the name of love.
Let's don't forget grouse hunters. If the firearms deer season goes a week later and the muzzleloading season starts a week earlier, that's two weeks chopped from the sport of hunters who enjoy sending their dogs after this woodland game bird. The same can be said of quail and turkey hunters.
And remember that the bear hunters are waiting in the wings for an extra month of chasing. Would you give them that by starting the season in August or by extending it into October?
Don't forget, you've already shoved part of the bow season all the way into September, so you have bear hunters and bowhunters in the woods at the same time. Archers say bear hounds would disrupt their sport, which thrives on tranquility.
And the bear hunters don't have much love for archers, because they have been killing a good many bear.
So what is the answer?
A November that has about 16 weeks.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB