Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 7, 1993 TAG: 9306070135
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Cochran
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's not a great choice. But a hunter can get the eerie feeling he must decide as debates heat up over a proposal that would make the spring season a shotguns-only affair beginning next year.
The measure is just one of a number of proposals (see our chart) scheduled for final consideration by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries in Richmond June 18, but it is dominating issues that included longer muzzle-loading and bow seasons, more days for doe hunting and an earlier opening and closing for the grouse season. It not only has split the hunting fraternity, but also has divided game department board members who must make the decision.
Tom Cash, of Cedar Bluff, who represents the 9th Congressional District on the board, is opposed to outlawing rifles and combination guns during the spring season.
"People out this way are rifle people," he said. Who is to say that stalking a gobbler with a rifle is any less sporting or any more dangerous than hunting it with a shotgun? he asks. And what happens to the hunters who have spent thousands of dollars for combination shotgun-rifles?
Leon Turner of Fincastle represents the 6th District and favors the proposal. It is a safety factor, in his opinion. Your chance for survival is much greater when hit with a shotgun, he said. In support of the proposal, Turner cites an accident that occurred last spring in the George Washington National Forest when a hunter was mistaken for a turkey at 192 feet and killed with a scoped .243 rifle.
"I feel like it is up to the board to make hunting as safe as we possibly can make it. If we can save one person's life, I think it is well worth it."
But Cash sees the safety factor as "being shot full of holes." There have been 110 accidents since the spring season began in 1962, and 88 percent have involved shotguns. It makes you wonder if the proposal isn't directed at the wrong type of firearm, he said.
The National Wild Turkey Federation often has stated that a turkey is too magnificent a bird to be ambushed from a long distance with a rifle. It should be called to within shotgun range, or left alone.
The Virginia State Chapter of the organization, however, is supporting the shotguns-only proposal strictly as a safety - not ethics - issue, said its president, Gerald Duncan of Newport. The chapter was misrepresented by this column on May 16 when ethics was stated as a consideration, he said.
Safety is the factor, because interest in spring hunting has been increasing at an explosive rate, and a large number of the sportsmen it has attracted are inexperienced, Duncan said.
"It's just plain scary to me," he told board members. "I sincerely believe the ban would make us all feel safer, more secure, and more comfortable."
Virginia is one of only nine states that permit rifles during the spring season, he said. Most of the others are in the West. The lower occurrence of rifle-caused accidents in Virginia reflects the fact that most hunters use shotguns, not that rifles are safer, he said.
"When you work out the percentages, then you see that you are four times more likely to die [if hit by a rifle vs. being hit by a shotgun.]"
As for how the final vote will go, Turner said: "It will be a tossup."
Turner hopes to ease some of the controversy by rewriting the proposal in a way that combination guns could be used during the spring season as long as shotgun shells are the only ammunition taken afield.
by CNB