Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 30, 1995 TAG: 9501310024
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
You raise your muzzleloading rifle and peer through the open sights. The deer is gone.
You lower your rifle a few inches and see the deer standing exactly where it was when you tried to take aim. You raise the rifle again and realize that the iron sights are blotting out your view of the target.
If you are approaching senior-citizen status or have poor eyesight, looking through iron sights can be difficult in all but perfect light. That could mean Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, has a bill for you. Kilgore has introduced legislation in the General Assembly that would authorize the use of telescopic sights on black-powder rifles during the special muzzleloading season.
On the other hand, if you believe the muzzleloading season should remain primitive and not be viewed as just another chance to kill a deer, then a bill by Del. Watkins Abbitt, D-Appomattox, may be more to your liking. It would prohibit the use of anything other than iron sights during the muzzleloading season.
"The [Department of Game and Inland Fisheries] board already has prohibited the use of telescopic sights on muzzleloaders," said Larry Hart, the agency's assistant director. "This [Kilgore's bill] would set it in code and the department no longer would have authority to decide," he said.
While the board has eased restrictions on muzzleloading equipment in the past, including the authorization of in-line rifles, it has opposed efforts to legalize telescopic sights.
Still another bill, this one introduced by Del. Lacey Putney, Ind.-Bedford, would require hunters to wear blaze orange during the muzzleloading season.
Hunting deaths more than doubled the past fall. Several occurred during the primitive firearms season, when the wearing of blaze orange isn't mandatory.
"This was not a real good hunting season from a fatality standpoint," said Bill Woodfin, executive director of the game department. "We are right now going through the information trying to analyze it."
Some of the accidents involved self-inflicted wounds, which means they likely would have occurred even if blaze orange had been required, he said.
"I think what we will learn is that we need to work on the education end," said Woodfin. "There isn't anything that says you can't wear more blaze orange than required by law."
Abbitt also has introduced a bill that would make it illegal to use anything other than a shotgun during the spring gobbler season. That concept has been supported by the Wild Turkey Federation for a number of years.
Sportsmen who use hounds to pursue game have expressed concern over a bill introduced by Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, that would require them to give a landowner written notice before following their dogs onto private property. Hunters currently can follow their hounds onto private property when the chase begins elsewhere as long as no guns or bows are carried and no vehicles are used.
Other bills would:
Establish a bear hunting license at the cost of $3 for residents, $15 for non-residents.
Require boaters to operate a watercraft at "no-wake" speed within 50 feet of the shoreline or a dock at Smith Mountain Lake.
Prohibit the hunting of swans.
Allow disabled bowhunters to use a crossbow on property they lease or on private property with written permission of the landowner. Crossbow use currently is limited to land owned by a disabled hunter.
Prohibit the use of deer and bear damage permits from midnight to 6 a.m.
Allow localities to pass an ordinance that would limit the operation of a personal watercraft within 100 feet of the shoreline.
Let disabled hunters shoot antlerless deer from a stationary vehicle anytime during an open deer season.
Put non-native mammal shooting preserves under Department of Game and Inland Fisheries regulations, and limit the hunting to sheep, goats and hogs.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995
by CNB