Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 18, 1995 TAG: 9503210038
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Outdoorsmen are being asked to give up as many as four weeks of fall turkey hunting with a promise from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries that the lost days in the woods eventually will lead to more birds in their sights.
A five-week season proposed Friday by the department's 11-member board was endorsed by the Virginia Wild Turkey Federation. It drew minimal opposition from sportsmen who hold the state's tradition of fall hunting in high esteem.
The proposed season would open the last Monday in October, run for two weeks, close for four weeks, then reopen for three additional weeks. That would remove turkey hunting from the first two weeks of deer season, when the greatest number of the birds have been killed in the past. It also would give turkey hunters a week in the woods before the muzzleloader hunters move afield.
``It is our expectation that the turkey population would double in five years and quadruple in 10 years,'' said Gary Norman, the upland game bird research biologist for the department.
Last year, the fall season in the Roanoke Valley and surrounding counties lasted nine weeks, from Nov.7-Jan.7. That made it the longest fall season in the nation, Norman said. It was a week shorter in the Piedmont and Northern Mountain areas, where turkey hunting was not permitted the first week of the deer season.
In another departure from tradition, game officials proposed that scopes be permitted on black-powder guns during the special muzzleloading season. Only peep and open sights had been permitted.
``You can put a scope on a bow, you can put a scope on a shotgun, you can put a scope on a rifle. As far as I know, [a black-powder gun] is the only gun you can't put a scope on,'' said Denny Quaff, the executive director of the Virginia Deer Hunters Association. A survey of deer association members showed support for scopes.
The game board's proposal does not limit the size or type of scope that could be used.
These proposals, and others, will be open to public input during a series of hearings across the state in April, including one at Cave Spring High School at 7 p.m. April 4. The proposals then would be subject to a final vote of the board in Richmond on May 4 and 5.
Several adjustments to deer hunting regulations were proposed Friday, most designed to reduce the number of female deer killed on national forest and state-owned hunting areas.
``On public lands, the number of deer being harvested is declining while it is increasing on private lands,'' said Bob Duncan, chief of the department's game division. ``By puling back on the number of doe days on public lands we think we can address the issue.''
The proposals call for limiting either-sex hunting to the two Saturdays of the season on public land in Alleghany, Augusta, Bath, Bland, Carroll, Craig, Giles, Highland, Montgomery, Pulaski, Roanoke, Rockbridge and Wythe counties.
In Grayson County, either-sex hunting on public land would be permitted only on the first Saturday of the season.
On private land in Roanoke and Grayson counties, either-sex hunting would be expanded to encompass the entire two weeks of the gun season.
Smyth County would have one doe day - the first Saturday of the season - and Wise County would have a bucks-only season.
by CNB