ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 31, 1997 TAG: 9703310120
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN/OUTDOOR EDITOR
LAST season, if you had the time, skill and inclination - not to mention a freezer big enough to drive a truck through - you could kill 156 deer under Virginia's liberal hunting regulations. Deer hunting started in early October and continued into January, with a two-per day limit. When you used up all the kill tags on your hunting license, you could buy an unlimited supply of bonus tags.
While the 156 deer limit weighed more heavily in theory than reality, it underscored a view that Virginia had an overabundant supply of deer that could use a thinning, a concept applauded by the agricultural business community.
For the coming season, officials of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries have proposed much more restrictive regulations that include fewer hunting days and a seasonal limit of five - instead of 156 - deer.
The recommendations come following a careful look at hunting trends by wildlife biologists; however, no one person has played a more predominant role in the turn toward conservatism than a hunter from North Carolina. He was pictured in a Knight muzzleloading publication with five nice bucks laid out in a row that he reported killed in five days during a Virginia hunt last season.
``That thing just caused a tremendous amount of calls into us,'' said Matt Knox, wildlife biologist in charge of the department's deer management program.
Many hunters, Knox said, were indignant over what they called ``game hog buck hunters - the guy who is going out there and killing 10 bucks a year. It wasn't that we didn't know about it, but that one picture tells the whole story.''
Many of big bucks are being killed during the two-week early muzzleloading season, a period that accounted for 39 percent of all bucks taken last year west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. What's more, nearly 29 percent of the fall-killed turkeys were bagged by muzzleloaders, a trend that is impacting the department's new program to cut back on the fall kill.
There is a concern that a disproportionate number of bucks are being killed prior to the general firearms season, said Bob Duncan, chief of the department's game division. Forty-five percent of the deer hunters are afield only during the general firearms season, he said.
As a result, proposals are in place that would apply the brakes most severely on the early muzzleloading season west of the Blue Ridge, where a one-week deer season with a Nov. 10 opening and a one-buck limit is recommended. The impact would impact more than just deer hunting.
``The change also increases the opportunity for turkey and grouse hunters who have expressed a desire to be in the woods without an overlap with deer hunters,'' Duncan said.
But delaying the start of the western muzzleloading season is crushing to sportsmen who have set vacations that align with last year's earlier opening day.
``Many hunters, like myself, have chosen the week of Nov. 2 through Nov. 8 as our vacations and cannot change our selections,'' said Ronnie Bell of Salem. ``With the one buck limit, it shouldn't make any difference which week you score.''
Mike Roberts, of Evington, applauds the proposed reduced season length.
``Ever-improving firearm designs, projectiles, powders and the use of scopes have greatly diluted the intent of our primitive hunting season,'' he said. ``Originally, the one week season was designed to give sportsmen - which includes the ladies - a chance to peer into the window of our American heritage and experience hunting challenges governed by the limits of front-loading firearms.''
One question likely to be asked during hearings this week is why make the western muzzleloading bag limit a buck only if the idea is to cut back on the take of antlered deer? Why not permit the killing of a doe? That issue even had game officials divided, Knox said.
Division also was expressed over the use of jacketed or copper projectiles for black-powder guns, a concept supported by the Virginia Deer Hunters Association. The association said that while the recommended projectiles may be a bit more modern than lead bullets, they also are more humane.
Game department board members gave the proposal a slim 5-to-4 approval, which means comments made during public hearings could swing the final, early-May vote either way.
The proposals that trim hunting days and bag limits would have the most impact on hunters who have been killing six or more deer per season, Knox said. They won't make much difference for the average sportsmen who is happy to get one deer. In fact, Knox predicts the proposed one-deer-per-day limit for all seasons west of the Blue Ridge will be popular with the average sportsman.
``Half the deer hunters don't kill a deer, and most of the rest only kill one'' he said. ``These limits always were pie in the sky to the average deer hunter.''
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Color chart & illustrations by Robert Lunsford.by CNB