Outdoors: Small game on menu with Oct. 17 opening
By BOB SAMPSON
sports@norwichbulletin.com
Posted Oct 07, 2009
On Oct. 17, the small game season opens. The good news for bird hunters is that pheasant are being stocked for this fall. Last winter, there was some concern that pheasant stocking would be halted due to budgetary problems.
Pheasant hunting wasn’t lost this year because sportsmen pay their way and always have.
Millions of dollars of income paid to this and every other state in the nation linked to federally funded programs that are supported through excise taxes that sportsmen have paid for decades on their equipment could be lost if specific guidelines designed to prevent looting of these funds by hungry state budget-balancers are not followed.
Hunters all have this information in their regulation books but those who don’t may be concerned when they hear shots at the local lake or river on or around Oct. 14. That’s the opening day for the Connecticut waterfowl hunting season. Current regulations are available when you buy your state and federal duck stamps.
With the Conservation Fund somehow behind, absorbed by the tentacles of the general fund, we as sportsmen who pay to play must be vigilant in keeping an eye on Connecticut legislators. In the past, every time budgets get tight, legislators who don’t hunt or fish eye those dollars that directly support outdoorsmen. Thus far, the funds haven’t been ransacked, but be aware that we are always in jeopardy when money gets tight.
For this and reasons too numerous to name here, remember who voted for what the next time you pull a voting lever. You can check on who did what at www.ctsportsmen.com
Deer hunting outlook
One important factor to bow hunters is the annual mast crop, specifically the acorns that drop to the ground this time of year.
Deer can increase their body weight by nearly 25 percent by eating this high-caloric food item, so wherever there are acorns on the ground — especially the small red acorns — you will find deer.
The problem is the mast crop is never uniform. Like everything else in nature, it is clumped in distribution. Last year, I had only a few acorns dropping from the oaks in my yard while this year I’m nearly turning my ankles on them when walking in the yard.
In talking to a handful of hunting buddies who have been scouting the oak groves in their respective hunting territories — ranging from Salem to Franklin — three out of the four have reported a good acorn drop.
This year, with acorns apparently in good numbers in this corner of the state, bow hunters should hunt the stands of oak on their properties to increase their odds of tagging a deer with an arrow.
Look out for fiction
Thanks to Norwich Bulletin fact-checking — something that’s not done to many of the e-mails we all receive through the web — a serious fact has come to light about supposed hunting-related legislation.
According to the Web site, truthorfiction.com, a supposed Senate bill that was passed behind closed doors requiring Americans to report all firearms and pay a $50 tax on them is, in fact, fiction.
Evidently, according to the Web site, someone misinterpreted a Senate bill that was not passed.
Those of us who have received multiple e-mails, like me, from the many outdoors-oriented people out in the real — rather than cyber — world, can stop forwarding this erroneous information around the Web.
This time of year, when the wind is not blowing too hard to go out on the ocean in a boat and fish effectively, or sit in a tree-stand and make a straight shot, all we can do is wait for the calm after the storm. It is the turbulence that comes with the annual switch from summer to winter.
By BOB SAMPSON
sports@norwichbulletin.com
Posted Oct 07, 2009
On Oct. 17, the small game season opens. The good news for bird hunters is that pheasant are being stocked for this fall. Last winter, there was some concern that pheasant stocking would be halted due to budgetary problems.
Pheasant hunting wasn’t lost this year because sportsmen pay their way and always have.
Millions of dollars of income paid to this and every other state in the nation linked to federally funded programs that are supported through excise taxes that sportsmen have paid for decades on their equipment could be lost if specific guidelines designed to prevent looting of these funds by hungry state budget-balancers are not followed.
Hunters all have this information in their regulation books but those who don’t may be concerned when they hear shots at the local lake or river on or around Oct. 14. That’s the opening day for the Connecticut waterfowl hunting season. Current regulations are available when you buy your state and federal duck stamps.
With the Conservation Fund somehow behind, absorbed by the tentacles of the general fund, we as sportsmen who pay to play must be vigilant in keeping an eye on Connecticut legislators. In the past, every time budgets get tight, legislators who don’t hunt or fish eye those dollars that directly support outdoorsmen. Thus far, the funds haven’t been ransacked, but be aware that we are always in jeopardy when money gets tight.
For this and reasons too numerous to name here, remember who voted for what the next time you pull a voting lever. You can check on who did what at www.ctsportsmen.com
Deer hunting outlook
One important factor to bow hunters is the annual mast crop, specifically the acorns that drop to the ground this time of year.
Deer can increase their body weight by nearly 25 percent by eating this high-caloric food item, so wherever there are acorns on the ground — especially the small red acorns — you will find deer.
The problem is the mast crop is never uniform. Like everything else in nature, it is clumped in distribution. Last year, I had only a few acorns dropping from the oaks in my yard while this year I’m nearly turning my ankles on them when walking in the yard.
In talking to a handful of hunting buddies who have been scouting the oak groves in their respective hunting territories — ranging from Salem to Franklin — three out of the four have reported a good acorn drop.
This year, with acorns apparently in good numbers in this corner of the state, bow hunters should hunt the stands of oak on their properties to increase their odds of tagging a deer with an arrow.
Look out for fiction
Thanks to Norwich Bulletin fact-checking — something that’s not done to many of the e-mails we all receive through the web — a serious fact has come to light about supposed hunting-related legislation.
According to the Web site, truthorfiction.com, a supposed Senate bill that was passed behind closed doors requiring Americans to report all firearms and pay a $50 tax on them is, in fact, fiction.
Evidently, according to the Web site, someone misinterpreted a Senate bill that was not passed.
Those of us who have received multiple e-mails, like me, from the many outdoors-oriented people out in the real — rather than cyber — world, can stop forwarding this erroneous information around the Web.
This time of year, when the wind is not blowing too hard to go out on the ocean in a boat and fish effectively, or sit in a tree-stand and make a straight shot, all we can do is wait for the calm after the storm. It is the turbulence that comes with the annual switch from summer to winter.