Monday begins what had, for most of my life, been known as “buck season.” Many of us simply referred to it as “deer season.”
The season began on the Monday following Thanksgiving and ran for two weeks, followed by a two- or three-day “doe” season. Opening day was a big deal back then before we had all these other deer seasons starting in October. The season opener was a very big deal, even the schools would close for the day. All that changed a few years ago with the beginning of a “concurrent” two-week season in which either antlered or antlerless deer could be taken. The concurrent season was part of the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s deer herd reduction program, and I believe, it was the part that raised the hackles on many hunters more than any other facet of the new deer management program.
Back in the old days, some of us would roll into camp on Black Friday, others would arrive on Saturday, and those who actually took their family responsibilities seriously, would straggle in on Sunday. We’d hunt bucks (anything with a three-inch spike was legal) for three days or so, head home and then head back up to camp for the doe hunt. It was tradition, and great fun for all involved.
I missed the deer season last year, save for the October “old-geezer” season. That won’t be the case this year. We’ll have three guys for the first three days this year, then we’ll head home and I’ll return with another friend or two for the second week. In our Wildlife Management Unit we’re now back to five days of buck hunting followed by seven days of buck or doe. It’ll almost feel like old times.
The deer population around our camp in northern Clinton County had remained pretty stable over the past few years. We certainly don’t have the deer we had 15 or 20 years ago, but we seem to have a lot more than they have in some other areas. I didn’t see many during the October senior/junior season, but, truth be told, I didn’t hunt very hard. The way some hunters talk about the deer population in their neck of the woods, I’m looking for the government to add the whitetail to the endangered species list. Some disgruntled hunters would go even further and say that they’ve gone extinct. The truth is probably somewhere between the two extremes, as it usually is.
I’m getting to the point where I’m tired of getting all upset by every move the PGC makes. It used to be that religion and politics were forbidden topics when making small talk. In recent years we’ve added the Pennsylvania Game Commission to that list. I’ve seen some otherwise soft spoken, easy-going people go absolutely ballistic when the agency’s doings came up in idle conversation. I think from now on I’ll just feign illness, and excuse myself when talk turns to PGC policies. I think I’ll let others sort things out and just go hunting whatever the commission says is legal to hunt at that particular time. Starting Monday, that’s deer, with at least three points to a side.
-- E-mail comments to jdsteese@yahoo.com.
Sports
Pining for days of old
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Shikellamy Braves rally to stay alive
SELINSGROVE — With 11 losses, the Shikellamy girls basketball team is teetering on the brink of elimination from the District 4 Class AAA playoffs. And on Wednesday night, it looked like the Braves were going to go quietly into the offseason when Selinsgrove built a 14-point lead early in the third quarter.
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They learn to be tough young
It's difficult to recall exactly how the sequence unfolded because it happened so darn fast. Shikellamy made a couple baskets, and the crowd began to stir. It was still anybody's game, and the Braves had some momentum late in the third quarter of a recent run with Danville.
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Motorsports: Selinsgrove, Lincoln speedways to host 360 sprint series
MECHANICSBURG -- Mach 1 Chassis of Mechanicsburg will be the title sponsor of the Mid-Atlantic 360 Sprint Car Championship Series, a $120,000 six-race tour that will include five shows at Selinsgrove Speedway and one event at Lincoln Speedway in 2012.
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Girls basketball: Records fall, Red Tornadoes stay unbeaten
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT -- An overflow crowd zealously cheered Tierney Pfirman's pursuit of the South Williamsport scoring record throughout Tuesday's game, until their breathless faces matched the Mounties' royal blue.
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High school roundup: Rosini pin lifts Ironmen over Tigers
DANVILLE -- Steven Rosini's pin over Connor Houseknecht in 37 seconds in the final bout of the day at 132 pounds prevented disaster for Danville as the Ironmen pulled out a 40-36 Heartland Athletic Conference crossover victory on Tuesday.
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College sports notebook: Antensteiner starts, finishes fast
ANVILLE -- Ines Antensteiner, a member of the powerful Lewisburg girls track & field team for the past four seasons wasted little time making her presence felt in college. On Monday, Antensteiner, a freshman at Lebanon Valley, was named the Middle Atlantic Conference's Indoor Track & Field Athlete of the Week after a pair of event wins at Saturday's Ducharme Invitational.
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Bill Bowman's column on college sports: Tale of two teams in the clutch
Because basketball season is so long it is easy to forget that one or two moments in a single game can essentially make or break an entire season. While teams might play 30 games or so, most of them come down to a couple of possessions, spots where one little thing can be the difference between winning and losing, between making the postseason tournament or turning in the uniforms.
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Sports court strips Contador of 2010 Tour title
MADRID -- Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title Monday and banned for two years after sports' highest court found the Spanish cyclist guilty of doping. The Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the three-time Tour champion after rejecting his claim that his positive test for clenbuterol was caused by eating contaminated meat on a 2010 Tour rest day.
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H.S. boys basketball: Selinsgrove rallies to top Southern Columbia
CATAWISSA -- In a battle between two schools better known for their football programs, Monday's game between host Southern Columbia and Selinsgrove naturally featured plenty of physical play. After a combined 43 fouls and 55 free-throw attempts, the Seals finally pulled it out. Reserve guard Tyler Krebs made five foul shots in the final minute and a half in Selinsgrove's 54-53 victory.
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High School Bowling: Kratzer, Hartranft take home Pro-Am titles
SUNBURY -- The name might have changed, but the results were the same. Now called the 13th annual Best Bowl/Strike Zone High School Pro-Am Scholarship Challenge, the two-day tournament was another success as it pitted some of the Valley's best young bowlers against each other in friendly competition.
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