Archery continues to grow in Oklahoma schools
Students take aim in the 2010 Archery in the Schools state tournament in March at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City.
The Archery in the Schools program will have regional contests as qualifiers for the state tournament next year.
The program, administered by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, teaches students Olympic style archery in physical education classes – fourth grade through 12th grade – at public and private schools.
A state archery tournament is held every spring between schools and last March a record 250 schools and 1,672 students participated in the one day meet.
“It’s grown to big for a single state tournament,” said Justin Marschall, coordinator for the Archery in the Schools program.
At least 30 new schools join the program each year, Marschall said.
So beginning in February, five regional archery contests will be held in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, McAlester and Chickasha.
The top five boys and girls from each division at the regionals will advance to the 2011 state tournament on March 23.
The state tournament will be held in the Travel and Transportation Building on the state fairgounds in Oklahoma City.
A dumb hunting law
Carl Moore of Oklahoma City took this white buck in Logan County during deer muzzleloader season, but he had written permission from the state wildlife director.
Former state representative Terry Harrison, D-McAlester, killed a piebald deer on his land shortly after Thanksgiving.
He was proud of the unique trophy. He called his local newspaper, the McAlester News-Capital, and the newspaper published a photo.
Then a friend of his who happens to be a game warden informed Harrison that he first needed written permission from the state wildlife director before shooting such a deer.
Harrison, who did not seek re-election this year, didn’t know about the regulation and turned himself in to another game warden. Harrison was fined $296.
It was a deserving fine. Every hunter is expected to know the regulations, especially a former lawmaker who served on the House wildlife committee and helped write some of the state’s hunting rules.
But this is a dumb and unnecessary hunting law. All it does is inconvenience hunters who come across a white deer or piebald deer (which is a deer with a combination of spots) in the field.
Since 1998, the law has required Oklahoma deer hunters to first obtain written permission from the state wildlife director before harvesting a white or piebald deer.
It was passed after a Guthrie hunter killed a piebald buck in Logan County in 1997, upsetting some who didn’t like the fact that such an unusual deer was killed. Some Native Americans believe white deer are sacred animals.
White or piebald deer are just like any other whitetail deer except they are a different color. The white color phase and spots are the result of a genetic mutation.
There are pockets of such deer around the state, including in Pittsburg County and Logan County.
Two or three white or piebald deer are killed every year in Oklahoma by hunters. There has been at least one harvested in Logan County each of the past four years.
The regulation may appease anti-hunters who think white and piebald deer need protecting, but neither the present state wildlife director nor his predecessor has ever denied anyone permission to hunt them.
So the regulation is useless, except maybe to make the wallets of unknowing hunters like Harrison a little lighter.
Should turkey season be shortened?
Wild turkeys enjoy an autumn morning in Logan County
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has scheduled its annual public meetings next month to discuss proposed changes in hunting and fishing regulations.
The only controversial change is likely to be the proposal to shorten the spring turkey season in several counties and wildlife management areas in southeastern Oklahoma and reduce the bag limit there from two toms to one.
The counties where spring turkey season would be shortened are Coal, Pittsburg, Latimer, Le Flore, McCurtain, Pushmataha, Choctaw and Atoka.
Under the proposal, spring turkey season in those southeast counties would start on the Monday following the third Saturday in April and run through May 6.
The month-long spring turkey season currently begins on April 6 statewide.
State wildlife officials proposed these same changes in May to the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission to address population declines of wild turkeys in southeastern Oklahoma.
Population estimates on wild turkeys in southeastern Oklahoma were as high as 35,000 in 2005. Now, they are 19,000, said Joe Hemphill, southeast wildlife supervisor for the Wildlife Department.
At the time, the commission took no action on the Wildlife Department’s request as commissioners representing those counties questioned the data.
State wildlife officials then decided to wait and submit the proposed regulation change during the public hearing process to get input from hunters.
Public hearings are scheduled Jan. 4 in McAlester at the Kiamichi Vo-Tech and Jan. 6 in Idabel and Oklahoma City.
In Idabel, the hearing will be at the Kiamichi Vo-Tech while the Oklahoma City meeting will be held at the state Wildlife Department office, 1801 N. Lincoln.
All public hearings begin at 7 p.m.
Sportsmen can view all of the proposed regulation changes and comment online at http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/publichearing.htm
Oklahoma trophy deer worth $5,000
It will cost poachers more money in the future for illegally killing deer and other Oklahoma wildlife
Killing a trophy deer in Oklahoma may cost a poacher $5,000 in the future.
Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed a bill creating harsher penalties for illegally killing wildlife in Oklahoma and making financial restitution to the state mandatory.
As part of the law, state wildlife officials had to create a restitution schedule, setting a guideline for judges to determine an animal’s financial worth.
On Monday, the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission approved a wildlife restitution schedule which set the value of a trophy deer, bear, antelope, elk or mountain lion from $2,000 to $5,000.
Killing a hawk, bald or golden eagle or owl could cost a poacher as much $2,500 in restitution.
Restitution for any threatened or endangered species could be as much as $5,000 while turkeys were valued from $250 to $500.
Most trophy fish were valued at $100 but killing an endangered species of fish could cost the culprit as much as $5,000.
Paddlefish were valued at $18.98 per pound.
Ken Cook in the Hall of Fame
Oklahoma's Ken Cook will be inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame in February
Ken Cook is going in the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame.
Cook, 63, officially will be inducted in February in New Orleans during the weekend of the Bassmaster Classic.
Cook is the last Oklahoma angler to win the Bassmaster Classic, the top prize in professional bass fishing. He won the 1991 Classic on Chesapeake Bay with a spinnerbait that he designed.
He retired from professional bass fishing last year and now spends in his days fishing for pleasure and managing his Tarbone Ranch near Meers, which he bought from his Bassmaster Classic earnings.
In an interview last summer, Cook told me he doesn’t miss the grind of the professional bass tour.
“Social Security is my main sponsor now,” he joked.
He spends a lot of time bass fishing for fun on nearby Lake Elmer Thomas in the Wichita Mountains.
“I can usually go over and in a good half-day of fishing catch quite a few,” he said. “I’m enjoying (fishing) on a different level. Now, if it’s windy or rainy and I don’t want to go fishing, I don’t have to. That’s the beauty of retirement. I go because I want to.”
On Tuesday, following the announcement of his selection to the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame, Cook had this reaction: “I fished to solve the fishing puzzle, not for honors or even money. I always wanted to learn more about fishing to help others catch more fish.”
Other Oklahomans in the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame are the late Don Butler, the second Bassmaster Classic champion and Okiebug founder, television fishing celebrity and pro angler Jimmy Houston and his wife, Chris, who dominated the Bass N” Gal women’s pro circuit in the late ’70s.
The Second Rut
Fred Zachary of Guthrie harvested this 24-point buck in Lincoln County during the deer gun season. "It is a deer of a lifetime for me," he said.
Sunday was the final day of deer gun season but bow hunters still have an opportunity to harvest a nice buck during the second rut.
After the first breeding period – or rut – there are always some does that do not get bred, especially in areas of the state where does outnumber the bucks by a substantial margin.
These does will come into estrus again 28 days later, which in Oklahoma will usually be sometime next week, said Jerry Shaw, big game biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
That means the second rut likely will be peaking by next week, meaning bucks will be searching for those estrus does and increasing the chances for bow hunters.
The second rut can be just as productive for hunters as the first one.
“I would be in the woods this weekend and hunt as long as I could,” Shaw said.
Sometimes bucks will chase does during the second rut just as aggressively as they would in late October and early November, he said.
Also working to the bow hunter’s advantage is the fact that bucks should be on the move again with colder weather arriving. Bucks also will be more active because they are feeding heavily again, Shaw said.
Bucks spend a lot of energy chasing does and quit eating as much during the first rutting period, he said.
“It’s a good time to be in the woods,” Shaw said.
Bow hunters can pursue deer through Jan. 15.
The official numbers from the deer gun season will not be known for several months, but Shaw thinks the overall harvest will be down while the number of bucks taken will rise from last year because of the timing of the rut.
It appear rutting activity was at its peak across the state and some point during the deer gun season, he said.
“I think bucks took it pretty hard,” Shaw said. “I know that there were some pretty good ones that hit the ground.”
State wildlife officials don’t want to see the percentage of bucks killed go any higher than it currently is and Shaw hopes deer hunters will take advantage of the antlerless only gun hunting season from Dec. 17-26.
The antlerless only gun season was lengthened this year to provide more doe hunting opportunities. The antlerless season is closed in most of the Panhandle and southeastern Oklahoma.
Power Lunch Chat Recap: Ed Godfrey from H&H Gun Range
Outdoors Editor Ed Godfrey is doing a live chat from H&H Gun Range at 11:30 a.m. today, then hanging out until 1 p.m. to talk to folks. Stop by H&H Gun Range and chat with Ed, or join our live chat to ask a question.
