Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503130040
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Modern sights would help hunters identify their target and fire a more accurate round, especially during low-light conditions, said Denny Quaiff, the association's executive director.
O In a survey that attracted more than 1,000 responses, 56 percent of the association's members said they would like to see telescopic sights allowed during the special muzzleloading deer season. Regulations permit the use of open or peep sights only.
``It would be a big advantage to persons with eyesight impairments,'' Quaiff said. That category includes most hunters of bifocal age, he said.
When using iron sights, you have three focal points to line up: the back sight, the front sight and the animal down range.
``With telescopic sights, you have two, which are the cross hairs on the rifle and the animal that the shooter is lining up on,'' he said.
The result should be a more accurately placed shot and a modest increase in range, Quaiff said. And there's a safety factor, too, he believes.
``The telescopic sight, without a doubt, would help you identify your target. No question,'' Quaiff said.
Black-powder hunters were involved in several gun accidents during the past season.
The Virginia Muzzleloading Association has been opposed to telescopic sights, and underscored that position during a recent meeting of the organization.
``We are largely traditionalists. We got the muzzleloading season going,'' said Larry LaRochelle, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and an active member of the group.
``If telescopic sights without restrictions are permitted, people will see something out there 300 yards and shoot at it,'' he said. ``Long-range shooting with a muzzleloader is pretty much a wounding thing.''
Quaiff believes hunters should be given the opportunity to decide whether or not they want telescopic sights, and will ask the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to do that during the agency's game regulation meeting in Richmond on Thursday and Friday.
``Forty-eight out of 50 states have a special muzzleloading season,'' he said. ``Of that 48, 24 allow scopes. Three only allow non-magnification or 1X scopes.''
The muzzleloading season was designed to be a primitive affair, and care should be taken not to erode its challenges, said LaRochelle, who lives on Smith Mountain Lake.
``We pretty well have our muzzleloading season because of the good will of the mass of the hunters,'' he said. ``To get too modern would be an infringement on their good graces.''
LaRochelle would like to see movement in the other direction. He wants some national forest areas set aside for hunters using flintlocks guns and non-compound bows.
``That's my personal request,'' he said.
The Virginia Muzzleloading Association is expected to ask the game department for an extra week of early-season hunting when flintlocks only can be used. As for safety, the group sees that coming from the use of blaze orange, rather than the legalization of telescopic sights.
``I have talked with people who have said they are dead set against scopes,'' Quaiff said. ``Then after we talk, they have said, `Well, if it will help some people, that might not be unreasonable.'
``Scopes wouldn't be mandatory. Hunters would be given a choice. It would have no effect on the hunter who wants to be totally traditional.''
Nor would telescopic sights convert black-powder guns into long-range rifles, said Quaiff, who has killed three national record-book bucks with muzzleloading guns.
``A telescopic sight could extend your range out another 25 or 30 yards - maybe 50 yards,'' he said. ``But when an animal gets out beyond 100 yards from me, he is going to walk. He is too far for me.''
by CNB