ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 19, 1996 TAG: 9602200001
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
Hunters reported killing a record 218,467 deer during the recent gun, muzzleloading and bow seasons, but officials of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation wonder if that was enough.
``Despite the most liberal deer hunting season on the East Coast and the harvesting of 200,000-plus deer each hunting season, significant crop damage continues,'' said Eric Miller, a bureau spokesman.
As for herd control, ``I don't think we lost any ground and I don't think we gained any ground,'' said Matt Knox, deer research biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Game officials did make headway in reducing the fall turkey kill through more restrictive hunting regulations. The reported kill was 11,229, a 231/2 percent drop from the previous season.
``The bear kill was up to 602, which is above the long-term average, but not a record,'' said Bob Duncan, chief of the department's wildlife division.
Wildlife biologists expressed surprise the 4.3 percent increase in the deer kill largely came from the buck segment. The antlered-buck kill was up 11 percent - 10,511 animals - from the previous season.
``A majority of this increase can be attributed to muzzleloaders,'' Duncan said. ``The muzzleloading harvest continued to demonstrate significant annual increases, rising 28 percent from 31,090 in 1994 to 39,809 in 1995.''
Muzzleloading license sales climbed to nearly 90,000. Black-powder hunters weren't just out in larger numbers, but also with more proficient guns. For the first time, telescopic sights could be used.
``The word I get from hunters who used them, they were extremely proficient,'' Knox said. ``I heard of people consistently making shots at 120 yards.''
The scopes also extended hunting into the low-light hours of early morning and late afternoon, Knox said. Hunters were able to pick targets out of the brush that they would have passed up with open sights, he said.
The increases in the numbers and proficiency of muzzleloaders came during the rut, when bucks are most vulnerable, Knox said.
``A few years ago, they weren't hunted at all during that period, except by a few bowhunters,'' he said. ``Now we have brought to bear on them some pretty significant hunting pressure.''
As the buck kill climbed, the doe kill fell about 1 percent, Knox said. Part of that was the result of regulations that made doe hunting more restrictive on national forest land.
``I think there are some biological concerns about the antlered buck kill,'' Knox said.
Biologists had opposed the use of scopes on black-powder guns, but were overruled when the idea gained heavy support from the Virginia Deer Hunters Association. The biologists said scopes would increase antlered buck mortality during the breeding season, would delay breeding and fawn dates and would decrease the quality of bucks.
The drop in the fall turkey kill is a major step toward boosting the population of these big birds, said Gary Norman, the department's upland game biologist. Hunters were afield under an often controversial regulation that cut traditional turkey hunting from the deer season.
``It has been hard for me to explain to people that while we think we have a good turkey population, the potential is for it to be much better,'' Norman said. ``I think we will be reaching that potential quicker with these shorter turkey seasons.''
Officials had targeted a 49 percent decline in the fall kill. While the 23 percent drop didn't appear to meet that goal, Norman said ``the question is, what would the harvest have been if we'd had the same season as in the past? I have no hesitancy to say, had we not changed the season we probably would have killed a record number of birds. I would guess it would have been 18,000 to 20,000 birds. So we are pretty much where we would like to be.''
The record fall season was recorded in 1990, when the kill reached 16,861.
Norman doesn't believe the heavy snows of 1996 have harmed turkeys.
``A couple of years ago, during the blizzard of '93, we were tracking about 100 birds with radio collars on them and we only lost two birds during the two weeks of bad weather. I believe the birds are resilient to that kind of weather, unless it is over a real extended period of time.''
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Charts by Robert Lunsford. 1. Deer season totals. 2.by CNBFall turkey season totals. 3. Bear season totals. color.