Bright Idea Outdoors Weblog

Sunday Hunting Clears Virginia Senate

The Virginia Senate last week passed a bill that would allow hunting on Sundays on private lands in the Old Dominion.  According to the Virginian Pilot, the approved bill includes an amendment prohibiting Sunday hunting within 250 yards of a church.  Lee Toliver's article also says that the bill will face a tougher battle in the House of Delegates.

Governor Bob McDonnell (R) has said he will sign legislation allowing Sunday hunting on private property.

 

Show Your Support for an End to the Sunday Hunting Ban in Virginia

Something really big is afoot in the Virginia General Assembly: this could be the year Virginia's long-standing prohibition against hunting on Sunday ends!

A lot has gotten by me on this one;  I didn't even know the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries had passed a resolution of support for an end to the ban until my sister sent me this article:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/sports/2012/jan/15/tdsport10-is-sunday-hunting-gaining-traction-ar-1612360/

A friend of hers had also written a great editorial on the subject:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/rtd-opinion/2011/dec/29/tdopin02-environmentalists-should-help-repeal-sund-ar-1573467/

And that was followed by this Roanoke Times article, which was published after the Sunday hunting bill cleared the Virginia Senate Agriculture, Conversation and Natural Resources Committee:

http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/303764

I'm a little embarrassed to be joining this process at such a late hour, but it certainly can't hurt to add my voice to the chorus of support for Sunday hunting.  Here are just a few of the many reasons I support it:

• It would help guides and other hunting-related businesses.  Right now, there's not much point in travelling to hunt in Virginia unless you can take at least part of the day off from work on Friday
• It would boost hunting license sales.  A lot of busy people who haven't had time to hunt under the current regulations will have a whole extra day that they could hunt and will therefore be more likely to invest in a (very expensive) Virginia hunting license.
• Kids are busy too, and especially if they play sports, it's hard to take them hunting on Saturday.  More families will be able to hunt together if Sunday hunting is allowed, and more kids will be introduced to Virginia's great hunting tradition.
• Sunday hunting does not have to have an adverse impact on religious observances.  Some will worship before they hunt; others will worship after they hunt; and some will worship while they hunt!

If you have a blog or website, please post the links to the three articles posted here.  Let me know via an email or comment and I'll do another post linking back to your site.

If you don't have your own blog, get one; just joking!  But you could post the links on your facebook page.  The more of us who voice our support, the greater the chance is we'll get another day to hunt each week next fall!

Whitetail Hunting: It Pays to Stay on Stand

The following deer hunting tip will be old news to anyone who has been hunting awhile.  But if you're new to the sport--or if you're like me and often ignore what you know to be true--it is one of the best pieces of advice you'll ever read:

STAY IN YOUR STAND!

Roughly 75% of the deer I've harvested have been taken in the afternoon.  The reason for that is that I stay in my stand until dark.  In the morning though, I have a tendency to go home way too early.  I get cold; I get bored; I get frustrated; I think about all the things I need to get done that day.

Since most of the properties I hunt are within a mile of my house, I'm often home empty-handed by 8:30.

But this past Saturday--the final day of Virginia's statewide deer hunting season--I had a different atttitude.  It was cold but not bone chilling; I was relaxed and taking in the scenery.  

"I can stay out here as long as I want," I told myself.

It helped that I'd seen a herd of about 20 deer just after daybreak.  They'd disappeared into the woods a couple hundred yards away, but they kept coming out in pairs all morning--even after the hunter on the property behind me fired a shot at 7:30.

By 9:00 I was getting antsy.  I looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of that same hunter.  I'm not sure if he'd been in his stand all that time, if he was looking for his deer or what.

My next instinct was to get out of the stand.

"With him out there moving around the hunt is definitely over," I thought.  "But then again, maybe he'll push something out of the wooods."

When I looked back again he was gone, and within 10 minutes two deer from the herd I'd seen earlier bounded across the field at a distance.  I thought about leaving again.

I looked down to my right.  A doe ran past at top speed.  I looked up.  The rest of the herd was running now.  Right to my stand!

The next two seconds or so were a blur of brown and white.  As I thumbed back the hammer a doe stopped at about eight yards.  The Thompson Center Impact roared.

Another blur of brown and white, this  one shrouded in smoke.  When it cleared I saw that the doe was down.

My decision to wait had been a good one.  Hunters for the Hungry got another deer. . .

With Donations Down, Hunters for the Hungry Makes Appeal for More Venison

I got a card in the mail today from Virginia's Hunters for the Hungry.  Here's what it said:

We are very grateful for the donations of deer you have made to the Hunters for the Hungry program in the past.  Through the generosity of Virginia's hunters, we have been able to provide over 18 million quarter pound servings of lean meat to the hungry of our Commonwealth.

Donations of deer are down by 25% this season which translates roughly into a shortfall of 2,000 deer.  With just a few days left to the season, we ask you to consider giving one more deer to the program for this season.

With the cold winter months ahead food donations are critical to the feeding programs in your communities.  They are finding it very difficult to keep up with the need.

If you donate one more deer, we would certainly appreciate it.  As always, the larger the deer the further our processing dollars can go.  Please call your local processor to make sure of the hours and available space.  We thank you so much for all you have done in the past and for your consideration of this request.  Best wishes for a wonderful new year filled with many blessings.

Virginia's statewide deer season ends Saturday, so if your freezer is already full, please consider shooting one more and donating it so that others may have enough to eat this winter.  And if you're local here in Northern Virginia and are not sure how to make the donation, just call MG Meats at (540)454-4470.  All you have to do is field dress the deer, check it with the DGIF and drop it off with a confirmation number.  Mark does the rest.

Good luck in this final week of the season.  Be safe and have fun!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  We had a great break for the holidays and are amped up to get 2012 underway.  No good hunting stories to report, but I thought you might enjoy the videos we made of the kids testing out their Christmas presents:

 

 

 

 

Final Post of 2011: In My Mother's Words

I'm not going to bother with a Year in Review post this week.  You all know my mom died, and that pretty much sums it up.

I had thought about writing a review of the 2011 Deer Season--which was a lot better for my family than the year as a whole--but the season doesn't end until January 7.  So I'll be optimistic and wait on that.

I will, however, leave you with something I found in my basement yesterday.  It's a poem my mom wrote.  I'd seen it before and actually wanted to read it at her memorial service back in October, but I couldn't locate it at the time.  So that this untitled work doesn't get lost again, I'll preserve it here:

Travelling west toward the Blue Ridge,

In traffic, slowing,

The fading light in a narrow strip of pink and orange,

Behind the bare tree branches,

Sharp and lacy against the delicate cold sky.

 

NPR on the radio, All Things Considered,

A voice begins to read Goodnight Moon.

Not from Goodnight Moon,

You understand, but the whole book,

To commuters in their cars.

 

I was one of them, enthralled,

Lulled by the quiet well-known words,

Once read to us, or by us,

To our children.

Goodnight to the mouse, goodnight to the house,

Goodnight to the stars, to the balloon,

Goodnight to the moon.

Goodnight to the world.

Quietly we moved westward toward home.

 

Listeners were angry.  They sent curt letters.

Wasting our time!  What were you thinking?

We expect substance, not a baby story.

That doesn’t even make sense.

 

But how quietly we moved westward,

Toward Home.

Judy Coughlin; April 8 1947-September 26, 2011

A Week Off?

It seems like the deer around here are taking the holiday week off.  I hunted Christmas Eve and didn't see anything, and this morning the only deer I saw were the bedded does I jumped up on the way out.

It's going to rain the rest of the day today and be windy the rest of the week.  Guess I better head for the post office and get  a duck stamp!

A Christmas Letter

Dear Friends and Family:

We got a very nice Christmas card from one of our best high school teachers yesterday.  It included a Christmas letter, and she mentioned how much she enjoyed the one that I wrote last year.  That made me a little sad.

We didn't send out letters with our Christmas cards this year.  Letter writing is my department, and I didn't have it in me.  Last year I sucked it up and wrote the letter as a difficult year came to a close.  But this year, with the death of my mother still at the forefront of my thoughts, I just couldn't do it.

And in truth that wasn't the only reason I was having trouble getting into the holiday spirit.   Some demons that have been chasing me for a long time had caught up with me again, right about the time I should have been writing that letter.

Luckily, I've once again given them the slip.  Maybe this time, if I focus on  what I know to be true, I can leave them permanently in the dust cloud of the last three years.  

This is what I know:

The reason we're celebrating is that Jesus Christ came to Earth a couple thousand years ago.  He came here to save us--that means you and me--from the sins and sorrow that can keep us from doing the things we know we should.

I know  that my family is due for a run of good luck after the rough few years we've had, but I know too that being due something doesn't mean you're going to get it.  If there's one thing I've learned since 2009, it's that nobody is entitled to anything.

I know, however, that whatever happens my family will prevail.  Jake, Nick, Brett, Kim and I will take what God gives us and say goodbye to whatever He takes away.  Come what may, we can't lose as long as we're together.

Finally, I know that I'm looking forward to Christmas and that right now I'm eagerly awaiting the end of one of the longest nights of the year.  Because I know that one of the greatest gifts God has given us is the Promise of a New Day.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Sincerely,

Matt

HuntingLife.com Joins Blake Landscapes in Effort to Help Feed the Hungry

Thank you so much to all who have joined Blake Landscapes in our efforts to help the Loudoun Interfaith food pantry by "Liking" our FaceBook Page. For each Like we get, we're adding three dollars to a donation we will make tomorrow, Tuesday December 20.

Kevin from HuntingLife.com got in on the project over the weekend when he posted this on his blog.  Thanks Kevin!

Help Blake Landscapes Help the Needy This Holiday Season

In this prosperous area that we call home, it is easy sometimes to overlook the poverty that grips many individuals and families in our region. The truth is though that, not only will many families not have presents under the tree this Christmas, many of them won't even have enough to eat!

 

Interfaith Relief is a Leesburg food pantry that lends area residents in need a helping hand by providing nutritious food. The organization needs our help all year long, but this time of year can be particularly difficult for people struggling to make ends meet.

  

Please join Blake Landscapes in our efforts to help during this season of giving. Interfaith relief needs donations of food and money, but all we're asking you to do is click a link on our FaceBook page. For each FaceBook user who "Likes" our page, we'll add three dollars to a donation we will make on December 20.

Just go to the page, click "Like" in the upper right hand corner, and we'll do the rest. Happy Holidays and thank you for your support!