www.irwinsportsmen.com

P.O. Box 225, (995 Oakside Dr.)

Irwin, PA. 15642

Issue 20-02

Did you get your membership card? No...then please pick up your

card at a regular membership meeting. You have until the end of

January 2020 to pay your membership dues. The last Thursday

meeting in January is pretty much the last chance. Time waits for no

person, so “Get ‘er Done!”

‘Just a small eight’ makes deer hunter’s season...Mark Nale

I harvested a buck on the opening day of this year’s rifle season. It was a long shot in a forest-hunting situation, and I am quite happy that my copper bullet hit its mark — the buck dropped after running only 40 yards. “How big was it?” an acquaintance asked. “Just a small eight,” I replied. The more that I think about those words, the more it makes me want to remind veteran hunters and tell new hunters just how much things have changed for the better. My last two bucks have been small 8-pointers, or as some refer to them, “basket eights.” My son-in-law John shot a small eight on the opening morning of archery season this year, and my brother Frank harvested a small eight-pointer on the second day of rifle season. Based on weight and antler mass, these three bucks were likely all two-and-a-half-year-old deer.

I started deer hunting in 1963. It was the “one-deer-and-done” era. Any buck with one antler 3 inches long was fair game. It was also a time when the vast majority of the bucks shot were yearlings — with small antlers. According to Pennsylvania Game Commission data, at the time that I started hunting, approximately 80 percent of the bucks harvested were only 1.5 years old. Maybe 15 percent were 2.5 years old — very, very few were older. My father was a dedicated Woolrich-clad hunter — the type who used a week of precious vacation from his factory job to hunt deer. He shot a lot of bucks over the years and he had a bushel basket full of antlers to prove it. He was not a trophy hunter. His goal was to harvest a legal deer and put venison in the freezer.

What was in his antler basket? Spikes, three-pointers, fork horns, and a couple fives and tiny sixes made up most of the take. During his entire life, he shot three bucks carrying eight or more points. The first was a beautiful, dark-antlered 13-point that he shot the fall after returning home from the Navy following World War II. In the 1990s, we drove together to Jersey Shore to have that rack measured at an official Game Commission scoring session. Much to our disappointment, it missed the state record book by less than 2 inches. His second nice buck was a heavy-antlered eight pointer that he shot in Bedford County some 20 years later. There were many small-racked bucks in-between.

My, how things have changed since antler restrictions were instituted in 2002. The average buck is older, heavier and sports a much larger set of antlers. Of the estimated 147,750 bucks that were harvested during the 2018-19 seasons, more than 94,000, or approximately 64% were 2.5 years old or older. Only 36% were yearlings. Many of those 2.5-year-olds were small eights — bucks that might have been mounted or at least proudly displayed back in the 1950s, ‘60s and ’70s. Because there are so many bigger bucks out there now, a “basket eight” is a “ho-hum” deer to many. Some Pennsylvania hunters still gripe about antler restrictions. Just last week I read a post from one of those hunters on social media — it accompanied a photo of the hunter with a 10-point buck. Under the photo, the hunter wrote, “I hate to admit it, but antler restrictions are working.” What a shame that it took this guy 17 years to figure that out.

My dad excitedly called me the day that he shot his last buck. I proudly made the two-hour round-trip drive to see him and the deer and take his picture. He posed in the backyard with his Woolrich coat, 30.06 pump gun and the buck. It was “just a small eight.”

ISA Info

Officers Meeting, 7:00PM, 2nd Thursday Member Meeting, 7:30PM, Last Thursday

All Times, No Dumping on Property Gate open whenever anyone is on property

Gate closed if you are the last one to leave Go to our webpage for a calendar and

more information on events.

Clubhouse door locked when you leave. If

you unlock it, please lock it.

Last day to pay dues for 2020 is January

31st. Unless circumstances permit, if you

do not pay dues by then, you will have to

wait until next year to rejoin.

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” And, for those that carry

or have a defense weapon available, practice at the club makes for that perfect shot when required.

Musings from Our President

Seems time is certainly flying a little faster these days. Here we are starting a new year. The executive committee and the membership agreed to increase the work party fees to $20 each to help offset some of the increased costs of maintaining the club and grounds. We have not had an increase in any of the membership fees or work party dues in many years and the costs of materials needed did not stop in their increased costs. There are many opportunities throughout the year to get those work party credits. Attending the meetings, maintenance, helping at shoots, special work parties, range monitors, gun bash help, selling tickets for the junior rifle team, etc. This is a great way to offset your costs of membership and it would be beneficial to maintaining your club. This year I would like to see the committees begin anew. This would help divide some of the duties that are required to keep the club running. Details will be forthcoming. Let a board member know if you would be interested in leading a committee or being part of a committee. Plans for our second gun bash are underway and we will keep you posted as the plans progress. Come to the meetings, read the newsletter or website for updates.

Joyce PS: Please remember if you are the last person to leave the grounds, lock the gate!!!

Articles Published weekly in Jeannette News Dispatch in the

mid 50s to 60s. From a column written by Hal Sharp and

titled the “Sportsman’s Digest”.

Membership Meeting December 2019

Members present voted to increase the work party non participation charge from $10 to $20 each. Starting in 2020 your dues will be $30 plus $60 or a total of $90 if you do not have any work parties credited to your account. Your dues would be $50 is you have two work party credits and $30 if you have three work party credits. There are so many ways to get work party credits that it makes no sense to have to pay. But we do need your help to maintain the property and hope that you can help out.

Casings of 680 and 9mm have been found in the clubhouse. Please only 22LR there. The back stop is not suitable for anything over 22LR. Higher calipers become a safety hazard possibly penetrating into the equipment room.

$35 member drawing not won, $40 at January membership meeting.

50/50 of $35 won by some lucky member present.

Pennsylvania Saturday rifle opener...Ron Steffe

I did not hunt the first day of rifle season here in Pennsylvania. It was not because I’ve already tagged a deer — I have not. In truth it felt a bit strange to have the “first day” on a Saturday, but that really had little to do with my choice of hunting or not. Since I may hunt any day of any season and have already hunted many, many first days in my lifetime, I simply chose to skip Saturday and instead do a driving tour of local spots, and the

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ITEMS FOR SALE, FOUND, LOST OR WANTED

FOR SALE - Savage Model 14 .300 WSM with a 3x9 Bushnell Legend scope. Rifle is in great condition. Contact Mike Enick, 724-812-3190. menick64@yahoo.com Asking $400 OBO. (3/20)

There is no need for anyone to work alone. Please call one of the following so that they can assist and provide additional safety.

Smokey Burdin 724-396-9627 M-F 9-5 Kevin Kennelty 724-640-0726

Rich Boehm 724-953-4778

number of hunters afield and witness some success, if possible. In my home area, both buck and doe are open the first day, an important factor when considering hunter numbers and shots fired, because there always seems to be plenty of both when the season starts.

I circled and dissected a large area — about 20 miles crosswise — at mid morning to look for vehicles and hopefully, some successful hunters (I saw none). I talked with a couple of guys at one spot who said they had both passed on some does early, instead hoping for a buck to show, which had not. They said they heard some shooting from distant spots but that it didn’t seem any higher in number than years past, and that most of the shooting came between 7:30 and 8:30, then lessened considerably. At just about every spot I checked there were vehicles, but in truth, during past years when I had already tagged a buck during archery season and passed on a first day of rifle, there seemed to just as many hunters out on a Monday compared to the new opener.

Later, talking with friends that hunted both nearby and at different spots within the state, accounts of the first day seemed little different from past years, except that most reported more deer spotted than over the previous few seasons. Two of my closest hunting companions, brothers, hiked in darkness, up a mountain to a ridge where the Appalachian Trail passes through a state game land near the Berks/Schuylkill County line. At 7:15 one of the two shot a medium sized 8 pointer with his flintlock. Taking the buck off the mountain, immediately they returned to the parking lot where they started, and found a low number of vehicles.

They both commented that shooting was light in all directions and that some of the vehicles at the lot where they parked belonged to hikers they had passed on their way back down the mountain, hikers, who even though it was the opening day of rifle, were enjoying a Saturday hike. One issue that was mentioned by the upstate hunters I know is that some camps with mostly older hunters did not even open for the first day, but chose rather to open late during the first week for the beginning of antlerless season across the state this past Saturday. That fact my prove testament to an aging hunter population with a smaller group of young hunters to replace them.

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***** 2020 ISA OFFICERS ***** PRESIDENT JOYCE LICHTENFELS 724-863-6940 VICE PRESIDENT KEVIN KENNELTY 724-640-0726 FINANCIAL SECRETARY SMOKEY BURDIN 724-396-9627 RECORDING SECRETARY DAN NAVE 724-863-1392 TREASURER MICHAEL SERLO 724-523-3748

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PISTOL SILHOUETTE Ed Onder 724-989-6595

RIFLE Al Ceol 724-396-7010

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WOMEN’S LEAGUE Joyce Lichtenfels 724-863-6940

YOUTH DAISY BB COURSES Ken Guidas 724-864-7318

All in all, in terms of hunter numbers and harvested deer, things seemed no different than past seasons when the season began the Monday after Thanksgiving. When the official deer harvest count is released for the first day, we’ll all know better.

Of course, being a devoted hunter and nature lover, I would hope this

different direction of an opening day is a help for the Pennsylvania

Game Commission in recruitment of new hunters, because the future of

Pennsylvania’s wild places and wild creatures depends greatly upon

reaching that goal.

...end...