DALE SUNDERLIN
Star Beacon
September 02, 2008 02:25 am
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The ODNR Division of Wildlife and the City of Akron invites waterfowl hunters to participate in a special drawing on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008 for hunting at LaDue Reservoir. Registration at the Geauga County Fairgrounds will begin at 5:30 p.m. and the drawing will follow promptly at 6 p.m.
There is no fee for applying. Hunters will place a registration card in a drum, names will be drawn for available dates and blinds, and first drawn will receive first choice.
Each applicant must bring a valid 2008 hunting license, federal duck stamp, or an Ohio wetlands stamp. There are 10 blind sites available and a calendar will be available showing all available hunting days for the 2008-09 waterfowl season. A maximum of three persons may hunt each day and while the hunting partners may differ each day, the permit holder must always be present. Permits will be issued for a period of one week and may only be used for the blind location chosen. Hunting will occur only on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday until noon during the dates listed on the permit.
Only temporary blinds and electric boats motors are acceptable and all other outboard motors are prohibited.
Feeding the hungry
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife has collaborated with Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry (FHFH) in an effort to assist with the processing costs associated with donating venison to a food bank.
Subsidy monies
A $100,000 subsidy grant has been awarded to FHFH to help pay the processing fee on donated venison. The grant money is being provided in two $50,000 allotments that are to be matched with funds generated or collected by FHFH. The Division is subsidizing this year’s FHFH operation as an additional deer management tool, helping wildlife managers encourage hunters to kill more does.
“In establishing a dedicated fund, the division hopes to provide hunters with an option to donate excess venison to food banks throughout Ohio,” James Marshall, assistant chief of the Division of Wildlife, said. “By providing hunters with an affordable outlet for donating extra venison, the division hopes to ultimately encourage hunters to kill more does.”
Take an extra doe
Finding ways to kill more does will help wildlife managers keep Ohio’s deer population management plan on track. Deer hunters can again buy additional antlerless deer permits at reduced prices for the 2008-09 deer-hunting season. Cost of the antlerless deer permit remains at $15.
Where it all started
FHFH began in Maryland in 1997 after founder Rick Wilson encountered a woman along a Virginia highway looking for help loading a road-killed deer into her car to feed her children. Inspired to give hunters the opportunity to help feed the hungry, Wilson formed a program that would raise money to pay the butchering bills for hunters that donate deer.
Growing fast
Now over a decade old, FHFH has grown to include 120 local coordinators in 26 different states. Annual meat donation totals have topped 300,000 pounds-enough to provide meat for more than 1.2 million meals-and are expected to increase even further in the coming years.
Ohio’s now in
“Our partnership with Ohio is an exciting opportunity to jump-start our work in the state,” Josh Wilson, FHFH operations director, said. “We’ve always had strong interest in Ohio with regard to the number of FHFH coordinators that have signed on to work with us. Now we have this financial support from the Division of Wildlife to help us build on that foundation.”
On the Web
Anyone interested in becoming a local FHFH coordinator or a participating meat processor should visit the “Local FHFH” page at www.fhfh.org. The current list of coordinators along with their program names and the counties they are serving can be found there.
What it costs us
Venison that is donated to food banks must be processed by a state inspected and insured meat processor that is participating with FHFH. Hunters wishing to donate their deer to a food bank are not required to pay for the processing of the venison as long as the program has funds available to cover the cost. The grant from the Division of Wildlife to FHFH is intended to help with the costs of venison processing.
For more information, contact Dave Risley, Division of Wildlife (614) 265-6330 or Pete Banks, Northeast Ohio FHFH 988-5495.
Hey, I got mail
It seems that the last few weeks, I’ve been getting a lot of fan mail with questions about archery hunting, bow se-ups, and outdoors questions in general. You can tell it’s getting close to the opening day of bow season, less than one month away, Sept. 27, and obviously, everyone’s getting the “Fever.” I found this one particularly interesting and thought I would share it with all of you:
Hi, my name is Zack and I live in Ashtabula. I love reading your articles in the paper; they are a lot of help. This is going to be my first year hunting with a compound bow and I think I have my bow sighted it pretty good.
I was wondering what is the best way to sight it in for shooting out of a treestand? In addition, what yardage should I set my sights at?
Also, I just purchased some Tight Point broadheads; they are three bladed heads with replaceable blades and chisel point tips. I’ve heard some great stuff about the Rage 3 blade Expandable, what do you use. I’m kind of depending on the fixed blade because I won’t have to worry about them not opening when I hit my target.
One more thing, you were talking about timing your broadheads in this past week’s article. Are you saying that the blades on the broadheads should be inline with the vanes? If you could email me back, I could really use your help.
Thanks a lot,
Zack
P.S.. I loved the article about the bow doctor!
Zack,
First, let me thank you for the praise and accolades and also thank you for being a loyal reader. It’s people like you that make me happy to write my stories and informational literature.
Bowhunting is a great sport and I’m happy that you decided to get a bow and give it a whirl. You will see more and experience more when it comes to wildlife encounters than you could ever imagine. With that said, I will try to answer your questions as best I can.
n Treestand sighting in — Well Zack the best way I can tell you to accomplish this is to practice from a tree stand. I don’t know if you have the room where you live but we have one in our side yard that both my wife Janie and I practice from.
First things first, you should make sure your bow is sighted in from ground first.
I always treestand practice with another person, usually Janie. We take turns shooting and fetching arrows. I’ll shoot three or four rounds of six arrows from the stand and then we’ll switch. We shoot at 3D targets placed around the yard at various yardages and different angles. Don’t place them all directly broadside, that seldom happens in real hunting situations. If all you have is a bull’s-eye target that’s fine too. Janie will retrieve the arrows and send them back up to me via a tube quiver and a haul line. After I’ve had my fun, as I said, we’ll switch and repeat this several time until we get tired.
Subsequently, after a few rounds we’ll move the targets to different positions and angles. You know what they say; variety is the spice of life, especially when it comes to shooting at an unpredictable deer. Don’t forget to try that all-important darn near straight down shot. On rare occasions, you might get a deer that walks in directly under your stand and that’s one shot you don’t want to pass up if it happens.
n Stand height — Make sure you practice from a treestand that is close to the same height you’re going to put your in the woods. The angle of the dangle changes, in other words the shot angle changes your yardage dependant on your stand height. When I first started out Bowhunting, I went so far as to do the trigonometry at different distance matched to the exact height of my treestand in order to get the exact yardage from my treestand to my target. I then spray painted small fluorescent dots up high on the trees that were in the various ranges so I wouldn’t have to guess ta mate as the deer moved into shooting range.
n Range finders — If you’re going to be using a range finder, take it up with you and practice with it too. I would try to guess the yardage first and then see what your game finder says. But…don’t rely on your range finder, you may not have time to use it or by the time you’re able to shoot the deer may have walked in or out several yards and your original reading won’t be accurate.
n Multiple targets — Having multiple targets to shoot at is always a plus but it can get costly. Janie and I have been doing this long enough that we have accumulated several 3D targets, seven, or eight to be exact. Many of them are deer and that’s what I would focus on getting at least one of. If you only have one target then you partner will have to move it around after every second round or so to vary your yardage.
n Sight pin yardage — I don’t know what kind of sight you’re using or how many pins you have on your sight so this is going to be sort of a guess ta mate. I wouldn’t use any more than 3 pins if I used a pin sight. I’d set them at 10, 20, and 30 yards, especially my first year out. Unless you’re really good, I’d try to limit my shots to 30 yards or under. As you get more experience and your accuracy and confidence improve, then you should be able to push the limit to 40 yards.
Many of today’s compound bows will produce extremely accurate shot groups past the 40-yard limit but the arrow looses a lot of its kinetic energy past 40 so why push the limit. Janie and I both use pendulum sights so the yardage game is a mute point with us. However, before we switched, we played the yardage guessing game constantly when we shot. You have to practice guessing yardage as I referenced above.
n Broadheads — I looked at the Tight Point broadheads on their web site and they don’t look half-bad. They have a chisel point, which is good for initial penetration. The three-blade design is good also. The rest of their claims are just hype like any other broadhead. I have also heard some claims to fame from a few of Camp Camo’s Pro Staff about Rage broadheads. Curiosity got the best of me so I went to their sight and checked them out on the “how it works link.” Pretty neat stuff and very innovative, deploying from the rear unlike traditional mechanicals which open from the front. But... they’re still mechanical and mechanical things have a tendency to fail on occasion so I’ll stay away from them.
n My personal preference — I myself prefer fixed blade, cut on contact 3 or 4 blade with the cutting edge going all the way to the tip. A chisel point has to “poke” a hole before it starts cutting and the rest of the broadhead enters and starts to do its job. A cut on contact with the cutting blades all the way to the point starts to cut immediately and the rest of the blade follows with no resistance. Again I want to emphasize this is my own personal preference.
n Blade timing — Now let’s talk about timing your broadheads to your shafts. What you said is exactly right. The blades of the broadhead should be in line with the vanes on your arrows. In addition, if you have an arrow shaft spinner to make sure they running true and not bent that helps accuracy tremendously. You can also check the wobble between the broadhead and the shaft at that time.
Screw your broadhead onto a shaft all the way and check the alignment. If the blades and vanes don’t line up try another shaft and another and another etc. Keep going until you have a full quiver of perfectly aligned broadheads and a few extra for backup. One broadhead may line up on one shaft and not another one so don’t discard a shaft just because it doesn’t line up on a certain broadhead, it may on another.
n Shim it — If you’ve exhausted your shafts and the different combination of broadheads to shaft and you’re still short on completed combinations it’s shim time. You can purchase shims to accomplish this but I just use a plain ol’ piece of computer paper. Tear off a small piece poke the threaded shaft of your broadhead through it and screw it tightly into your shaft. Keep adding paper until the blades and vanes line up. Trim the excess paper from the outer diameter of the shaft and you’re all set. Take note though, this will increase the weight and it may shoot a little different from the rest of your shafts, lower on the impact point. Also, I wouldn’t go past 3 pieces of paper (taught to me by the “Bow Doctor”, see below).
My call
Well, Zach, I hope this answers all your questions and helps you get a little better start at Bowhunting. In addition, to address your pleasure with the Bow Doctor article, again thank you. As I always tell everyone, “I’m no exper.” I’m just a redneck who loves to hunt and be in the outdoors.
There are folks like Jim Retalic at Sports Junction who make their living at selling and setting up bows. Now, he is the man you really need to go to if you run into major problems
Not only can he talk about it, he can fix it!
That’s why to me he’s “The Bow Doctor.”
Remember, pass it on or it will surely pass on.
Sunderlin is a freelance writer from Geneva. Reach him at djss@roadrunner.com.
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DALE SUNDERLIN Star Beacon