Michigan Crossbow Use Expanded Statewide

Aug. 17, 2010

Contact: Brent Rudolph, 517-641-4903 or Mary Dettloff, 517-335-3014

Crossbow regulation changes expanding opportunities for hunters ages 10 and
up statewide have been approved by the Michigan Natural Resources Commission
and are effective immediately, Department of Natural Resources and
Environment officials announced today.

The crossbow regulation changes include the following:

– Lowering the minimum age for crossbow use from 12 to 10 years of age
statewide
– Expanding the use of crossbows to all legal hunters during all archery and
firearm seasons statewide, except in the Upper Peninsula, where crossbow use
will remain prohibited during the late archery and muzzleloader seasons,
unless the hunter is disabled
– Allowing the use of modified bows where crossbows are legal
– Including a temporary crossbow permit for hunters with temporary
disabilities
– Eliminating a provision that limited the maximum bolt velocity for
crossbows
– Eliminating the 3-year sunset provision for the use of the crossbow in the
affected section of the Wildlife Conservation Order

Hunters using crossbows will still be required to obtain a free crossbow
stamp. The stamp allows DNRE staff to monitor and survey crossbow hunters to
determine the effect the crossbow regulations have on hunter recruitment,
retention and harvest. Results of the DNRE’s mail survey conducted after the
2009 hunting season indicated that participation in archery deer hunting
increased after crossbow regulations were liberalized.

Second Amendment Foundation Sues Chicago Over Gun Range Prohibition

CHICAGO, IL – The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) today filed a lawsuit in federal court against the City of Chicago’s new gun ordinance, asserting that “by banning gun ranges open to the public… under color of law,” the city is depriving citizens of their right to keep and bear arms in violation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Joining SAF in this lawsuit are the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA), Action Target, Inc., and three individual plaintiffs including a retired Chicago police detective. They are represented by attorneys Alan Gura of Virginia and David Sigale of Chicago, who teamed up with SAF and ISRA on the landmark case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, which incorporated the Second Amendment to the states, effectively striking down Chicago’s 28-year-old handgun ban.

“While the city has adopted new regulations that make it legal to own handguns,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “they have crafted this new ordinance to make it virtually impossible for prospective gun owners to meet all legal requirements unless they travel outside the city for mandatory training. The new ordinance prohibits public gun ranges inside the city yet the city demands that handgun owners get at least one hour of range training time.

“This is a Catch-22′ scenario,” he continued, “that seems deliberately designed to discourage Chicago residents from exercising their firearm civil rights barely two months after those rights were restored by the Supreme Court.”

Individual plaintiffs are Rhonda Ezell, a victim of three attempted burglaries who has disabilities making it difficult for her to travel outside the city; Joseph Brown, a WWII U.S. Army veteran who was among the liberators of the infamous Dachau concentration camp, and William Hespen, a retired police detective, all of whom must qualify for Chicago Firearms Permits.

Action Target, a Utah-based company, builds shooting ranges and manufactures gun range equipment and supplies. It has a long history of providing gun safety equipment and training, and has previously built law enforcement shooting ranges in Chicago. However, Action Target is prohibited from building a public target range within the city’s limits under the restrictions of the new gun ordinance.

Randy Graham, vice president of Action Target, said, “We believe that citizens have a constitutional right to use and train with firearms in a safe and controlled environment. As a leader in the firearms training industry, Action Target is committed to standing up for these rights.”

“By banning public gun ranges,” Gottlieb said, “and by banning the loan and rental of firearms at such ranges, Chicago is acting under color of law to deprive citizens of their right to keep and bear arms, and to conveniently receive the education required under the ordinance that is necessary to obtain a Chicago Firearms Permit. The city is violating both the Second and First amendments, and we are asking the court to put an end to this nonsense.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and an amicus brief and fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.

Raining Crows

By Glen Wunderlich
Outdoor Columnist
Member Professional Outdoor Media Association

When Matt called me last week, it didn’t take much coaxing from him to get me to go crow hunting. After all, hunting nuts like us have sweltered through the summer heat longing for some action and nothing beats the frantic antics of the uncanny crow. Before we ended our conversation, we agreed to meet at Shawn’s house at 7 am and we’d head out from there.

Other crow excursions we’ve done have always been in the winter season, when hiding from air advances is almost impossible, unless one gets so buried in available cover that it’s actually difficult to get a shot off. Conversely, if one remains only partly hidden against the stark cover, he may be able to see quite well, but so do the airborne varmints.

In the August/September crow season, cover is everywhere. Camouflage clothing blends into the surroundings causing the keen eyesight of the black dive-bombers to be somewhat neutralized. It’s a huge advantage over crafty crow forays in the winter.

In addition, many of the birds have never been called or shot at, because they’re not old enough to remember the past seasons, having been born in the spring of the year. Too bad for them.

Shawn loaded his Browning Auto 5 with handloads comprised of 1 7/8 ounces of 9 shot – the loads we assembled last season. I had run out of the magnum loads from previous action and went with 1 1/8 ounce factory 8-shot loads in my Browning pump gun with a new Undertaker choke tube. Matt was using similar loads in his Remington.

Winter crow shoots typically relegate us to hiding behind tree trunks with very little canopy cover – not the best of circumstances. Of course, if we can find conifers in the area, it’s always a better choice in the winter, although, once again, sight lanes are quite restricted. The other challenge when hiding among the towering, bare deciduous branches is the height of the trees themselves. Getting crows to come in low enough for reasonable shots is almost impossible.

However, summer cover can be found among autumn olive shrubbery or small deciduous trees full of green foliage smack dab in the middle of fields far from sky-scraping trees. Our goal was to get them in for a close look at our flapping-wing decoys and to investigate the sounds of distress from their comrades.

The first productive set came at a familiar setting – one of Matt’s leased properties. We hung the motion decoys from low-hanging branches in the open and took cover in a triangular pattern with the setup as the center of attention. Unlike hunting four-legged animals on the ground, there was no danger of crossfire, since all shots are taken skyward.

Within seconds of the first fighting-crow screams from the FoxPro caller, black bandits homed in on the charade. I’ve never seen it rain cats and dogs, but I can tell you unequivocally that it began raining crows.

By noon the hunting clothes and boots became too much for the heat and humidity but we were able to connect on a much higher percentage of shots – apparently because of the strategy of hunting away from tall trees and our ability to blend in with nature.

The season runs to the end of September and, if your trigger finger could use a little exercise, and you can stand the heat, the summer crow season may be worth a try. Just watch out for falling crows!

Ohio Poachers Pay $7,794 for Illegally Taking One Deer

FINDLAY, OH -Two Seneca County men were sentenced in July for the illegal taking of a deer in the 2009 deer hunting season, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife. Restitution of $4625 was ordered paid by Judge Mark Repp of the Tiffin Municipal Court. The revised restitution law went into effect March 2008 and allows the ODNR Division of Wildlife to seek an increased recovery value on all illegally harvested wildlife.

Tyler J. Nye, 22, and Derek M. Depinet, 20, of Republic, Ohio pled no contest in the Tiffin Municipal Court. Nye was charged with aiding another in jacklighting, failure to immediately attach a temporary tag, provide false information to a check station, use a falsified temporary deer tag, hunting before/after hours, hunt deer with an unlawful firearm, hunting with the aid of a motor vehicle, shooting from a roadway, and from the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office receiving stolen property (for stolen Wildlife Area signs). Depinet was charged with jacklighting, possession of an untagged deer, aiding another in the hunting with the aid of a motor vehicle, and aiding another in shooting from the roadway. Nye paid $1656 in fines and court costs, was sentenced to 60 days in jail with 40 days suspended (20 days jail served), lifetime revocation of his hunting rights, and restitution of $4625 for the deer. Depinet paid $1513 in fines and court costs, was sentenced to 30 days in jail with 30 days suspended, and a 2 year revocation of his hunting rights. A deer head and a New England Firearms .22-250 rifle with scope were forfeited to the state.

EAB Sweeping the Midwest

Emerald Ash Borer Detected in Laporte County, Indiana
Emerald ash borer (EAB), an invasive insect that kills ash trees, has been detected in LaPorte County. Infested ash trees were detected during an inspection of a nursery and, after the insect was confirmed, the trees were destroyed.

State entomologist Phil Marshall has recommended that movement of regulated ash material and hardwood firewood within LaPorte County be limited to reduce further spread of the insect. The process to quarantine LaPorte County has been started. The start of the official quarantine will be announced later. To view quarantined areas and EAB sightings in Indiana, see http://www.in.gov/dnr/entomolo/5349.htm

The EAB quarantine in LaPorte County will restrict the movement of regulated ash materials outside of the county, including whole ash trees, limbs, branches or debris of ash trees 1 inch or more in diameter, ash logs or untreated ash lumber with bark attached, and cut firewood of any hardwood species. These materials may be moved within the LaPorte County, but special permission in the form of a signed compliance agreement must be obtained from the Indiana DNR to move regulated materials outside the county borders. A compliance agreement can be applied for by contacting the Indiana DNR’s Division of Entomology and Plant Pathology at (317) 232-4120.

EAB, first found in Indiana in 2004, has now been identified in 38 Indiana counties: Adams, Allen, Blackford, Brown, Carroll, Cass, DeKalb, Delaware, Dubois, Elkhart, Floyd, Grant, Hamilton, Harrison, Hendricks, Huntington, Jay, Kosciusko, LaGrange, LaPorte, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Miami, Monroe, Noble, Orange, Porter, Randolph, Ripley, St. Joseph, Steuben, Tippecanoe, Wabash, Washington, Wells, White and Whitley.

In addition to the state-level quarantine, all of Indiana is under a federal quarantine that prohibits the movement of regulated material out of Indiana without a compliance agreement or permit from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). For a federal compliance agreement application, contact USDA-APHIS at (765) 497-2859.

Plant It and They Will Come

By Glen Wunderlich
Outdoor Columnist
Member Professional Outdoor Media Association

Work on this season’s deer food plots began a few months ago – in May to be exact – when last year’s annual plots ran their natural course and weeds took over. With a non-selective herbicide application in mid-May, followed with another approximately two weeks later, all but the toughest weeds succumbed, although some desirable clover survived. Another venture into farming for deer was well under way.

Once the ugly weeds turned brown and were undeniably dead, it was time to disk the food plots. According to Ed Spinazzola, author of Ultimate Deer Food Plots, disking no deeper than 4 inches is the way to go. Plowing is not advised in Ed’s book and we have found that it is unnecessary. While plowing is understandable to break up tangled weed structure and heavy soil, it has a way of moving valuable top soil to lower levels where it cannot be utilized. And, when soils are weak and contain substantial amounts of sand, a little topsoil can sure help to hold much-needed moisture for germination and beyond. It doesn’t help to bury it!

That’s why we go along with the light disking operation to cut up the fully decomposed weeds and their roots. In years past, fertilizer and lime applications were made at planting time, but this year I managed to get the job done immediately before disking, which is the preferred method. Oh, how the weeds began to flourish shortly thereafter; they must have loved all the fertilizer and lime, because they shot up like Jack’s beanstalk. Never fear, however, one more spray was in order before planting, but no more tillage. Although the final and third spray could be applied the day of seeding, it was done one week prior.

The disking operation had left the ground somewhat uneven – certainly not conducive to a good, smooth seedbed, so I began the seeding day with a pass of the cultipacker behind my 62-year-old Farmall Cub. With the new hard-maple, wood bearings recently installed, which had been soaked in boiled linseed oil and then thoroughly greased, the cultipacker smoothed out the ground without any further tillage. This is important if you want to minimize weed growth. Tillage at this point may make the soil look “clean”, but it also gives dormant weed seeds a better chance at life.

The next step was to broadcast the brassica mix (and even some winter peas and forage oats) over the soil with a hand-held spreader. If you are up for a brisk workout, time can be minimized by a quick pace and fast hand-cranking. Seed is spread about 8 feet from one end to the other. It’s important not to overdo the seeding however, because too many plants only crowd each other and stunt growth. It’s best to set the gauge on the light side and have some left over. The remaining seed can then be cut back a little more and broadcast again. Since the peas and oats are much larger seeds than the tiny brassica mix, a second pass with a calibration change on the spreader was necessary.

The final step simply involved one more pass with the Cub and cultipacker. With fingers crossed, I now wait for Mother Nature’s help. Some people question the rationale of planting in August, but we know better and so do the deer and other wildlife that feast on the bounty throughout the fall and winter.

Montana Officials Decry Federal Court Decision on Gray Wolves

Montana wildlife officials decried today’s federal court decision that placed the recovered Rocky Mountain gray wolf back on to the federal list of threatened and endangered species.

“We believe we made arguments to the judge that he could have relied on to uphold the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to delist the wolf,” said Joe Maurier, director of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. “We will carefully examine the ruling to determine what options remain open to Montana’s wildlife managers.”

While today’s decision by Federal District Judge Donald W. Molloy in Missoula takes away state management of the wolf, the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission officially asked FWP to immediately appeal the ruling to the 9th Circuit Court and to aggressively seek management options with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“If we understand the ruling correctly, Judge Molloy is telling the federal government that because Wyoming still doesn’t have adequate regulatory mechanisms to manage wolves, you can’t delist the wolf in Montana and Idaho.” Maurier said. “We simply can’t manage wildlife successfully in that environment. We must have the ability to manage wildlife, to do our job, to seek a balance among predator and prey. As a practical matter, as wildlife managers, we need the authority to respond to the challenges wolves present every day.”

Today’s federal court decision reinstates Endangered Species Act protection for wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, with federal law guiding Montana’s wolf management options. With today’s ruling, a general wolf hunting season in Montana is prohibited.

Wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains were removed from federal protection in March 2009, a decision that was almost immediately challenged by a coalition of 13 groups seeking to put wolves back on the endangered species list.

The recovery of the wolf in the northern Rockies is one of the fastest endangered species comebacks on record. In the mid 1990s, to hasten the overall pace of wolf recovery in the Northern Rockies, more than 60 wolves were released into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho.

The minimum recovery goal for wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains was set at a minimum of 30 breeding pairs-successfully reproducing wolf packs-and a minimum of 300 individual wolves for at least three consecutive years. This goal was achieved in 2002, and the wolf population has increased every year since.

The wolf population in the Northern Rocky Mountain Recovery Area, which comprises parts of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, was estimated to be at least 1,706, with 242 packs, and 115 breeding pairs at the end of last year. About 525 wolves were estimated to inhabit Montana, in 100 packs and 34 breeding pairs.

Contact:
Ron Aasheim, (406) 444-4038; Dave Risley, 406-444-9817; or visit FWP’s Web site at fwp.mt.gov

Anti-Gun Radical Confirmed to Supreme Court

“After reviewing Ms. Kagan’s record and testimony at her confirmation hearing, the GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA concluded that, ‘The available evidence portrays her as a forceful advocate of restrictive gun laws and driven by political considerations rather than rule of law.'” — Sen. John Thune (R-SD), August 5, 2010

Antlerless Deer License Applications Available

Applications for antlerless deer licenses in areas with restricted quotas are on sale through Sunday, August 15, at all license vendors or online.

In all, 776,500 antlerless deer licenses will be available in 2010, an increase from 728,100 last year. The number of both public- land and private-land licenses has been increased.

Hunters will find fewer antlerless licenses available in the Upper Peninsula. In 2009, 12 U.P. Deer Management Units (DMU) did not have antlerless deer licenses. This year 17 DMUs will not offer them.

In the northern Lower Peninsula, antlerless permits have increased somewhat, largely due to more licenses available on private land on the east side of the region. Five DMUs will not offer antlerless licenses, compared to four in 2009. All private-land licenses for DMU 487 – which includes Alpena, Alcona, Iosco, Montmorency, Oscoda, and Presque Isle counties – may be used throughout the DMU. There will not be any private-land licenses for the sub-unit DMUs within DMU 487. As another option for taking antlerless deer only within DMU 487, hunters in the unit may use an antlerless or combination license for antlerless deer within the Nov. 15-30 firearm season or the Dec. 10-19 muzzleloader season.

In southern Michigan, where deer populations remain significantly above goal, the number of available antlerless licenses has been increased. As with the change made for DMU 487, all private-land licenses for DMU 486 – the multi-county unit which includes all but six DMUs in southern Michigan – will be good throughout the DMU. There will not be any private-land licenses for the sub-unit DMUs within DMU 486.

Applications, which remain on sale through Aug. 15, are $4. Hunters may apply for just one antlerless license.

Summer Crow Hunting

By Steve Hickoff

Need some hunting action? Check your state’s regulations. Chances are there’s a crow season slot offered sometime soon. Local to my northern New England home base, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont all offer August options. Maybe your hunting location does too.

Some history: Back in the 1970s, crows were first recognized as migratory game birds. These days states around the country establish seasons. Summer offerings, and split-season fall or even winter time periods, aren’t uncommon. Typically springtime nesting periods offer a break in the action, but hey we’re usually busy with the turkeys. Crows even help us find gobblers then. How do you hunt crows now? A few ideas follow:

DECOYING: Decoying is crucial to your crow hunt. Crow-hunting traditionalists use the classic owl decoy trick, as the birds are arch enemies, but I’ve learned that varying tactics is required if you hunt one area frequently. Plastic-bodied crow fakes work fine when established in front of a treeline you can hide in. Blinds (natural are best) are essential as crows are wary as wild turkeys, and they can view you from above as well. To enhance decoy sets, we’ve used a propped-up fox pelt in a field, a deer hide (as if to imitate downed carcass-imitating crow food), plastic eggs, and so on, anything that might draw in a crow’s curious attention. As always, check state regulations.

CALLING: Electronic crow calling, peppered with your own real imitations, works too. Set it nearby in your blind. As calling goes, with decoys in place, calm, still mornings work best. You can begin with casual vocalizations, work in excited calls, and also the slam dunk of them all, the wailing moan of a distressed crow. So-called dying rabbit predator calls draw their attention too. Fooling them into range is half the fun. Shooting, often between a roost and feeding area, rivals the best that waterfowling can offer. Really. It’s fast-shooting action, and a real challenge.

As with all forms of hunting, it pays to scout as you would for any other species. Late-summer sees migratory groups gathering as they shift ranges. This is a super time to decoy and call them. I have yet to encounter a farmer who hasn’t granted permission to hunt crows.

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