Knowing how your gun shoots can make all the difference in the field

By John Hayes / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As the rack comes slowly into view and the big buck steps into the open, you're in the right place at the right time with all the scent-dampening, deer-attracting, optics-enhancing, gun-stabilizing technology a credit card can buy. All your gun-shop prep may not matter if you haven't done enough gun-range prep to know precisely where your sporting arm will shoot under the conditions at hand.

With the opening of the statewide rifle deer season just weeks away, it's now or never for hunters who need a little quality time with their sporting arms.

 

After the initial set up, telescopic sights require periodic tweeking to stay on the mark. And while iron sights and slug guns generally remain steady, big game animals rarely present themselves at exactly the sighted distance.

 

Ballistics expert Buddy Savage, longtime owner of Braverman Arms in Wilkinsburg, said the most common mistake made by most hunters is not knowing where their guns will shoot at various ranges.

 

"How you set the gun up determines how it's going to shoot. You sight in at 100 yards, say, but do you know how it shoots at 50 and 150 yards? How about 25 and 200 yards?" he said. "Because you can never know where that deer or bear is going to present itself."

 

Hunting conditions vary wildly and unexpectedly -- that's half the challenge of the hunt. But after initially setting up their guns, many hunters do a quick annual sight-check ritual under the same controlled conditions every year. Savage said merely looking at bullet trajectory charts isn't enough to really understand how the gun shoots at different ranges.

 

"First of all, the bullet weight should be considered as a factor in what type of hunting they're doing. But if someone has been using 150 grains for years, I wouldn't recommend changing now, even if 150 isn't the ideal weight for their hunt," he said. "It's far better to understand how the bullet they're using shoots at different distances."

 

In the same respect, hunters who originally sighted a heavy load at 100 yards perhaps could have given themselves more kill-zone flexibility had they sighed at 150. But again, Savage said for most hunters it's better to understand the full collective capabilities of the sporting arm, bullet weight and sighting distance that are the most familiar.

 

"When you go to the range to check your sighting, fire off the typical three shots with a cold barrel and get a good pattern. But you're not done yet," he said. "With the same sighting aiming dead on, shoot a few shots at 50 yards. Do it at 25 yards. Aim dead on at 150, 175 yards. Don't aim high or low, and don't adjust your sights. You want to learn how your gun shoots."

 

At a distance other than the range at which the gun is sighted, if you're shooting no more than a couple of inches high or low you can probably aim dead on and place a shot in the animal's kill zone. More than a few inches high or low? Compensate with an alternative aiming point.

 

"I'm not a big fan of messing with your sights in the field," said Savage. "Once a hunter knows how his gun shoots -- once he knows how much drop he's got -- he should just aim a little high or low. That's the simplest way to do it."

 

Slug guns are notorious for blasting off with a fast initial velocity, but having a trajectory arc that drops abruptly. Many hunters would be surprised the learn the steep rate of drop within common hunting conditions.

 

"It's a relatively close-range gun, but if you know how it shoots there's the potential for a longer shot," said Savage. "There's a wide variety of slugs out there. The sabot loads seem to shoot well. For most of the shooting I see around here, I'd be sighting in for 75 yards dead on. At 25 yards it will be lower but not out of the kill zone, but I'd try it at 100, 125, 150 and keep shooting rounds to see how fast it drops."

 

At the range at which the slug drops about 10 inches, it's too much of a drop to safely and confidently compensate by aiming high. "The ethics of the gun," said Savage, demand that the hunter pass on that shot and wait for a closer one. "A clean kill -- that's what's important."

 

Other field conditions can be tested while sighting. A good solid rest will steady the gun, but the forestock will recoil off a hard surface before the bullet leaves the muzzle, throwing off the shot. The angle of elevation can also impact accuracy when a hunter takes a long shot from high in a tree stand or fires up a steep hill.

 

"If the gun is pointed down, the recoil will rise less because of the weight," said Savage. "If it's pointing up, the likelihood is it will be shooting higher."

 

On getting into position in the field, use a range finder to note multiple distance-marking landmarks in all directions, and consider in advance how you'll aim at various distances.

If you're sighting-in at a space not landscaped to serve as a shooting range, make sure you're firing into a safe backstop with no chance of passers-by and with the landowner's permission. In addition to many private sporting club ranges throughout the region, the Pennsylvania Game Commission operates public shooting ranges on 29 state game lands, including a new handgun-only range at State Game Land 203 near Wexford.

 

Following expensive lead remediation, landscaping and other work on the public ranges, users must be in possession of a general hunting or furtaker license or a range use permit, available for $30. Licensed users can bring one unlicensed guest. Kids 15 and under don't need a license and must be accompanied by a licensed person age 18 or older.

Pennsylvania's Chronic Wasting Disease Quarantine List Grows To 12 Deer Farms

By MARCUS SCHNECK, The Patriot-News 

The list of deer farms under state Department of Agriculture quarantine had grown to a dozen by Friday, as the agency continued its “trace out” to find additional deer that had contact with the animal that was the state’s first confirmed case of chronic wasting disease.

And, one of the deer that lived in the enclosure at New Oxford with the 3.5-year-old doe that died of CWD and eight other deer remained at large, after breaking through the fence Oct. 18 as staff from the department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services were killing the entire herd.

View full sizeDr. David Griswold of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture left, and Mathew A. Meals Deputy Secretary with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture field questions during a public hearing about a case of Chronic Wasting Disease Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012.
 

Fatal in deer, elk and moose, CWD is spread animal-to-animal through their saliva, urine and feces. The prions that cause it also can remain active in contaminated soil for many years.
There is no evidence that CWD can be transmitted to humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pennsylvania became the 23rd state with a confirmed case of CWD on Oct. 10, when tests on tissue samples from the dead New Oxford deer produced a positive result.

That triggered the state’s CWD response plan for action by agencies including Agriculture and the state Game Commission.

Part of the plan calls for the “depopulation” of the 1.5-acre farm at 1491 New Chester Road, New Oxford, where the first case of CWD was confirmed. That farm is now referred to as “the index farm,” according to Mathew Meals, deputy secretary of the state Department of Agriculture.
As Ag agents were carrying out that action Oct. 18, a doe named Pink 23 crashed through the fence and disappeared into the adjacent woodlot.

The New Oxford area is a mix of farms with their fields, sprawling suburban residential lots, small woodlots and winding stream corridors.

Samantha Krepps, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture, said Friday the agents continue to search the area of the farm for the escaped animal.

Game Commission staff have spotted the deer, still sporting its yellow ear tag, but were unable to take a safe shot at it, according to Jerry Feaser, spokesman for the commission.

“We have discussed this with our officers and directed them that if they encounter the deer and the circumstances are right to put the deer down,” he noted. In addition, he said, “we would five any hunter who lawfully harvests that deer a replacement tag” to allow him to harvest another animal.

Under another part of the CWD response plan, Ag is tracing all deer at other deer farms that had contact, direct or indirect, with the deer that died. That search has produced eight farms, in addition to the New Oxford farm, two deer farms near Dover and one near Williamsport.
All 12 sites have been placed under quarantine, which prohibits the owners from moving deer, elk or moose off the site or onto the site.

The sites, and their owners, according to Ag, are as follows.
In New Oxford: 1491 New Chester Road, Ronald Rutters; 1305 New Chester Road, Carl Rockey; and 170 Dicks Dam Road, Troy Luckenbaugh, Harvest Acres.
In Dover: 61 Pickett Road, Dover and 295 Bremer Road, Dover, both owned by Bryan Rutters, Rut Acres.

In Williamsport: 6464 Jacks Hollow Road, Mike Schilling, Lost Mountain Whitetails.
In Shippensburg: 8029 Molly Pitcher Highway, William Noll, Noll’s Whitetails; 1309 Private Oak Lane, Dwain Koser, Bradly Kauffman, Koser’s Whitetail Trophy II; and 46 Springfield Road, and Dwain Koser, Koser’s Trophy Whitetails.

In Spring Grove: 5032 Eichelberger Lane, Harry Eichelberger, Bud’s Place.
In Grampian: 830 Woodel Road, Matthew Anthony, Anthony Whitetail Ranch.
And, in Smethport: 80 Bordell Cross Road, Zachary Nelson, Cole Creek Whitetails.

 

Ag is continuing its “trace out” process to find all possible connections to the CWD deer, according to Krepps
At a public meeting Oct. 17, Assistant State Veterinarian David Griswold estimated that the impact of the one CWD-infected deer that has already died could hit a hundred farms across the state because “deer farmers in Pennsylvania tend to move a lot of deer.”

According to Ag, there are more than 25,000 cervids – deer, elk and moose – on more than 1,100 farms across the state.
The quarantine list does not include a deer pen in the 100 block of Opal Lane in Honey Grove, Perry County, where police investigated tampering with gates that allowed several deer to escape on Oct. 20.

Meals said Ag’s procedures normally allow the owner of escaped animals five to 10 days to recapture the animals before the agency steps in to take action.
However, that can vary, he noted, and “we’re still early in our investigation.”

Fines And Prison Sentences Increased For Fish Poaching

By John Hayes / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pennsylvania is setting the hook on wildlife poachers. In 2010, the state Game Code was amended to significantly increase poaching penalties, adding for the first time jail sentences for some first-time offenders. Last week, Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law House Bill 2293, which increases the maximum fine for illegally harvesting fish from $200 to $5,000 and gives the state Fish and Boat Commission authority to revoke fishing and boating privileges for as long as five years.

 

The law went into effect immediately. It adds a new section to the Fish and Boat Code for "serious unlawful take," increasing the penalty for harvesting more than the daily limit from a summary offense of the first degree to a misdemeanor of the second degree. It also enables the PFBC to charge violators for the costs of replacing illegally harvested fish, and increases poaching prison sentences from a maximum of 90 days to two years.

 

In a written statement, executive director John Arway suggested the new penalties may help deter steelhead poaching in Erie County, where every year conservation officers apprehend five or six poachers each in possession of dozens of fish over the legal limit.

"These are the individuals who deliberately come in after dark and take large amounts of game fish, often by using illegal methods such as netting or spearing in the streams," Arway said.

 

In another action, the governor approved House Bill 1417, which adds waterways conservation officers and their deputies to those who are protected under the aggravated assault provisions of the Pennsylvania Crimes and Offenses code.

Captive Deer From CWD-Positive Farm Roaming Free

By Bob Frye, Pittsburgh Tribune Review

One of 10 captive deer that was meant to be euthanized because of its exposure to chronic wasting disease is instead alive and well and roaming the Pennsylvania countryside.

 

Adams County, PA

On Oct. 10, tests results showed that a captive deer that died on a hobby-type deer farm in New Oxford, Adams County, had had wasting disease, or CWD. It was the first case documented within the state.

 

Officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture made public the test results a day later. State veterinarian Craig Shultz said then the plan was to “depopulate” the farm – i.e. kill the 10 remaining deer on it – to test them for CWD, too.

 

That was a necessity because there is no live animal test that can determine if a deer has CWD, and no treatment for the always fatal disease if there was, he said.

 

Shooters from the United States and Pennsylvania departments of agriculture descended on the farm Thursday to kill the deer. Nine were shot. But the tenth – named Pink 23 – broke through the fence and escaped.

 

Agriculture officials have been watching the farm ever since, in the hope that the deer would return to a familiar place on its own so they could shoot it. But as of 5 p.m. Monday, the deer – identifiable because of a yellow ear tag – hadn’t.

 

“It’s still out there,” said Samantha Krepps, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

 

What happens next is unclear. Krepps said the two agriculture departments and the Pennsylvania Game Commission are working cooperatively on the issue.

 

When asked if there was a Plan B for recapturing the deer, Krepps declined to say.

“I’d rather wait on talking about that for a bit yet,” she said.

 

Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser deferred all questions about the deer to the agriculture department.

 

In the meantime, the deer’s presence on the landscape is a potential threat to the state’s wild deer herd, said Kip Adams, a biologist and outreach coordinator for the Quality Deer Management Association in Pennsylvania.

 

The escaped deer may or may not have wasting disease; no one can say for sure. Test results from the nine deer that were killed on the farm won’t be known for several weeks yet.

But should it have the disease, this is “absolutely” the worst time of year for it to have escaped and be roaming around, Adams said.

 

The rut, or breeding season for deer, is about to get into full swing. Pennsylvania Game Commission research has shown that most adult female deer are bred, on average, in mid-November. Additional research specific to Pennsylvania has shown that in the weeks leading up to that time, deer – bucks and does both – travel much further and more often and come into contact with more deer than is usual, Adams said.

 

Given that CWD is spread by deer-to-deer contact and by deer coming on contact with plants and soils where CWD-positive deer have been, the fact that a possibly sick deer is moving around and socializing could be bad news, Adams said.

 

“If you had to pick the one worst time of year for something like this to happen, this would be it,” Adams said. “This is pretty scary.”

 

Sportsmen, meanwhile, are upset that no one from the department of agriculture released any information about Pink 23’s escape to the public. No news releases have been issued in the five days since the deer’s escape.

 

Some hunters have already contacted state lawmakers to air their complaints.

 

Pennsylvania’s woes with chronic wasting disease have already spread to another state.

Wildlife officials in Indiana -- which does not have CWD -- banned the importation of captive deer from Pennsylvania into their state as soon as evidence of the disease was confirmed here this month. But that may have already been too late.

 

Twenty deer escaped from an Indiana captive deer farm specializing in producing big bucks for hunting preserves earlier this year. Seven of those deer – including a buck from Pennsylvania – remain unaccounted for.

 

What concerns officials with the Indiana Department of Natural resources is that 10 deer imported into their state over the last three years came from the New Oxford farm in Adams County where CWD has been detected. Some of those deer ended up at the farm where the escape occurred.

 

That farm is reportedly not one that voluntarily allows its deer to be tested for wasting disease either.

 

Wildlife officials have encouraged hunters who see a deer with a yellow ear tag in any one of several counties to shoot it immediately, then call a biologist so that it can be tested.

A video about Chronic Wasting Disease and the current situation in Pennsylvania.

Bull Creek Members Steve Allias and Chuck Gray Featured In Newspaper Article On Advanced Turkey Hunting Class

Fall turkey season set to open

By Bob Frye Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Steve Allias will admit to having been humbled more than once.

 

The Arnold man has been hunting turkeys for decades and has taken his share of birds. But he’s been taken to school more than once, too.

 

Those failures have taught him as much as anything.

 

“I always say the birds are the best teachers. They’ll show you what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong,” Allias said. Learning that way can take years, though, and success in harvesting a bird can take season upon season.

 

Now there’s an alternative.

 



Club Member Steve Allias teaching handgun safety
at a recent Women In The Outdoors event

The Pennsylvania Game Commission has rolled out a Successful Turkey Hunting class, an advanced course designed to teach hunters how to find turkeys, how to call them in and how to bring them home.

 

“We want people who leave this class to have a real chance at success very early in their turkey hunting career,” said Keith Snyder, chief of the commission’s hunter education and outreach division. “We’re trying to give people the opportunity to gain a lifetime’s worth of experience in a single day. We want to give them that kind of head start.”

 

It’s all tied to hunter recruitment and retention, he said. Hunters who enjoy success are more likely to stay involved, he said.

 

The turkey course is new. Instructors such as Allias were trained earlier this year and so far have offered just a handful of courses around the state. The intention is to offer more courses next year, Snyder said.

 

One was held recently in the southwest region at Bull Creek Rod and Gun Club.

Students do precourse work at home, reading a manual that covers everything from turkey management history to calls and call types. A one-day class follows. Hunters spend the first half doing class work, some of it focused on turkey hunting safety.

 

The afternoon is spent in the field at different stations. They shoot shotguns on the range to see how their guns pattern at different ranges. They learn how to make different sounds on different calls. And they learn to estimate distance by standing at a set point and guessing by the distance to turkey decoys.

 

That last skill is harder to master, even for experienced hunters, said Chuck Gray of West Deer, another course instructor.

 

Having experienced hunters to help students learn that and other skills is what the class is all about, though.

 

“It’s to help people and give them all of the little pointers, all of the little tricks, that we’ve learned from mistakes we’ve made throughout the years,” Gray said.

 

The course is aimed at all sportsmen, ones new to the sport as well as veterans who have never done much with turkeys, Snyder said. The first class at Bull Creek was composed almost exclusively of adults.

 

Gray expects to see more young people, though.

 

“I’m hoping that as word gets out, more kids will get involved. I think there’s so much information we can share,” he said.

 

Allias agreed, noting that the course can shorten the learning curve for new turkey hunters considerably.

 

“I wish someone had offered this class 30 years ago,” he said.

Wilber Shotton, The Last Surviving Charter Member Of Bull Creek, Dies At Age 89

Wilbur James Shotton, 89, formerly of Fawn Township, passed away Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012,in Silver Hills Assisted Living, Montgomery, Texas, where he was a resident the past two years.

He was born Sept. 4, 1923, in Steubenville, Ohio, a son of the late Wilbur W. and Anna (Lauff)Shotton. Mr. Shotton had lived in Texas the past six years and prior to that in the local area most of his life. 

Mr. Shotton was employed in the bending department of PPG Industries of Creighton for 25 years. He was also employed by the Port Authority Transit (PAT) for 14 years in building maintenance. 

A World War II veteran, he served in the Navy, where he was a ship's cook third class. He served with the Fighter Squadron Two Easy Carrier Aircraft Service Unit. He was of the Methodist faith and a member of Tarentum Moose and the Legion of the Moose No. 1, a life member of Arnold DAV, the Tarentum VFW and the AMVETS of North Braddock. 

An avid outdoorsman, he helped to organize the Bull Creek Rod and Gun Club, of which he was the last continuous charter member. He was also a life member of Frazer Township Sportsmen's Clubs, a member of NRA, Gun Owners of America and the Amateur Trap Shooters Association.

Mr. Shotton was also a member of the Western Pa. Conservancy and a member of the Friends
of Beechwood Farms. He served with Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1941, and was a
member of the National Association of CCC Alumni and member of Escort Carrier Sailors and
Airmen Association. 

Mr. Shotton is survived by his son, James David (Michele) Shotton, of Houston, Texas; three grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and sister, Elizabeth (Joseph) Bernardo, of Parkville, Md. Besides his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife, Bessie L. (Lucas) Shotton, who passed away in August 2010; and a daughter, Shirley L. Manchini, in August 2009; brothers, Joseph, John R. and Robert C. Shotton; half brothers, William and Frank
Maudhuit; sister, Martha Rayburn; and half sisters, Margaret Bishney and Anna Reitz. 

Relatives and friends will be received from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, 2012, in the DUSTER FUNERAL HOME INC., Tenth Avenue at Corbet Street, Tarentum,724-224-1526. Services will be conducted at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, in the funeral home with the Rev. Justin R. Judy officiating. Burial will be in Mt. Airy Cemetery, Natrona Heights, with full military honors by Tarentum VFW Post 5758 and Brackenridge American Legion Post 226. Visit
http://www.dusterfuneralhomeinc.com.