Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.

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Bill Cochran's Outdoors

Recent columns

• Less freedom at Hatteras for surf casters
• Here’s the scoop on hunting shed antlers
• Want more grouse? Get used to hearing chainsaws
• Sunday hunting bills aplenty, but some hunters hold out
• Column archive

Bill's Mailbag

• Hunting for a book on rabbit hunting
• More comments on Sunday hunting
• Mail archive

Bill's Field Reports

• Winterize your boat? Heck no! Keep on fishing
• Senator gets attention of DGIF
• Field reports archive

Resources

• Trout stocking schedule

BILL: In response to Walt Hampton’s reply (last week’s Cochran Mail Bag) about the Virginia Bear Hunters Association and bear hunting, I have to say he is clearly misinformed or just plain anti-bear hunting and has no intention to listening to any other view. This is to perhaps give people with an open mind another take on his perspective:

1. He said feeding a bear is thinly veiled bait hunting. Hunting over bait has been illegal in Virginia for as long as I can remember for both deer and bear, but look at Wal-Mart and check out all the salt and mineral blocks for sale called “Deercane, Buckbuster” or whatever the name may be. Can the deer hunters be all doing right and all bear feeders be doing wrong?

2. The main purpose of requesting to chase at night was because of cooler temperatures for the dogs. It certainly doesn’t make the walking any easier or the pursuit any easier. Remember, this is for pursuit only, no harvesting. No man or beast is going to hunt 24/7.

3. Lengthening the season was a request to be able to kill all the bears in Virginia, according to Walt. Funny that our group treed 23 bears last year and only took four. Doesn’t make much sense to keep dogs and kill all the game you use them for, does it? Wonder why the Virginia Bear Hunters Association spent $10,000 to help the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries with their bear management plan, just to kill all the bears? In 2006, there were 1,633 bears killed in Virginia and only 544 were killed by hound hunters.

4. Yes, I am sure the Virginia Bear Hunters Association has had members ticketed for violations, but to have their names put in The Roanoke Times holds no more credence than to put all the member’s names of a particular church or religion or civic group in the paper because they committed adultery or got a speeding ticket. This is not the Dark Ages and the witch hunts are over. There are good and bad in all of society and organizations.

5. A dog tracking collar is used for locating a dog when it has quit barking more than any other reason. When a dog is on a bear track he will be barking and his location will not be a secret. Yes, we talk on radios and have pickups, but we hunt in the National Forest and sure can’t drive any place that any other person can. As far as “Our cheap, tawdry high-tech races to kill” (Walt’s words) I imagine all other hunting groups ride horses rather than vehicles, use long bows and black-powder flintlocks, not scoped, inline muzzleloaders or crossbows with scopes and high-powered rifles with scopes and never, ever have a cell phone with them. I am not criticizing any other person’s sport, but am defending mine and trying to say we all better work together or none of us will be passing a hunting tradition to a future generation. This is something for all of us to consider when we put a bad light on a single group. In the end we will all go down the same path. Which one it will be is for us decide.

BILL: While reading the Mail Bag letter referring to bear hunting by Walt Hampton, the thing that came to mind was this. You could substitute the word “deer” in place of “bear” and the words “Virginia Hunting Dog Owners’ Association” in place of “Virginia Bear Hunters Association” and the letter would ring true for the dog deer hunting response to the recent Department of Game and Inland Fisheries study called “Hunting with Hounds in Virginia: A Way Forward.”

The dog hunters are crying foul on the DGIF study before it is even started. They are always asking for more time to “police our own ranks” but very little results are seen. I have also read several stores, e-mails and press releases that allude to “showing up in force at public meetings and voting out of office any supporter of changes to the present rules.” Those tactics do not exactly endear them to the rest of the public.

BILL: I thoroughly enjoyed your article about the prospects of deer, turkey, bear, etc. this coming season. That is great to know, especially where I hunt out in the George Washington National Forest.

A few months ago, I picked up a used Savage bolt-action rifle .308 complete with scope, and will be using that along with my old, tried and true, iron-sighted Marlin .30-30. One for close in brush busting, one for longer ranges -- the best of both worlds. The deer better watch out this coming season!

GROUSE HUNTERS: The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is proposing an additional deer muzzleloader season for early November (an extra week of the black powder season west of the Blue Ridge.) Grouse hunters should be aware that they will have to share the woods for an additional week with muzzleloader hunters. Concerned hunters should consider making their thoughts known to their VDGIF officials as soon as possible.

New muzzleloader seasons in other eastern states, like Pennsylvania, also overlap with early grouse season and have not seemed to create any problems for either bird or deer hunters. Pennsylvania, which has the highest number of hunters in the country, has had a long-standing late muzzleloader season that completely overlaps late grouse season without any apparent negative affects pm deer or grouse hunters.