Thursday, February 18, 2010
Bill Cochran's Mailbag: Snow's crimp on hunting
Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.
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
Bill's Field Reports
Resources
BILL: I really enjoy hunting the national forest in Southwest Virginia. A lot of my hunting friends complain a lot that there are no deer left in the national forest due to the bear hunters efforts to improve the bear populations. I do not think this to be the main problem, which I believe is aging forests, mast crops cycles and shifting deer herds.
This year due to the poor mass crops in my hunting area the deer physically moved their locations to few and limited other food supplies. Sometimes it was 2-to3-miles from where they were last year.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe bears do kill some fawns, but the biggest killer is the lack of food and hard winters like this one.
A.B.
BILL: Is it legal to hunt when there is snow on the ground?
D.B.
D.B.: You aren’t alone in asking this question. The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has been hearing it often, thanks to the abundance of snow this winter across much of the state.
There are no restrictions against hunting in the snow in Virginia. I think the question comes up every time it snows because some years ago it was illegal to hunt quail when snow was on the ground. Quail hunting was popular then, and the snow law caused lots of problems because it became a judgment call during times when snow would be on some areas of fields and not on others. The question, how big did the open patches have to be for legal hunting?
BILL
