DEER HUNTING

DEER HUNTING
Ohio, Pa. gun seasonsset for Dec. 2 opening
Approximately 1.5 million hunters are expected to participate when this year's statewide deer gun season begins Dec. 2 in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
About 450,000 deer hunters are forecast to be out in the Buckeye State and nearly one million Keystone State hunters are preparing for the first change in antler restrictions in that state since 1953.
Last year, gun hunters harvested 100,425 deer in Ohio and this year the white-tailed deer population is estimated at 575,000.
The Ohio deer gun season will be open seven days and close at sunset on Dec. 8.
Ohio is divided into four primary deer hunting zones. A limit of one deer may be taken in Zone A (35 counties) or Zone R (10 counties). Hunters may take a second deer in Zone B (19 counties) and three deer in Zone C (24 counties) by purchasing additional deer permits. Hunters may purchase up to four urban deer permits to take antlerless deer only within the urban deer zones located around Columbus, Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Toledo, Dayton and Cincinnati.
Hunters may take a deer of either sex during the deer gun season, except in the ten-county Zone R, where a deer of either sex may be taken during the first two days of the season and an antlered buck only during the remaining five days. Zone R lies primarily in northwestern and western Ohio.
Additional hunting regulations and maps of deer zones are contained in the free 2002-2003 Hunting and Trapping Regulations Digest, available where hunting licenses are sold and from the Division of Wildlife at (800) WILDLIFE or ohiodnr.com
In Pennsylvania, antler restriction regulations being implemented to improve breeding ecology and to increase the number and size of bucks in the herd will vary throughout the state. In Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Indiana, Lawrence, Mercer, Washington and Westmoreland counties, hunters may shoot only bucks that have at least four points on one antler. In all other counties, with two exceptions, hunters are limited to shooting bucks that have at least three points on one antler.
All hunters in the state's six special regulations area counties -- Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia -- may still harvest bucks that have at least one three-inch spike or an antler with two or more points. In addition, statewide, junior license holders, disabled hunters with a permit to use a vehicle, and Pennsylvania residents on active-duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, may still harvest bucks that have at least one three-inch spike or an antler with two or more points.
Senior hunting license holders are not exempted from the new rules.
A legal antler point must be at least one inch in length from the base to tip. The brow tine and the main beam tip shall be counted as points regardless of length. The brow tine, which is found near the antler base, must be present, but need not be a full inch in length. It should not be confused with growths from antler burrs found at the base of an antler.
Hunters who do shoot a protected buck by mistake are required to complete and attach their deer harvest tag to the deer immediately after killing it and before moving it. The mistake kill must be reported as soon as possible, but no later than 12 hours after the time of kill, to the region office serving the county in which the deer was harvested.
While the hunter will be required to pay a $25 restitution fee and surrender the antlers, he or she will be permitted to keep the carcass. The hunter also is required to immediately remove all entrails, take the entire carcass to a Wildlife Conservation Officer in the county where the deer was taken, and make a written, sworn statement explaining when, where and how the accident or mistake occurred.
17th annual Deer Hunter's Rendezvous
The 17th Annual Deer Hunter's Rendezvous will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 8 at Pine Lake, 3 miles south of the Ohio Turnpike Exit 16 on Route 7. All deer hunters and those interested in seeing big deer should plan to attend.
Raffles will be held throughout the day, and each hunter bringing in their 2002 tagged buck (on the carcass), or the antlers of the deer harvested this year, will be eligible for the drawing of a Traditions muzzleloader. The winner must be present.
Admission is as follows: Hunters bringing in their whole deer will be admitted free; those with horns from deer harvested this year -- $1; those with an Ohio Valley Outdoors Magazine -- $2; and those without a deer -- $3. Children 12 and under will be admitted for free and qualify for special drawings.
Also to be shared is the Nature's Bounty program. All hunters are asked to donate 1- to 2-pound packages of processed meat to help feed the hungry through the Sportsmen Against Hunger program. The meat will distributed to the Rescue Mission. Coolers will be provided for the meat collected.
Deer handling guide
A "Field Dressing Deer" pocket guide is now available from Penn State University's College of Agricultural Sciences.
Developed by Catherine Cutter, PSU assistant professor of food science, the guide is printed on coated paper that resists stains and moisture and is designed to fit inside a hunting license holder. The publication describes a 12-step process to prepare a deer carcass for butchering in the field.
Changes in the Pennsylvania's deer-hunting rules in 2002 are concerning meat processors about being overwhelmed with deer since both bucks and does can be harvested in the same season.
Cutter said some processors are worried they will get more animals to process and that the animals might not be prepared properly first.
It is especially important that carcasses are field-dressed properly and cooled down," she said. She added that a carcass that has been cooled down will ensure better meat quality and will promote safer venison by preventing the development of pathogens such as E. coli.
Single copies of "Field Dressing Deer" are available free by contacting your county Penn State Cooperative Extension office, or by calling (814) 865-6713..
A pdf version of the guide is available at the following Internet site: http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/uk100.html