Recently, it was brought to our attention that there is a bill to go before the Maryland Senate on March 5th, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. that proposes an increase in the safety zone to 500 yards around school property for any kind of hunting with a firearm or bow.  Here is the link to the proposed bill: Maryland Bill SB0754

I personally understand the need for safety around schools and I remember a few years back when someone shot a hole in a wall at a daycare (or school I cannot remember exactly) while hunting.  That was when safety zone requirements changed and became larger for hunting with a firearm.  Here we are again asking to make it 500 yards for a firearm or bow.  We hunt with bow, but still understand the importance of the 500 yard safety zone for a firearm, because if you are hunting with a shotgun, rifle, or muzzleloader, a bullet could be harmful around a school at that distance.  However,  for all of us bow hunters the probability that an arrow could make it 500 yards is not realistic or probably possible.  So I guess you could say we don’t agree or disagree with this bill.  It seems a little harsh to roll  hunting with any implementation into one bill, but we also understand and support the need for school safety.  The unfortunate fact is that this bill could cost a lot of people their favorite bow hunting spots, considering many bow hunters hunt in small areas that are in many cases close to homes, businesses,  and probably schools.  Granted this bill will not affect everyone, as I am sure there are more people that do not hunt near schools in Maryland than there are that do.  However, this bill was passed along to us and we wanted to pass it along to you so that you knew what was going on and what changes could be coming next year.  If you have an opinion about the bill, you can write or speak with your local senator about your feelings on the bill before it goes to the Senate on March 5th.

The Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was canceled on Thursday 1/24/2013.  The show was one that many people from the Mid-Atlantic and across the whole east coast traveled to for years.  One of the biggest outdoor shows around, it was on many peoples must go-to list.  It was backed by places like Cabelas and featured a 1000+ different vendors spread over the whole complex.  The show was poised to be the biggest yet this year until about 2 weeks ago.

Two weeks ago, the show organizer Reed Exhibitions decided to ban modern sport rifles and large capacity clips.  Upon this decision, almost immediately sponsors, vendors, and celebrity guest speakers all started backing out of the event.  Early this week, I heard that one of the big sponsors Cabelas had backed out of the event and others quickly followed.

Finally, on Thursday they announced the show would be postponed until further notice just a week before the show was slated to start.

Here is the official announcement that was made and is listed on the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show’s website:

Reed Exhibitions has decided to postpone, for now, the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show given the controversy surrounding its decision to limit the sale or display of modern sporting rifles (also called ARs) at the event. The show was scheduled to take place February 2-10 in Harrisburg, PA.

“Our original decision not to include certain products in the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show this year was made in order to preserve the event’s historical focus on the hunting and fishing traditions enjoyed by American families,” said Chet Burchett, Reed Exhibitions President for the Americas. “In the current climate, we felt that the presence of MSRs would distract from the theme of hunting and fishing, disrupting the broader experience of our guests. This was intended simply as a product decision, of the type event organizers need to make every day.

“It has become very clear to us after speaking with our customers that the event could not be held because the atmosphere of this year’s show would not be conducive to an event that is designed to provide family enjoyment. It is unfortunate that in the current emotionally charged atmosphere this celebratory event has become overshadowed by a decision that directly affected a small percentage of more than 1,000 exhibits showcasing products and services for those interested in hunting and fishing.

“ESS has long been proud to participate in the preservation and promotion of hunting and fishing traditions, and we hope that as the national debate clarifies, we will have an opportunity to consider rescheduling the event when the time is right to focus on the themes it celebrates.”  Eastern Sports and Outdoor 

How sad that a tradition and a great show had to be canceled.

Where you going to the show this year?  What do you think about it being canceled?

Recently, we took a trip to Maryland’s eastern shore and hunted two of the lands that are part of the Chesapeake Forest lands. The two lands that we hunted were E A Vaughn and Pocomoke State Park.   Granted, we went after the start of muzzleloader season and after the two week rifle season, but we didn’t see anything, you can read more about our outings by reading our Maryland’s Eastern Shore Deer Hunting Trip 12/16/2012 – 12/20/2012.   Even know we didn’t see anything we did learn a lot on that trip and is what I plan to share with you in this post.

The first part of hunting any new land like this is scouting, we spent all of Sunday and the middle of the days we hunted scouting the areas we were hunting in order to attempt to give us the best chance at seeing and harvesting a deer.  We learned that Maryland’s eastern shore is very different than hunting central Maryland in the sense that everything is flat, the types of trees are different, and the predominant bedding areas seem to be in the swamps rather than hillsides and thicket.   The other side of that is where there has been clear cutting taking place, whether it be current or within the past few years the deer use those areas.  Depending on the age of the pine trees, they are used for either bedding/cover or in the younger states when other things can grow around them they are used as feeding areas.

The other fact we learned is that after rifle season in those areas, I believe the deer have been pressured beyond the point where they are willing to come out before dark.  I believe those deer have become completely nocturnal after all the shooting and traffic from hunters during gun season.  I am shocked by this since this happens in a lot of public lands right after the gun season.  This is a normal fact of over hunting/pressuring an area.  Plus, you have to think about those that are lucky enough to get shots, that is a lot of noise over a two week period that these deer just are not use to.

We also have to look at the difference in weather, food sources in combination with the hunting pressure and on top of all that you are on a post rut time period.

I did like some of the areas that we found while scouting and believe these areas could be great bow hunting or early muzzleloader hunting areas.  But with all of these other factors we learned that the first week of late muzzleloader season this year might possibly of been the worst time to try these areas.  You add up never hunting there before, very little knowledge of the deer normally act, where hunting pressure has been, and what food sources the deer are targeting, and only a half day of scouting and the odds were stacked against us.  We were lucky enough to have several people pass along a few ideas on where to try and where to scout, but even that only increased our odds slightly.

Overall, it was a fun trip, got to see some new areas, and learned a lot to use should we decide to head back there next fall for a bow hunting or early muzzleloader hunt.

Do you hunt E A Vaughn or Pocomoke state park? Or for that matter any part of Chesapeake Forst and want to share your thoughts or insights? We would love to hear from you and welcome your thoughts and insights!