Rod & Gun packed full of grip and grin

Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News

January 05, 2008 09:13 pm

— If you like local deer hunting, you’ll love our Rod & Gun publication that will be inserted into the Jan. 30 Cumberland Times-News.
Why?
Because it will have 70 or so photographs of your friends, neighbors and relatives who were successful in bagging deer. You will have page after page of grip-and-grin snapshots in one 6x10.5-inch package. We’ll even throw in a few photos of hunters who knocked down bears, elk, turkeys and pheasants. If you need additional copies of Rod & Gun to send to relatives the solution is easy. Buy more papers that day.
The January issue of Rod & Gun is my favorite because of these photos. It is an in-print testimonial to the local hunting life that exists proudly within the circulation area of the Cumberland Times-News. That circulation area includes some pretty darn good deer habitat. If you are a hunter who is about 25 or 30 years old or younger, you probably think we have always been able to bag venison stew ingredients around here, but that is simply not true. Just ask your grandfather. He’ll tell you.
What is impressive about some of these photos is that there are some substantial bucks that have come from the hills of Allegany and Garrett counties in Maryland and counties such as Mineral and Hampshire in West Virginia.
What is even more impressive is that the grins on the faces of hunters are just as wide whether they are holding onto an 8-point buck or a spike or a doe.
Over these many years of running photographs of hunters with their deer, we have taken the approach that you are honest people and that you will send us honest photographs with honest information.
The vast majority of you have done so. Some have not. You know who you are.
We ran a photo of a man with the bear he killed (probably 15 to 20 years ago) and he said the bear weighed 200 pounds. That being the case, the hunter must have weighed 750 pounds. We ran it as he told it.
One year we got a photo of a young hunter with his deer. The lad was not as tall as his rifle. I called the family, not to question whether or not the boy killed the deer, but to ask if he had taken a hunter safety course. The family said he didn’t have to, that he had killed the deer on family land and that the course was not required.
I informed them that everybody born after a certain year in the 1970s had to take the course and suggested that if the photo ran they might anticipate a visit from the local game warden.
Wildlife law enforcement agencies on both sides of the Potomac River have investigated cases based upon photographs of hunters and their deer that have been published in the Times-News. Some of those investigations have resulted in citations being written.
The family told me to run it anyway, but called back 10 minutes later and had changed their minds.
I make the mistake sometimes of thinking that anybody who calls us or sends us a photo of themselves and their deer has a certain level of knowledge.
One person called a number of times to make sure we had gotten the photo. I told the hunter that we had and offered my congratulations about the very nice buck. “I never see bucks like that,” I told the hunter. The hunter said, “Do you hunt?”
“You don’t read the Outdoors column, do you?” I inquired.
“Nope,” he said.
Something surprises me with the deer hunter photos. First, let me back up a minute. In print we told readers that we prefer photos taken at the place of the kill before the deer has been field dressed. Many of you have made the effort to take those kinds of pix and we appreciate it. But here is the thing. I’m seeing a lot of photos of hunters, many of them young hunters, in exactly that setting, but they are not wearing blaze orange.
What has happened? Did the young hunter not have the required garment around his or her body during the hunt? Or was the safe color removed for the purpose of taking the photo? If the latter is true, I would suggest that is not a very good idea, besides being illegal. Keep in mind the young people are still in the woodland setting and are actually holding up the heads of deer. Give that some consideration next year.
When you get your hands on Rod & Gun you will see some great photos of successful young hunters. You’ll see Skyler Barkman with an 8-point he bagged via firearm and Julia Bower with a doe she harvested with her bow.
Though she is not a youth hunter, one of my favorite photos is of Joy Strieby and the very impressive 9-point buck she killed. Strieby is from Allegany County, but now lives in Easton, Pa. She got a sweet Maryland buck.
Many hunters include a note or two with their submissions. Here is part of Joy’s.
“I hunted as a little girl and stopped for about 20+ years. I just recently started to hunt again and lucked out this time around! My first buck at almost 40 years old... how fun!”
We share your joy, Joy. Way to go.
Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.

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