Longer blackpowder season, crossbows, Sunday archery under fire
Some changes to hunting regulations most sportsmen thought would be in place for the 2010-11 seasons could be held up again during the current legislative session.
Two proposals — one that would allow unrestricted use of crossbows and one that would take the final week of archery season and add it to muzzleloader deer season — were approved by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission for the 2009-10 hunting seasons.
However, citizen opposition at the state legislature delayed their implementation. If they had sailed through the first 30 days of the current legislative session, they — and other delayed proposals — automatically would have become law for the 2010-11 seasons.
That may not happen because of work by the N.C. Bowhunters Association. The NCBA approached several legislators who agreed to submit bills in the House and Senate, either to alter or delete the two proposals.
If the House and Senate approve the NCBA-sponsored bills and they’re signed by the governor, crossbow use will remain restricted to physically-handicapped hunters during the bow-only season but would be allowed during the gun and muzzleloader seasons. Muzzleloader deer season also would remain one week in length. If the bills don’t pass muster, the 2009 proposals will become law.
Sen. Fletcher Hartsell (R-Cabarrus) introduced S1173, the crossbow bill, while Don Vaughn (D-Guilford), Steve Goss (D-Watauga) and Don East (R-Alleghany) co-signed.
Meanwhile, House members Dewey Hill (D-Brunswick), Harold Brubaker (R-Randolph), Larry Hall (D-Durham) and Paul Stam (R-Wake) introduced S1857, a companion House bill that mirrors Hartsell’s Senate version.
“The Senate crossbow bill is a simple disapproval of the rule change adopted by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and approved by the Rules Review Committee to allow the use of crossbows without a permit during bow and arrow seasons,” said Ramon Bell, NCBA president. “But (S1173) also would authorize the use of crossbows during firearms season to take deer.”
Hartsell, Vaughn and Goss also introduced S1144, a bill that would retain a 1-week muzzle-loader season, while House members Hill, Larry Hall (D-Durham) and Fred Steen II (R-Rowan) filed H1858, a companion muzzleloader bill.
“(NCBA) is okay with crossbow use during firearms season and even would like to add it to Urban Archery seasons,” Bell said. “We just don’t think it’s appropriate for regular bow-and-arrow seasons.”
Gordon Myers, the Commission’s executive director, said his agency will continue to push for unrestricted crossbow use and a 2-week muzzleloader season.
“Our position certainly is to not disapprove these proposals,” he said. “We took them to statewide hearings, and in every case, public comment was favorable. Then the (commissioners) voted for them, so we have been advocating the agency position (at the legislature). Part of the reason to support those proposals was to increase the deer harvest and give sportsmen more hunting opportunities.”
The muzzleloader bills disapprove a rule change that would shorten the archery season by one week and create a 2-week muzzleloader season.
“We have three major concerns about losing a week of bow season and adding it to muzzleloader season,” Bell said. “It takes a week away from the time bow and handicapped hunters can hunt for quality deer because it shoves us completely out of the rut, especially in the central, northwest and western counties. And there’s no sound biological reason to do it; it’s just the desire of the Wildlife Commission to kill more deer. Also, more small bucks would be killed.”
Bell pointed out 2009 harvest data showing that muzzleloader hunters are 20 percent more likely to shoot an antlered buck than bowhunters, 56 percent of all deer taken by muzzleloader hunters were antlered bucks, while only 36 percent of 2009 bowhunters tagged antlered bucks. Muzzleloader hunters even took a higher percentage of antlered bucks than regular gun hunters — 48.
Evin Stanford, the Commission’s big-game biologist, said crossbow and muzzleloader proposals didn’t come from the agency’s staff. He also said a 2006 survey indicated a 50-50 split among deer hunters as to whether they desired a 2-week muzzleloader season.
“One of the tenets of good deer management is the majority of buck harvests happen after the rut,” he said. “By creating more opportunity prior to the rut, you have a chance at increasing buck harvests. What we don’t know is would hunters shoot bucks in that period that wouldn’t have been shot if the extension didn’t exist, or did they shoot bucks that would have been shot anyway? So we really can’t say whether (a 2-week muzzleloader) season would increase the harvest. Certainly, the potential is there, and that’s probably why the deer committee decided against recommending the extension, plus the survey showed our hunters were split on the idea.”
Stanford said the no-permit crossbow proposal also lends itself to murky analysis.
“There’s no way to predict how crossbows would affect deer harvests,” he said. “It depends on whether or nor individuals really take up crossbow hunting, and if we get a lot of participation, would the harvest be compensatory — would more deer be killed (with crossbows) if we didn’t make the change?”
Legislators have filed other bills that concern two 2009 Commission proposals, including:
• Rep. Hill and Tim Spear (D-Dare) introducted H1930 to prohibit bowhunting and falconry at private lands on Sundays.
• Hill also filed H1918, which would negate a delayed 2009 proposal that would have prohibited the selling of foxes and coyotes trapped with depredation permits to fox-pen owners.
Myers admitted the Sunday bowhunting proposal was “very polarizing” and “the Commission might look at (supporting it in the legislature) a little differently than we do the other proposals.”
He also said the the coyote and fox proposal came from the Commission staff because it believed some individuals are using depredation permits to create de facto fox seasons. Fox seasons are set on a county-by-county basis, while coyotes may only be trapped during other furbearer trapping seasons, Myers
said.
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