The Huron Expositor, 1987-11-11, Page 3me HURON EXPOSITOR, NOVEM8ER )1, 1987 — pA
• TOM: JOHNSON shows the nice rack of the deer he helped to bring down. Corbett •
photo.
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YOUNG BUCK - A spike buck was brought down by the group and Johnson,. with the help of an ATC. Corbett photo,
was taken to the truck by Larry Dolmage, Ralph Wood, and Tom
Local. hunters bag 'five deer.
• " A hunting we will
,BY NEIL CORBETT
If there' S one thing that will get the men in
this town cooperating, thinking the same,
and in general working together toward a
specific goal, it is their common desire to
shoot a deer.
Last week. was deer season in Huron
County and the many hunters in area were
out in droves, scouring every patch of bush
that farmers would allow them in, to find
their prey. These hunters come in groups of
up to 12 people, and I was lucky eneugh to
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find a bunch of guys who were willing to
have a rookie stumbling along with them,
• who . carried only a camera" with which to
shoot a deer.
This group of men included Larry
Dolmage, Tom Johnson, Gary Bennett, -
Dave Mahon, John. Janmaat; .Gord -Car-
nochon, Paul Hulley, Ralph Wood and Todd
James. Most of these men are pretty -ex- "
perienced with the cagey art of deer bagg-
ing, and the day; went out they had already
put a doe on ice and had a big buck hanging.
The doe had weighed 111 pounds and the
buck 209.
But these men were eager to get a couple
more deer to add to the meat to be spread
between them.
I had never been deer hunting, and found
there is -a lot more planning to it than one
would think. These guys really know their
animal and what it will try to do to avoid
them. They are not allowed to use anything
other than a shotgun with, slugs loaded,
because a high powered rifle has a three
mile range and there are a lot ofhouses,
cars 'and people in the county, The slugs
have an effective range of only 90 or 50
yards, so the hunters have to know where
• the deer are going to go or they won't get
anywhere near them.
The general plan of the group I joined was
to send four or five guys into one end of si
section of forest. They walk throngh, in a
:line, blanketing as much area as possible,
• and making as much noise as possible. All
their screaming and hollering scares the
deer and they (hopefully ) run out into the
waiting arms, and guns, of Itin rest of the
• hunters..
The rest of the hunters position
themselves around the bush where they
think the deer will likely go, such as at the
end of a fence line. The deer would choose
the fence line because there is always some
, bush growing alongside the fence that it can
use to send:hide in, rather than trotting
along in plain sight through a tilled field. A
hunter is always at the end of the fenceline,'
out of sight of the deer, and waiting for it to
get close enough for a shot.
It is these hunters. who wait around the
bush, blockers they are called, who general-
ly get the best chances to shoot at the deer. -• ,
So I was told that I should wait with one of
them so I could get a picture of a deer that
was still alive. While -we waited the guy I
was with told me a lot of interesting things
about deer and how good their survival in-
stincts are - like how they will remain very
still until the.doggers go past them, and then
double back behind the hunters and escape. ,
He said sometimes they will hole up in bush
that is so thick that hunters can't get in and
rootthem out. Turn'to page 5 •
t.'
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THE DAY'S FIRST CATCH was a little on the small side. Ralph Wood, Steve Steep,
and Larry Dolmage put it up to hang. Corbett photo.
$
STEVE STEEP waits, hidden by a tree, for
a deer to come up the fericeline he is block-
ing. Corbett photo.
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LOADING THE BUCK - It takes four men to get this animal on the truck. He weighed in
at 201 pounds and had an eleven point rack. Corbett photo.
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WEIGHING = At the ministry Office the young buck is weighed in at 74 pounds, and
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.1A,%. . „ io igtoito, WS jaw is removed so that his age can be determined by stress patterns in' his teeth,
LARRY DOLMAGE waits on a small hill for sign of a deer while he is blocking. Corbett photo, Corbett photo.
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