Small game season in high gear

November 4, 2017

It is now the first weekend of November. A large percentage of the leaves are still on the trees with about one-third of them still green. West Virginia’s fall hunting season is really in high gear. This past Monday, the split fall wild turkey season reopened for Grant, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Randolph, Tucker and Webster counties. This season will remain in until Nov. 18. The second half of the small game season opens today for bobwhite quail, cottontail rabbit, ring-necked pheasant, red and gray fox (both hunting and trapping), bobcat (hunting and trapping), and Snowshoe hare. Most ...

Tempers flare in playoffs

November 2, 2017

“He didn’t slam ya, or hit ya. He rubbed you. son! And rubbin’ is racin!” This was a favorite line of mine from the movie “Days of Thunder.” This past weekend rubbin’ certainly was racin’ at the tough old short track. Martinsville’s half-mile race track is one of the oldest tracks on the NASCAR schedule. Kyle Petty said there are always bent fenders and hurt feelings there. He wasn’t wrong. On Saturday, the Camping World Truck series ran the Texas Roadhouse 200, and as Martinsville races go it was very calm. Veterans Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter appeared to ...

Youth hunters bag deer

October 28, 2017

On Thursday, I tried squirrel hunting again using my favorite .22 rimfire rifle. The location I picked to go was the same location where I hunted on Sept. 30. This time, my luck was a little better. I didn’t get into the woods until about 9:30 in the morning. Within five minutes, I heard a squirrel barking in the nearby trees. The leaves were still better than 50 percent green, and I was not able to locate the chattering bushy-tail. On this particular outing, I actually saw six squirrels and got two with my rifle. I also saw a bear during the morning hours. It wasn’t much more ...

Racing heats up in cool weather

October 26, 2017

The temperatures are dropping; however, the racing action is ramping up! This is a great time of year to catch some of the finest racing. All the Championships from all the major series in both dirt and NASCAR will be decided in the next few weeks. This coming weekend, the World of Outlaws World Finals will be held at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Three national titles will be decided in the Winged Sprint cars, Super Late Models and the Big Block Northern Open Wheeled Modifieds. Last weekend the Dirt Track World Championship for the Lucas Oil Super Late Models was ...

Take a youth hunting

October 21, 2017

This year’s youth squirrel season was Sept. 2. Today is the state youth deer antlerless gun season. All youth hunters must be at least eight years of age and less than 18 years old. Youth hunters, aged 15-17, must comply with all of the state licensing requirements, but the Class N or NN stamp is not required. Youth hunters, aged 8-14, must be accompanied by a licensed adult, who must also wear 400 square inches of blaze orange. The accompanying adults cannot carry a gun, bow, or crossbow and must remain close enough to the youth hunter(s) to render advice or assistance. The ...

Outlooks differ for hunting season

October 14, 2017

No person in their right mind should be complaining about all the rain we have been getting for this week. This precipitation has been desperately needed in this area for nearly a month. Last week, I got my 2017 Mast Survey and Hunting Outlook Report from the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. This year, 236 locations covering all regions of the state were surveyed. Observations were collected by all kinds of outdoor and wildlife professionals, which includes foresters, wildlife biologists, wildlife managers, natural resources police officers, and all sorts of other ...