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 ...

Drivers strive to advance

October 12, 2017

Two of the three top NASCAR series were back home to race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Xfinity series raced on Saturday night after rain forced a five-hour delay on the start of the Drive for the Cure 300. Hurricane Nate played havoc with the weather in the south most of the weekend. In stage one, Daniel Suarez paced the field and grabbed the win. In stage two, Erik Jones took the victory. In the final laps, Alex Bowman, who was making his first start in several months, showed that he still could get it done. He won the race over Sam Hornish Jr. Ryan Blaney finished third. ...

Hunting season off to a slow start

October 7, 2017

Last Saturday, I went squirrel hunting for the first time this fall. When I got back home, everyone started asking, “How did you do?” Well, there isn’t much to report. The woods where I hunted were practically dead. I got into the woods at daybreak. At about 8:45 am, I saw a gray squirrel on the ground that was about 40 yards away in the National Forest. It blended right in with the leaves, shadows and two small logs that it was between. When it stood up on its hind legs, I decided to go for it. I put the bead of my 12-gauge slide action shotgun on its head and let drive. This ...