Jesse's Hunting > Jim Matthews > July 2002 To December 2002

July 2002 To December 2002

DEER HUNTING LEGEND IN POMONA -- matthews column-ONS -- 31dec02

Deer hunting guru one of Pomona shows' highlights

Mike Eastman, a legend among mule deer hunters and outdoor film makers, will be one of the headline speakers at this year's 2nd International Sportsman's Exhibition to be held at the Fairplex in Pomona January 9-12.

Eastman will have a guest with him named "Popeye" at the show.

This isn't the cartoon character of your childhood, this is one of the largest mule deer bucks ever photographed. The huge deer was given the name "Popeye" because -- as Eastman explains -- "your eyes pop out when you see him the first time."

"This is the most famous mule deer, bar none," said Eastman of this tremendous buck that was photographed and videoed four consecutive years on public land winter range in Wyoming until the buck died of old age. Eastman said that because of his videos and stories in his magazine, said the buck became perhaps the most well-known and most heavily hunted buck in the West. But it still managed to elude hunters to die of old age.

Eastman said a hunting partner of his, Eddie Boe, followed the big buck on the winter range picking up his sheds each year until he died, and those sheds show the growth of this incredible buck over the seasons. The publicity over Popeye drew hunters from all over the country to try to find the big deer during the hunting season, but he was never taken even though he lived his whole life in one of Wyoming's general hunting units. Eastman will have film and mounted heads with the antlers of Popeye, a huge deer with a 42-inch outside spread his last year of life.

Eastman, who publishes the Eastman Hunting Journal and Eastman Bowhunting Journal, is beginning his firth year on the Outdoor Channel with the video version of his magazine. His publications and television shows specialize in showing mule deer hunters the biggest bucks taken each year on public lands and explains what they need to do to be successful in taking monster bucks.

A Wyoming native, Eastman will be giving seminars daily at the show in Pomona outlining the four keys to taking big deer on public land: 1)hunting terrain that holds big bucks, 2) concentrating your hunting in the same place year after year, 3) learn how to glass a trophy deer area without pushing deer, and 4) learning how to judge what constitutes a real trophy buck.

"Mule deer have changed their behavior over the last 20 years, and you can't hunt them the same way our father's taught us back when we were younger," said Eastman. "Back then we had millions of mule deer and there wasn't the hunting pressure. We try to give hunters the skills they need to take a trophy mule deer."

Eastman's seminars, which have only been held in Southern California once before and then in Oxnard, typically draw from 400 to 500 dedicated hunters. His shows at ISE are free each day with admission to the event.

In addition to Eastman's seminars, the Eastman Hunting Journal's World Record Deer Tour will also be at the show with mounted heads of the largest mule deer ever taken by hunters, including the famous 46-inch Meeker buck. Roger Selner and Don Stemler, who run the deer tour, are also both Boone & Crockett scorers and encourage hunters to bring their big antlers by the booth to have them scored to see how they stack up with the big boys.

The ISE show, which features over 300 exhibitors from the hunting and fishing arena, will run Thursday through Sunday next week at the Fairplex at 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona. Hours are noon to 8 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $9 for adults with kids 12 and under free. Discount coupons that knock $2 off the price on weekdays and $1 on weekends are available at Sportmart and Long Drug Stores.

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SOLUTIONS TO THE LEAD-CONDOR PROBLEM -- matthews column -- 24dec02

Lead poisoning of condors has simple solution

Both major populations of wild California condors -- those in northern Arizona and along the California coast -- exhibited signs of lead poisoning again this fall, causing several of the birds to be taken back into captivity and given special calcium treatments (chelated) to reduce the lead levels and keep them from dying.

For over a decade, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies working with condors have known there was a lead poisoning problem that was -- in all likelihood -- caused by the big scavengers eating the gutpiles of game killed by hunters, mostly deer in the fall hunting seasons.

Most bullets from big game hunting ammunition used by hunters leave small amounts of lead in the carcass of game even if they penetrate completely through the animal. Most of this lead is in the entrails and trimmed away meat that hunters leave in the field after dressing the deer. Since it only takes small amounts of lead to cause death in condors, birds feeding on gut piles of deer can easily get crippling or lethal doses.

Many, if not most, big game hunters in California still do not realize the minuscule amounts of lead they leave behind in discarded portions of game can cause the death of critically endangered condors, and perhaps other scavengers as well. Vultures, golden eagles and other wildlife also are probably killed directly by lead poisoning or weakened to the point they become vulnerable and are killed by predators.

This is a failure of the agencies charged with protecting the species because there is a simple two-pronged solution to the problem that would largely end the lead-caused deaths overnight. First, hunters can be encouraged to shoot one of the two very effective big game bullets that do not leave lead residue. Second, they can be asked to bury gutpiles so the lead in the discarded portion is not available to scavengers.

Hunters would comply with these recommendations if they were given information on the problem. So what has been done to inform hunters and give them this information? Little or nothing.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has done nothing. The U.S. Forest Service has a flyer posted at its ranger stations in condor country. The Ventana Wilderness Society, working under a grant to help educate the hunting community, produced a horrible flyer that didn't even tell what bullet alternatives didn't leave lead residue in gutpiles. Other conservation groups have done nothing but rattle the chains for a non-toxic bullet, which doesn't exist, and would effectively become a defacto hunting ban. The Department of Fish and Game has also done nothing. They all stand around and wring their hands each time news of lead poisoning in condors is discovered. Take action.

Here's what needs to be done: 1) All wild pig tags and all deer tags for zones where condors may forage need to be accompanied with an information flyer that explains the problem, how to bury or hide gutpiles, and the safe ammunition that is available (Barnes X-Bullets loaded by both PMC and Federal and Winchester Fail Safe bullets in Winchester ammunition). 2) All wild pig and deer guides in condor country need to be contacted by the agencies and provided with flyers to give to their clients and use as guidelines for their own actions. These contacts should be made by both mail and by telephone. 3) Conservation groups should work with the National Shooting Sports Foundation and ammunition companies to fund a rebate or coupon program that allows hunters to buy "gut pile safe" ammunition at a reduced price. This program needs to be publicized in all guns and sporting goods shops in California.

The hunting community will step up to the plate to solve the problem, but the agencies and conservation groups involved with condors need to work together to take some positive steps to inform hunters and the shooting industry -- and that continues not to be done.

The solution is simple and would happen overnight if -- if -- the agencies would make a concerted and united effort to inform hunters about the problem and explain how they can implement the simple fixes.

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NEAR RECORD BIGHORN -- Jim Matthews column 18dec02

Near-record desert bighorn sheep taken by archer

Outdoor News Service

FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- Desert bighorn sheep are among the most-coveted trophies a big game hunter can pursue. That is for two reasons.

First, tags are nearly impossible to obtain in long-odds drawings or they require a major investment at auctions where a few tags are offered, with all of the money paid is earmarked for bighorn management. So you have to be incredibly lucky or willing to invest an incredible amount of money to get a tag. Second, the hunting is difficult. The wary animals have keen eyesight and an acute sense of smell, and they live in open, parched country. Stalks on game often involve a lot of time on hands and knees or actually crawling, and everything in the country where desert sheep live has spines.

Al Baldwin, a well-known developer in Orange County, recently returned from an 11-day archery hunt on Mexico's Tiburon Island for desert sheep. He returned with a tremendous ram that many who saw the sheep thought might be a new world record for archers. After it was given a preliminary scoring at Red Stag Archery here Wednesday night, Baldwin learned that it will be very close to the top. Probably number two or three after the required 60-day drying period before it can be officially scored.

For hunters familiar with the Boone and Crockett or Pope and Young scoring system, the sheep's horns measured 176 3/8s inches, and the world record is 178 2/8s for archers. For those unfamiliar with that scoring system, the length of each horn is measure along its longest point and then the circumference is measured at the base and at quarter-points along the horn. The score is added up and totaled, in 1/8th inch increments. Differences between the left and right horns deduct from the final tally.

Baldwin's sheep had 15 3/8s-inch bases on each horn and measured around the curl they were 36 1/2 and 37 1/2-inches long.

For 11 days, Baldwin and his hunting party looked over sheep. Tiburon Island is bigger than Catalina, and Baldwin said he felt like he climbed at least 2/3s of the peaks on the island during his hunt. The sheep population is around 700 animals, and the Indians who own the island issue only three permits each year, allowing only a few old rams to be taken by hunters each season.

The huge ram was spotted at 10 a.m. last Tuesday, but it took the hunters most of the day to work into position, moving slowly, trying to remain out of sight. The big ram was feeding with three other rams and an old ewe, but broken terrain allowed Baldwin to creep close. Very close. At 32 yards, he made a perfect shot through the heart.

"The hardest part about hunting animals this big is controlling your adrenaline the last 30 seconds. You have to focus on the body for the shot, not the horns, and that is difficult," said Baldwin, still looking at the horns of the sheep.

Baldwin is three-quarters of a way to a goal he's set for himself -- trying to take huge specimens of each of the four North American sheep species with his bow. Most hunters consider the desert bighorn the most difficult, but Baldwin has now taken two desert sheep with the bow. He's also shot a stone sheep (the 10th biggest ever taken by an archery) and a fine Rocky Mountain bighorn. The dall sheep -- arguably the easiest to bag -- has eluded him twice. The bow makes the challenge immeasurably more difficult.

"I hunted with a bow as a kid -- rabbits and birds -- but when I could afford my first rifle I bought one. I went back to bowhunting about 15 years ago when the excitement left," said Baldwin. Hearing him talk about the hunt than ended over a week ago, the excitement was back in his voice.

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PYRAMID LAKE FEATURE -- Bennett-ons 11dec02

LAKE PYRAMID -- With a flick of the wrist, the Pop-R went slicing through the early morning haze. The lure landed with a small splash in the distance. I popped the lure once. Blurp!

No other cast in a fisherman's day holds as much power and mystique as the first cast. All the planning, all the money, all the hopes come together as the line arcs out over the water. Will today be the day that sparks tales of giant fish and gallant battles to be relived by campfires for years to come? Will today be the day that future bites are compared to, but never equal?

While I was deep in thought pondering these ideas, a striper decided that my Pop-R would look better at the bottom of its gut than jittering across the surface of the water. As I set back on the rod, the 14-inch Lake Pyramid striper went ballistic. A fish on the first cast. Was a sign of the day to come?

Quickly scoring fish on my second, third, fourth and fifth casts, what had started as a cast into uncertain waters, turned into a solid, red-hot striper bite on fish from a 1/2-pound to about a pound each in matter of seconds. Who knows how long the streak would have lasted if I didn't build a bird's nest fit for a pelican atop my baitcasting reel.

My fishing partner Shawn Kittrell of Chino scored four quick fish in as many casts on a shad-colored Slug-Go. We were in a thick school of small fish, hitting them every cast with top water plugs and swim baits. But then the greener-pasture syndrome set in. We were looking for some bigger fish, so we decided to leave the little guys biting like mad and head toward the dam in deeper water to check things out.

As we launched that morning, the Sheriff that checked us for a valid driver's license said the bigger fish were in deeper water. We had been in 90 feet of water and catching dinks. How much deeper could these fish prefer? As we motored toward the dam I noticed the lack of fisherman and boats. There were a few bass boats working the steep walls of the lake for largemouth bass, but where were are all the striper fisherman? As we came up to the dam and rounded the island, that question was quickly answered for us.

We quietly pulled up on about a 11 boats, tightly packed together drifting in 256 feet of water. Who would have thought a bass boat could float on water that deep. Coming from largemouth bass fishing, 50 feet was pretty deep; 256 feet deep that was just mind-boggling. As we were still assessing whether to fill out the fisherman 12-pack, we noticed almost all the boats were hooked up on nicer fish. So we slid right in, I mean we couldn't let a 12-pack be one short now could we?

Quickly, a whole frozen anchovy was flung over the side with a size BB split shot two feet up the six-pound line. As the bait drifted down about 30 feet, a fish picked it up and ran with it. I set the hook on a quality three-pound striper that pulled harder and longer than I expected. These fish are not like largemouth once you have them next to the boat. They don't just open their mouths waiting to be plucked from the water. They streak around, never sitting still, making them hard to get even with a net. After getting a nice picture of the fish we let it go.

We never moved from this spot of fish all day as the stripers readily ate all the drifted anchovies we offered them. This was more like it. A wide-open bite on 14-inch fish is great. But a wide-open bite on three-pounders, that makes the hour drive to the lake worth it.

There were a lot two- to three-pound fish with enough quality fish pushing six to eight pounds mixed in with them to make it very interesting. Boats that were anchored in the deep water could drop a bait straight down with a one eighth-ounce sliding weight and put it at any exact depth they wanted. While drifting an anchovy, smaller fish would sometimes attack it before you could get it down to an appropriate depth.

The key for targeting the nicer grade of fish was to get your anchovy about 30 feet down. Any shallower and you were in the 12- to 14-inch fish. The stripers had tons of shad balled up in about in about 15 to 20 feet of water. The small stripers were keeping the shad corralled and the bigger fish were hanging about 10 feet below them picking off injured baits so they wouldn't have to fight the speed of the smaller fish that were beating them to lunch.

Drift your anchovy too shallow and you quickly stuck a small fish that eagerly smashed your bait. Drift it just deep enough (30 to 35 feet on this day) and you had a shot at a real nice fish. Drift it too deep and you were wasting your time.

One tip that we found out the hard way was to keep the anchovies as frozen as possible and to make sure the ones you get are fresh and shiny. Our bait became soft and dull and did not produce half as well as people with fresh frozen bait.

Last cast time. It's difficult to quit a good day. You want just one more. Can you stop on a cast that doesn't produce a fish, but should've anyway? So about 24 casts after "My final and last cast no matter what," we called it a day.

The final tally for the day was two burnt-out anglers catching and releasing 45 stripers to 5 1/2 pounds.

This epic striper bite at Pyramid Lake started in the beginning of August and has gone strong ever since. The only reason anglers didn't catch fish for a while was because the lake was shut down while the Angeles National Forest was closed due to fire danger.

Every day since the reopening of the lake the fishing has been wide open again.

"On weekends we are running out of boats and frozen anchovies. By the end of the day, the walls of the bait shack look as barren as a Death Valley flower garden in September," said Lynn Macaluso, who works at the marina. Supplies at the lake are restocked every day. But if you get a late jump getting to the lake it would be wise to stop and pick up bait on the way.

Now that trout plants have begun this adds another weapon to your arsenal: Big trout swim baits. Stripers are smart and will catch on to a stocking schedule very quickly. They will be lying in wait just like eager trout fisherman lining the shoreline when they see the truck pull up.

One of the most magnificent things one can see is about 50 stripers in the 10- to 20-pound class going raging through the frothy water where the trout are gushing out of the truck. It looks like a school of bluefin tuna tearing through a sardine bait ball. It will truly take your breath away.

But don't get caught staring to long. Throw the trout plugs on boils and hold on. Or slow troll big trout plugs around the marina (or wherever the stocking occurs) on the day of, or the day after a trout plant, and you have a much better shot at nailing a wall-hanger.

The greatest tip for fishing big trout baits is this, if a striper hits your trout plug and misses it do not wind it in fast to recast, or stop the bait to cuss about missing one. Keep the bait swimming at its original speed like nothing happened. A lot of times a striper will roll on a trout and use its powerful tail to smack it, causing the fish to become disoriented and slowing it down. If your trout keeps swimming like nothing happened it really makes them mad, and they will charge at your bait with their mouth wide open.

This is definitely a boat only bite, so if you don't have one Lake Pyramid has a full line of gas-powered rental boats for your use. These boats cost $55 for all day, with an additional $30 security deposit required.

Don't forget you need to have a California Striper Stamp on your license if you plan to have any stripers in your possession. This $3.70 stamp will save a lot of headaches and money if the Department of Fish and Game happens to check you and your catch.

Remember the limits on stripers at Pyramid are 10 per person with the stamp. So when you are done you can have a giant fish fry, and see why stripers are almost better eating than catching. For more information on park hours and fishing hotspots, call the Lake Pyramid Marina at (661) 295-1245.

Anglers, landings set up fishing trip to benefit the homeless

TORRANCE -- Several sportfishing landings in Southern California will offer free fishing trips for anyone willing to donate their entire catch to help feed the homeless next Tuesday.

Designated trips for free fishing will depart from the participating landings at 8 a.m. and return at 2 p.m. Each boat's catch will be sent to selected homeless shelters in Southern California that will prepare the fresh fish as part of special menus for the holiday season.

The public is invited to participate by contacting one of the landings to make reservations to fish for free on Tuesday. Anglers without reservations will be permitted on a space available basis on Tuesday morning. The landings involved with the program including Marina Del Rey Sportfishing, Marina del Rey; Redondo Sportfishing, Redondo Beach; 22nd St. Landing, San Pedro; Pierpoint Landing, Long Beach; Long Beach Sportfishing, Long Beach; and L.A. Harbor Sportfishing, San Pedro.

Private boaters may also participate on Tuesday by bringing their catch to any of the collection points at the designated landings by 2 p.m. Tuesday.

The participating landings, boat operators, and boat crews are donating all their facilities and services for this special event.

These special free trips will target sand dabs and other shallow water fish not effected by the closures and seasonal restrictions on sports angling recently imposed by the Department of Fish and Game.

"All you have to do is show up and come out and have a good time. This is a great opportunity for kids, too," said Rich Oefinger, the owner of Marina del Rey Sportfishing. "You get a free day on the water with your kids, and you get to teach your kids how important it is to look out for others. This is a win, win, win experience for everybody."

For more information on the event, contact event coordinator Philip Friedman of 976-TUNA at (310) 328-8862.

Learning about leaps of faith from squirrels

The tree squirrels had been making repeated trips to the base of a pair of oaks right outside the dirt driveway into the hunting cabin. The two trees had shed most of their acorn crop for the year, and they were two of the only trees in this part of the canyon that has produced the big seeds.

When we'd come back to the cabin after a morning of deer hunting, there would be as many as a dozen gray squirrels scampering around feeding, sometimes hauling off acorns to some hiding place in a tree cavity. Frequently they were joined by the deer we'd come to call "the cabin doe" because she was always nearby. Mostly they would ignore us as we slowly roll past and park 30 yards away.

Since there's not a lot to do at hunting camp, I would frequently come outside and watch the squirrels. They are wary animals, well aware of the dangers that surround them, especially here, where there are so many predators. From the picnic table, I've seen red shouldered hawks, redtails, and Cooper's hawks. At the hidden spring below the cabin, my son and I watched a young coyote come to drink, and we have seen bobcats in every direction we've walked from the front door. I found a gray fox carcass near a rock outcropping at the spring just a few hundred yards above the cabin, and while I doubt bears would give gray squirrels more than a passing glance, the bruins have left tracks up and down the driveway. And we once saw four mountain lions together just down that same road. So you understand why the squirrels watch me carefully.

When I come out of the cabin, the squirrels make their way to the trees and up into the protective canopy of oaks, some of them sound their raspy, chuk-chuk-chuk warning calls. But they are also curious and impatient animals. After a time, they go back about their business, while keeping and eye on me, and there are always one or two that run along the branches and out onto the skinny limbs, moving acrobatically from tree to tree toward me. I am not here often enough for them to take me for granted like they do the doe. They peak at me over branches. Stop eating an acorn to watch me adjust my seat.

There are three massive old oaks in the yard around the cabin, and their branches reach out to nearly touch the branches of other oaks that line the canyon below. These are the squirrel routes, and I love to watch them leap from tree to tree at those places where the branches almost touch. The gray squirrels in this canyon could literally travel over a mile without ever putting their feet on the ground, and I have come to see them more as birds than mammals. There are places above the cabin where, because of the steepness of the hillside and spreading branches, they could be over 50 yards above the ground. They live in the air.

I wonder if their distant ancestors, creeping through the grass and fallen leaves like their ground squirrel counterparts, didn't look skyward and wonder about the heights and flight, just like man has done. You wonder about things like that when you see a gray squirrel come to the edge of a tree and launch itself out into space and into the branches of another oak. The ones that come to watch me inquisitively have a particularly large leap to reach the oaks by the cabin. I watch the squirrels do this with binoculars and marvel that they don't always look where they are jumping. They look around as they soar out into thin air. They look down at me as if to say, "Pretty cool, huh?" Self-flight, however brief, is a marvelous experience as any kid jumping on a trampoline will tell you.

The question is would you or I make that same leap, adding another level of danger and uncertainty to our lives?

So I watch tree squirrels make incredible leaps out into space between oaks. They don't know with certainty the branches will hold their weight or that they won't lose their grip. They are truly heroic leaps of faith, but the squirrels make it seem commonplace. Things we all could aspire toward.

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GUN LAWS, ROCKFISH, AND MORE NOTES -- matthews-ons 04dec02

Testing, permits will be required to buy handguns after Jan. 1

Buying a handgun in California will become more tedious and expensive starting January 1 thanks to bureaucrats in Sacramento.

If you want to purchase a handgun, you will now have to take a 30-question test at your local gun shop. If you pass the test by getting 23 or more of the questions right, you will be issued a permit to buy handguns good for five years. Of course there’s a fee for this.

You can then fill out the paperwork to purchase a gun, go through the background check -- and pay yet another fee -- and then 10 days later pick up your gun. The gun shop will have to give you a demonstration on how to use the gun, and you’ll need to show that you can operate the firearm, too, before you can leave with the handgun. Despite the rumors to the contrary, there is no proficiency or live firing test required.

This nightmare is somehow supposed to prevent criminals from getting guns or stop gun accidents, although I’ve never been able to figure out how this will happen. It just makes the legal purchase more time-consuming, tedious, and expensive.

Those of you who want to avoid this new added layer of expense and tedium have until Dec. 20 to purchase a new handgun.

My friend Jerry Springer (not that Jerry Springer), who operates the Western Hunter website (http://www.westerhunter.com), brought up and interesting point about the new law. Once you have the five-year permit, you can buy as many guns as you want, provided you pass the background check each time. But when it comes time to renew the five-year permit, what happens if you fail the test? Will they come and try to make you give up the guns you bought under the old permit when you were smarter?

I told Jerry that the government wouldn’t be that competent. Afterall, if a background check shows that a convicted felon is trying to buy a gun, which is another felony, the short arm of the law doesn’t go arrest the crook. They merely brag that he didn’t get a gun legally. That’s what we get with our 10-day waiting period: Law abiders are inconvenienced for nothing. The crooks aren’t even arrested for trying to buy guns illegally. So what have we accomplished with the waiting period and background check? Zip. Nada. Nothing. What’s the new testing and permit process getting us in terms of public safety? More nothing. Welcome to the mind-numbing world of gun control.

GUN CONTROL, TAKE TWO: Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood) introduced AB-50, a law to regulate the sales of .50 caliber rifles in California, about 12 seconds after he took his oath of office. His theory is that by adding more layers of bureaucracy to the purchase of these obscure and expensive long-range target rifles “terrorists and criminals” will not gain access “to this deadly weapon.” I’m pretty sure there’s not a single case of a .50 being used in any kind of crime, and Koretz’ bill wouldn’t ban them. So what’s the point?

ROCKFISH EYE-OPENER: Ricky Carbajal, skipper of the New Del Mar out of Marina del Rey Sportfishing, was out with biologists doing rockfish assessment work on Wednesday this week. Bocaccio, a rockfish that is supposedly so damaged by fishing pressure as to warrant endangered species listing, is now off limits to sport and commercial anglers, and probably will be for a long time. All rockfish are in dire straights, according to the marine biologists, and their goal Wednesday was to tag and release a number of the other species that are still fished by sport anglers some of the year.

The problem Carbajal and the biologists found was not in catching fish. The problem was catching rockfish other than bocaccio. He couldn’t get away from bocaccio. The endangered one.

Skippers all along the coast have said the bocaccio closure was based on bad science and the numbers of this popular fish were better the last couple of seasons than they’ve been since the last big El Nino apparently had a negative impact on all rockfish. Do the skippers think all rockfish closures should be lifted? No, their numbers are definitely down, but reduced sportfish limits and better management can be more effective than closures for many reasons.

SAND DABS FOR THE HOMELESS: On Tuesday, Dec. 17, sportfishing landings from Marina del Rey to Newport Beach will be running free sand dab fishing trips for the public, but 100 percent of the fish caught on all these trips will be donated to homeless shelters in Southern California.

"We want to do something for the needy this year and every year," said Captain Danny Strunk of the Pierpoint out of Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach. "We are starting what we hope will be a long tradition of helping the poor." Anglers can call their local landings to make a reservation on the December 17th trip. The trips will depart at 8 a.m. and return around 2 p.m. so that the fish can be collected and transported to the homeless shelters. Private boaters who want to fish on their own boats are also encouraged to join in and show up at the landings by 2 p.m. to donate their fish. And not just sand dabs.

"It doesn't have to be sand dabs," said Norris Tapp from Davey's Locker. "I'm sure some nice big halibut would work just fine."

HOT STRIPER BITES: This will probably be a jinx to these bites, but the striped bass fishing at Pyramid Lake, Lake Skinner, Casitas Lake, and even Lake Silverwood has been marvelous for the past month. Casitas and Silverwood have been producing the bigger fish, with some over 20 pounds, while there has been consistent action on one to four-pound stripers at Pyramid and Skinner. If you’ve missed this in the fishing report, you need to pay attention.

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DEER MANAGEMENT -- matthews column-ONS -- 27nov02

Private ground gives DFG model for better deer management

In California this deer season, I probably glassed over 25 different bucks before taking a nice, mature four-pointer. My deer wasn't as big as the huge-based, three-pointer one of my hunting buddies, Dennis Culley, shot the same weekend in nearly the same place. And there were two other older age-class deer taken in the same area by other hunting partners.

Where were we hunting? What secret spot is this?

Actually, the Tejon Ranch is no secret spot. It has been producing lots of deer, along with a few quality ones, for a lot of years. The Tejon is a participant in the state's Private Lands Management (PLM) program, and the ranch works diligently to enhance the value of the property for wildlife. On our deer lease on the Tejon, we are in the second year of a trophy deer management program where only older age class deer are legal bucks.

Last season we didn't shoot a buck on our 6,000 acres, although we saw a couple that fit the criteria. This year, we have taken four bucks so far, and our season doesn't close until Sunday, Dec. 1. In just two short years, the quality of the deer has increased pretty dramatically. When I was a kid and hunting this ranch on this same lease, then run by my uncle, it was a rare occurrence to see a buck older than three years old, and most deer were killed as two-year-old forked horns. For the last two seasons, we have been letting those deer grow up as part of the ranch's effort to increase the average age and trophy quality of the bucks shot on the property.

Bucks that would have been shot the first few days of the season in the past get nicknames: the "crab-forked three pointer on Red Mountain" or "that big-bodied forked-horn in Canyon Two." Deer that would be shot out on public ground are allowed to get bigger on the Tejon now. We found ourselves saying, "Oh man, that's going to be a heck of a buck in two years," when we'd see a spindly, young three-point with a tall rack.

What is utterly amazing to me is not that the hunting on this private ground is so good, but that the hunting on the adjacent public ground is so bad. And the only real difference between one side of the fence and the other is how the ground and wildlife is managed.

If the Department of Fish and Game would learn from the lessons of the PLM program and apply those lessons to public ground we could again have terrific hunting in California. Whitetail states throughout the country are adopting trophy deer management strategies to increase the average age of the bucks harvested -- and it's working. The fact that the trophy value also increases is a bonus. Yet, here in California, the few zones that we once managed for trophy deer have dropped the antler point restrictions and reduced tag numbers.

There are two ways to improve the average age of the bucks in a herd. Reduce the total number of deer killed so more bucks survive to the following year, or only allow hunters to harvest big, older age class deer. The first reduces hunter opportunity, while the second only reduces the harvest for the first couple of years of the program, not the number who participate. Today we manage Southern California's public deer herds for the highest take possible. We issue basically an unlimited number of permits and encourage hunters to shoot the first legal buck he sees because it might be the only buck he sees during our long season.

It could and should be different.

Our program on the Tejon allows us to shoot forks or three points, so long as they are older age class bucks. Antler mass is more an indicator of age than number of points, and the Tejon puts its hunters through a great class session to teach them the difference. The Tejon's buck ratios are also about double what they are on the surrounding public ground, and the number of big bucks is increasing each year of this program.

Could we have the same thing on public ground? Absolutely. We have a jump start on the program for the D11, D14, D15, and D19 zones this year because the seasons were essentially ended because of fire closures. Many of those young, forked-horns that would have been whopped will survive this year. Buck ratios should increase, and we should set a target of 40 to 60 bucks per 100 does for these zones in the future -- not the 20 to 25 we hope for now. Next year, we need to allow only trophy deer hunting in these zones. Within two or three years, you would be amazed what would be happening on public ground.

Will the DFG try it? Do they care? Do you care? Those are the questions that need to be answered. The question is not whether or not we can grow more and bigger bucks on public ground. That has been proven on private ground all over the state.

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DFG TAG REFUNDS, SANTA ANA OPENER -- matthews-ons -- 20nov02

DFG offers tag refunds to hunters

Deer tag refunds will be available to hunters who have been locked out of Southern California's public land during the fire closures in the Angeles, San Bernardino, and Cleveland national forests. The closures began just before deer hunting season opened, and most reopened just two or three days before the seasons closed, and many hunters did not find out about the reopening.

The Department of Fish and Game said earlier this fall that it would refund tag money if hunters were not able to hunt at least a week of the season. Kristine Fakunding, with the DFG's license and revenue branch in Sacramento, said the DFG would potentially have to refund money on over 14,000 tags for the D11, D13, D14, D15, and D19 zone hunts along with the G13 San Diego antlerless hunt.

While the D13 zone in the Los Padres National Forest remained open throughout its season, hunters who purchase D13 tags can also hunt in the D11 and D15 zones, and the DFG decided to offer refunds to those hunters who might have purchased a D13 tag intending to hunt the other closed units, too.

The DFG is hoping that hunters, especially those who did hunt the archery season or in the D13 regular season, will not return their tags for a refund because of the impact the lost money would have on the deer program.

Since deer tag money is specifically earmarked for deer management programs in the state, the potential loss of nearly $300,000 in refunds could result in some serious cutbacks in the management program. "It's going to hurt our budgets, unfortunately," said Fakunding.

Already, the DFG has had 139 positions eliminated due budget cuts mandated by the governor's office, and many DFG staff members will admit that dedicated accounts' monies have been used, actually misused, for projects and staffing outside of what they are designed to fund.

To get a tag refund, hunters should send their tag to Attention: Deer Tag Refund, Department of Fish and Game, License and Revenue Branch, 3211 S Street, Sacramento, CA 95816. The refund will not include the license agent handling and processing fees, which are a small portion of the fee. Hunters should allow eight to 10 weeks for the DFG to process the refund check. The DFG will not be refunding fees for hunting licenses, only deer tags, and the deadline to request a tag refund is Jan. 31. Questions about the refund can be directed to the DFG at (916) 227-2252.

SANTA ANA RIVER LAKES OPENER: Since last Thursday's trout season opener at Santa Ana River Lakes, there have been more than 150 trout topping six pounds caught, including an 18-pounder and another 40 over 10 pounds. Bill Andrews, who runs the Santa Ana concession with his business partner Doug Elliott, was a little distressed at this news.

"All the big ones got away," said Andrews. He was serious. "I think our anglers are just a little rusty. They've been popping the big ones off left and right. We put several 20-plus pounders in there and not one of them has come out yet."

The lake was planted with 24,000 pounds of trout for last week's opener, and 7,000 pounds -- including 3,000 pounds of Lightning Trout from two to 15 pounds -- were stocked this week.

WINCHESTER'S NEW CARTRIDGES: Short and fat is where it's at. That the case for rifle cartridges anyway. Winchester announced recently that it will be bringing out two brand new rifle cartridges in a new line called the Winchester Super Short Magnum (WSSM) for 2003. The regular Winchester Short Magnum (WSM) line -- .270, 7mm, and .300 -- are being hailed as the most innovate and efficient rounds in decades. The new .223 and .243 WSSM cartridges are even shorter, and brand new Model 70s and Browning A-Bolts, with a half-inch shorter action, will be offered to shoot the new stubby rounds.

CRAVE GRAVY: The hottest new trout fishing bait in Southern California isn't even something you put on a hook. It's something you squeeze onto just about any bait that's already on the hook. The new Crave Gravy, which has been available in very limited supplies until this week when Turner's Outdoorsman and other tackle stores received new shipments, is a scent-based product that is added to floating baits, nightcrawlers, salmon eggs, or any lure to enhance its appeal to the trout. Some anglers are saying adding Crave Gravy improves their success five to 10 times over baits without the additive.

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OUTDOOR COLUMN -- matthews-ons 13nov02

Forest closures lifted, hunters get pass extensions

The forest closures are over. All three of the National Forests in Southern California that had been closed to use because of fire danger reopened this past weekend when rainfall eased the threat of catastrophic fires.

Gene Zimmerman, supervisor for the San Bernardino National Forest, said that all people who bought annual Adventure Passes after Sept. 1 will be given three-month extensions. And hunters who purchased annual passes for deer season will be allowed to exchange their pass for a pass valid for next year's fall deer season. The closure caused deer hunters to miss all but the last weekend of the 2002 deer season, and many hunters did not find out about the forest opening until after the weekend.

"What a wasted year," said Steve Shurte, a San Bernardino hunter who did get out the final weekend of the D14 season. "Every hunter we talked with out there was irate. They don't want to buy deer tags and Adventure Passes here any more. I'm the same way. I think we're going to take our money someplace else next year. Maybe Utah."

Shurte said that he and his hunting partner and their two sons bought two Adventure Passes, six hunting licenses, six upland bird stamps, and 12 deer tags between them this year (over $500 in total fees) "and we got to hunt legally two days."

Besides being offered exchanges for the Adventure Pass, deer hunters who lost the opportunity to hunt this season are also being offered refunds by the Department of Fish and Game, but only for their deer tags.

LUCK OF THE DRAW: Al and Vera Fols of Yucaipa were both drawn for tule elk bull tags in the Owens Valley this year. There were exactly two bull tags issued for the first period Lone Pine hunt and over 400 sportsmen applied for those two tags. Applying as a party, the Fols were drawn first and got both of them.

California elk hunters always say that getting the tag is the hard part, and Al and Vera started scouting for their November hunt the first of September, visiting the Owens Valley to look at bulls during the `bugle' or mating season, and then they returned the week before the season opened Nov. 2 to do some final scouting.

There are a lot of elk in the valley and finding the elk wasn't a problem, and with the help of guide Joel Depaoli of Tustin and Fols long-time hunting partner Walt Boysha, also of Yucaipa. The Fols had the two biggest elk in their hunt zone located along with several quality bulls as backups. Opening morning went poorly, with the two big bulls, a huge seven-by-seven bull and a nearly-as-big elk with six points per side, staying in a tule marsh and never presenting a shot.

"We went to the backup bulls for the evening hunt," said Al Fols. "We moved in on them and I took the first one. Elk starting appearing everywhere and then Vera moved in and took hers."

The bull elk was Vera Fols first big game animal. She'd hunted deer unsuccessfully with her husband for three seasons, and then bagged a unique California big game trophy. Tule elk are unique to the Golden State and many believe today's growing population recovered from a single pair of animals.

DUCK STAMP ART SHOW: The annual Wildlife Art Festival at the San Bernardino County Museum attracts sportsmen from all over Southern California to view some of today's finest wildlife art. The Nov. 22-24 exhibit features over 20 of the West's finest wildlife artists in person with their work in addition to the top 100 entries in this year's federal duck stamp competition, along with the winning artist.

This year, a 30-year entrant in the duck stamp competition, won the event in judging held in mid-October. Ron Louque, a Virginia artist who's entered each year since 1973, captured the coveted duck stamp title with his painting of two snow geese in flight by the lighthouse at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

"I wanted to use a refuge with a distinctive feature as background since next year is the National Wildlife Refuge System's Centennial," said Louque. "The lighthouse is such a majestic feature, plus my painting is based on the effect of light, so I called the manager at Chincoteague refuge and he sent me photos of the lighthouse. There was a flock of snow geese in the picture.... It must have been a sign."

Louque, a taxidermist and avid duck hunter since childhood, will be at the Wildlife Art Festival which runs Nov. 22-24. Friday is a members and invitation-only event, while show hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and $4 for children. Kids five-and-under and museum members are free.

The museum is located at 2024 Orange Tree Lane, Redlands, just north of Interstate 10 at the California Street exit. For more information, call (909) 307-2669 or1-888-BIRD EGG. You can also visit the museum's website at www.sbcountymuseum.org.

TROUT CHAOS?: What do you get when you stock 12 tons of rainbow trout into two small lakes? Some say chaos. Some say the best trout fishing of the year. Santa Ana River Lakes, located in Orange County near the junction of the 91 and 55 freeways, will open today (Thursday) for its annual trout season and the lake has been planted with 24,000 pounds of trout, with some weighing in around 20 pounds.

"The water is low," said Doug Elliott, who manages the fishing program at the Lakes, "But we didn't cut back how many fish we're putting in for the opener so they'll be concentrated more than normal. We're excited about how good the fishing will be."

For each of the past two trout seasons, the Santa Ana River Lakes have produced more than 500 rainbow trout over 10 pounds for anglers, including at least four fish that would break the current state record of 23 pounds. As of mid-afternoon Wednesday there were already some 20 cars parking waiting to get in this morning.

And you thought the crowds at Crowley were bad?

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JOEL PENNY FEATURE -- matthews-ONS 06nov02

TOPANGA -- Joel Penny is from a different era. He is from a time when shooters still knew that the simple truth about rifle accuracy was a bullet that fit the bore of the barrel. A lead bullet.

This isn't to say there's anything wrong with jacketed bullets, but can you get them in a range of sizes for your .30-06 that vary from .3075 to .3105 inches in diameter? Well, no you can't. Most everything is .308 inches. Measure bullets from a dozen boxes of Noslers, Hornady, Speer, and Sierra bullets in 30 caliber, and they will all be darn near exactly .308 inches in diameter.

If you have a gun with a bore that is just slightly oversize, you probably need a bullet that is a little bigger in diameter to engage the bore correctly for decent accuracy. Ditto for a slightly underside bore. In older rifles, there is quite a variation in the diameter of the bore, depth of grooves, width of rifling, and so on. Sizing a lead slug to .310 might just be the ticket to make the gun shoot if it were slightly oversize.

Now that might be "old school" and ancient technology, but school is school, and a whole new generation of shooters are learning about the simple and cost effective joys of straight lead rifle and pistol bullets.

Revolver shooters never did stray too far away from lead bullets, but rifle shooters seemed to have largely left behind an era when just about everyone shot at least some lead loads in their rifles. Part of that certainly has to do with our overblown interest in magnums and high velocity. Push straight lead slugs too fast, even ones with gas checks on their bases, and you have a barrel cleaning problem. But load a magnum with lead gas check slugs at 1,200 to 1,800 fps and you have a load you can shoot cottontails with or just get in some serious practice without the pounding of full-power loads.

Joel Penny has spanned the two generations. The 71-year-old Topanga resident has been casting lead bullets for customers since 1959, but Penny's interest in lead slugs started when he was a youngster not even old enough to go to school.

"We had an old gunsmith and black powder man who lived two blocks from my house, and I'd get my legs whipped for going down the street to watch him mold bullets. I was only five or six years old then," said Penny.

A machinist and tool maker for 35 years, Penny's interest in shooting and guns led him to a weekend rangemaster job where he "found out there all the problems were with people's guns and what they were doing wrong."

Today, Penny has over 3,000 customers from all over the world and one of the largest mold selections in the world -- at nearly 300 -- and most of them are molds that are no longer made. He has everything from a variety of 22 caliber molds on up to a massive 4 bore mold that makes 1/2-pound slugs .955 in diameter.

"When I was going to gun shows all the time, they called me `the 32 man' because I had so many different 32s," said Penny, who admits that he still makes a lot of 32s, but he pours bullets for the whole range of rifle and pistol diameters.

"I could leave any 30 caliber mold on the pot 100 percent of the time and sell them all," said Penny, who often puts in 10-hour days hand-pouring bullets for customers, often making 1,000 bullets or more in a single sitting. But he admits he's always behind.

"Where I've made my business is in the sizing," said Penny. He always asks those ordering bullets if they slugged the barrel so he can match the bullet size precisely. For pistol shooters, he generally sizes the bullets 1/2 thousandth of an inch over the bore diameter, for rifles a full thousandth. For some guns, he varies the scheme of things. For example, Marlin rifles have a micro-groove rifling and "to put pressure on the shallow grooving," Penny often goes 1 1/2 thousandths over the bore measurement.

Modern production guns are very consistent and Penny has learned what certain guns shoot well. He can tell you that 9mms pistols vary considerably, Glock and Smith & Wesson have .355 diameter bores, Sigs have .357 bores, and Beretta's are even slightly larger and need.358-diameter bullets to stabilize, said Penny. Shooters of .45-70s see variations in bores that ranges from .457 to .461.

And shooters sometimes wonder why some ammunition shoots well in one gun but not another. Or why some guns just won't shoot at all. It may all be as simple as the diameter of the bullet.

Proving that things don't change, Penny's prices are right out of the 1950s. While he insisted he was going to be raising prices $1 to $2 per hundred, his prices are still amazingly low when compared to other companies lead slugs and downright cheap when viewed next to the prices of jacketed bullets. Prices range from $6 to $12 per hundred for gas check bullets in most standard diameters, and each slug is touched by Penny's fingers and custom-sized to fit your bore.

"I give them something that will shoot," said Penny.

[Shooters can write Penny's Hand and Machine Casting, P.O. Box 314, Topanga, CA 90290 for a price list or call him from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday at (310) 455-1567.]

NEGLECTED SHOOTING STICKS -- matthews column-ONS -- 06nov02

Shooting sticks save the bacon.

Most of us don't shoot very well in the field. Why? Rests are uncertain, we've just hiked up steep hills, we're excited at the sight of game, and we never practice as much as we should.

I recently missed a wild hog no more than 100 yards away. I know why. I took a hasty kneeling position, which wasn't all that stable since I'd just jogged up a gentle slope, and I was afraid the hog was about to run. I jerked the trigger pretty badly sending the big bullet at least a foot in front of his nose. The adrenaline was churning pretty good, too.

Yet a couple months before I was on another hog hunt, under nearly identical circumstances, and the pigs were even further away. But I dropped one with a single shot. The difference? Shooting sticks.

They are one of the most useful, least used items for hunters. Next to a sling, I can't think of a single accessory items that is more valuable. There are a variety shooting sticks and rifle-mounted bipods on the market. All have slightly different features that suit them to different hunting situations. I lump them into four categories.

Rifle Mounted Bipods: These include the popular Harris bipod and others like it. They attach to the front sling lug and have legs that fold up along the barrel when not in use, and then snap down to form a bipod for shooting. There are short models for use from the prone position, off shooting benches, or vehicle hoods, and there are taller models for use from a sitting position.

The advantages are a nearly rock-solid platform for shooting. For varmint hunting where you can get set up, they are exceptional. The disadvantages are that they are heavy and make for awkward use when you need to take a quick shot. Under ideal circumstances, they can work very quickly, but their lack of quick adjustability can make it hard to get set up on a steep slope or adjust to moving game. But from a stand or single position, they are the best.

Non-Folding Shooting Sticks: There are wide range of shooting sticks that hinge open, allowing for the shooter to quickly stab them into the ground and drop the forearm of the rifle into the V created by the sticks. To raise or lower the elevation, you can spread the legs further apart or move them closer together. You can find them made from wood, plastic, and aluminum from very light to very heavy. They all suit different needs.

With a little practice, they are all extremely fast to use on just about any terrain, which is the advantage of sticks. The heavy versions are more stable than the more flexible models, but all of them steady the shooter by great magnitudes. With all of them, except those with leather or cloth rifle forearm supports, I set my forearm-gripping hand in the V of the sticks and rest the rifle in the meaty web of flesh between my thumb and forefinger. This not only cushions the rifle, but allows minute adjustments by merely slightly changing the squeeze or position of the hand.

The disadvantage of these full-size sticks is carrying them around in the field. I have a buddy who made a very simple, but clever, holder out of PVC that he's attached to his day pack like an arrow quiver.

Collapsible Shooting Sticks: They are God's gift to the walking hunter. Most are designed like tent stakes that have a bungicord-like material through their center. Some you simply shake than they snap to full size, and other you can quickly joint up and be ready for action. They have all the advantages of regular sticks and the added advantage of being fairly handy. Many come with belt sheaths or are small enough that they can be stuck in a pants or jacket pocket.

Mono Pods or a Walking Stick: If you hunt where there's a lot of brush and you have to shoot offhand a lot, there is nothing better than a simple walking stick for giving you an added measure of stability. I have a very nice wood one that was designed as a wading staff for fishermen, and there are a host of lightweight mono pods on the market that are designed for shooters and photographers. You can shoot off the top of them from a standing position, or grip them lower down and brace against them from sitting or kneeling positions. They should be from 4 1/2 to 5 feet long, although some people like sticks that are longer than they are tall.

The walking sticks have a versatility that goes beyond just shooting, too. My two boys don't give me as much trouble when I have the big walking stick. It's long enough to fend off rattlesnakes. I can knock out-of-reach pine cones out of pinons during good nut years. But most of all, I have a tendency to lean on mine a lot, catching my breath.

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WATERFOWL OPENER THIS WEEKEND -- matthews-ons 30oct02

Duck numbers are down but opener should be good

Waterfowl season for most of Southern California opens this weekend and the prospects are good for this first weekend of the season, but slower than normal for the rest of the hunt, according to reports from the Department of Fish and Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"I think it will be a good opener," said the DFG's Jim Chakarun, manager of the Imperial Wildlife Area, which includes the popular Wister Unit. "I won't make any predictions that it will be good beyond that, but I think the opener will be good."

Chakarun said that Wister was currently holding 4,000 to 5,000 ducks, mostly teal, northern shovelers, and pintail. He noted that pintail are off limits to hunters until Nov. 28 so "guys are going to have to be careful."

Because of lower duck numbers again this year, seasons have been reduced and limits cut, or completely closed for some species. Continued concern about pintail numbers has kept the limit at a single bird per day as part of a hunter's five-bird limit. The pintail season for the Southern California Zone, is also 26-days shorter than the regular hunting period. The season that opens Saturday runs 86 days through Jan. 26, but pintails can only be taken from Nov. 28 through Jan. 26.

The limit will be five ducks statewide this year, and hunters may not take more than one hen mallard, two redheads of either sex, or four scaup (bluebill) as part of their daily limit. Canvasback are not allowed in the bag at all this season.

For the second year in a row, spinning wing decoys are not legal until after Nov. 30 during any of the state's waterfowl seasons.

Popular public hunting places that open this weekend include Wister, the Finney-Ramer Unit, and all of Salton Sea region; the San Diego City Lakes with hunting programs; the San Jacinto Wildlife Area and Lake Perris in western Riverside County; and Mike Raahauge's Duck Club in Prado Basin, which has public hunting blinds.

Waterfowl hunting in other areas, including the Colorado River Zone, the Southern San Joaquin Zone, and the Balance of State Zone, all have opened over the past two weeks.

The regulations, adopted the end of August by the Fish and Game Commission, are far more restrictive than last year's season due to a reduced number of birds in the flyway this year, especially mallards and pintail. Drought has hammered the duck population while most geese species, which generally nest further north, continue to remain stable, but with some declines in the Colorado River geese populations.

Because of the complex regulations by zone and species, the DFG and USFWS are encouraging hunters to study the regulations carefully so they do not violate game laws.

The following is a list of organized public hunting opportunities in the Southern California Zone, basic information, and contact numbers:

-- The Wister Unit of the Imperial Wildlife Area is open to waterfowl hunting through the state reservation system and a daily drawing for sites after all reservation holders are admitted to the area. Refills are permitted. Shoot days are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. The state manages the waterfowl hunting program for the federal refuge. For more information, contact the unit at (760) 359-0577.

-- The Finney-Ramer Unit of the Imperial Wildlife Area is on the Alamo River south of the Salton Sea is open to hunters seven days per week under a self-registration system. For more information, contact the Wister Unit at (760) 359-0577.

-- The San Jacinto Wildlife is located in western Riverside County near Lake Perris, and it is open to waterfowl hunting through the state reservation system or a daily drawing for remaining sites after all reservation holders are admitted to the area. Refills are also permitted throughout the shoot day. Shoot days are Wednesday and Saturday. For more information, contact the wildlife area at (909) 928-0580.

-- The Lake Perris State Recreation, adjacent to San Jacinto, is open to hunting until noon on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Only hunters with boats and motors can hunt the area, and the check-in station is at parking lots 11 and 12 at the jet ski launch ramp inside the state recreation area. Perris is open on a first-come, first-serve basis each shoot day and its blind site quota never filled last year, even on opening day. For more information, contact the San Jacinto Wildlife Area at (909) 654-0580.

-- Raahauge's Duck Club in Prado Basin has public blinds available to hunters for $135 for a two-person blind. To encourage hunters to bring juniors, there is a Sunday special where a hunter can hunt for just $50 with the junior hunter free. Shoot days are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. All reservations for opening weekend are taken. For more information, call the club at (909) 735-7981 or check the club's web site at www.raahauges.com.

-- In San Diego County, Barrett Lake and Otay Reservoir are open Wednesday and Saturdays, while Lake Sutherland is open Thursday and Sunday. Reservations were all issued through an in-person lottery or mail in reservation system. Many shoot days still have openings. For more information call (619) 668-2050.

-- Lake Henshaw traditionally opens to duck and goose hunting around Dec. 1. Hunt days are Wednesdays and Saturdays. The fee will again be $25 per hunter per day. For more information, contact the lake at (760) 782-3501.

GUEST OUTDOOR OR OP-ED COLUMN -- from ONS 25oct02

Guns: Guilty Until Proven Innocent? By Senator Ray Haynes

With the serial killings in the Washington, DC area a focus of attention nationwide, many have taken note of ballistic "fingerprinting" for the first time. Each of the shootings has been linked to a single gun by a relatively new technology that looks for microscopic marks on the recovered bullets. Every rifle or handgun leaves unique marks on bullets when they are fired, and by comparing bullets, you can frequently prove that they were fired by a particular gun. With evidence linking all of the shootings to a single gun, there have been many who have openly called for a system that would allow us to link any bullet to a particular gun and its owner, in essence a national database of the ballistic fingerprint of every gun on the market. While this seems like a straightforward and simple idea, the reality is more complicated than that. Maintaining a database of bullets found at crime scenes has been a valuable tool and has resulted in convictions of criminals. Trying to create a national database of all the rifles and handguns, however, would be a massive undertaking and the federal government is now considering a study to determine the feasibility and value of such a program. California recently completed just such a study of ballistic identification systems that was requested by an anti-gun legislature, signed by an anti-gun Governor, and overseen by an anti-gun Attorney General.

The results were not what they intended, I'm sure. In California alone, over 100,000 handguns per year (not including revolvers) are sold. In five years the database would hold over a half million cartridge images, and would still represent only a fraction of the guns that are in circulation. It is estimated that there are over 200 million firearms in circulation nationwide, almost none of which are currently in any database. The summary of the report states that "automated computer matching systems do not provide conclusive results," and that the number of hits on a suspect cartridge "will be so large as to be impractical and will likely create logistic complications so great they cannot be effectively addressed."

Remember, this is a study only dealing with guns in California. A national system would be exponentially worse.

Another problem with this system is the ease in which it could be defeated. Unlike real fingerprints or DNA in humans, ballistic fingerprints are easily changed. Barrels are easily changed in many guns and even existing barrels can have their identifying marks changed by the use of a wire brush or even frequent shooting and cleaning. The file on a newly sold gun could be useless within months of purchase if the gun was fired and cleaned regularly.

Furthermore, there is no national registration of firearms (nor should there be, for reasons too lengthy to discuss here), so even in the unlikely event you could get a match on a ballistic fingerprint, there would be no way to track that gun to even the original owner, much less the shooter himself.

Even with such a registration system, given how rarely guns are legally bought by criminals (and never by felons), the likelihood of being able to trace the guns to the shooters would be slim and none.

Maintaining databases of bullets and casings found at crime scenes makes sense, just as maintaining fingerprints and DNA samples of criminals and crime scenes makes sense, but no one has actually proposed a national DNA databank of law-abiding citizens to run against physical evidence found at crime scenes. I guarantee we could solve a lot of crimes today if we were to require everyone to give a DNA sample the next time they got their driver's license renewed or at birth when they issue the birth certificate. Any physical evidence left at a crime could instantly be matched to the national DNA database to nab the criminals. Since DNA can't be changed, it would be more reliable than the ballistic identification.

No one is pushing for this system because it would be considered an invasion of privacy and a violation of the 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution. We live in a system where we are considered innocent until proven guilty. If the police have probable cause to suspect our involvement in a crime, they have the right to fingerprint us, take a DNA sample or check the ballistic identification of our guns. If they don't have probable cause, they don't.

This is really no different. There are practical, utilitarian, and constitutional reasons why neither sort of database is appropriate, and it has nothing to do with the 2nd Amendment and little to do with opposition to gun control. We don't treat people like criminals until we have reason to do so, and we shouldn't treat guns and law abiding gun owners any differently.

Senator Ray Haynes represents the 36th Senate District, which includes Western Riverside County and Northern San Diego County. He is also the Senate Republican Whip.

SMALL GAME GUZZLERS: Quail hunters take note. Larry Bowden, Twentynine Palms, reported seeing 20 coveys of quail with 15 to 30 birds each while hunting in the Mojave National Preserve early this season. This is in stark contrast to other hunters who've been reporting dismal hunting and few birds. What is Bowden's secret? Finding water. He's seen most of his birds around small game guzzlers that were holding water. A special issue of Western Birds, a bird hunting newsletter for Southern California hunters, lists the locations for all 136 of the guzzlers on the Preserve. The newsletter is available for $25 at all Turner's Outdoorsman stores or direct by sending a check to Western Birds, P.O. box 9007, San Bernardino, CA 92427-0007.

JUNIOR PHEASANT HUNT: There will be a junior pheasant hunt at the San Jacinto Wildlife Area Sunday, Nov. 10. Anyone who has a junior hunting license can apply by sending their name, address, and phone number along with their hunting license number to the San Jacinto Wildlife Area, P.O. Box 1254, Lakeview, CA 92567. The information can also be faxed to (909) 928-1196. For more information, call (909) 928-0580

TEJON RANCH PIG-O-RAMA: The next Pig-O-Rama, the Tejon Ranch's popular unguided weekend wild hog hunting event, will be held Dec. 6-8. Hunter success rates on these hunts have averaged 50 percent with many hunters taking large boars. Cost is $300 per person and a $10 insurance policy is required. For more information, contact Barbara Boeck by telephone at (661) 663-4288 or via e-mail at bbb@frazmtn.com.

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UPLAND OPENER, NOTES COLUMN -- matthews-ons 23oct02

Upland bird season opener fair to dismal

With the closures of the local National Forests, most quail and chukar hunters flocked to the desert regions of Southern California for this past weekend's upland bird season opener and found generally dismal hunting due to a poor bird production year. Successful exceptions were few and far between but indicated a pattern. First, diligent chukar hunters who scouted extensively before the opener found fair numbers of holdover birds around remote water sources and managed to get a few opening day birds. Second, quail hunters who focused their activity around agriculture at the edges of the desert found larger coveys of birds than sportsmen who hunted traditional desert spots. But even those successful hunters found the hunting much poorer than normal because of low bird numbers and savvy mature birds.

Andy Pauli, a Department of Fish and Game biologist who works in the Mojave Desert, said that his brood counts were horrible this summer. Pauli never classified a single young-of-the-year chukar in his surveys. Quail broods were nearly as bad. That was reflected in opening day success in the East Mojave. Pauli said of some 50 hunters that were checked opening weekend, only eight birds had been taken -- six of those were taken by just two hunters. A typical bag for the East Mojave is five to six birds per hunter with a number of 10-bird limits posted. Pauli said it was the worst season he's seen since he came to the region in 1980.

Several hunters I spoke with placed the blame for the poor bird numbers on the Mojave National Preserve, which has been removing water developments done for cattle that have been on the preserve for over 100 years in some instances.

A lot of us contend that the NPS has killed more quail in two years with water removals than hunters have killed in 50 years in the Mojave, and with the water removals, the loss is permanent because birds can no longer survive in an area without the water.

West Mojave and Red Mountain area chukar hunters also saw generally poor hunting. Most reports from hunters were complete blanks, but many at least reporting seeing a few small coveys of mature birds that often flushed well out of range.

Jim Monroe of Lancaster took three hunting buddies to the El Paso Mountains northwest of Red Mountain opening day. After extensive scouting before the season, Monroe had several locations where he had found birds. The four hunters ended up with eight birds. Monroe had two, and his partners Dean Hill, Mira Loma, and Ed Wright, El Monte, each had a single birds, while Wright's hill-climbing son Ron got four chukar.

Further south, David Bailey of West Covina managed to get five birds in the Sidewinder Mountains out of Apple Valley, but his hunting buddies did not fire a shot. And the other hunters they spoke with also didn't score.

"This was my sixth time in the field to hunt chukar, and the first time I ever saw some, except when scouting. I was very pleased to say the least," said Bailey.

FOREST CLOSURES SHOULD END: Is there a forest supervisor with any courage out there? I find it utterly impossible to believe that the fire danger now (especially with all of these moist days) is greater than it was all summer when recreational use of the forest was allowed. There are no ongoing fires, so resources are not stressed. Fall use is less than it was all summer, so the danger is even less. Any supervisors brave enough to match Jeanine Derby's courage at keeping the Los Padres open?

The Angeles, San Bernardino, and Cleveland National Forests should all be reopened immediately. You can set triggers that would close some areas to use if there is a sustained Santa Ana wind conditions or low humidity, but let the public back in now. These closures are ridiculous.

KERN WATERFOWL OPENER: The complex waterfowl regulations this year are going to make it difficult to keep track of areas that are open, which are closed, and what species can be taken. The forecast for a poor fall flight is also disheartening. That said there are still a lot of waterfowl in the Pacific Flyway. The opening weekend at the Kern National Wildlife Refuge proves that. There were 92 hunters this past Saturday who shot 384 ducks for a 4.17 average. The bulk of the bag was greenwing teal at 150, but there were also 42 pintail and 30 mallards in the bag.

The season in this area, the Southern San Joaquin Zone, opened this past Saturday for ducks and continues through Nov. 3. Duck season will then close until Nov. 23 and then remain open until Jan. 26. Goose season in this area opens Nov. 2 and runs continuously through Jan. 26. Confused? In the Southern California zone, the goose season opened Saturday, but duck season doesn't open until Nov. 2. For the Colorado River zone, the season for both ducks and geese opened Oct. 18, while the Balance of State Zone opens for ducks on Oct. 26, and the goose opener is Nov. 2. More confused? Don't forget that canvasback can not be taken at all this year, and the pintail seasons are reduced in all zones and do not follow the same framework as general duck seasons.

Waterfowl hunters really need to get copies of the regulations and study them carefully this year. Very carefully.

LET THE TROUT WARS BEGIN: Two of the central players in what has become known as "the trout wars" are set to kick off their trout fishing season this week. Both Corona Lake and Irvine Lake are opening with massive plants of trout for openers today (Thursday). The battle between these two lakes, and several others will join the fray as they open throughout November, will be to see who can stock the most, the biggest, and the most unusual trout.

In the past, Doug Andrews and Bill Elliott, managers of Anaheim Lake, Santa Ana River Lakes, and Corona Lake have consistently stocked far more fish per surface acre than any water in the region, and they have planted Mt. Lassen Trout Farms' rainbows that were in excess of the state record. Last season alone, there were six trout bigger than the currently listed state record for rainbow trout of 23 pounds and over 600 trout better than 10 pounds were caught at Santa Ana River Lakes alone. Then there were the unique Lightning and Thunder trout, brilliant color-strains of rainbow trout.

To compete, the operators of Irvine Lake brought in brown and brook trout. Laguna Niguel Lake answered with colorful rainbow trout from Utah, and most of the San Bernardino County park lakes began stocking steelhead rainbows that gained a reputation as acrobatic fighters.

What can we expect this year? Well, Irvine Lake is boasting that state and line-class records for brook trout could be surpassed this season. That record is just under 10 pounds and has stood for 70 years. Santa Ana River Lakes and Corona Lake will be planted with seven different varieties of trout -- the most of any water in the region -- and there is the expectation that a rainbow trout at 30 pounds might be seen. Not to be completely outdone by its private competitors, San Bernardino County Parks will have a tournament trail that winds to all of its trout lakes.

Let the trout wars begin.

DFG, BLM BIG GAME DRINKERS: The Department of Fish and Game and the Bureau of Land Management are working together to build two new big game drinkers, or guzzlers, in Sheephole Valley Wilderness. The BLM has issued the environmental documents, a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and Environmental Assessment (EA), for the proposed projects. The two water developments will increase the survival chances for bighorn sheep in this area.

The two documents are being reviewed for 30 days by the public before the project can begin. Copies are available on the Internet at http://ww.ca.blm.gov/needles or may be requested by calling the Needles BLM office at (760) 326-7000. Comments must be received by Nov. 15 to be considered, and anyone interested in desert wildlife is encouraged to voice their support for the drinkers.

This is an important project because these would be the first water improvements done inside a wilderness area and could set a precedent for allowing habitat improvements for wildlife instead of a complete hands-off policy. The National Park Service has proven that policy doesn't work for wildlife and its habitat. In California alone, there are several examples of desert bighorn sheep populations suffering in park settings when adjacent populations outside of parks flourish with the addition of big game drinkers.

The BLM and DFG are to be applauded for moving forward on this project.

JUNIOR PHEASANT HUNT: There will be a junior pheasant hunt at the San Jacinto Wildlife Area Sunday, Nov. 10. Anyone who has a junior hunting license can apply by sending their name, address, and phone number along with their hunting license number to the San Jacinto Wildlife Area, P.O. Box 1254, Lakeview, CA 92567. The information can also be faxed to (909) 928-1196. For more information, call (909) 928-0580

TEJON RANCH PIG-O-RAMA: The next Pig-O-Rama, the Tejon Ranch's popular unguided weekend wild hog hunting event, will be held Dec. 6-8. Hunter success rates on these hunts have averaged 50 percent with many hunters taken large boars. Cost is $300 per person and a $10 insurance policy is required. For more information, contact Barbara Boeck by telephone at (661) 663-4288 or via e-mail at bbb@frazmtn.com.

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FOREST CLOSURE MISTAKES -- matthews column-ons -- 16oct02

Forest closure mistakes

It's not just about hunting.

The near total closure of three of four forest in Southern California, which has resulted in a defacto end of five deer zone hunting seasons in this region, is about more than the Forest Service's inability to accommodate hunters the one brief time of year they get to pursue game.

It's about prejudice and discrimination by people in a position of authority within that agency and their reactions to problems. These are people who would bristle if you suggested they were racist or discriminated against any racial minority in conducting their job, but their response to fire problems proves they don't understand prejudice. They are like people who repeat racial jokes because they think they're funny, not because they harbor any real racist feelings. They just don't get it. And members of the public who support the way the current forest closures were done also just don't get it.

This wasn't about hunters or other users not being able to use the forests, it was how use of the forest was stopped. The Angeles National Forest shut down completely because of an ongoing fire, continued fire danger, and fear about public safety. When there were howls from the public about the stupidity of a blanket closure (what fire danger was there at Pyramid Lake?), the San Bernardino National Forest reacted to that feedback. In its closure, some recreational areas remained open to some types of activities in places were it was argued the USFS could protect public safety. Hunter's who were effectively locked out, howled discrimination, and rightfully so. Trying to head off the howls of hunters, when the Cleveland National Forest did its partial closure, their staff even left a couple of places open to hunting.

What none of the forest staff understood was that it wasn't ultimately about fires, public safety, hunting, or other recreational use. It was about poor planning and latent discrimination. Many on the forest staffs didn't even realize they were discriminating against hunters and other users, and they were somehow justifying it in their minds because of the "fire threat."

The fire threat is very real and needs to be addressed. Since spring, some forest service officials have said the forest should have been closed. Plant moisture were at all time lows. Closures early in the year might have prevented several fires in the Angeles and other areas, but it took the 38,000-acre Williams Fire before administrators panicked.

Are things appreciably worse now? No. There are fewer people out in the forest this time of year. Moister weather is more common. (And moist air was the only reason fire fighters got a line around the Williams Fire.) Yes, fuel moisture is still very low. Santa Ana winds could make for a horrific fire. But will it be worse this fall than in July or August or September? Obviously not because the Williams Fire was the worst fire in Angeles Forest history. The reality is that the fire danger was no greater after the closure than before. The closure was arbitrary.

The three forest closures were a knee-jerk response to a big fire. Yet each forest response was different to the same set of conditions. When I asked different forest staff why the closures were different, there was sputtering and stuttering. They knew what they did was wrong. They stammered trying to justify it. They made excuses about how things were different in each forest. All the closures were wrong because they were made arbitrarily and without planning, without a framework, without foresight. They unfairly and unwittingly targeted certain user groups. The closures were indeed prejudicial, and hunters especially had a right to feel targeted.

Only the Los Padres National Forest did what was right, what should have been done by all the forest supervisors in June if they were truly believed there was a severe fire and public safety issue and that closures could help. The Los Padres set parameters that would trigger the closure of the forest. All users now know those closure mechanisms. There's no one group being singled out, and the goal of the Los Padres is to keep public access available to the greatest extent possible. It is still open.

Closures are not wrong, but they need to be implemented fairly. Only one of the forest services' management staffs in this region figured that out. Hats off to forest supervisor Jeanine Derby and her Los Padres staff for doing the right thing. They managed to figure out that it was not "fair" or even necessary to close the forest now just because there had been a big fire in the Angeles.

This isn't tough. Here, I'll give the other supervisors a policy they can use for the future that no one will complain about -- not hunters, not campers, not OHVers, not backpackers, not anyone. We won't complain because it is fair and we will have been given fair warning. We won't complain because it eliminates discrimination:

Base the closures or restrictions on three simple things: fuel moisture level, wind forecasts, and other fires. Have a three-level system. When fuel moisture levels reach X, all camp and cooking fires are prohibited. When fuel moisture levels reach Y, all outside open flame use, including cook stoves, is prohibited in backcountry areas (more than 1/4-mile from a maintained road). When fuel moisture levels reach Z, we close the forest to all use away from facilities that are easily accessible (like the San Bernardino and Cleveland did). If there are sustained winds forecast for more than two days, at X or Y fuel moisture levels, the forest will close until the end of the wind condition, and then reopen immediately. If there are other fires ongoing that have compromised a forest's ability to fight a new fire, then the forest should be closed at X or Y fuel moisture levels, and then reopen immediately when the fire fighting preparedness level is restored.

Make the information a standard part of all the printed literature for forest users. The DFG could send it out with deer tags. OHVers could get it with their green stickers. Campers could get it when they check in to a campground, backpackers with their wilderness permits, day-users with their Adventure Pass.

This system would be fair and make sense. And it wouldn't discriminate.

DFG to offer deer tag refunds if forests don't reopen during season

SACRAMENTO -- The Department of Fish and Game announced Wednesday that it would be offering refunds for deer hunters in Southern California who's deer zones have been closed to entry because of extreme fire danger.

If deer zones do not open in time to provide nine days of hunting, refunds will be offered after the close of the season, according to Craig Stowers, deer program coordinator for the DFG.

"This could have ramifications for the deer program financially, but it's the right thing to do for the hunters," said Stowers.

The DFG has also extended the period where hunters can exchange deer tags affected by forest closures for deer zones that remain open and still have tags available. That extension goes through Oct. 25. There is a $6.25 processing fee for the exchange.

Because of fire closures on the Angeles, San Bernardino, and Cleveland national forests, hunters are being denied access to the majority of public lands in the D11, D14, D15, D16, and D19 deer zones. In Southern California, only the D13 hunting zone remains open, and as of Monday this week, there were still approximately 500 tags available for purchase or exchange in this zone.

The D13 opener this past weekend attracted about twice as many hunters as normal, according to Kathy Good with the Los Padres National Forest. But the forest staff had feared that three to four times as many hunters would shift and hunt D13 due to the closures in other areas. Hunters with D11 and D15 tags, both currently closed, can also hunt D13.

Good said a joint DFG-USFS check station in Fraiser Park had over 700 hunter visitors and another 300 stopped by the ranger station. There were 25 deer and seven black bears validated opening weekend. Good said Adventure Pass money was used for the hunter check station, and it was so well received by hunters the two agencies will likely have jointly staffed check stations in the future.

The D13 season continues through Nov. 10.

The closed forests all could reopen if there is significant rainfall that reduces the fire risk. All of the affected deer zones' season continues through Nov. 10, except for D19 which runs through Nov. 3 and D16 which runs through Nov. 24.

The procedures for requesting a refund will be released Nov. 18 and posted on the DFG's website www.dfg.ca.gov.

Stowers said the DFG is encouraging hunters to consider not applying for refunds even if the deer seasons do not open before the scheduled end of the hunt. The refund money would come directly out of the DFG deer management coffers and may negatively impact implementation and management of future deer seasons.

Olancha angler catches record brown trout from Oregon lake

BEND, Ore. -- Ron Lane of Olancha, a long-time member of the Brownbaggers, caught a 28-pound, five-ounce brown trout from Paulina Lake in Oregon on October 3rd to topple that state's record for brown trout. The fish beats the old record caught in 1993, also from Paulina, by nine ounces.

Lane was shallow-trolling a seven-inch A.C. Plug when he made the catch right at dusk on Thursday evening. The big trout took about 25 minutes to land.

"I told Allan [Cole] I had a picture of the fish with the A.C. Plug in it's mouth, but that he was going to have to pay dearly for it," joked Lane last week about the maker of the lure he used to catch the record fish.

The 64-year-old angler is well-known to long-time Eastern Sierra anglers, having landed a 22-pound, 12-ounce brown trout from Pleasant Valley Reservoir, and three trophy browns on the same day that weighed 13-8, 13-3 and 7-4, all which are mounted and on display in Culver's Sporting Goods in Bishop where Lane grew up.

Lane was one of the original members of the Brownbaggers, a club started by Allan Cole, who's only requirement for membership was that you land two brown trout over 10 pounds.

Lane said they didn't weigh the big brown officially for a couple of days because they didn't realize it was a state record. But once they heard it might topple the existing state record, it was fished out of the ice chest and weighed on a certified scale. Lane said he submitted all of the official paperwork to gain state record status last week.

"We didn't catch another fish this whole trip," said Lane. "But this made it a pretty exciting trip.

"Howard Bryan [another famous Brownbagger] was there two weeks before, and he'd caught a 15 1/2 pounder," said Lane, who said that Bryan and Cole had fished the lake two weeks early and caught a number of quality fish. "We fished five days and this was only fish. They just turned off, except for one. The big one."

Lane was fishing with Bryan and another Brownbagger, Ray Patterson.

Todd Brown, who owns the Paulina Lake Lodge, suggested they weigh the big brown on a certified scale and get the state record. He said that before Lane's fish, the best brown taken this year was a 20-pounder landed early in the season.

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FOREST CLOSURES STOP DEER SEASON -- matthews-ONS -- 09oct02

Forest closures effectively end five SoCal deer hunting seasons

Five Southern California deer hunting seasons have been effectively halted by the closures of three national forests in the region. The complete closure of the Angeles National Forest two weeks ago, followed last week by the closure of the majority of the San Bernardino National Forest, and the closure of most of the Cleveland National Forest Wednesday have locked hunters out of the only public deer hunting areas in this portion of the state.

The move has prompted Turner's Outdoorsman, the largest seller of annual Adventure Passes, the U.S. Forest Service's $30 annual use pass, to halt sales of these passes, alleging discrimination against hunters.

The only forest in Southern California to remain open is the Los Padres National Forest, and it there is a major wildfire or sustained Santa And wind conditions, the Los Padres could close too.

Over 9,000 hunters have tags for the D11, D14, D15, D16, and D19 hunting zones which encompass the San Gabriel, San Bernardino, San Jacinto, and Santa Ana Mountain, and all of San Diego County. All have openers this coming Saturday, except D16 which opens Oct. 26 and D15 which opened last Saturday. There are also approximately 1,000 hunters who hold special archery or muzzleloading deer tags in these same areas. All will effectively will have no place to hunt this fall because most hunting takes place on national forest lands. The closures are expected to last through at least mid-November, which is past the normal end of all these hunting seasons. If forest closures also occur in the Los Padres, an additional 2,500-plus tagholders for the D13 zone also will lose hunting opportunity.

To compound matters, the Department of Fish and Game will not give refunds to hunters with tags in these units. Instead, it is offering to exchange the tags for other hunting zones that currently remain open to hunters where their are available tags, but with most zone quotas filled, it simply means most hunters will not get to hunt this fall and will not get refunds on tags they cannot use unless there is a refund policy change.

Craig Stowers, the deer program coordinator for the DFG in Sacramento, said the DFG's policy has been not to exchange or refund tags if the season was already open, and the archery season had already opened in all of the affected zones. But "because of the magnitude of the problem," Stowers said the agency was offering hunters the opportunity to exchange tags up until Oct. 15, but there is a $6.25 fee per tag for the exchange.

All of the forest closures have been made because of extreme fire danger in the forests. Moisture levels in vegetation on all four forests are at record low levels and the forests have been described as a tinderbox that could explode into unstoppable flames. Forest officials are concerned for both public safety and the safety of firefighters forced to battle blazes under these conditions.

"Our fire crews have been telling us the Williams Fire was doing things they've never seen before," said Ruth Wendstrom, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino National Forest when that forest's closure was announced last week. She said the flames were moving as fast downhill as uphill, and that until the weather gave them an assist, their efforts at fighting the flames were almost useless.

But many Forest Service officials admit that conditions are not significantly worse now than they have been since June. It is fear of Santa Ana winds that have prompted the closures, they say.

Andy McCormick, the public relations specialist for Turner's Outdoorsman, a chain of 13 hunting and fishing stores throughout Southern California, said the forest closures appear to be directly aimed at hunters. And in response to the closures, McCormick announced on Wednesday the Turner's chain was dropping the sales of the USFS Adventure Passes and would no longer be supporting the user fee program. Turner's sells more annual Adventure Passes than any vendor for the Forest Service and has been an outspoken proponent of the program, even in the face of strong user dislike of the fee.

"We sold these passes as a service, and at this point I feel it's a disservice," said McCormick. "The attitude I got from my conversation with Max Copenhagen (deputy forest supervisor of the San Bernardino National Forest) was that `they're just hunters, who cares?' And then when he made the comment that hunter's need to be more safe, that's when I got really upset. Hunter's are probably the safest users on the forest. They've gone through more training than anyone else up there -- anyone on a quad or ATC or even campers -- but we need to be more safe?"

McCormick said the Forest Service was creating a safety issue with its closures.

The closure of all but two areas of the Cleveland National Forest, which goes into affect Friday this week, and the San Bernardino National Forest recommendation that D14 zone hunters go to Bureau of Land Management Lands within that zone has many hunters concerned about the safety of squeezing all tag holders into small areas.

During the Cleveland's press conference on Wednesday morning, it was announced that hunting would only be allowed in the "Agua Tibia Wilderness and Forest Service lands adjacent to Indian Flats." This means that no public lands in the D15 hunting zone will be open as deer season was set to start this weekend. It will also crowd all 1,500 tag holders in the D19 zone into two small areas when that season opens Oct. 26.

Kathy Good, a public relations spokeswoman for the Los Padres National Forest, said they were going to remain open to the public, the only one of four forests in the region to do so. But she said their staff was concerned about the approximately 4,000 hunters from D11 and D15 crowding into the D13 zone, which will be open Saturday. Tags purchased for any of those three zones are also valid in the other two areas.

"Did anyone think about public safety?" asked McCormick. "Hunters are well trained in safety and we have a terrific record in California, but this is just asking for trouble."

McCormick said that he called the BLM office telephone number that the San Bernardino National Forest staff was giving to hunters who call to complain, and "I got a guy who didn't know what was going on. I asked him if the BLM area would hold 3,000 hunters. He said, `what!' The Forest Service is making this a nightmare with its inability to communicate in a timely manner."

Stowers said the DFG was also a little annoyed at not being given more of a heads-up on the closures so they could contact license agents and suggest tag sales be halted. "I didn't know about the [San Bernardino] closure until two days before it happened," said Stowers. "Their coordination on this was very poor."

Stowers also agreed with McCormick on the integrity of hunters. "Hunters are not the problem out there. Hunters are more aware of their image than anyone out there. They don't want to be responsible for burning down the forest," said Stowers.

Even the Forest Service workers agree with that assessment. "Hunters are dream campers. They leave the campground before sun-up and don't return until sun-down. They cook, clean and eat with a small fire and go to bed early. I've never had to remind them of forest regulations about fire even though it would be very cold," said Tom Atchley, has worked at or run U.S. Forest Service campgrounds in the Barton Flats and Hart Bar area since 1968.

McCormick said the USFS should refund deer tag money to hunters in all affected areas out of the Adventure Pass fund. "There no reason the DFG or hunters should have to pay for this closure," said McCormick.

"There's an idea," said the DFG's Stowers. "The consequences of sending back $200,000 could be pretty immense on the deer program." He said the money hunters pay for deer tags is earmarked for deer work. "If we don't have the data to support our proposal [for a deer hunt], there are people out there who would attack that, and probably do it successfully. I'm not saying refunds can't be done, or that they're not the right thing to do, but it's going to affect things."

McCormick said Turner's sales of Adventure Passes indicates that hunters and fishermen are two of the biggest users of the local national forests and provide a very large chunk of the funding in the Adventure Pass program, but the four forests in this region have done very little to benefit these users with Adventure Pass money.

In a prepared statement from Turner's, McCormick said "the Williams Fire, the worst fire in Angeles National Forest history, and the Willow Fire, the catastrophic fire on the San Bernardino National Forest two years ago, did not occur during the Santa Ana winds-season, so the Forest Service's contention that risk is greater now doesn't seem to be completely valid, especially in light of decreasing recreational use this time of year.

We believe implementing the closure now is discrimination against the hunting public. Over 7,000 deer tag users, and probably an equal number of quail hunters, are being locked out of forests that are no more dangerous this month than they were last month. This is discrimination," said the statement.

There also has been a ground swell of hunters who have said they are going to go hunting in their traditional spots and face ticketing.

"I'm going to go hunting. I paid for the privilege to do this. The Forest Service is violating my civil rights to tell me I can't go do this. What right do they have to tell me that I can't hunt on my forest?" said Greg Donahue, a hunter from Crestline. "Hunters are not the problem here. Fires don't start out in the areas where we're hunting. This is bull...." Ruth Wendstrom, with the San Bernardino National Forest, said that those violation closures, especially those doing so because they didn't know about the new rules, would probably get a warning and be asked to leave. Others would "write their own citation depending on their attitude," said Wendstrom, noting the violation could be a mere $50 citation, payable like a parking ticket, or up to a "mandatory appearance" ticket that could cost up to $5,000 and-or six months in jail.

"Our goal is not to see how many citations we're gonna write, but to keep the forest from burning down," said Wendstrom.

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ANGELES FOREST CLOSURE -- matthews column-ons 02oct02

Angeles forest closure moronic; failed management.

The Angeles National Forest is closed.

No fishing allowed on the San Gabriel River or Pyramid Lake. No hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. No picnicking along the Angeles Crest Highway with its scenic views. No camping in any of its campgrounds. No deer hunting anywhere within the forest boundaries. No four-wheel drive touring on back roads. It's closed.

The excuse for the closure? Extreme fire danger.

"Our concern is for the safety of the public and the fire fighters currently battling the Williams Fire. By taking this action, we are hoping to prevent future fire starts," said Jody Cook, forest supervisor for the Angeles, in a prepared statement.

And how long will the closure last? Perhaps through the first of the year or longer. Six months. Maybe more.

It is also likely that the San Bernardino National Forest is brewing up at least a partial closure.

Am I the only one out there who find closures absolutely incredible and untenable?

There are no blanket closures on any other forest in the nation. The drought has hit the other forest of Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah equally as hard as the Angeles National Forest, yet those forest supervisors haven't closed their doors to the public.

A closure is an admission of failed management, and it is a huge a slap in the face of the public. The Forest Service is saying that it can't manage our resources without keeping everyone out. It is saying that it can't trust the millions of users who visit the forest each year and act responsibly because just one or two might do something stupid. The agency is throwing her hands up in the air and saying, "we have to lock you out" because our staff is incompetent at managing resources and people on our public lands.

Well, the Forest Service has proven the last thing is true time and time again.

The 38,000-acre-plus Williams Fire is a prime example of the mismanagement birds coming home to roost. The Angeles, as with most forests in this region, seem incapable of doing fire management that doesn't involve dozens of air tankers dropping water and fire retardant. The forest has retreated from fire prevention steadily to the point where it doesn't exit. We fight fires today, we don't prevent them or keep them manageable. The Angeles doesn't do controlled burns, wringing their hands and whining about too many restrictions placed on them over air quality, wildlife concerns, burn timing, small budgets, and on and on. The Angeles doesn't do vegetation management with herbicides or bulldozers anymore either because it is too concerned about offending extreme environmentalists. Fire breaks, strips of cleared vegetation that act as barriers to wildfires, are a thing of the past. The result is that we have no fire prevention on the Angeles and most other forests. We have wildfires that burn homes and summer cabins, thousands of acres of watershed, and critical wildlife habitat. We have wildfires that cost millions and millions of taxpayers dollars to battle. We have them because of mismanagement and lack of forest service leadership that is willing to face the flames on the fire issue and get things done.

The Angeles is a hotbed for problems. Late last month a report done for the Los Angeles County Fish and Game Commission was a scalding indictment of forest management for allowing the bighorn sheep in the San Gabriel Mountains to go from the most robust population in the nation to the verge of extinction. This is the same agency that has banned human access and use along a small creek to protect an endangered frog when is was not human use that was the problem. This was the same agency that closed all of the recreational shooting ranges on the forest because of environmental concerns even though there is little or no evidence that is the case.

Now we have the reaction to the fires: complete closure. The agency staff is so incredibly out of touch with reality, they even banned access to Pyramid Lake where all the activity is on the water. Hello? There's hardly a fire threat there.

Since it is pretty obvious the forest staff don't have a clue what should be done in the wake of the Williams Fire and other blazes this year, here's a prescription:

1) Close only the fire area to public use. This will stop even well-intentioned people from wandering and driving around in the burn that might cause erosion problems when the rains come. The burn area should be reopened as soon as possible so the public can see how quickly chaparral regenerates.

2) Reopen the rest of the forest and all its recreational facilities, and ban only outdoor fires until the drought lifts -- and that happens with the first good rains of the year, not six or 12 months from now. This isn't rocket science.

3) Spend half of their fire-fighting budget next fiscal year on fire prevention measures -- fire breaks, controlled burns, an intelligent "let burn" policy in wild and wilderness areas, brush and forest thinning (that might require the use of chainsaws, herbicides, and bulldozers), and implement a program to create fire buffers between urban areas and the forest. Utilize the fire crews and helicopter and tanker pilots to do this work, allowing them to fight fires when their lives are not in jeopardy. This would take creative leadership and management. If we could invest the $13-plus million it cost to fight the Williams Fire in fire prevention measures, we probably would never see a fire of that magnitude ever again.

In a minor defense of the Forest Service, a lot of the neglected prescriptions that would reduce the fire threat are directly a result of an inadequate budget. Most of the forest plans in California call for lots of controlled burning and other fire prevention measures, but they are never done. Congress continually cuts back the forest budget and asks the Forest Service to do more with what little money is allocated.

Environmental lawsuits also drive the budgets of the Forest Service these days. Judges are constantly agreeing that the USFS is negligent and mandates that specific work be done. The budget goes very quickly. There's no doubt in my mind the Angeles will be forced to spend more money on a single endangered species due to a lawsuit this year than it will spend on fire prevention programs over the next five years.

There is still no reason the public should be banned from the forest because of decades of mismanagement by forest staff, Congress' inability to fund the agency more thoroughly, or environmental lawsuits. Closures are a knee-jerk reaction by forest staff to problems. The forests are for the public, burned or not, managed or not.

Until we see forest supervisors and their staff lobby the public, the media, and local government representatives for additional funding and get back to managing the forest -- instead of reacting to catastrophes, whether they are fire, endangered species, or budget related -- we should all be critical of the agency's lack of management and leadership.

We don't need to have huge fires that threaten homes and char vast areas of the forest. We don't need to have endangered species. We don't need to have budget problems. We need the leadership to find and implement the solutions -- and the solutions are there. It is leadership we lack.

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GLOOMY PICTURE FOR BIGHORNS -- matthews-ONS 22sep02

San Gabriel bighorns are threatened with extinction due to lions, fire policy

LOS ANGELES -- The San Gabriel Mountains bighorn sheep subpopulation, once considered one of the healthiest and largest of the desert bighorn sheep populations, is now in imminent danger of extinction, according to a report prepared for the Los Angeles County Fish and Game Commission and presented at its meeting here last Thursday.

Steve Holl, a former U.S. Forest Service biologist who worked with this sheep herd during his tenure with the federal agency and who is now a private consultant, told the Commission that the San Gabriel bighorn population has plummeted from a high of 750 animals in 1980 to the current population estimate of just 90 animals spread over four groups in the mountain range.

"At this point we've got a serious situation and there's enough evidence to questions the viability of the population," said Holl, who was instrumental in having this subpopulation removed from the "sensitive" list when he was with the USFS. He said that three of the four groups could actually be gone within five years unless serious measures are taken to prevent the loss of the species.

Holl suggested in his report that three measures be taken immediately. First, the species needs to go back on the USFS' list of sensitive species, which would force the agency to evaluate projects that might have an impact on the sheep. Second, there needs to be a management plan drafted that has goals and objectives along with a timetable that must be followed. And third, three issues must be addressed immediately so this distinct subpopulation doesn't become extinct -- mountain lion predation, habitat restoration, and stopping further habitat fragmentation.

Mountain lion predation has been identified as one of the critical factors that has led to the decline of this San Gabriel sheep herd and is currently keeping it from recovering, and Holl said that removal of lions in sheep habitat is a high priority to start the recovery process.

Prescribed burning, especially in wilderness areas where sheep occur, is currently not allowed under the Angeles National Forest management plan, but it is an essential component to sheep recover, according to Holl. He said that on the critical winter-spring ranges of the sheep 40 to 65 percent of the habitat is unusable because the vegetation is too old. "The policy that doesn't allow burning, must be changed," said Holl.

As the four groups of sheep become smaller, they are more isolated from the others and habitat fragmentation. Holl said the proposal to reopen Highway 39 and continued expansion of developed recreation sites -- especially ski areas -- need to be closely examined for their impacts on further isolating the sheep herds.

Holl said that if the three management tools he outlined aren't implemented immediately, this subpopulation of sheep could and should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Special Act, which would force some immediate action.

"As a biologist, I'd like to stay away from [federal] listing," said Holl. "My job is to do everything to keep the sheep off that list."

But both the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Fish and Game, which had staff on hand for the presentation, offered little hope that their agencies could respond to the problem quickly.

Bill Brown, chief biologist for the Angeles National Forest, was blunt in saying "unfortunately, nothing happens overnight." He said that while the USFS and DFG had a conference call recently to set up some strategies to work together on helping the sheep, nothing concrete has come of any of the discussions. He also said it would be at least 1 1/2 years, until a new forest management plan is adopted, before controlled burns could take place in wilderness areas to benefit sheep.

"Some of these things [proposed by Holl in his report to the Commission] are going to be very political.... but we know there are some critical actions that need to be taken now," said Brown, referring to the proposal to control mountain lions.

Mountain lion control has been undertaken in California to assist other populations of wild sheep. In the Eastern Sierra, lions have been removed in two areas to assist in the recovery of the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn, and the sheep have responded with increased survival of young and have begun reusing prime habitat they once used but abandoned when lions started preying on them heavily in those areas. In Canada, sheep populations responded very favorably when lions known to be preying on sheep were removed selectively.

Even if lion control could be initiated immediately, the issue of habitat loss would need to be addressed before the herds could recover significantly. Since the population decline first began in 1981, the Angeles National Forest has not initiated a single burn in sheep habitat and many wildfires that could have benefited sheep were extinguished before they reached sheep habitat. While only a portion of the San Gabriel Mountains are in the San Bernardino National Forest, there has only been one small, 500-acre controlled burn this year in that portion of the sheep range.

Holl said that even without lion predation, the population is likely to become extinct in just 35 years under current land management policies.

BIGHORN COMMENTARY -- matthews column -- 25sept02

Bighorn decline due to inaction by DFG, USFS

During the mid-1970s when I was attending college, I regularly hiked up the South Fork of Lytle Creek in the San Gabriel Mountains to watch and photograph bighorn sheep. Seeing 20 to 50 animals a day was not uncommon, and when the rams were battling for the attention of the ewes, you could hear horns crashing together, the sound echoing up and down the canyons.

It seemed incredible that one of the largest and healthiest sheep populations in the nation could exist within eyesight of 20 million people. Back then the San Gabriel sheep population was estimated to be from 500 to 800 animals.

Today, that number has dropped to about 90 animals, and they are in danger of becoming extinct in the San Gabriels. Three of the four herds could be gone in five years or less, according to a new report written by former U.S. Forest Service biologist Steve Holl for the Los Angeles County Fish and Game Commission.

The report tells a chilling story about how a healthy population can go from being the most robust herd in the lower 48 states to being on the verge of extinction in less than 25 years.

While the report doesn't say so, the decline is a story of incredible hand-wringing and inaction by the two agencies charged with managing the sheep population and its habitat -- the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Fish and Game. By the mid-1980s, it was pretty clear the sheep herd was in decline in the San Gabriels and by the 1990s the seriousness of the problem was frightening. But nothing was done.

The two biggest reasons for the decline -- mountain lion depredation and declining habitat conditions -- had long been suggested as the reasons for the huge downturn by veteran wildlife observers, but the two agencies refused to take action to protect and improve the plight for bighorn sheep.

It wasn't until two years ago, the DFG would even acknowledge that lion predation might be a factor in the decline. It wasn't until this year that any type of habitat restoration effort was initiated -- and that was a single, small controlled burn in the Lytle Creek area. The report done for Los Angeles County is as much a documentation of inaction than it is a prescription for what needs to be done to help the bighorns. All of the biologists and scientists involved with the sheep know what needs to be done, and they knew what was needed long before Holl's report. The problem is getting either of the agencies to make decisive moves to help save this herd.

Will we see mountain lions removed from the San Gabriels in the near future by the DFG? Will the U.S. Forest Service begin an aggressive burning program in sheep habitat? I doubt either will happen soon. I would bet we lose one or more of the subherds before anything is done. Holl suggests that listing the species as endangered, affording it federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, might be the only way to assure that any action occurs.

Listing means the agencies in charge of sheep and its habitat have failed. In my mind, the DFG and USFS are to blame for the decline. Hopefully, Holl's report will be a wake up call for the public to demand that action be taken.

NEWS FEATURE ON RECORD BLUEGILL -- bennett-ons 25sep02

Bad day of fishing nets new state record bluegill

By MIKE BENNETT Outdoor News Service

Everyone has bad days, but some people know how to take the lemons and make lemonade.

That's exactly what Tom Ditzell of Santa Maria did Saturday, Oct. 14, at Lopez Lake. He took a day that seemed to burn turning into a bag of lemons and persisted, turning it into a state record-sized glass of lemonade. Ditzell landed a bluegill that weighed in at 3.79 pounds on the marina's certified scale, toppling the current state record.

But the day sure didn't start out that way. When Ditzell headed out to Lopez for some camping and fishing, he forgot his fishing rod at home. Resourceful and determined, he went to the lake's snack bar and purchased a new one for about $22. He put his reel on the new acquisition, grabbed his fishing license out of the truck, and tied on an orange Roostertail with a gold blade to the six-pound fishing line that he rigged through his new rod.

Ditzell's plan was simple -- he wanted to cover some water and try to catch a few trout and bass -- but even simple plans often go astray.

"I only landed two bass around 10-inches each," said Ditzel. "They were this year's babies."

Then around 10:30 a.m. came the cast that turned the day around. Ditzell tossed the Roostertail right up next to a "fishy" looking rock pile. On the retrieve, a fish hammered the lure. After a barroom-type fight, with the fish taking deep runs back toward the rocks, Tom was finally gaining ground on the fish.

"One minute it would lay dead and you could reel it in some, as soon as it would see daylight, it went off," said Ditzell.

As the fish tired, Ditzell was able to land it. He knew it was pretty big for a bluegill so he took the fish to the snack bar to weigh his catch.

The 3.79-pound bluegill is the biggest bluegill ever officially landed in California waters, topping the current record of three-pounds, eight-ounces listed by the California Department of Fish and Game. That fish was caught in 1991 at Lower Otay Reservoir in San Diego County. Ditzell's fish beats the old state record by over a quarter-pound.

The fish still has to be officially certified by a DFG official to get record status, and Valerie Weatherly at the marina said she had been trying to get a DFG biologist to come out and see the fish, still in the bait shop freezer, all of this past week. "I've been trying to get a local field officer out here to verify the catch, but it is like pulling teeth" said Weatherly.

So when life throws lemons at you, remember turning them into lemonade is good. Turning them into a new California state record for the biggest bluegill ever caught in the state isn't that bad either.

WATERFOWL PACKAGE -- matthews-ons 25sep02

Duck numbers down, but prospects not dismal

While waterfowl numbers are down and duck limits have been reduced, the prospects for this year's array of waterfowl seasons are not dismal. In fact, a variety of improvements at various public hunting locations throughout Southern California and along the Colorado River actually bode well for hunters.

The biggest problem facing hunters is dealing with the complex regulations. One refuge staff member joked that a hunter's going to "have to tattoo the regulations to his forearm to keep track of all the seasons and bag limits."

The regulations, adopted the end of August by the Fish and Game Commission, are far more restrictive than last year's season due to a reduced number of birds in the flyway this year, especially mallards and pintail. Drought has hammered the duck population while most geese species, which generally nest further north, continue to remain stable, but with some declines in the Colorado River geese populations.

The limit will be five ducks statewide this year, and hunters may not shoot canvasbacks at all. There is a one pintail (either sex) limit during a shortened 60-day season framework. Hunters may not take more than one hen mallard, two redheads of either sex, or four scaup (bluebill) as part of their limit.

The limits on geese are the same as last year, with the Southern San Joaquin and Balance of State zones at three geese per day, with no more than two dark geese in the bag, while the limit is five per day in the Southern California and Colorado River zones, with no more than three dark geese allowed in that bag.

The season frameworks are varied. The Colorado River zone has the longest season, running 101 consecutive days from Oct. 18 through Jan. 26 for both ducks and geese. But pintail may only be taken from Nov. 28 through Jan. 26.

In the Southern California zone, the duck season is 86 days and runs from Nov. 2 through Jan. 26, with pintails legal only from Nov. 28 through Jan. 26. Geese may be taken from Oct. 19 through Jan. 26 in this zone, a 100-day season.

In the Southern San Joaquin Valley Zone, there is an 81-day split season for ducks -- Oct. 19 through Nov. 3 and then again from Nov. 23 through Jan. 26. Pintails are legal only from Oct. 19 through Oct. 25 and then again from Dec. 5 through Jan. 26. Geese may be taken from No. 2 through Jan. 26, an 86-day season with no breaks.

In the Balance of State Zone, ducks may be hunted from Oct. 26 through Nov. 10 and then again from Nov. 30 through Jan. 26, a 74-day split season. Pintails are legal in the first half of the season and from Dec. 14 through Jan. 26 in the second half. Geese may be hunted consecutive days from Nov. 2 through Jan. 26 in this zone.

Special youth-only hunt days are set for Feb. 1-2 in the Balance of State, Southern California, and Southern San Joaquin zones and Feb. 1 in the Colorado River zone.

For the second year in a row, spinning wing decoys are not legal until after Nov. 30, 2002 during any of the state's waterfowl seasons.

Waterfowl hunting regulations will be available from license agents toward the end of September, and the final regulations are posted on the Fish and Game Commission's web site at http://ww.dfg.ca.gov/fg_comm/regs.html. Hunters are encouraged to get copies of the regulations summary and keep them with them at all times while hunting.

As in previous years, the Department of Fish and Game reminds hunters to get applications in for hunting on public areas in soon. Applications must be in Sacramento at least 17 days prior to the desired shoot day, which means time is running short to get in applications for some zones opening day on Oct. 19. The system is relatively simple but time consuming, and all of the information and application cards and forms should be available are outlets that sell hunting licenses.

The following is a list of organized public hunting opportunities in the southern part of the state. Less formal hunting for waterfowl is also available for the hunter who is willing to scout out areas throughout the eastern Sierra Nevada, along the Colorado River, and at the Salton Sea outside the boundaries of the refuges and state recreation area.

The WISTER UNIT of the IMPERIAL WILDLIFE AREA on the southeast end of the Salton Sea will have few changes for this year. The area was about 30 to 40 percent flooded up this week and "we're really going to start pouring the water to it next week," said second-year area manager Jim Chakarun. He said that about 100 sites would be available for opening day this year. Chakarun noted that hunters will see continuing clearing of brush, tules and cattails that have clogged some of the units. This cleaning process was begun last year, and Units 312B and 312C along with 513B have been opened up appreciably this year. He also said that the federal refuge was putting in some new concrete blinds to make the sites more "hunter friendly."

There will also be a special goose season extension in a small portion of the valley, including Wister, that will take place a week past then end of the regular season (into early February). The intent is to move the geese off the area alfalfa fields and back onto the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge. The details on how this special hunt would be conducted were still be finalized. Wister and the Hazard Unit of the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge are open to waterfowl hunting through the state reservation system and a daily drawing for sites after all reservation holders are admitted to the area. Refills are permitted. Shoot days are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. The state manages the waterfowl hunting program for the federal refuge. For more information, contact the unit at (760) 359-0577.

The FINNEY-RAMER UNIT of the IMPERIAL WILDLIFE AREA on the Alamo River south of the Salton Sea is open to hunters seven days per week under a self-registration system. For more information, contact the Wister Unit at (760) 359-0577.

The SAN JACINTO WILDLIFE AREA, located in western Riverside County near Lake Perris, is perhaps the second most popular hunting area -- right behind Wister -- for hunters in this region. Area manager Tom Paulek noted that hunter numbers and success rates went up very slightly last year, and that the increase might be partially because of the addition to the old Walker Duck Club to the wildlife area's hunted units. Last season there were 1,809 hunters at San Jacinto who shot 1.24 waterfowl each. The average the year before was 1.14. Paulek said that there would probably be 36 blind sites available this season, perhaps that many opening day even, and the addition of another 920-plus acres to the wildlife area from an acquisition off Bridge Street means that nearly all of the currently-dry Mystic Lake is now inside the refuge. Paulek said the purchase of the 920 acres will allow San Jacinto to add a goose field site, and that it might be added for this year. The DFG has contracted to have 120 acres of winter wheat and barley planted and the one blind site projected for these fields may be open this year.

San Jacinto is now over 10,000 acres in size. San Jacinto is open to waterfowl hunting through the state reservation system or a daily drawing for remaining sites after all reservation holders are admitted to the area. Refills are also permitted throughout the shoot day. Shoot days are Wednesday and Saturday. For more information, contact the wildlife area at (909) 928-0580.

The LAKE PERRIS STATE RECREATION AREA, adjacent to San Jacinto, is a neglected spot for waterfowl hunters, is a sleeper spot for hunters in western Riverside County. Hunters are allowed to hunt until noon on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Only hunters with boats and motors can hunt the area, and the check-in station is at parking lots 11 and 12 at the jet ski launch ramp inside the state recreation area. Managed by the DFG, the lake's blind sites were reduced last year because of low hunter turnout and to improve the quality of the hunt. It worked! Not only did more hunters use Perris last year 294 versus 172 the year before, but the success rate jumped from .65 birds per hunter to 1.16 birds per hunter. There will again be 10 blind sites this season at Perris. Perris is open on a first-come, first-serve basis each shoot day and its blind site quota never filled last year, even on opening day. For more information, contact the San Jacinto Wildlife Area at (909) 654-0580.

The KERN NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE is a popular destination for hunters who travel to the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. Dave Hardt, the refuge manager, is excited about all of the projects -- many in the works for years -- that are finally coming to fruition. Hardt said that there has been continued cleaning of vegetation from Unit 1, and that it will be even better this year than last season. But he was most excited about the wetland restoration project in the closed Unit 14 that will add up to 500 acres of wetland habitat by the second half of the season here. He said the new habitat will allow to opening of Unit 5A, an area that hasn't been open for 20 years. "There been a lot of interest and money thrown into wetlands... and projects planned are finally coming on line. A lot of people have been working for years and this is the fruits of their labors," said Hardt.

Waterfowl hunting at Kern is allowed on Wednesday and Saturdays through the state reservation system or a drawing for leftover sites after all reservation holders are admitted to the area. Refills are permitted. At least half of the sites available for opening day will be reserved for walk-ons. For more information, call (661) 725-2767 or the hunter's hotline at (661) 725-6504, which is normally updated after each hunt day.

At RAAHAUGE'S DUCK CLUB in PRADO BASIN, there will again be a series of blinds open on shoot days to walk-on public hunters on this club. The 2002 fee is $135 for a two-person blind. To encourage hunters to bring juniors, there is a Sunday special where a hunter can hunt for just $50 with the junior hunter free. Mike Raahauge said there have already been good numbers of deal and mallards in the basin, and the wood duck nesting box program run by the California Waterfowl Association and Southern California Ducks has continued to be very successful. Shoot days are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call the club at (909) 735-7981 or check the club's web site at http://www.raahauges.com.

At the SAN DIEGO CITY LAKES, hunting will again be allowed at BARRETT LAKE, OTAY RESERVOIR and SUTHERLAND RESERVOIR. Otay was scheduled to close permanently to waterfowl at the end of last season, but a development project has progressed slower than expected allowing for one more season of duck hunting at this population hunting lake.

Barrett and Otay are open Wednesday and Saturdays, while Sutherland is open Thursday and Sunday. Reservations are issued through an in-person lottery beginning 7:30 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 5, at San Vicente Reservoir. The application deadline to apply for mail-in reservations is Monday, Oct. 7, 2002.

The city has an information packet it mails to hunters that explains all of the details of the program and includes application forms. Hunters can call the city lakes at (619) 668-2050 to request a packet or send an e-mail request to ssmith@sandiego.gov. Jim Brown, program manager for the city lakes, said this hunting program has been operated since 1913, and it is the only municipally-operated waterfowl hunting program in the country.

LAKE HENSHAW, when the water level is up, is one of the best places in the region to hunt, and it is a scull boater's dream. The San Diego County water holds a good number of geese each year and a wide variety of big ducks, especially widgeon. The lake traditionally opens to duck and goose hunting later in the fall, usually around Dec. 1. Hunt days are Wednesdays and Saturdays. The fee will again be $25 per hunter per day. For more information, contact the lake at (760) 782-3501.

LAKE CUYAMACA has a late, short waterfowl hunt. Usually opening around Dec. 1, there are 12 to 22 blind sites available -- depending on water level -- on a first-come, first-serve basis. Reservations for the 2002 season will be taken in October. Shoot days are Wednesdays and Sundays until noon. For more information on reservations, write Lake Cuyamaca Waterfowl Hunt, 15027 Highway 79, Julian, CA 92036, or contact Hugh Marx at (760) 765-0515. The website address is http://www.lakecuyamaca.org.

The COLORADO RIVER has three major national wildlife refuges, all open to hunting, and miles of Indian Reservation lands, also open to hunting with appropriate license. Two of the three refuges are also completing significant improvements for waterfowl, and the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) reservation between Blythe and Parker is beginning improvements in off-river wetlands. Here's a quick summary of the river refuges, from north to south.

The LAKE HAVASU NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE has daily hunting on portions of Topoc Marsh. There are three access points on the open marsh areas. The Topoc Gorge area from Castle Rock to Lake Havasu is also open to hunting daily. This is all a boat-hunting operation, but the area holds a good number of birds and can provide excellent shooting. The Pintail Slough unit will again be closed this year, making three years that the area has been closed for a major rehabilitation project. This project is a cooperative venture between the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and Ducks Unlimited, but it has taken two years longer than originally planned, according to refuge manager Greg Wolf. That's the bad news. The good news is that the Pintail Slough goose fields will reopen this season after a five-year closure. There are four sites available by reservations or on stand-by. Phone reservations are being taken for single shoot weekends, and a hunter can reserve a spot by providing a hunting license number. Wolf said that about 100 honkers and 1,200 to 1,300 snows have been using the refuge that last couple of years and that they start to come in around the first of November. For more information on hunting the refuge, call (760) 326-3853 or you can log on to the refuge's web site at: http://southwest.fws.gov/refuges/arizona/havasu.html.

At the CIBOLA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE on the Colorado River near Blythe, hunting is permitted from the farm field goose pits three days a week with reservations issued in advance and leftover filled by a drawing held the morning of the hunt. There is also duck hunting on the open portions of the refuge, including the island unit which has been dramatically improved over past years with more ponds, cleaned backwaters and flooded fields. At one point in time, the refuge hosted as many as 30,000 honkers during the winter, but numbers have dwindled steadily in recent years. For information, call (520) 857-3253 or log on to the refuge's web site at: http://southwest.fws.gov/refuges/arizona/cibola.html.

The IMPERIAL NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE sits on the lower Colorado River just north of Yuma. It offers miles of untapped duck hunting in hundreds of backwater potholes and lakes and along the main river. Outside of a handful of hunters in Yuma who would prefer this secret not be let out, there is almost no hunting pressure on this stretch of the river. For more information, call (520) 783-3371 or log on to the refuge's web site at: http://southwest.fws.gov/refuges/arizona/imperial.html. The bottom line is that opportunities abound for waterfowl hunters in Southern California, and we have some of the best and most diverse hunting available, but it requires a little bit or effort and planning. The time is now to start that planning process.

`Duck Commander' to give series of waterfowl seminars at Turner's stores.

CHINO -- Phil Robertson, known as "the duck commander" in waterfowl hunting circles, will be giving a series of duck calling seminars on consecutive evenings at Turner's Outdoorsman stores and Mike Raahauge's Shooting Enterprises from Oct. 3-5. This is the first time Robertson has come to Southern California. In addition to designing a popular series of duck calls, Robertson has an extensive line of instructional videos, and his seminars are widely regarded as "the best two hours" a hunter can spend learning calling techniques, according to Andy McCormick with Turner's Outdoorsman.

All of the events are free, but reservations are recommended. Robertson will be at the West Covina Turner's (626-858-8948) Thursday, Oct. 3, from 6 to 8 p.m., the Riverside store (909-351-1190) the same hours on Friday, Oct. 4, and then at Raahauge's (909-735-7581) during a special 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. event Saturday, Oct. 5. Breakfast and lunch will be available at the Raahauge's event for a small fee, and hunters will also be able to pattern shotguns, test loads, shoot a round on the "duck tower," learn hunting dog training skills, in addition to hearing Robertson's presentation. There will also be a special drawing among all those who attend one of Robertson's sessions for a duck hunt in the Turner's blind in Prado Basin.

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LEAD BULLETS AND DEER BURNS -- matthews-ons 18sep02

Cast bullets make rifles more versatile

Lead is not necessarily a four-letter word, especially for shooters and hunters who want economical practice ammunition. I had almost forgotten this. When I was a kid, my rifle shooting mentor, the late Ray Morgan, cast bullets for most of his rifles because it allowed him to shoot a lot for a little money -- an important consideration for a man living on an upholsterer's wages.

Recently I dusted off an old Lyman reloading handbook from 25 years ago that is dog-eared and nearly worn out. The cover is off and some of the first pages are loose, but I was thumbing through it with a purpose. The problem, and the reason I went to the old Lyman book, was that most reloading manuals today don't have reduced loads or information on cast bullets. Especially cast bullets.

With the exception of some handgun shooters, cowboy action buffs, guys who shoot Sharps replicas, and a variety of .45-70 cartridge fans, darn few shooters use cast lead bullets today. That is kind of sad for a number of reasons. Bullet casting is becoming a lost art, and we we're on the verge of losing cast bullets as a functional and affordable alternative to standard jacketed loads.

Thankfully, there are a host of small makers who specialize in cast or swaged slugs that have helped keep lead bullets alive and feed a growing cowboy shooting market. The cowboy crowd has also rekindled an interest in lead slugs for general rifle shooters -- for hunting, plinking, and target shooting.

If you melt you own and pour from scratch, there is still a very significant savings, but most of us today are looking at other benefits.

I have been tinkering with some brand new 170- and 200-grain lead gas check bullets made by TrueShot in an inherited classic Model 54 bolt rifle in .30-06 that belonged to my uncle, which I've restored to vintage with a nice Lyman peep sight. The loads are light enough, I can shoot the gun all day at ground squirrels or at the range. They have been a perfect slug for me to get familiar with the new sights. The bullets are hard cast, and I suspect they'll handle a wild hog just fine, and I plan on using it for an upcoming cast bullet silhouette rifle event or two.

But I have been having so much fun I went to the old Lyman Handbook No. 45 to get a gas check cast bullet load suggestion for a .300 Winchester Magnum. I have shot .300s off and on for the past 10 years -- never liking them because they recoil way too sharply for my taste. I do like their field performance, however. They shoot flat and tend to send game to the ground like a lightning bolt. And in field situations, you never even notice the kick. The problem for most shooters is firing their guns enough to get over the recoil to shoot accurately. The cast bullet thing seemed like a good way for me to get comfortable with a nice Howa 1500 .300 mag I have. Then it was some light practice loads for a 7mm Remington mag that my son Bo will be shooting this year. Then....

Now this whole thing has blossomed way out of control, at least according to my wife. I've having a ball. Recently, a hunting buddy found a .366-diameter mould in his cache of gun stuff, and we're huddling together figuring out if we're going to try to con someone into pouring us bullets for our 9.3mm rifles (you'd have to be a real gun nut to ask about these rifles), or just break down and get a sizing press, sizing dies, lead pot, and do it ourselves. We're probably not going to go the do-it-ourselves route, but I'm still buying a mould for my vintage .25-35, and keep looking at a .224 mould so I could load my .223 to .22 rimfire velocities for shooting cottontails this fall when I'm calling coyotes. I don't want to waste meat on those delectable bunnies.

Lead slugs add a versatility to your hunting rifle that seems to have been lost recently. We're so preoccupied with high velocity and wringing out the maximum load from any of our guns that we've sort of forgotten that it's about hunting and shooting -- not long-distance sniping and getting beat up at the range. Not only can a .30-06 be an elk killer with some of the new compressed loading technology factory loads that approach .300 mag velocities, but it can be a flat-shooting coyote gun with a 125-grain varmint slugs handload at 3,300 fps and a cottontail plinker with a 170-grain cast bullet load at 1,700 fps. Carrying a little of each ammo when hunting, and knowing where they all shoot, makes a hunter more likely to take shots he might otherwise pass up on secondary game.

If you poke around on the Internet, you can find companies that have lead slugs in most rifle calibers, and the new Accurate Arms and Speer reloading manuals have loads if you don't have a ratty old Lyman guide in your garage.

Hunting Burns: With deer season just around the corner, California deer hunters should be keeping newspaper clippings of all of the fires that occur within their favorite deer zones. Hunters can also contact local ranger stations for information on location and size of fires in the last six months.

Why should we care about where the fires have occurred?

Most chaparral plants crown sprout (send up new shoots from the roots meet the main, charred part of the plant -- almost immediately after a fire and the deer love those fresh, green shoots. After the Willow Fire a couple of years ago on the north side of the San Bernardino Mountains, you could see fresh deer trails into the burn within a week of the fire. The deer were pushed out of the burn area into surrounding unburned terrain, but they moved into the burn each day to feed as soon as the vegetation started crown sprouting.

Deer forage remains better in burns for several years after a fire and the productivity goes up for deer living on the edges of the burns and feeding on all of the new vegetation. For past couple of seasons, the best hunting areas in the D14 zone has been the edges of the massive Willow Fire. It has also been the most productive area for the deer, with the does producing more and healthier fawns than areas with less nutritious feed.

I have a hunting buddy who has his U.S. Forest Service map marked up in detail with all of the burns for the past several years. He scouts and hunts everything from burns that are only a few weeks old to those that are six or seven years old, and he has his map marked with every burn from only a few dozen acres to those massive fires that make the evening news. He likes the bigger fires that skip across the landscape, leaving pockets of older vegetation in the interior of a burned area. The deer find their way back into this cover quickly and utilize the surrounding charred landscape for feed. He's taken a buck each of the past two seasons right in the heart of a five-year-old old burn in the A zone. The spot is about a mile into a burn, but one whole canyon was somehow missed by the flames. He found the spot by hiking the area during the season three years ago.

The key to hunting burns is scouting. You need to remember that deer still need the cover where they can lay up during the day and evade predators. The edges of burns or pockets of unburned vegetation within the burn are the key places to look. Chaparral starts to get almost too dense for deer to use after about seven or eight years, and the dense stands of brush that are 20 to 30 years old are pretty much useless as deer forage -- or cover for that matter.

I hate to say it, but I always root for the fires to burn because I know that it benefits deer so much in chaparral country. This habitat needs to burn. The fires increase of diversity of wildlife that uses chaparral, so it's not just about deer. After fires, there is more wildlife of all kinds and better production. Hunters who are savvy learn to cash in on the bounty, but everyone who enjoys wildlife benefits.

Deer tags still available for most SoCal zones

SACRAMENTO -- Hunters who want to pick up second deer tags for Southern California deer zones can do so now, and many zones still have tags available. Of the general hunting zones, only D12 and D17, have filled in Southern California, both desert deer units, while D9, D7, and D6 are all filled in the southern Sierra Nevada. The D14 zone (San Bernardino Mountains) still had 374 tags available in its 3,000-tag quota as of Monday this week, according to the Department of Fish and Game, and D10 was down to 181 tags in its 700-tag quota. All the other zones in the southern part of the state still had over 50 percent of their tag quotas available. Updates on tag availability are posted each week on the DFG's website at www.dfg.ca.gov.

`Duck Commander' to give series of waterfowl seminars at Turner's stores

CHINO -- Phil Robertson, known as "the duck commander" in waterfowl hunting circles, will be giving a series of duck calling seminars on consecutive evenings at Turner's Outdoorsman stores and Mike Raahauge's Shooting Enterprises from Oct. 3-5. This is the first time Robertson has come to Southern California. In addition to designing a popular series of duck calls, Robertson has an extensive line of instructional videos, and his seminars are widely regarded as "the best two hours" a hunter can spend learning calling techniques, according to Andy McCormick with Turner's Outdoorsman. All of the events are free, but reservations are recommended. Robertson will be at the West Covina Turner's (626-858-8948) Thursday, Oct. 3, from 6 to 8 p.m., the Riverside store (909-351-1190) the same hours on Friday, Oct. 4, and then at Raahauge's (909-735-7581) during a special 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. event Saturday, Oct. 5. Breakfast and lunch will be available at the Raahauge's event for a small fee, and hunters will also be able to pattern shotguns, test loads, shoot a round on the "duck tower," learn hunting dog training skills, in addition to hearing Robertson's presentation. There will also be a special drawing among all those who attend one of Robertson's sessions for a duck hunt in the Turner's blind in Prado Basin.

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WATERFOWL SEASONS SET, MORE -- matthews column 11sep02

Waterfowl season shorter for this fall

Waterfowl hunters in Southern California will see lower bag limits for this fall's hunting seasons, many species restrictions, a split season for ducks in many areas, and a later season overall, according to the Department of Fish and Game.

The regulations, adopted the end of August by the Fish and Game Commission, are far more restrictive than last year's season due to a reduced number of birds in the flyway this year, especially mallards and pintail. Drought has hammered the duck population while most geese species, which generally nest further north, continue to do well.

The limit will be five ducks statewide this year, and hunters may not shoot canvasbacks at all. There is a one pintail (either sex) limit during a shortened 60-day season framework. Hunters may not take more than one hen mallard, two redheads of either sex, or four scaup (bluebill) as part of their limit.

The limits on geese are the same as last year, with the Southern San Joaquin and Balance of State zones at three geese per day, with no more than two dark geese in the bag, while the limit is five per day in the Southern California and Colorado River zones, with no more than three dark geese allowed in that bag.

The season frameworks are varied. The Colorado River zone has the longest season, running 101 consecutive days from Oct. 18 through Jan. 26 for both ducks and geese. But pintail may only be taken from Nov. 28 through Jan. 26.

In the Southern California zone, the duck season is 86 days and runs from Nov. 2 through Jan. 26, with pintails legal only from Nov. 28 through Jan. 26. Geese may be taken from Oct. 19 through Jan. 26 in this zone, a 100-day season.

In the Balance of State Zone, ducks may be hunted from Oct. 26 through Nov. 10 and then again from Nov. 30 through Jan. 26, a 74-day split season. Pintails are legal in the first half of the season and from Dec. 14 through Jan. 26 in the second half. Geese may be hunted consecutive days from Nov. 2 through Jan. 26 in this zone.

In the Southern San Joaquin Valley Zone, there is an 81-day split season for ducks -- Oct. 19 through Nov. 3 and then again from Nov. 23 through Jan. 26. Pintails are legal only from Oct. 19 through Oct. 25 and then again from Dec. 5 through Jan. 26. Geese may be taken from No. 2 through Jan. 26, an 86-day season with no breaks.

Special youth-only hunt days are set for Feb. 1-2 in the Balance of State, Southern California, and Southern San Joaquin zones and Feb. 1 in the Colorado River zone.

For the second year in a row, spinning wing decoys are not legal until after Nov. 30 during any of the state's waterfowl seasons.

Waterfowl hunting regulations will be available from license agents toward the end of September, and the final regulations are posted on the Fish and Game Commission's web site at www.dfg.ca.gov/fg_comm/regs.html.

OCEAN FISHING: This fall has the potential to be an amazing time for ocean anglers. There are distinct temperature bands of water along the coast that appeal to a wide variety of gamefish -- cool water still dominates the offshore areas which is why albacore catches continue to be excellent for San Diego landings this week. There are slightly warmer waters that bluefin tuna prefer, and then downright warm water right along the coast and around the major islands near the coast, like San Clemente and Catalina.

The Pursue, a six-pack charter boat that operates out of Cabrillo Marina, came across a patch of warm water near San Clemente Island that was alive with porpoises. That is usually a pretty good indicator that there are tuna working baitfish just beneath the sea mammals. The anglers on board dropped some baits back, and managed to hook and land a 65-pound yellowfin.

The yellowfin that are being seen in local waters are much bigger than normal -- generally in the 40- to 65-pound class -- and while they are mostly being seen rather than caught right now, the warm water pushing up from Baja along the coast attracts more of these fish. It could be one of those falls where anglers can catch albacore, bluefin, and yellowfin on the same trip.

YACHT SHOWCASE: Attention recent lotto winners. The 24th Lido Yacht Expo runs Thursday through Sunday this week at the Lido Marina Village, Newport Beach. There will be yachts on display that cost up to $8 million, but also a lot of functional -- and more reasonably priced -- fishing craft, too. For information, call (949) 757-5959.

Deer tags still available for most SoCal zones

SACRAMENTO -- Hunters who want to pick up second deer tags for Southern California deer zones can do so now, and many zones still have tags available. Of the general hunting zones, only D12 and D17, have filled in Southern California, both desert deer units, while D9, D7, and D6 are all filled in the southern Sierra Nevada. The D14 zone (San Bernardino Mountains) still had 596 tags available in its 3,000-tag quota as of Monday this week, according to the Department of Fish and Game, and D10 was down to 228 tags in its 700-tag quota. All the other zones in the southern part of the state still had over 50 percent of their tag quotas available. After Sept. 1, hunters can get second deer tags for the D zones. Updates on tag availability are posted each week on the DFG's website at www.dfg.ca.gov.

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DOVE HUNTING ROUNDUP -- ons-matthews 4sep02

Dove opener one of best in many years

LEBEC -- The dove opener lived up to forecasts throughout much of the southern half of the state with good shooting from the lower Colorado River, throughout the Imperial Valley and up into the San Joaquin Valley. Many biologists and hunters called it the best season in a long time.

Desert areas away from agriculture did not produce near as many doves as previous years, but areas around agriculture and on Department of Fish and Game fields produced excellent shooting.

Jim Chakarun, manager of the Imperial Wildlife Area's Wister and Finney-Ramer units, said the valley was thick with doves.

"I thought it was fantastic. I've never seen so many smiling faces in my life," said Chakarun. The fields at Finney-Ramer had less pressure this year thanks to the 27 fields planted, irrigated, and mowed by Leon Lesicka and Desert Wildlife Unlimited, in conjunction with the DFG and other groups, but Chakarun said the Finney-Ramer fields' hunters averaged from 5 1/2 to 8 1/2 birds per hunter.

"Even I shot a limit opening afternoon. I had nine birds in the first half hour and then it took me another half hour to get that last bird," said Chakarun, who hunted "the wheat field" unit at Finney-Ramer.

The "Lesicka Fields," as everyone in the valley is calling the 27 plots groomed for doves and quail this year, drew a lot of people. Chakarun said that Lesicka flew the area opening day and counted over 1,300 vehicles around the 27 locations and estimated around 3,800 people used the plots. Bird use was heavy at all of these locations and many hunters reported shooting limits in these areas.

"I shot my limit in about 11 minutes," said Jason Mathiot, a San Bernardino hunter who was in the Imperial Valley along the East Highline Canal, near one of the Lesicka fields.

"There were a lot of people down here who shot a lot of limits. Everybody did well I've talked to down here -- they all shot limits."

Mathot most of the Lesicka fields prior to the opener and said they all were holding a lot of doves.

"We didn't go there because we figured everyone was going to be there, but a lot of people went to those fields," said Mathiot.

Jim Brown of San Diego hunted a tree line in the southeast end of the Imperial Valley with five other hunting chums and found two things -- a steady shoot and solitude.

"The half-dozen of us along this tree line never saw another hunter -- how's that for the Imperial Valley opening day?" said Brown, who said he had his limit by 7:30 a.m.

At Yuma, on both sides of the Colorado River, the shooting lived up to expectations. Richard Sprague, at Sprague's Sport and RV in Yuma, said that in spite of temperatures that were about 10 degrees above normal, topping out at 118 degrees in some areas around Yuma, the hunting was excellent.

"Everybody's been getting their birds," said Sprague. "We poll all of our hunters and over 98 percent said they shot their limits -- that's pretty good, I'd say."

Sprague's is well-known on the lower Colorado River for hosting the annual Big Breast Contest, where hunters weigh in their birds. There were a record 263 entries this year in the event, and it was won by Gerry Schenider of Phoenix with a whitewing dove breast that weighed 84.3 grams. Until mid-day Monday, the leader was Bill Wheatley of Martinez Lake, with an 80.8-gram mourning dove -- the biggest mourning dove Sprague had ever seen. The bird ended up the second place winner.

Jim Garner of Azusa reported that the hunting along the Colorado River was not as good as the field shooting in the Yuma area.

"Sunday was a day of extremes," Garner wrote in an e-mail. "Weather was around 110 at mid-day, and doves were not plentiful. Most of the hunters I spoke with had half limits along the Colorado River. The other extreme was my shooting. Ten birds in 16 shots. For the first time in my life, I just could not miss."

Garner said it was far less crowded Monday but that he didn't shoot near as well to bag his second day limit.

Garner also wanted to remind shooters that the Arizona hours are from 1/2-hour before sunrise to noon -- not sunset like in California.

"In Arizona, if you have birds in possession, you must have empties in your possession or they will cite you for littering. A good idea. I also feel strongly that California should implement the same shooting hours as Arizona. It would help the double limit problems and temptations. Some hunters shoot the morning in Arizona, cook up the birds for lunch, then go for the evening hunt in California," wrote Garner about a common illegal activity.

Further up the Colorado River, Wayne Pinkerton at B&B Bait in Blythe said the hunt "was better than it's been in the past five or six years."

"I think everything was true to form," said Pinkerton. "Everyone who knew where to go got birds and there were more whitewing in the valley than normal. One of the guys who hunted the Ripley feedlot said it was 50 percent whitewings."

Pinkerton also said there was an accidental shooting at the feedlot that put a damper on opening day. A loaded gun apparently had been set up against a vehicle and was knocked down and a hunter took a load of shot through the top of his shoulder at point-blank range. Fortunately the injury was not fatal and there was a doctor at the field and the hunter received treatment quickly.

Bob Creed of Riverside, said "this was the best dove opener I've ever had," of his Blythe hunt.

"My hunting partner, Sheldon Gill, observed his 25th year at Blythe and this was his best ever, too," said Creed. "Sheldon and I had limits of dove by 6:01. We shot for an estimated 12 minutes and had our quota. It was unbelievable. The dove were flying 100 to a 150 at a time. It almost looked like a swarm.

"We went down with 17 other friends. They hunted an adjacent two fields and were limited by 7:30. For some reason the doves chose to fly over our location. After hearing our shooting a couple of them came to our spot and finished their limits. We left Sunday morning for home. Fourteen stayed until Monday morning and went to our spot. They all had limits in 45 minutes," said Gill. Bob Corbett at the Cibola Sportsman's Club said they had 85 hunters on the club's south ranch property and all of them got limits opening day by 8 a.m., and they duplicated the feat by 10:30 a.m. on Monday.

"Four days before the opener, I'd say we had 80 percent whitewings and 20 percent mourning doves in the fields, but by Sunday the percent was reversed," said Corbett, who believed the whitewings started moving south in those days just before the opener. He added that there were still a tremendous number of doves in the Palo Verde Valley and he thought the shooting would hold up very well through the first half of the season which runs through Sept. 15.

Tom Alexander, the new refuge manager at the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge on the Colorado River near Palo Verde said the hunt on the Island Unit's mowed wheat field was great. "Everybody we were checking was getting their limit down there," said Alexander. "It also wasn't crowded. It was really ideal."

Alexander said there were still a lot of birds at Cibola, but hunters were reminded that steel shot was required for all bird hunting on the federal refuge.

Hunting in the Mojave at desert springs and guzzlers was much poorer this year. "There just isn't any green-up to keep them in the desert," said DFG biologist Andy Pauli.

Lancaster hunter Jim Monroe hunted desert springs and guzzlers from near Inyokern to Barstow and found very scratchy hunting, seeing fewer than 30 birds in two hard days of hunting. He did manage to get six birds, five of them off of a single guzzler in the evening opening day, but said "it wasn't as good as last year."

The one exception was the Camp Cady Wildlife Area east of Barstow on the Mojave River. Area manager Gary Weiss about 25 hunters were at Cady opening day and at least half had limits. "The guys who could shot got their limits, no problem," said Weiss.

Andy Pauli, who hunted in the Owens Valley himself opening day, said that area was dismal, in spite of good feed in the form of sunflowers. "It was a non-event. I saw one dove," said Pauli.

At the San Jacinto Wildlife Area near Riverside, manager Tom Paulek said the dove hunt was decent this year around the safflower that had been planted, better than last year's slow hunt. Paulek said there were about 100 hunters on the area opening day, and of the 37 hunters they checked, two had limits and hunters averaged two to three doves each. "It wasn't a great year, but we were pleasantly surprised," said Paulek.

The southern San Joaquin Valley shot well in some areas, but was "spotty" according to Don Geivet at the Tejon Ranch. "If you found an area that had feed, the birds were really concentrated," said Geivet.

Andy McCormick and 21 other hunters from Turner's Outdoorsman shot on the Tejon and were in one of the exceptional spots. "We had an excellent shoot. There were 22 of us and we shot limits both days," said McCormick.

Dennis Culley of Upland also hunted the Tejon and had a limit by 10:30 a.m. sitting in the oaks around a stock pond picking away at birds, mostly singles and doubles, as they came into drink. Former WON writer Lee Hoots, now with Guns & Ammo shot the same pond as Culley opening evening and had a limit in less than an hour.

Ed Sandell and his son Todd, both of Somis, hunted in the Bakersfield area on one of the DFG-sponsored hunts in the San Joaquin Valley and both had limits by 7:20 a.m. opening day. "We had the hot hands and the hot spot," said the elder Somis. "There were two other groups of hunters who followed shortly behind with limits also. Most of the hunters however were scratching out half limits by mid morning. Finding the feed and getting away from other hunters seemed to be the key."

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DOVE OPENER SUNDAY -- matthews-ONS -- 28aug02

Excellent dove opener forecast

The dove season opener this Sunday is likely to be one of the best opening days in over a decade, according to hunters and biologists from throughout Southern California. That's the good news. If there's a down side at all, it's that many areas will be crowded because the opener falls on a weekend.

"There's more dove in both the Imperial and Palo Verde valleys than I've seen in years," said Gerald Mulcahy, a Department of Fish and Game biologist in Blythe. "It's going to be a good year."

That was a sentiment that was echoed from Yuma to the San Joaquin Valley. Richard Sprague of Sprague's Sport and RV, home of the 14th annual Big Breast Contest in Yuma, Ariz., said that "the official word from the Game and Fish is we're going to have an average season, which in Yuma is excellent.

"There are a lot of birds around. There are some places out in Weldon where you can't drive more than 40 miles per hour or you'd be killing birds out of season. I've found a couple of fields the couple of days where I'm going back with my camera before opener -- it's just awesome," said Sprague.

The dove hunting on both sides of the Colorado River near Yuma is generally considered the best in the region each year, with huge numbers of both whitewings and mourning doves around the agriculture, along the river, and in desert wash margins. Sprague said that several of his customers said that they're seeing a lot of big, healthy whitewings this year, and they believe the record dove breast will be toppled this season.

Sprague also noted that the Yuma Rod and Gun Club will be holding a wildlife fund-raiser dinner Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the American Legion Hall in Yuma, and the Yuma Trap and Skeet ranges would be open Saturday for hunters who wanted to get in a little shooting prior to the opener. Sprague's store, in addition to having four different gun raffles to raise money for desert water projects, the NRA, and Quail Unlimited, will also have a bird cleaning station as a fund-raiser for the local high school.

Further up the river in the Blythe-Palo Verde regions, bird numbers before the season were much higher than normal for this time of year.

"The California side of the river is awesome," said Joel Depaoli, a Blythe hunting guide. "I've never seen it like this. It's better than I've ever seen it. It really is."

Wayne Pinkerton of B&B Bait agreed with that assessment. "For the drought and everything, it seems to be an exceptional year. The birds have hung on a long time. It's the latest we've seen this volume of birds."

While the desert itself seems to be holding fewer birds than normal, the areas adjacent to the agriculture may have attracted birds that would normally be feeding and watering in the desert, concentrating even more birds in the valley, said Pinkerton.

The usual areas in the Blythe and Palo Verde region should again be shoot well, according to Pinkerton, with the washes adjacent to the citrus fields and the recently harvest wheat and melon fields the best bets.

Cibola National Wildlife Refuge hunters are reminded that both an Arizona license and non-toxic shot are required on the island unit, but many of the local shops in Blythe carry steel dove loads just for hunting at Cibola.

The Imperial Valley south of the Salton Sea is holding an exceptional number of birds. Many hunters and biologists, like Mulcahy, are saying that it's one of the best years they can remember in a long time.

The addition of 27 planted fields, done in a cooperative effort with Leon Lesicka with Desert Wildlife Unlimited, Quail Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, the Imperial County Fish and Game Commission, Safari Club-San Diego, and the Department of Fish and Game, have increased public hunting opportunities by more than three times in the area, and Mulcahy said all of the fields have been mowed and are holding a lot of birds.

Maps to all of the fields are available at stores throughout the valley and on the DFG's website (www.dfg.ca.gov). They were also published in WON two issues ago for those of you who save your back issues, but here are written directions to each field (from the Western Birds newsletter).

All of these lands will be posted with signs that define them as public hunting areas. These directions to the fields are from north to south and west to east in Imperial County. Most of the fields are located along the East Highline Canal around Niland, with some fields further south and east of Calipatria. The fields are numbered on the DFG map, and those numbers are used here.

Fields 16, 17 and 18 are located on 350 acres adjacent to Highway 111, bounded by Howell Road on the north, Winslow Road on the south and Davis Road on the east. This is just across the highway from Wister.

Fields 25 and 26 are on the north side of Winslow Road, starting about 1 1/4-miles east of Highway 111.

Fields 13, 14, and 15 are bounded by Winslow Road on the south, English Road on the west, and Wilkins Road on the northeast.

Field 23 is at the southwest corner of Gillespie and English roads.

Field 24 is on the southwest corner of Gillespie and Wilkins Road.

Field 22 is 70 acres at the northwest junction of English and Beach roads.

Fields 19, 20 and 21 are all located on the north side of Beal Road starting at the English Road and going east.

Field 27 is on the southeast side of Beal Road where it meets the East Highline Canal east of Niland.

Fields 1 and 2 are bounded by Alcott Road on the north and Pound Road on the south about 1/4-mile west of Highway 111.

Field 10, 11, and 12 are all on the north side of Pound Road from Noffsinger Road west to Blair Road.

Fields 7 and 8 are bounded by Pound Road on the north and Hazard Road on the south with English on the east.

Field 3 is bounded by Pound Road on the north and Hazard Road on the south approximately 1/2-mile west of Highway 111.

Field 9 is east of Calipatria bounded by Wilkinson Road on the north, Young Road on the south, Kaiser Road on the west, and the East Highline Canal on the east.

Field 5 is bounded by Wirt Road on the north, Bowles Road on the south, with the southwest corner starting where Butters Road meets Bowles.

Field 6 is adjacent to the East Highland Canal with Yocum Road on the north and Albright Road on the south.

"This program is going to be interesting. I hope hunters will spread out and police themselves. If they do, the opportunity will probably stay there and maybe even grow. If they don't -- if they trash fields and shoot up signs -- it'll probably go away," said Mulcahy.

"We're finally doing something for the guys who have been paying the bills for all these years," said Mulcahy.

In addition to the 27 fields provided by Desert Wildlife Unlimited and associates, there will again be public hunting at the Finney-Ramer Unit of the Imperial Wildlife Area and the Wister Unit, according to Jim Chakarun, manager of both of the wildlife area's units. Chakarun said the number of hunters that will be allowed on Finney-Ramer at one time has been reduced from 120 to 40 for public safety reasons.

"Three of the five hunter safety incidents that occurred in the valley last year, happened at Finney-Ramer," said Chakarun. "I was down there last opener and I did not like what I saw. I hate to cut down hunter opportunity, but safety has to come first."

Chakarun said that there were just too many hunters in too small an area and that a lot of people were peppered. He said that he felt that even with the reduced field quota, the name number of hunters should still be able to hunt the area. Chakarun said the hunting's so good there, that if people check out quickly after their get their limits, replacements can get in for their shooting.

The Finney-Ramer field 138, as it's called, is on Rutherford Road by Weist Lake, and this has the 40 permit quota. There is also 20 acres wheat and safflower field planted at the old game farm located at Highway 111 and Jacobson Road, and 40 acres of wheat and safflower were planted off the Nutmeg lateral (irrigation canal) approximately 1/2 mile east of Highway 111 at 1/2-mile south of Reuggar Road. Free permits are available at booths at all three of these locations on a first-come, first-serve basis, and you can also get permits at Finney and Ramer lakes.

The fields on Wister are kind of sleeper spots that get less hunting pressure than DWU's 27 fields and the Finney-Ramer hunt, but there are also fields that have been planted for doves here again this year that are holding birds, according to Chakarun. There was 60 acres of safflower planted in fields 114A, 312A and 513A that has been mowed, and an additional 30 acres of volunteer vegetation was mowed in fields Y14 and 514.
Permits for the Wister hunts can be picked up at booths located at the headquarters or on Beach Road, Honker Road, or Mallard Road.

Hunters who hunt either Finney-Ramer or Wister fields are encouraged to fill out and return their permit report cards. Chakarun said the continuation of the field planting program really hinges on the data they gather from the returned permits.

The outlook for hunters in the high desert areas from Victorville to Barstow are less rosy, especially for sportsmen who like to hunt desert springs, guzzlers, and stock tanks in relative solitude. With the exception of Camp Cady Wildlife Area, which has developed farm fields for dove hunters this year, the desert has so little water and feed that hunting will be tough.

Jim Monroe, a Lancaster hunter, reported that several good hunting areas that are historically good for doves, have few birds this year. Opal Mountain Spring, a hotspot last year, is completely dry this year either because of drought or increased groundwater pumping nearby, or both. And even nearby guzzlers that Monroe visited, all holding water, had very few doves.

Further west, however, hunters are reporting seeing good numbers of birds in the agricultural lands in the Antelope Valley and into the southern San Joaquin Valley.

Lisa McNamee, owner of the High Desert Hunt Club off of Highway 138 near Gorman, said there were a lot of birds in the valley, but because of drought the hunt club was unable to plant food plots this year. She thought the hunting at High Desert would be good around the volunteer seed crops that came up and have been mowed, but not like last year where the hunt was simply phenomenal.

Guides on the Tejon Ranch have also reported seeing a lot of birds throughout the San Joaquin Valley between ranch headquarters in Fort Tejon (Lebec) and Bakersfield, noting the birds have been really concentrated on good feed sources and water.

Why is everyone seeing so many doves this year? It's simple. The mourning dove population is up 24 percent over last year according to DFG data. The call count survey data, compiled each year, suggests the dove population is the highest it has been since 1993. This year's tally was also the second best count since 1988. While the survey mostly tracks a trend, the trend is definitely up.

In addition, hunter harvest has been increasing steadily each of the past three years for which the Department of Fish and Game has data, according to Melanie Weaver with the DFG in Sacramento.

The most recent information on harvest the is from 2000, when hunters killed approximately 1.7 million doves in California. That was 10 percent greater than in 1999, and the `99 harvest was above the `98 kill. Most hunters reported a better shoot in 2001 than 2000, so the increase trend is likely to continue in spite of fewer hunters taking to the field.

David Dolton, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver, Colorado, said the data still indicates that we're still in a long-term dove population decline over the 10-year and 37-year cycles, and that the data from a single year doesn't indicate a big change in the population trend.

"We saw a one-year population increase from last year, but one year doesn't make much difference -- although it is always better to have increases," said Dolton.

Dolton and Weaver agreed that we may never see the same levels of dove numbers we had in the 1960s because of changes in farming practices that has reduced food sources and changes in land use.

There is optimism in California that the long-term decline in dove numbers is finally bottomed out and populations are increasing again. The dove population has likely stabilized at a new, lower level, and there seems to be a positive spike up from that level for this year.

Dolton did warn, however, that the affects of this year's Western drought were not measurable in the call count survey earlier this year, and that while doves were adaptable and mobile, this sustained drought could have a negative impact on dove numbers.

The season opens on this Sunday, Sept. 1, and will continue through Sunday, Sept. 15, giving hunters an unusual three weekends to hunt the sporty gamebirds. The bag limit is 10 per day with 20 in possession after the first day. Upland Bird stamps are required to hunt doves.

Special issue of Western Birds lists guzzlers in Mojave Preserve

SAN BERNARDINO -- The special August issue of Western Birds, a wingshooting newsletter for Southern California hunters, has a comprehensive list of coordinates for all of the guzzlers in the Mojave National Preserve -- with over 130 locations given.

This is the first issue of this newsletter that will be sold individually and in sporting goods stores, according to Jim Matthews, editor of this specialty newsletter that has been published since 1996.

"The Mojave Preserve is one of the finest bird hunting destinations in the Western United States, but the locations of the guzzlers has always been sort of a secret," said Matthews. "Many of the guzzlers are in disrepair, and the National Park Service wants to remove all man-made water, so I felt it was important to make this information available to all hunters in this region so we all could keep tabs on these important water sources and the park service."

The coordinates for each guzzler are given in longitude and latitude in degrees, minutes, and seconds (down to fractions of sections) and UTM coordinates. Users of GPS units can easily find the guzzlers by entering the coordinates, but hunters who prefer using regular U.S. Geological Survey 7 1/2-minute quad maps can also use the coordinates to triangulate locations very accurately and the guzzlers are sorted by USGS quad name.

Each newsletter also has a guzzler report form so hunters can detail the condition of the guzzler, repairs needed, and whether or not it is holding water. When returned, this information will be forwarded to the Department of Fish and Game and volunteer hunter groups so repairs or filling of the guzzler can be arranged.

All Mojave hunters who check on guzzlers and fill out and return one or more forms will automatically be placed on the Mojave guzzler e-mail update list and receive information on the status of individual guzzlers in this region. E-mails will be issued regularly with news about the Mojave guzzlers, stock water conversion to wildlife use, and water issues. There will also be an annual mailing to keep those who don't use e-mail up-to-date.

Turner's Outdoorsman will have this special 12-page edition of Western Birds in all its stores by this weekend, and it is available through the mail by requesting the "Mojave Preserve Guzzler Issue" and sending $25 to Western Birds, P.O. Box 9007, San Bernardino, CA 92427-0007.

Deer tags are gone in several D-zones, others filling rapidly

SACRAMENTO -- Deer hunting zones D-6 and D-7 saw their tag quotas sell out recently, and several other deer zones in the southern half of California are about to have their quotas sold out, too, according to the Department of Fish and Game here. The D-9 zone in the southern Sierra will probably be sold out by the time you read this. It had only 25 tags of its 2,000-tag quota remaining as of Monday this week. D-10 had 318 tags left in its 700-tag quota, and D-14 only had 936 tags in its 3,000-tag quota. General deer hunting zones that have sold out so far this year include D-17 (East Mojave zone), D-12 (Colorado River zone), and the C-Zone in northern California. Most other deer zones still have half or more of their tag quotas remaining.

Ten rules for safer and better dove hunting

With dove season opener set for this Sunday, I wanted to rundown a list of rules or guidelines that will make this opener more fun and safer for everyone involved. Hunters have more mishaps during dove season than any other hunting season of the year. That is partially because it is one season that seems to attract the once-a-year hunters who simply don't have the safety rules down as pat as regular hunters.

Safety has to come first. There are a lot of young hunters and less-experienced hunters in the field dove opener each year, and veteran hunters need to set a good example with their actions and firmly remind juniors and other hunters around them when they see unsafe behavior. So here are 10 guidelines to remember to make this a safer and better hunt.

1) Be aware of other hunters. Keeping the barrel pointed in a safe direction is crucial at all times, and with the numbers of hunters that often circle dove fields, you have to be constantly vigilant. Keep track of where other hunters might be. If there were three guys 100 yards away from you and you only see one of them, look around until you know where the other two went. Maybe they've taken a walk out through the palo verde and are behind you only 40 yards.

2) Never shoot low birds. At dawn and dusk, doves often times will scream across fields and the desert just over the deck. Let `em go. Low birds and excited hunters are how people and hunting dogs get shot. If you can't see everything behind where you are shooting at low angels, pass up the shot. There are lots of doves. That one low bird isn't going to make or break your season.

3) Be courtesy to other hunters. If there are already hunters in a spot that you've scouted out for three weeks, respect that they were there first opening morning or whenever it is that you arrive. They might have been looking at the spot for a month or have been hunting the location for years. They might also have just stumbled onto the place, but you certainly don't have the right to try to run them off.

4) Set up safe distances away from other hunters. The good thing about dove season is that the biggest shot size most guys shoot are 6s, which lose most of their energy by 200 yards and probably won't break skin even with a direct line-of-fire shot at that distance. I like to think that 250 yards is a good distance to set up from other hunters for my safety because you never know what the other guy will do.

5) Wear brimmed hats and shooting glass, preferably with side protection. In busy hunting areas you will have shot rain down on you from above -- sometimes from your own shotgun when you shoot those birds straight overhead. Shot falling from the sky probably won't even raise a welt on your skin, but it can injure an eye. Protect yourself.

6) Be ultra careful about mixing shotgun shells. In my family, we will be shooting 12, 20, and 28 gauge guns opening day. Mixing shells is potential disaster. You need a system that is fool proof. We carry shells around in our vests or straps and in buckets that we sit on. We do not mix them up, and I'm paranoid enough that I re-check them all each time we move to a new location.

7) Know the rules. Do you need to keep a feathered wing on each dove you shoot? What's the daily limit? The possession limit? Can you help your buddy shoot his limit of doves? Can you tell a Mexican ground dove from a young mourning dove? If you don't know the rules, I'm not sure you belong in the field. Get the regulations and read them. If you have doubts about your target don't shoot. I'm not above getting license numbers of slobs who shoot overlimits or following them to their hotel. They're screwing it up for the rest of us and deserve the citation.

8) Don't shoot near farm houses or rural homes. People who live in dove country most likely are accustomed to hearing the happy sound of gunfire opening day, but they don't expect to have some knucklehead standing under the tree in their front yard or get shot raining down on their kids playing in the backyard.

9) Pick up your trash and the trash of slobs around you. One of the biggest reasons there are most posted signs is because some hunters leave empty shell casings, beer cans, and other garbage on the fields they hunt. Pick up everything -- especially empty hulls. We should leave the fields cleaner than when we arrived. If we do that, we'll be welcomed back next year.

10) Absolutely no drinking of alcoholic beverages -- not even one beer -- until the guns are put away for the day. You have a heritage and reputation to protect -- not necessarily yours, but all hunters and all future hunters. Don't screw it up for the rest of us and our kids.

I know these are a little preachy, and that most readers of this column and most people I meet in the field, are great guys who don't need to hear or read this. I'm hoping you'll take a copy of this column with you, along with a yellow highlighter, and when you see someone who's obviously clueless maybe you can give it to them with the salient points marked in yellow.

Hope you all have a great opener.

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DOVE OPENER JUST AROUND CORNER -- matthews-ONS 21aug02

Dove opener could be best in a decade

Hunters and biologists alike are predicting that this year's dove season opener on Sunday, September 1, is likely to be the best in nearly a decade.

The mourning dove population is up 24 percent over last year, and the call count survey data, compiled each year by the Department of Fish and Game, suggests the dove population is the highest it has been since 1993. This year's tally was also the second best count since 1988.

In addition, hunter harvest has been increasing steadily each of the past three years for which the Department of Fish and Game has data, according to Melanie Weaver with the DFG in Sacramento.

The most recent information on harvest the is from 2000, when hunters killed approximately 1.7 million doves in California. That was 10 percent greater than in 1999, and the `99 harvest was above the `98 kill. Most hunters reported a better shoot in 2001 than 2000, so the increase trend is likely to continue in spite of fewer hunters taking to the field.

David Dolton, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver, Colorado, said the data still indicates that we're still in a long-term dove population decline over the 10-year and 37-year cycles, and that the data from a single year doesn't indicate a big change in the population trend.

"We saw a one-year population increase from last year, but one year doesn't make much difference -- although it is always better to have increases," said Dolton.

Dolton and Weaver agreed that we may never see the same levels of dove numbers we had in the 1960s because of changes in farming practices that has reduced food sources and changes in land use.

There is optimism in California that the long-term decline in dove numbers is finally bottomed out and populations are increasing again. The dove population has likely stabilized at a new, lower level, and there seems to be a positive spike up from that level for this year.

Dolton did warn, however, that the affects of this year's Western drought were not measurable in the call count survey earlier this year, and that while doves were adaptable and mobile, this sustained drought could have a negative impact on dove numbers.

The season opens on Sunday, Sept. 1, and will continue through Sunday, Sept. 15, giving hunters an unusual three weekends to hunt the sporty gamebirds. The bag limit is 10 per day with 20 in possession after the first day. Upland Bird stamps are required to hunt doves.

SHOT SIZE FOR DOVES: I have a running debate with fellow writers and hunting buddies about the best size shot for doves. I mostly use 7 1/2s after being disappointed with the killing ability of 8s and 9s. I've shot steel 6s and 7s with good success, and lead 6s will whack them at 40 yards and beyond. Let me know what you shoot and why. Shoot an e-mail to me at straightshots@earthlink.net or odwriter@aol.com.

DOVE HUNTING TIPS: After a couple of decades of chasing doves, I have a complex theory that predicts where dove hunting will be best. It factors in rainfall, weather patterns, a voodoo doll, and the Anaheim Angels record in August. It has been fool proof except in years of baseball strikes. Anyway, he are the predictions/tips:

1) Actual desert hunting (not hunting around desert agriculture) will not be as good this year as when we have good wet springs in the desert. The birds will be more concentrated in agriculture areas and up into the foothills where there is more food and moisture. There will still be birds coming into desert springs and stock tanks, just not as many as normal, even with the increase in bird numbers, because there is simply less feed in the desert for the birds.

2) The drought will make hunting around permanent water sources better than normal because so many seasonal and intermittent water sources will not be available. No-brainers I can generally get right each time.

3) Doves like open ground. As much as I hate excessive cattle grazing -- and a lot of public and private ground has been grazed down to nearly bare dirt this year -- doves seem to do well around grazed lands. I think this is because disturbed soils create a great environment for dove weed (mullen) and wild sunflowers to sprout. Dove love the seeds from both of these plants. Heavily grazed areas often have the best dove hunting.

SCULLING FOR DOVES?: Joel Depaoli, an absolutely gonzo bird hunter chum who spends more days in the field in one year than most guys do in a lifetime, has opened a bird guiding service on the Colorado River out of Blythe and will be offering an unusual option for the dove opener -- hunting from a scull boat. Depaoli said the birds will be taken pass shooting and jumped off sandbars in the main river. For more information, call Depaoli's 777 Guide Service at (714) 505-4301.

ONE ROUND OF PRACTICE: It has been several years since I collected a limit of doves on opening day. This is not because I haven't been in good places. It has to do with my shotgun shooting skills -- or lack thereof. I am heartened that I'm not the only one who shoots poorly opening day. Most of us buy a case of those on-sale dove loads each year before the opener, but don't bother taking one of those $3.79 boxes of shells to the trap, skeet, or sporting clays course to get a little pre-dove warm-up work in. I really could use it. Excited by the sight of birds, I always shoot up at least a box of shells with my cheek up off the stock peering at the doves. The shot string flies over them a mile. Then I go through a box or two with my cheek crushed down on the comb but stopping my swing. I'm usually on them by the second or third day of the season, but a lot of ammo has been burned by then.

One or two rounds on the trap range focusing on the fundamentals when I wasn't flustered by the sight of game would probably do wonders. This year -- this year! -- I'm going to shoot some clay targets before the Sept. 1 opener.

Two more deer zones sell out their tag quotas

SACRAMENTO -- Two more California deer hunting zones saw tag quotas fill in the past week, according to the Department of Fish and Game. The D-6 and D-7 zones, both located on the west slope of in the Sierra Nevada, filled last week. In Southern California, the region's two popular desert deer hunting areas are already filled -- D12 and D17 -- but most other zones in the southern part of the state still have tags remaining in their quotas. The D9 zone in the southern Sierra had only 125 tags remaining in its 2,000-tag quota as of Monday, but the D10 zone had 350 tags available in its 700-tag quota. Zone D11 had 3,732, D13 had 2,407, D14 still had 1,102, D15 had 1,293 tags, D16 had 2,186, and D19 had 997 tags left in its quota. The DFG updates its website with remaining tag availability each week. Hunters can log on to www.dfg.ca.gov.

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A ZONE DEER OPENER, MORE -- matthews column 14aug02

A Zone deer opener better than expected

The opening weekend for California's huge coastal A zone deer season saw mixed results, but it was better than anticipated on many fronts in spite of extreme heat over most of the zone and an ongoing drought.

Lee Schlitz at The Outdoorsman in Grover Beach in the heart of the Central Coast said that since Saturday he'd already measured four bucks for his annual deer contest, including one three-by-three buck with a 22-inch spread that was 12-inches tall.

"So far, so good," said Schlitz. "Nothing real big has been reported, but we're hearing about a lot of small bucks, even on public land. Somebody told me that off Highway 166 [in the Los Padres National Forest] virtually every deer camp they saw had at least one buck hanging in it."

By far the best hunting was on private land, guide Brady Daniels with Calquest Outfitters, said his two clients opening weekend each killed nice bucks on Rancho San Julian near Lompoc. One was a four-by-three buck that was 23-inches wide, while the other was a bigger-bodied deer that weighed 165 pounds field dressed and carried a big forked horn rack with long eyeguards.

"The biggest buck, a big drop-tine buck that had to be 26-inches wide, gave us the slip opening weekend," said Daniels.

Hot weather, especially at more inland spots in the Los Padres National Forest made for very difficult public land hunting, but it did tend to concentrate deer on water sources, which aided some hunters. There was heavy fog in coastal areas on Sunday which made for cooler conditions.

BLUEFIN TUNA SIZZLING: The multi-day tuna sportboats fishing out of San Diego are finding an excellent bite on the bluefin tuna 200-plus miles south of San Diego, according to Phil Friedman of 976-TUNA, a sportfishing telephone information service.

These tuna are often in the 100 to 140-pound range and Friedman called it "simply marvelous fishing."

He said the best way to catch the big tuna is to use a giant squid fished well away from the boat beneath a kite. The problem? The weather has been so beautiful, with flat calm seas, that there hasn't been enough breeze to fly the kites most days. Not to worry, the bluefin have also been eating the big sardines.

Smaller versions of bluefin are showing up for one-day boats fishing albacore much closer to home, and there have been some good scores on 20 to 40 pounders in the past week.

FIRES RESTRICTING ACCESS: The huge McNalley fire in the Sierra, the one that received so much publicity when it looked like it might burn through some giant Sequoias, has charred over 100,000 acres, and public access has been closed to vast areas of the region around Lake Isabella. This is of some interest to fishermen who like the Kennedy Meadows stretch of the Kern River and archery deer hunters who have D8 and A19 (X10 zone archery hunt) tags -- both with season openers this Saturday.

Approximately 50 percent of the Sierra National Forest is closed, according to the Bill Loudermilk, regional manager of the Department of Fish and Game in Fresno. While that represents only about 12 percent of the D8 hunting zone, hunters are being given the opportunity to exchange or get refunds for their deer tags. For more information, contact the region four DFG office at (559) 243-4005.

Updates on closures are available from the U.S. Forest Service at the following website: www.r5.fs.fed.us/sequoia/incident/mcnalley.html.

KAYAK FISHING DERBY: Jerry Esten's Sixth Annual Kayak Fishing Derby will be held out of the Redondo Marina at King Harbor Sunday, Sept. 29. The eclectic event draws anglers who fish from all manner of human-power craft -- from float tubes to surfboards to kayaks. For more information, contact Esten at (818) 727-9666 or via e-mail at kayak4evr@aol.com.

Panorama Sportsman hosting first-timers cowboy action class

SYLMAR -- The Panorama Sportsman's Club will be hosting a cowboy action shooting class beginning 1 p.m. Saturday at the club range. While CAS shooters are usually required to wear old time Western duds and shoot period firearms or reproductions, PSC is waiving those requirements for anyone who'd like to try cowboy shooting for the first time.

Shooters should bring one or more centerfire handguns with lead bullet ammunition, a lever action rifle that shoots pistol caliber ammo, and any style of shotgun. Loaner rifles and shotguns will be available, but new shooters should still bring .38/.357 or 45 Long Colt lead-bullet ammo for the rifle and 12 gauge ammo for the shotgun. Shooters should bring 50 rounds each for the rifle and handgun and 25 rounds of shotgun ammo.

New shooters should call Willy Clark at (818) 882-2776 for more information or directions to the PSC ranges.

PSC hosts monthly cowboy action events with the next shoot set for Aug. 18, Oct. 20, Nov. 27, and Dec. 22. In addition, the annual three-day Great Northfield Raid 2002 event will be staged Sept 20-22. For more information on these events, contact Mike Schnitzius at (818) 843-4634 or by e-mail at saa3840@aol.com. There is also a website with updates on the club's cowboy activities at www.psc-northfield.org.

Deer tags now gone for D12 and D17 hunt zones

SACRAMENTO -- Southern California's two desert deer hunting zones have proven the most popular with hunters again this year, with both the D12 and D17 hunting zone tag quotas sold out well before other zones in the region.

The D17 zone, which encompasses the East Mojave, was the first to fill this year, when it's 500-tag quota sold out July 1 this year, while the D12 zone, which includes all of the Colorado River region, saw its 950-tag quota sell out last Friday.

Deer tags remaining after the annual July drawings are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis, and until recently most of the Southern California D-zones had tags available all through the deer season in each zone. In recent years, data from the Department of Fish and Game showed that a large number of older age class bucks are typically taken in the two desert zones and they became more popular with hunters, selling out earlier and earlier each year. This was the earliest date that either the D17 or D12 zones sold out.

Most other D-zone in this region had tags still available, but numbers were getting low in other units. The D9 zone in the southern Sierra had only 298 tags remaining in its 2,000-tag quota as of Monday, but the D10 zone had 400 tags, D11 had 3,912, D13 had 2,576, D14 still had 1,282, D15 had 1,308 tags, D16 had 2,297, and D19 had 1,088 tags left in its quota.

The DFG updates its website with remaining tag availability each week. Hunters can log on to www.dfg.ca.gov.

A Zone hunters in condor country reminded to use `gut-pile safe' bullets

PASO ROBLES -- The Ventana Wilderness Society and the Los Padres National Forest were reminding A Zone deer hunters who pursue game in the southern portion of the A zone to used "gut-pile safe" bullets or bury gutpiles of killed deer to help prevent lead poisoning of condors and golden eagles in this region. Lead bullet residue left behind by expanding slugs in the guts and trimmed away portions of deer carcasses are often eaten by condors and other scavengers. This lead has proven to be deadly to the big birds in some instances. Two types of slugs on the market do not leave lead residue -- Barnes X-Bullet and Winchester Fail Safes. Barnes bullets are available in most popular calibers in factory loads from Federal and PMC, while the Fail Safe bullets are available only in Winchester ammunition.

Snake avoidance clinics for dogs set for Sept 28-29

GORMAN -- The High Desert Hunt Club, in conjunction with the Santa Clarita Chapter of Quail Unlimited, will be hosting two days of rattlesnake avoidance clinics for hunting dogs Sept 28 and 29 at the hunt club in the Antelope Valley. Robert Kettle, a herpetologist from Nevada and well-known throughout the West for his avoidance clinics, will be conducting sessions from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days, and all sessions are being conducted by appointment only, so reservations are required. Cost for the clinic is $50 per dog, and space is limited and expected to sell out early. To register and reserve a spot, call High Desert Hunt Club at (888) 425-4868.

Hunter safety classes still available throughout region

LONG BEACH -- With just over two weeks left until the Sept. 1 dove season opener, first-time California hunters will need to take a 10-hour hunter safety class in order to purchase a hunting license and participate in what is expected to be one of the best dove openers in several years.

The good news? Most of the instructors in Southern California are offering at least one class this month so new hunters should easily be able to find a class near their home. Turner's Outdoorsman, which has reinstituted its class program, will be hosting two more classes this month -- August 18 and 25 -- after already hosting three classes so far in August. For info on the Turner's classes, call (909) 735-2361.

Other regular classes include the West End Gun Club class run by Jim Everitt in Upland on Sunday, Aug. 18, the Insight Shooting Range class run by Rick Royse in Artesia on August 23 and 24, Blaine Allen's class at the Inland Fish and Game range in Redlands Aug. 24, and Ron Owen's class at Prado Shooting Range in Chino, also Aug. 24.

There are about 15 other classes being held from Calipatria to Cherry Valley to Chula Vista to Santa Maria. For more information on other classes, locations and contact numbers, check the DFG's website at www.dfg.ca.gov/huntered/index.html, or call the recorded line at (562) 590-5670. The recorded line is incomplete, but hunters can also call (562) 590-5185 for the DFG hunter education office and a live person can give you information about a class near you.

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DEER SEASON OPENER PROBLEMS -- jim matthews column 7aug02

'A zone' deer opener has same old problems

The A zone deer season will kick off this Saturday and the same malady that has always plagued the Central Coast opener, and deer openers throughout the state later this fall, will again be true this year.

We're not talking about heat or drought or poor fawn survival, even though all of those things are limiting factors on public lands where most hunters will take to the field. We're talking about management of the ground where deer herds live -- or more appropriately, a lack of management.

Hunters on the Los Padres National Forest or adjacent Bureau of Land Management parcels are about as likely to get struck by lightning as kill bucks this season. Ironically, just across fence lines on private ranches, the deer herds are doing much better. Guided hunts on private ground, while expensive, offer hunters an opportunity to see lots of bucks and shoot an older age class animals with some diligent effort. The few bucks taken on public ground are likely to be yearling deer with small, forked horn antlers and the outlay of effort will be heroic to take even one of these young deer.

What's the difference between the herds on public and private ground? And what could be done to improve things for public land deer herds?

I spoke with several guides, including a few with degrees in wildlife management, who work on the Central Coast in the A zone, and to a man they suggested many of the same problems. Here were the main issues they cited:

Lack of habitat: Fire policy within the Forest Service has allowed most of the habitat to become so overgrown that it will not support deer any longer. We need more controlled burns and brush removal projects. Not one or two per year on each ranger district, but 50 to 100 projects a year to help restore the chaparral to a more natural mosaic. Interestingly, the amount of money spent on just one massive wildfire could finance the 50 to 100 controlled burns and brush removal projects that were needed in that parcel of forest to have prevented the huge fire and improved the wildlife habitat.

Private ground managers can clear brush, plant crops, and burn slash. There are a lot more deer on private ground because the habitat is better for them. The deer are simply more productive on the private ground and survival is better.

"The biggest thing I see that needs to be done on public ground is controlled burning," said Alfred Luis of Central Coast Outfitters, which runs trophy deer and hog hunts on the Jalama Ranch near Lompoc. "They need to improve the habitat."

Better Deer Management: Buck ratios on some of the best private hunting ranches on the Central Coast have 50 to 70 bucks per 100 does, with a large number of older age class deer. On the public ground across the fence, ratios range from 12 to 20 bucks per 100 does. Most of the ranches restrict their harvest to older age class deer and limit their hunters to a single buck per year. The public ground hunters can shoot two bucks per year and yearling forked-horns are legal game.

Reducing the A-zone bag limit to a single buck and adding point restrictions would increase buck ratios very quickly. States in the South that have gone to management that allows only the harvest of older age class deer saw their buck take drop for two to three seasons, but then it increased to levels that were higher than before the restrictions and the quality of the deer taken was much better.

Predator Control: A touchy issue outside of the hunting community, most people who work daily in the field with wildlife believe that predators -- especially coyotes and mountain lions -- are seriously holding back the recovery of many species -- not just deer. Coyotes and mountain lions are probably at all-time population highs in California. An end to poisoning, trapping, and hunting has let predator numbers increase astronomically. Conversely, deer numbers are at all-time lows. There is a correlation, and the scientific community is finally getting data to document this correlation. It's something ranchers, guides, and biologists have known in their gut for a long time.

"I think things look pretty good for our deer. We're finally turning the corner," said August Harden, of Cross Country Outfitters near Paso Robles, a 20,000-acre spread that used to have guided deer hunts, but mostly focuses on wild pigs because the deer herd had been so low for the past decade. "We've got a lot of bucks this year, and I really believe our work on the coyotes has really contributed to our deer turnaround."

Harden and his brother Tom have aggressively made an effort to control coyotes in the areas they know their deer fawn. They know predators are just one of the factors that affect the deer herd, but when their herds do better than those on neighbors' ranches who don't control coyotes, they know there's an impact.

The problems in the A zone are the same problems deer herds face throughout California. The U.S. Forest, in particular, has mismanaged the ground for decades, reducing the available deer habitat and the diversity of habitat for all species in our forests. The Department of Fish and Game has mismanaged hunters and the resource since day one. And, as the public, we are so out of touch with reality and our place within the environment that we've banned trapping and cougar hunting.

It's a sad state of affairs when many private lands in California are managed better for all wildlife than our public lands. That's not to say, there are not problems on private ground, but there shouldn't be any problems on public ground. Yet, public ground is an environmental catastrophe, and the state of our deer herds is like the canary in the mine. They are an indicator of our mismanagement.

Deer tags still available for most SoCal hunts

Deer tags are still available for all of the A, B, and D zones, except for the D17 deer zone (East Mojave), which sold out its 500 quota on deer tags July 1. The coastal A-zone is the first rifle deer opener of the season, and it kicks off this Saturday.

Forecasts from guides and biologists on the coast from Santa Barbara County north to Monterey point to a deer season similar to last year, but dryer conditions will restrict access to some areas and make hunting difficult. Hunters who have scouted out remote water sources or burn areas from two three years old are likely to have the best success this opening weekend. Biologists report that fawn survival this year is expected to be mediocre, but that there was decent recruitment of deer each of the past two years so there could be more young bucks than normal.

Central Coast guides are reporting that a poor acorn crop this past year and slim feed right now have the deer in poorer condition than normal, however. Many animals have moved into agricultural areas for better feed, which will make public land hunting even more difficult than normal.

The Ventana Wilderness Society also was asking hunters who pursue game in the southern portion of the A zone to use "gut-pile safe" bullets or bury gutpiles of killed deer to help prevent lead poisoning of condors and golden eagles in this region. Lead bullet residue left behind by expanding slugs in the guts and trimmed away portions of deer carcasses are often eaten by condors and other scavengers. This lead has proven to be deadly to the big birds in some instances. Two types of slugs on the market do not leave lead residue -- Barnes X-Bullet and Winchester Fail Safes. Barnes bullets are available in most popular calibers in factory loads from Federal and PMC, while the Fail Safe bullets are available only in Winchester ammunition.

'Outside of the A zone, some deer hunting units are selling out quickly, and hunters are encouraged to send in their deer tag applications soon to get the tags for the zones they want to hunt this fall. As of Monday this week, there were only 49 tags remaining of the 950-tag quota for D12 (Colorado River desert). The C-zone in northern California sold out last Friday

Most other D-zone in this region had over 50 percent of their quotas still available. The D9 zone had only 436 tags remaining, but the D10 zone had 434 tags, D11 had 4,153, D13 had 2,748, D14 still had 1,499, D15 had 1,320 tags, D16 had 2,365, and D19 had 1,155 tags left in its quota.

The DFG updates its website with remaining tag availability each week. Hunters can log on to www.dfg.ca.gov.

Dove guiding operation opens on Colorado River near Blythe

BLYTHE -- Sculling for doves?

Joel Depaoli, a long-time Blythe hunter, has opened a guiding service on the Colorado River for doves and waterfowl for this season, and he'll be offering dove hunters some unique opportunities for the first half of the dove season September 1-15. Depaoli will be offering regular field hunts all 15 days of the first season where he hosts up to four hunters at a time. Depaoli has already been scouting both the California and Arizona sides of the river along with the Colorado River Indian Reservation (CRIT) lands and knows the locations of the biggest concentrations of mourning and whitewing doves on the wheat and melon fields. More interestingly, Depaoli will take hunters out for hunts on the river itself, hunting doves from sandbars and scull boats, just like he will later in the season for waterfowl. The river hunts are unique opportunities to hunt from mid-river. Depaoli recommends that hunters have both California and Arizona hunting licenses so game wardens from either side will have no cause for concern about hunters on a sandbar at mid-river.

All of Depaoli's hunts include food and lodging at Depaoli's hunting lodge at the river near Blythe. Field hunts are $125 per person on weekdays, $150 per day on weekends, and kids 17 and under are only $25 per day with a paying adult. The one-on-one river hunting from a scull boat, whether or waterfowl or doves, is $375 per day. For more information, contact Depaoli's 777 Guide Service at 714-505-4301.

Glut of hunter safety classes offered this month in Southland

LONG BEACH -- With under 30 days left until the Sept. 1 dove season opener, first-time California hunters will need to take a 10-hour hunter safety class in order to purchase a hunting license and participate in what is expected to be one of the best dove openers in several years. The good news? Most of the instructors in Southern California are offering at least one class this month so new hunters should easily be able to find a class near their home. Turner's Outdoorsman, which has reinstituted its class program, will be hosting three more classes this month -- August 11, 18, and 25 -- after hosting a pair of classes this past weekend. For info on the Turner's classes, call (909) 735-2361. Other regular classes include Blaine Allen's classes at the Inland Fish and Game range in Redlands this Saturday and Aug. 24, Derek Fong's class at Oak Tree Gun Club in Santa Clarita held over two days -- August 10 and 14, the West End Gun Club class run by Jim Everitt in Upland on Sunday, Aug. 18, the Insight Shooting Range class run by Rick Royse in Artesia on August 23 and 24, and Ron Owen's class at Prado Shooting Range in Chino, also Aug. 24. There are about 20 other classes being held from Calipatria to Cherry Valley to Chula Vista to Santa Maria. For more information on other classes, locations and contact numbers, check the DFG's website at www.dfg.ca.gov/huntered/index.html, or call the recorded line at (562) 590-5670. The recorded line is incomplete, but hunters can also call (562) 590-5185 for the DFG hunter education office and a live person can give you information about a class near you.

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SILENCED (PARTIALLY) FIREARMS -- matthews column 31jul02

Quieter guns needed to fix hearing crisis.

With the sharp boom of the rifle, my left ear starting ringing mildly. I was sighting in my latest hunting rifle with brand new, very effective custom ear plugs, but I didn't have the left one seated correctly when I touched off the first shot. The ringing started. Frustrated, I knew that meant there would be more hearing loss.

I have never taken the noise produced by firearms lightly and almost always shoot anything that makes more noise than a .22 with hearing protection, even when hunting. But as a long-time shooter, my hearing is severely degraded. I can mark the dates when the biggest losses occurred, times when the ringing was loud and long before the nerve endings quivered their last and they ceased functioning. I notice how much hearing I've lost when talking with friends or hunting with my sons who can still hear distant quail calling. There are millions of us with the same problem, and I've decided its a national health issue with a very simple solution: Partially-silenced firearms.

The technology exists today to eliminate with simple, sleek baffling the bulk of the explosive noise produced by shotguns, rifles, and handguns. Why should we be forced to wear cumbersome, sound-blocking ear muffs and plugs when the technology is available to make our firearms quieter, protecting our hearing?

If there were products on the market that slowly but surely degraded our eyesight with constant use, there would be a clamoring from health experts to solve the problem quickly. Loss of hearing is taken more lightly. Nearly deaf people are somehow comic relief to our society, while a white cane commands sympathy.

Noise-baffled firearms need to be legalized for health reasons. I don't want my sons -- because they've chosen to recreationally shoot firearms -- to be relegated to the same quieter middle age I've inherited because of those incidents that will happen when your ears are not protected fully from the noise. My father, who was not much of a shooter, also had damaged hearing due to firearm noise because of his stint in the armed services. The makers of sporting and military firearms should be allowed to install baffled barrels or sell aftermarket add-ons that reduce noise.

There is one huge benefit to quieter firearms besides hearing protection -- firearms safety. The best hearing protection, like those I now wear when at the range, are custom ear plugs molded to your own ear. They truly block almost all sound, making you severely hearing impaired. Suppose you were shooting a bouncing "rabbit" target at a sporting clays course and a dog -- or worse -- a child ran out onto the course as you were about to shoot and you didn't hear the shouts from down the range to "cease fire"? Why do you think the military doesn't have soldiers wear hearing protection? It's so they can hear commands and sounds an enemy might make.

For enhanced safety and protection of our hearing, we need to legalize the quieter firearms.

The anti-gun crowd will howl that "silenced" guns are somehow more a threat to society, but they don't want you and I to have guns at all. Period. They don't understand that guns that fire ammunition faster than the speed of sound (which is most of them) can't be completely silenced, but you can reduce the blast caused by the launch of the bullet or shot. You can reduce it to safer levels for our hearing. In fact, there's really no credible argument that can be advanced that is worth putting another generation of shooter's hearing and safety at risk. Is a quieter gun is more dangerous than a noisy one? No. In fact, the noisy gun is more dangerous.

Is there anyone in the medical profession who will step forward and call this a national health crisis -- which it truly is? Is there anyone in Washington D.C. courageous enough to address this issue and propose legislation that allows for noise baffling on sporting firearms?

DEER TAG AVAILABILITY: Deer tags are still available for all of the A, B, C, and D zones, except for the D17 deer zone (East Mojave), which sold out its 500 quota on deer tags July 1. The first of the deer seasons will open August 10 with the A (coastal) zone rifle opener. Some zones are selling out quickly, and hunters are encouraged to send in their deer tag applications soon to get the tags for the zones they want to hunt this fall. As of Monday this week, there were only 158 tags remaining of the 950-tag quota for D12 (Colorado River desert). All other D-zone in this region had over 50 percent of their quotas still available.

DOVE COUNTDOWN/HUNTER SAFETY: Just a little over 30 days left until the Sept. 1 dove season opener. First-time California hunters will need to take a 10-hour hunter safety class in order to purchase a hunting license and participate in what is expected to be one of the best dove openers in several years. The good news? Most of the instructors in Southern California are offering at least one class this month so new hunters should easily be able to find a class near their home. Turner's Outdoorsman will be hosting five classes this month -- August 3 (filled), 4, 11, 18, and 25. For info on the Turner's classes, call (909) 735-2361. For more information on other classes, locations and contact numbers, check the DFG's website at www.dfg.ca.gov/huntered/index.html, or call the recorded line at (562) 590-5670, which is incomplete, or (562) 590-5185 for the DFG hunter education office and a live person who can give you information about a class near you.

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LEAD VS CONDORS, DEER OPENER, AND MORE -- matthews column -- 24jul02

Condors and lead bullets

Hunters role in recovery of endangered bird very simple

The first condor chick born in the wild in a very long time hatched from a nest this year, and the population of the critically endangered bird has gone from a low of 22 to 205. Over 40 eggs have been produced so far this year in the captive breeding program, and releases of birds are planned at locations in New Mexico and Old Mexico.

That's the good news in the recovery of this elegant, giant bird with a 10-foot wingspan. The bad news is that mortality in the wild continues to be significant, with lead poisoning one of about five serious man-caused problems that continue to plague the birds. The lead poisoning comes from hunters bullets and their fragments left in gutpiles of legally killed game, and perhaps other undetermined sources.

Since condors will drink radiator fluid, apparently attracted to the smell and taste, there is some speculation that they might find lead naturally or sniff out old shooting areas and poke around for lead, but most dismiss that notion.

With the coastal (A zone) deer season set to open August 10, there is likely to be an influx of gut piles and potential problems for condors in the coming months. Since only small amounts of lead are needed for a lethal dose -- even a bullet fragment is too much -- hunters in the A zone, D13, D10, and even D9 are being encouraged to either bury their gutpiles or shoot bullets that do not leave lead residue in the discarded entrails.

There are only two products on the market that do that -- Barnes X-Bullets and Winchester Fail Safe bullets. The X-Bullets are available to handloaders or as part of loaded ammunition made by Federal and PMC. Hunter should make sure the bullets loaded in their ammunition are X-Bullets because both companies also load standard lead slugs, too. The Fail Safe is only available from Winchester in its Premium line or for handloaders. Winchester, Federal and PMC all offer a wide selection of calibers with these bullets.

Both the X-Bullet and Fail Safe are mostly composed of copper, rather than lead, and generally penetrate completely through deer. Since both retain virtually 100 percent of their weight, they leave no residue behind in gut piles. Lead slugs mushroom and leave shards behind, with as much as 60 to 70 percent of the slug shed in the body cavity of game. Most of that lead is then left in the field in the entrails, a favored food for condors and other scavenging birds, like golden eagles, which are also affected by lead poisoning.

Hunters can help solve the lead problem, almost overnight, by switching to the "gutpile safe" ammo or simply burying the gut piles.

DEER TAGS STILL AVAILABLE: While the D17 deer zone (East Mojave) sold out its 500 quota on deer tags July 1, there are still tags available for all other general deer zones in the southern half of the state. But some are selling out quickly. As of Wednesday this week, there were only 177 tags remains of the 950-tag quota for D12 (Colorado River desert). All other D-zone in this region had over 50 percent of their quotas still available.

PRESERVE ACTION ILLEGAL?: Increasingly, individuals and groups fighting the National Park Service staff over keeping man-made water sources inside the Mojave National Preserve are finding the preserve staff may be breaking the law and its own management plan in removing cattle water.

Cliff McDonald, an avid Needles hunter and conservationist who has been leading the fight against the park service, has been pouring over the various documents the NPS staff say guide -- even mandate -- their decisions with regards to water. McDonald has repeatedly found the staff has misstated or lied about what these documents mandate.

Recently, preserve superintendent Mary Martin told McDonald and a group of hunters who had met with her that the biological opinion on protecting the desert tortoise mandated that surface water be removed to protect the tortoise. After reading the massive document, McDonald says there is no such mandate.

The park service has balked at allowing conservation groups work on water projects at historic spring and man-made sources during this drought year, even though many occur above 4,000-feet, which is generally considered the highest elevation tortoises occur.

The park service's own management plan also mandates that before any water source is removed that a thorough analysis be done to determine what impacts it would have on desert wildlife. That has clearly not been done in several instances when cattle water was removed, according to McDonald.

The latest revelations are just more in a growing succession of problems the NPS staff have created for themselves by ignoring or not understanding the law the created preserve and then not following their own management plan.

SPORTSMEN FOR SIMON: The mere fact that a candidate for governor would show up at a shooting event is testimony enough that hunters, shooters, and fishermen in this state might finally get a guy who understands our needs. After hearing Bill Simon speak this past Sunday at Mike Raahauge's Shooting Enterprises during a special fundraising shoot for his campaign, I'm even more convinced that he's a guy who could and would restore the Department of Fish and Game to an agency that works for and represents sportsmen, throw away every piece of gun control legislation that crossed his desk, and toss out marine reserve concepts that didn't allow use. I also think he's a guy who would take the federal government to task over the mismanagement going on in the East Mojave.

YOUTH OUTDOOR SAFARI DAY: This event just keeps getting better each year. Sponsored by the local chapters of the Safari Club so it is a free event for kids, there were over 2,000 youngsters, many of them who'd never fired a gun or cast a fishing rod, who attended the event his past Saturday -- also at Raahauge's. I wanted to say thanks to all the sportsmen who scooped up family members, neighborhood kids, and friends' children who had never been exposed to these activities and brought them out.

The kids were never bored, from tots to teenagers, there was enough diversity and a wide variety of activities to fill their day, from rock climbing to kayaking, to casting events, to BB gun and shotgun shooting, to watching falconers feed their birds. And, by the looks of things, it will just keep getting better. And maybe even more politically incorrect.

Andy McCormick, public relations specialist with Turner's Outdoorsman who also sits on the committee that runs the Youth Outdoor Safari Day, said that next year, rocker and avid hunter Ted Nugent has promised that he'd attend the event. Nugent's latest book, "Kill It and Grill It" is on a best seller list or two. No one is sure if Nugent will man a grill and serve wild game or perform for the kids -- either way it will be a show.

WINCHESTER HUNT ON TEJON -- matthews-ONS -- 24jul02

Short magnums up to task on Tejon hog hunt

LEBEC -- The group of four young boars was at the edge of a big, open saddle between two deep oak canyons on the Tejon Ranch. The wind was in our face and the hogs were just 150 yards away. It was a perfect set up. But as I propped the rifle into the cross-sticks, two of the hogs took off at a dead run and the other pair went on alert. Something that had taken such a long time in coming was now happening all too fast.

Ever since last fall, when Winchester announced at the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW) Show it would be bringing out a new .270 short magnum, I had been chomping at the bit to get my hands on one.

At the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in early February, I sat down behind a new Browning rifle in the .270 Winchester Short Magnum (WSM) at a range in Las Vegas and proceeded to shoot two, three-shot groups around an inch -- actually both just under that -- with factory loads. Dave Campbell, a former Western Outdoor News writer who's now the editor of the NRA's Shooting Illustrated, then proceeded to heckle me while I broke a couple of clay targets set up at 200 and 300 yards with the same rifle. He then sat down behind the same gun and started breaking apart a hubcap-sized red rock on a hillside past the last rifle berm a very long way away. Let's just say over 400 yards.
It was a pretty impressive display of what can be done with a rifle that has an extremely flat trajectory. We walked a way from the bench, our mouths still half ajar and stood next to each other looking back at the red rock way out there on the hillside. Campbell mumbled something like, "That would have been a very dead elk."

Campbell and I have known each other a long time, and we mostly give each other grief, but we agree a lot about big game rifles. Standing there that February day, we both came to the same conclusion -- we wanted one of these .270 WSMs in a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight for our Western hunting. There was obviously nothing wrong with the Browning A-Bolt, but we're just Winchester Model 70-kind of guys at heart. Blame Jack O'Conner.

Fast forward this scene a few months to me thundering across Highway 138, going faster by the minute, rushing to get to the Tejon Ranch to meet Kevin Howard, a public relations specialist for Winchester and Browning firearms and Winchester ammunition, along with a host of other companies. Kevin had invited me to join nine other writers on the Tejon to shoot a couple of hogs with the new Winchester short magnums and the new Platinum Tip shotgun slugs. He didn't have to twist my arm when he said he would have a .270 WSM there to shoot. I drove faster.

It turned out I wasn't late and we were all caravaning up to one of the Tejon's lodges by mid-afternoon two Fridays ago with permits in hand and pig tags stamped with the Tejon's emblem. I was honored to be with a group ripped off the mastheads of the nation's biggest hunting and shooting magazines -- Lee Hoots, editor of Guns & Ammo, his two associate editors, Payton Miller and Aaron Decker, Scott Rupp, editor of Petersen's Hunting magazine, his wife Diana Rupp, who is editor of Wing & Shot magazine, well-known freelance gun writer Dick Metcalf, Fishing & Hunting News regular contributor Jim Niemiec, Jan Libourel, the editor of Gun World magazine, and Jerry Springer, who runs the Western Hunter website and has a new television show.

There was time to make sure the rifles and shotguns Howard had brought were tacked in and shooting right on for each of us, and then we headed out to hunt. Springer and I hunted with young guide Jason Williams that first evening, and we immediately found a group of hogs with perfect meat-sized pigs. After following them on foot for an hour, Springer eased down a ridge with a Winchester Model 1300 scoped slug gun to within 20 yards of the hogs. When they flushed like a covey of quail, Jerry shot them that way, picking one bird -- I mean one pig -- and keeping after it.

His first shot clipped his pig's flank as it crossed right to left, so he swung further forward for his next shot and sagged the hog with the big slug hitting mid-hog just below the spine. Amazingly, the hog kept on its feet and veered away from Springer, and the next shot took it almost in the same place but angled out through the far shoulder this time and the pig went down hard, kicking it's last.

"That was really neat," said Springer, standing over the young 150-pound sow, and it grew dark. "It was like shooting sporting clays."

We were the first one's back to the lodge, but before 30 minutes had passed, the meat pole was sagging. Nearly everyone had taken at least one hog that first evening, and several hunters had taken two pigs. The wounds left by the big slugs in Springer's hog -- and several of the other hogs taken with shotguns -- were gaping and impressive. Most dropped on the spot or within a very few yards. There were no surprises with the rifles and the new ammo. Most of the hunters were shooting the new 7mm Winchester Short Magnum and Fail Safe slugs, a bullet that has been used at similar velocities in other rounds successfully all over the world on game. Most were quick, one-shot kills.

As with most hunting camps, we stayed up way too late telling stories and laughing, and the 4 a.m. wake-up call was too early. But the thought of getting to carry a Model 70 Featherweight in the field again -- and in the hot new .270 WSM to boot -- made it easy to get up. It was my turn this morning.

Tejon guide Steven Ryan and I eased up the main road at first light still talking about where we should go when we saw a group of small pigs right next to the road. We glassed them quickly and saw there was nothing over 80 pounds and went back to discussing. It was getting pretty light so we turned up the road to a place I call Gatlin Flat, thanks to a hunter on one of the Turner's Outdoorsman hunts who emptied his Model 94 here in rapid fire. It was a big, open saddle that was a natural crossing and feeding place for the hogs. I had taken a hog there before and knew of at least five or six others taken in this spot, so we eased up the road.

When we spotted the four boars, it didn't take long to move into position with the shooting sticks and cradle the .270 WSM for the shot. Then the hogs were running. At first, I thought they had panicked, somehow detecting us, but it was just two of the boars doing a little fighting, and things calmed down. Steven pointed out the bigger of the four boars. The young boar turned to face us from behind a log, and the crosshairs settled low on his chest and the gun roared, almost on its own.

As I came out of recoil, I couldn't see the pig and lifted my head up off the stock only to see running hogs.

"Which one is mine?" I asked Steven, swinging on the nearest hog, thinking my boar was one of the runners.

"That one's down," said Steven. "Do you want to take a second boar?"

It only took about two seconds of pondering that question. These were all nice 150- to 175-pound meat hogs, and I had been on five hunts on the Tejon this year where I didn't get to shoot a hog while other guys filled the meat pole. Besides, my freezer was almost out of wild pork. I swing over to another of the boars that had stopped under an oak. As I got the crosshairs on him, he broke into a trot and I swung out onto his nose and began a fast squeeze on the trigger. Just before the shot broke, I had a niggling feeling I was leading too much with this fast round. Boom!
The boar spun around squealing with a shot through his nose just ahead of the brain. I worked the bolt, the short-action cycling quickly and easily, and put a second shot through his front quarters to put the hog down instantly.

Two hogs down in less than 15 seconds with the new .270 WSM. That sort of action will cinch a deal for you. I stood over the two pigs looking at the rifle and holding one of the stubby cartridges in my fingers.

Ever since my own Model 70 Featherweight in .270 Winchester, O'Conner's .270 round, had gone to the bottom of the Gallatin River in a canoe mishap on a whitetail hunt several years ago, I found myself missing the gun. I missed it a lot and I'd planned to replace it. But I never did. A year or so ago, I had even tried to put Dave Campbell's new .270 Featherweight in my truck more than once while on another hog hunt. He caught me each time. Standing there over the two hogs, I suddenly knew why I'd somehow waited.

Since the two hogs had died on opposite sides of a little two-track through the flat, we were able to have then field dressed and on Steven's Jeep in about 20 minutes. We were back in camp a little over an hour after we'd left. Because I were first back the night before and the first back the following morning, there were several writers who were convinced that I really never left camp.

Within two hours, the writers and guides had brought in another batch of hogs. In less than a 12-hour period, there were 18 wild hogs taken on the Tejon Ranch by 12 hunters. By the end of the weekend, the tally was 23 pigs, and easily could have been 24, but Scott Rupp decided that three hogs in the freezer -- Diana's two and his one -- were more than enough at one time.

This was the first hunt where the new 7mm WSM was used in the field, so I was the only one who shot the .270 WSM. Diana Rupp made a terrific shot at 342 yards on a big boar as it angled up a hill with the 7mm, dropping it with a single slug through the heart. Aaron Decker made a shot, also with a 7mm WSM, at a snick over 400 yards on his big boar, but the huge hog required a follow-up shot.

We stayed up late again Saturday night talking because everyone had to tell everyone else their stories. Since someone had brought wine for after the hunt, the stories got much better as the evening wore on. If you read their versions in various publications later this year, call me and I'll tell you how much hyperbole seeped in.

Dave Campbell was conspicuous by his absence on this hunt, but knowing how much he would have loved to have been there shooting the Model 70 in this new .270 WSM, I'm going to call him this week and rub it in. Friends do things like that for each other.

SIDEBAR: 270, 7mm WSM Ballistics -- matthews-ons -- 24jul02

Theory and Practice of the Short Magnums

What's the big deal about the whole Short Magnum concept? It's pretty simple and the answer is two-fold.

First, the short, fat case burns powder more efficiently than the skinnier, longer belted cases. For example, the .270 WSM uses about 10 grains less powder to get 3,275 fps with a 130 grain bullet than the .270 Weatherby Magnum uses to get 3,200 fps. The 7mm WSM gets 3,225 fps with a 140 grain bullet with less powder than a 7mm Remington Magnum uses to get just 3,100 fps. The whole short, fat concept in cases also lends itself to inherently better accuracy. All the short magnums seem to shoot extremely well, especially when compared to their belted counterparts.

Second, you can use a shorter action for the WSMs than you can for rounds like the 7mm Remington mag. That means the gun can be made lighter. This also lends to accuracy because the shorter action is stiffer. But even more importantly in my book, it also means that you are less likely to short-stroke the bolt, jamming things up when hunting. You don't want a jam at those critical times when you need that follow-up shot, and the short action really helps eliminate that problem.

There is also noticeably less recoil with the short magnums than equivalent belted magnums. Mathematically, the difference is very slight, but the felt reality is something different. In equal guns, you can tell the difference.

In looking over the trajectory charts, I'm going to tell you that the new .270 WSM is the flattest shooting cartridge on the market today the average guy will be able to shoot well in the field. It doesn't kick all that much. The same thing can't be said about the inefficient and monstrous Ultra Mag line. They are painful.

I have written that I thought the .270 WSM would become the most popular round in the short magnum series. After shooting it more and seeing its performance in the field, I'm even more convinced that will be the case. -- Jim Matthews

SIDEBAR TWO -- TEJON RANCH INFORMATION -- 24jul02

Tejon Ranch is a full service hunting facility.

The Tejon Ranch has become big game central for a huge contingent of Southern California hunters, and for good reason. The 270,000-acre ranch has hunting for wild hogs, California mule deer, Rocky Mountain elk, pronghorn antelope, black bear, bobcats and coyotes.

The hog hunting is arguably as good as it gets in California. Amazing the pigs have only been on the ranch -- and it happened by accident -- for just 10 years. A nearby game ranch had its fence knocked down when county firefighters battled a blaze about a dozen hogs escaped and headed for Tejon Canyon. The rest is history. Game manager Don Geivet estimates there are well over 5,000 hogs on the ranch today, and there will be around 1,000 hogs taken by hunters this year.

A wide range of hunting opportunities are available at the ranch, from fully-guided hog hunts at $650 to the popular $300 unguided Pig-O-Ramas. Deer hunts range from $400 for an antlerless guided hunt to $2,000 for a guided late-season trophy buck hunt. Pronghorn hunts, when available, have been $2,500, and bear hunts with hounds are $3,000. Trophy bull elk hunts -- and the ranch produced a bull that is about No. 10 on the all-time list, scoring well over 400 points -- are $16,000. With the exception of hogs, there's a waiting list for everything.

All of the guided hunts include stay in one of the two lodges that were built just two years ago. They both sit in the heart of game country but have all the amenities, and the food served on these hunts is four-star.

There are very few one-time hunters on the Tejon -- almost everyone comes back time and time again.

For more information on hunting the Tejon Ranch, contact Sandy Nickerson, Tejon Ranch Company, P.O. Box 1000, Lebec, CA 93242, or call (661) 663-4209.

SIMON ATTENDS SPORTING FUND-RAISER -- matthews-ONS -- 24jul02

Governor candidate Bill Simon attends fund-raiser at Raahauge's.

NORCO -- Bill Simon, the republican candidate for Governor, showed his support for sportsmen by attending a sporting clays shooting event and fund-raiser for his campaign Sunday at Mike Raahauge's Shooting Enterprises here. The event raised approximately $50,000 for his battle to unseat Gray Davis, but his attendance and talk with the crowd won him a lot of hearts.

Simon, who was introduced to the group by state senator Dennis Hollingsworth, knew the right note to begin his talk with these sportsmen. "Let me start by saying I believe in the importance of the Second Amendment," said Simon to cheers. "The Democrats speak about how important the Bill of Rights is, but they pick and choose through the amendments. The Second Amendment is just as important as all the others."

After a follow-up that said he believes the words "under God" should remain in the Pledge of Allegiance, Simon moved to discuss the issues he feels are important to California voters and why they are fed up with Gray Davis.

Simon noted that Gray Davis started office with an $8 billion surplus and managed to turn it into a $24 billion deficit, a deficit that is bigger than all but three other state's entire budget. Yet, during the same period his own campaign war chest has swelled to $32 million. Simon called him California's first coin-operated governor, and then laughed and suggested that he might have to get that line to Jay Leno.

Simon said no one knew how much of the $32 million Davis was going to spend on this election, but that most of it will be spent attacking Simon rather than on Davis' accomplishments.

"That's because there's not enough money in California for Gray Davis to convince people he's been a good governor," said Simon.

Simon hammered on several issues during his presentation: credibility and accountability in government, a state budget that has grown under Davis in spite of a downturn in the economy, huge tax increases, mismanagement of the energy crisis, and Davis' record on education.

"In the last election, Gray Davis said his first, second and third priorities were education and that if things didn't improve, he wouldn't run again. That's one of the only things we agree about," said Simon, pointing out that California's test scores are no better and in many areas worse than before Davis took office. "Our children scored last in science. Last."

Simon, much to the pleasure of the group called himself "a recovering lawyer," said the Davis and the democrats in power in Sacramento think California's problems lie with tax revenues. "Does anyone out there think you're not paying enough taxes?" asked Simon. "There might be one or two people in this state who think so, but I haven't found any of them outside of Sacramento."

Simon ended his presentation answering questions about his involvement in the outdoor sports. He related stories about getting seasick the first time he went fishing with his grandfather, how much he enjoyed shooting clay targets, and how duck and pheasant hunting experiences in Pennsylvania are his fondest memories of his deceased father.

"I'm hunting for Gray Davis and fishing for votes," said Simon, who was interrupted by applause from the crowd. "And if I was fishing for Gray Davis I'd bait the hook with a dollar bill."

YOUTH SAFARI DAY STORY -- niemiec for ONS -- 24jul02

Over 3,000 attend annual Youth Outdoor Safari Day

By JIM NIEMIEC, Special to Outdoor News Service

NORCO -- Over 3,000 people, mostly kids from toddlers to teenager, attended the 4th Annual Youth Outdoor Safari Day held at Raahauge's Shooting Sports Enterprises here Saturday to take part in a wide variety of free outdoor activities, from kayaking to rock climbing to shooting shotguns at clay targets.

"The venue provided an opportunity for urban parents to bring the wonders of the outdoors and nature into their children's world," said Don Small, president elect of the Safari Club International's Orange County chapter, which is one of the many sponsors of the event. "It was a day of firsts as volunteers provided the chance for kids to see a hawk's sharp beak and talons for the first time, see a lion up close, shoot a BB gun, 22 rifle, a shotgun or even a sling shot under safe and controlled conditions.

"For many kids and their parents, it was their first exposure to hunting and shooting ethics and safety. These are impressions that can last a lifetime. The sportsmen of America are the guardians of our outdoor heritage," said Small. "We support Youth Outdoor Safari Day to ensure there are more generations behind us to continue the work that was begun by Theodore Roosevelt so many years ago. The immediate gratification comes from all the big smiles and happy faces on kids and parents alike. These are the results that keep this event growing every year."

The event was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles and Orange County chapters of Safari Club International, who along with many other supporters and volunteers, offered a wide range of outdoor activities, demonstrations, and lunch that were all free for all the kids that attended the event.
"It was a fantastic event and the volunteers did a wonderful job at keeping the kids interested in the many activities. Every youngster got an opportunity to participate in a wide variety of outdoor activities under the supervision of dedicated sportsmen," said Dennis Anderson, event chairman and SCI vice-president. "I think it was an extremely successful and enjoyable day for these youngsters, and next year's event will offer even more activities."

One of the most popular stations for the kid's was the BB gun booth under the direction of volunteer Joel Depaoli.

"The kids shot over 22,000 BB's at moving and stationary targets. Everyone had a great time learning how to safely handle and aim a BB gun," said Depaoli.

Other events that attracted the attention of most every youngster attending included: the climbing rock, clay target shooting, decoy painting, the Sensory Safari exhibit (a collection of mounted animals from all over the world that can be handled and touched by the kids), exotic bird and falconry show, casting lessons with fish tackle, a nature walk in Prado Basin, and conservation booths where kids learned to make quail calls and how to blow duck and goose calls.

Olympic Gold Medal winner, Kimberly Rhode was at the Turner's Outdoorsman booth to sign autographs and let children try on her medals. The kids were also treated to a trick shooting exhibition by shotgun specialist John Cloherty and delighted in his creation of "half acre salad."

Mallori and Chelsea Allen drove down all the way from Idyllwild with their father, Scott, to attend the event for the third year in a row. In an incredible stroke of luck, Mallori held the winning raffle ticket for a Junior Wild Boar Hunt donated by the Tejon Ranch and Chelsea took home a new Cobra Explorer kayak.

Next year's Youth Outdoor Safari Day is set for Saturday, July 19 at Raahauge's Shooting Sports Complex. For more information, log on to the website www.youthsafariday.com.

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NEW TWISTS, DROUGHT, AND DOVES -- matthews column 17jul02

Hot "new" bubble fly taking Sierra Nevada by storm

Guy Montera has been making his Montera Marvels -- a woolly bugger-type fly with a propeller -- for almost 20 years, but it's a pretty good bet you've never heard of them. Well, you will be. Increasingly.

This past weekend, Ray Sowers of Woodland Hills caught a pair of the largest rainbows landed in the Sierra Nevada for the month with fish at 6.59 and 4.75 pounds fishing Convict Lake. He used Montera Marvels to catch both trout, but they were just the biggest of 45 to 50 trout he caught and released at the lake over two days.

"I first started using them three years ago, and I've been using them ever since," said Sowers. "They are highly effective in clear water, and I use them whenever I'm lazy or just want to catch fish. I can catch fish everyday of the year with these flies."

The Montera Marvel is really a refinement of a design that has been around since the early 1900s or before: a wet fly with a propeller blade at the eye of the hook. Guy Montera, of Buena Vista, Colorado, has been tying his propeller flies since 1983, refining the fly patterns and blade design into one of those lures that just seems to catch more than it's share of fish.

Montera has combined the proven fish-getting abilities of two distinct classes of trout fishing lures -- the in-line spinner and a palmered streamer fly. There isn't a trout fisherman in the world who isn't familiar with a Panther Martin, Roostertail, or Mepps spinner. Their whirling blades attract trout and excite them into striking. Streamer fly patterns like the woolly buggers look amazingly like minnows and leaches as they are retrieved through the water. Trout get conned by the life-like imitation. Combining the two concepts together into a simple fly pattern, made with quality materials, is what Montera has done: Get their attention with the fast-spinning blades and then have them see the meaty, undulating fly. They eat it.

"I went out the other day and only caught 48 trout on 50 casts," said Montera of a trip to Mt. Elbert Forebay near his Colorado home. "I had bites on the other two casts but I just couldn't hook them."

The Montera Marvel is best fished on a leader behind a sliding egg-type float. When filled with water, the float can be sunk deeply in lakes for deep water fishing or kept near the surface when the trout are cruising there. But the fly can also be cast on fly tackle or trolled. There are some 40 color variations to match the natural food in various waters and most are tied on No. 8, 10, and 12 long-shank hooks with either silver or gold blades.

For years, the flies were only available at tackle shops around Montera's home, but they are now being sold at three outlets in the Sierra Nevada (Ziegler's in Bridgeport, Convict Lake Resort, and Culver's in Bishop) and two in Southern California (Malibu Fishing Tackle and Canejo Tackle). They can also be ordered directly from Guy Montera, P.O. Box 1051, Buena Vista, CO 81211 (719-395-6595). Most sizes and patterns are from $1.50 to $1.75 each.

A lot of people have been trying to keep the news about these little lures a secret. I don't play that game.

GOOD NEWS FOR DOVE HUNTERS: Two short pieces of news that will make bird hunters happy in an otherwise bad news bird year. First, Department of Fish and Game and Desert Wildlife Unlimited have teamed up to have 29 dove hunting plots planted with feed in Imperial Valley this year. Last year, there were just seven of these plots open to the public and the hunting was exceptional. Second, the dove call count data -- an index that tracks dove population size -- is up pretty dramatically, and hunters should see more birds than in over a decade.

BAD NEWS FOR ALL OTHER BIRD HUNTERS: Waterfowl numbers are approaching all-time lows again, thanks to drought and overharvesting. Everyone should read George Reiger's conservation column in the August issue of Field & Stream to get squared away on this topic. Quail and chukar broods in the Mojave Desert, both east and west, are nearly non-existent thanks to the lack of rainfall. Department of Fish and Game biologist Andy Pauli counted 184 chukar and none of them were young-of-the-year, indicating the birds produced no young. Of the 149 quail he classified, there were only 10 young in four broods. A horrible desert bird production year.

If the drought weren't bad enough, the National Park Service staff could be responsible for vast losses of wildlife over broad areas of the preserve if they continue with the removal of developed water sources that have supported wildlife for over 75 years -- especially in this drought year when many natural water sources have simply dried up. What they are doing is criminal. It's just a shame that it's only the hunting groups who are howling about this mismanagement of the desert.

SIMON FUNDRAISER: There is a special sporting clays fundraiser shoot for the Bill Simon for Governor campaign beginning 7 a.m. Sunday at Mike Raahauge's Shooting Sports Complex in Norco. "If we lose this election to Gray Davis, we have nobody to blame but ourselves for not getting involved. This is our race to win or lose -- simple as that," said Andy McCormick with Turner's Outdoorsman. "In my mind, Gray Davis has to go." A lot of us in the sporting community feel the same way. Davis' record on gun and sporting issues alone is dismal. He promised not to sign any more gun legislation until the recent efforts could be evaluated. Then he signed more bad bills, breaking his word. His leadership in the resource agencies led to the marine closure fiasco. Do we need to get outside the outdoor arena and how a huge budget surplus dissolved into a deficit under Davis' lack of leadership?

Will Simon be better? We do know that he'll be far more receptive to sportsmen's concerns -- both hunters, anglers, and gun owners. But it will take money and votes to beat Davis, who had been fundraising since the day he was elected and has a huge warchest to spew distortions and half-truths about Bill Simon. Many people believe it was because of Richard Riordan's anti-gun stand that he lost the primary to Simon. If sportsmen unit against Davis, Simon can win this election, too.

The sporting clays fundraiser event, which will be one of the few events during his fundraising drive attended by Simon, costs $250 per adult shooter ($500 donation if you'd like a photo with you and Simon) or $75 for youths under 18. Non-shooters can attend for $50, which includes the Anderson Seafoods lunch that will be served. The event will feature a 50-round sporting clays event, a five-stand silent auction, drawings, and a live auction. Registration starts at 7 a.m. and the practice range opens at 8 a.m. The 50-target event starts at 9 a.m. with lunch starting at 11:30. For more information, contact Raahauge's at (909) 735-7981.

YOUTH SAFARI DAY SATURDAY: While, we're on the subject of having a hand in controlling our own future, the Fourth Annual Youth Outdoor Safari Day will be held at Raahauge's on Saturday, the day before the Simon event. This event is an opportunity for sportsmen to expose urban and suburban youngsters to an array of outdoor events for free -- from rock climbing to BB-gun shooting to kayaking. The annual event is co-sponsored by the Orange County and Los Angeles chapters of Safari Club International, and it is free to all boys and girls under the age of 17 when accompanied by an adult. Lunch is also free for the kids. Participation in hunting and fishing is at an all-time low in California, and most other outdoor activities -- from backpacking to camping to birdwatching -- are also seeing declines. Without a youth that's interested in the outdoors, opportunities to participate in all activities that revolve around our natural resources will decline.

This event gives kids an opportunity to experience a wide variety of outdoor activities in a great setting. They can find out that breaking real clay targets is more fun that the computer game version or that canoeing and rock climbing in reality is more challenging and fun than seeing it on a video screen. If we don't get the next generation involved in these activities, there's a good chance they will grow up with little regard for the environment and our rich outdoor heritage. So round up the neighborhood kids and youngster in the family and bring them out.

Friends of NRA dinner set for Aug. 17 in Victorville

VICTORVILLE -- The Eighth Annual High Desert Friends of the National Rifle Association will have its annual fund-raiser starting 5 p.m. Saturday, August 17 at the Ramada Inn. The event will feature a live auction, special drawings, door prizes, and a pre-event drawing that features the Browning Model 1885 High Wall in .45-70, the NRA gun of the year, as the first prize. Individual dinner tickets are only $35 each, while silver sponsor packages cost $250 and gold sponsor packages are $500. For more information, contact Dave Holbrook at (760) 843-7358.

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WILLOW BEACH FISH HATCHERY (rumor control) -- matthews-ons 10jul02

Willow Beach hatchery runways undergoing renovation.

Despite rumors to the contrary, the Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery is not closing its doors nor converting over to an endangered fish production facility.

Chester Figiel, acting manager of the hatchery, which sits just downstream from Hoover Dam on the Colorado River near Boulder City, Nev., said the hatchery received funding to renovate 20 of its 40 concrete raceways where trout are raised. To accomplish the work, the flow of water through the raceways will be shut down during the construction, which will take the hatchery off-line for about six months.

The last of the Willow Beach trout were released just below the hatchery last week, when 3,000 pounds of trout were planted. Figiel said the Nevada Division of Wildlife will be planting the Willow Beach stretch weekly, along with other locations on the Colorado River, while the Willow Beach hatchery is down.

Because Willow Beach also raises endangered razorback suckers and bonytail chubs, which it will continue to do during the construction process, rumors started flying that the hatchery was ceasing production of trout for the Colorado River and converting completely over to the production of endangered fish.

Figiel said that unless Congress decides not to fund the national hatchery system any longer, trout will continue to be raised at Willow Beach once the raceway work is completed. Last year, the facility produced 75,000 pounds of trout, or about 112,000 rainbow trout at 12-inches long for planting for recreational anglers in the Colorado River.

Willow Beach was once known as one of the premier rainbow trout fisheries in the world in the 1960s, producing rainbows in excess of 10 pounds with alarming regularity. There are stories in newspaper archives that say the hatchery was putting a million fingerling trout a year in the river in those days, most growing into two to four pounders in short order. But the food chain collapsed as dams upriver trapped all the nutrients, and the trout slowly disappeared because there wasn't food for them. Stripers found their way into the system and that finished off the deal. Trout had to be planted bigger or all of them would be eaten by the stripers.

While many anglers still happily catch the 12-inch rainbows planted in the river, along with picking up a few bigger holdovers, the trout plants act like chum for the stripers. There are schools of the big fish that hang out at the plant locations waiting for the rainbows. Anglers hurl huge A.C. Plugs and monster swim baits and catch 20- to 40-pound striped bass -- or bigger -- right after trout plants. This arrangement makes both the trout and striper anglers happy and might just result in a greater return to the angler in poundage of fish.

WILLIAM B. RUGER DIES: Bill Ruger, founder of Sturm, Ruger & Company, the largest firearms maker in the United States, died Saturday at 86 after a long period of failing health. Ruger, regarded as the greatest gun designer since John M. Browning, brought to market a steady succession of products for hunters and recreational shooters that have few modern equals and arguably no peers. Ruger's designs, from modern single action revolvers, to quirky falling block single shot rifles, to a new side-by-side double-barreled shotgun announced this year, frequently combined nostalgia with modern technology. Ruger seemed to just know what shooters wanted and brought his products to market because he liked them, not because market research said they would sell. There is little doubt that his firearms will be used in shooting sports into the next century.

KOOK CONVENTION: At the Animal Rights 2002 conference held last week in Washington D.C., Paul Watson, founder of The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, made it clear that he believed violence was acceptable against anyone, any business, or any organization that held mainstream views on use of animals for food or science.

Two quotes from the quack: "I use Dr. Martin Luther King as my authority on what is violent and what is non-violent, and he did say that you cannot commit an act of violence against a non-sentient object. In other words, destruction of property is not violence."

I somehow don't think Dr. King would have agreed with that extrapolation, otherwise burning a cross in someone's yard or burning down their home would be OK if you were as delusion as Watson. But more....

"There are 30 million plus species on this planet. They're all earthlings. They're all equal. And some are more equal than others, I admit. Earthworms are far more valuable than people."

When I read that quote, I had an image of kids on the side of a road on a wet morning near a park, earthworms making tracks, and a nutcase swerving into the kids to avoid an animal that can survive after you cut it in half.

While guys like Watson are assaulting laboratories that use rats, commercial fishermen, and hunters right now, confronting you at the supermarket meat counter is next. It won't be long before they'll be telling us that we can't own dogs. Oh wait, Los Angeles County is trying to do that now, sort of, aren't they?

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LIES AND DAMN LIES -- matthews-ons 3jul02

Anti-hunters spouting lies about hunting

The outright lying and misinformation campaign about hunters and desert tortoises is starting.

Peter Burke, president of a group called the Citizens for a Mojave National Park, one of the three groups that recently petitioned Gail Norton to stop hunting in the Mojave National Preserve part of the year and to eliminate hunting of some game species, was quoted in a recent story as saying he wants to see all hunting stopped in the national preserve.

"We are trying to eliminate hunting, grazing and mining on the preserve," Burke was quoted as saying. "We feel that those activities are wrong. Hunters are big bullies that chase people away. We want to give people the thrill of being in a pristine desert. We have hunters who shoot everything they see. They put bullets in tortoises."

If Burke can call me a bully, I can call him a prejudiced blowhole who doesn't have a clue about the facts. Hunters are hardly bullies. In fact, we generally give non-hunters a wide berth when we're in the field because they scare game away. Calling us bullies is bull. Burke doesn't like us.

If Burke was ever chased away by a hunter, it was because he lied and told someone they couldn't be hunting in a legal hunting area or decided to harass them and try to force his anti-hunting view down a hunter's throat somewhere. The truth is that zealots like Burke harass hunters; they're the bullies.

Hunter's don't shoot everything they see, and we don't put bullet holes in tortoises. In fact, we are the best stewards of the environmental this country has ever had, funding the lion's share of all the conservation work done on-the-ground today -- and all of it in the past. This is a fact, not a Burkian lie.

I have personally moved a tortoise more than a 1/2-mile off a busy paved road (Highway 395), so it wouldn't get run over. Two of us almost wrecked our vehicles one spring avoiding the thing. What I did would be illegal today, but it saved the critter's life. No hunter I know would ever shoot a tortoise, not even the few slob-hunters I've run across.

Burke and his prejudiced ilk are so out of touch with reality they somehow think hunters are the only ones with guns. We actually represent a small percent of gun owners, and certainly one of the most responsible segments. But people like Burke are using the tortoise-shooting issue as a way they can try to leverage their view on the world. I've no doubt we can find tortoise shells with bullet holes in them. But that doesn't mean hunters are the culprits.

Burke will show a tortoise shell with a bullet hole or two (assume the holes were made while the tortoise was alive, which may or may not be the case). Then he'll say hunters have guns, so hunters must be shooting tortoises. If that makes sense to you, so does this: There are rapes, and since all men have the equipment to commit a rape, all men must be rapists.

Their logic is whacko. They have prejudiced beliefs. They don't understand the law that created the preserve specifically allowed for hunting and trapping. They have zero evidence that legal hunters have ever shot a tortoise any more than they have evidence a Sierra Club member shot a tortoise. They ignore the very thorough biological opinion that says hunting of other species has no affect on tortoise populations. Mostly they lie and spout rhetoric, much like a racist.

How do people like Burke get quoted in newspapers as authorities. I guess every crackpot gets his five minutes of fame, too.

MORE GUN LIARS AND LOONIES: State senator Don Perata is pounding the drum for the passage of a state constitutional amendment that would tax loaded ammunition and components at five cents per piece to fund care of those injured by criminal use of guns. Five cents per .22 rimfire round. Five cents per primer. Even five cents for each No. 7 1/2 size shot that trap shooters buy by the thousands when they reload ammo, arguably to save money.

It's a horrible tax. It targets legal, safe users to pay for the misdeeds of illegal users. Ammunition costs would skyrocket. Shotshell reloading would cease to exist.

The wording in the law is very clear about the tax, but Perata's office is now claiming that SCA 12 would only tax loaded ammunition (which is bad enough). Apparently, Perata is either unaware of what his own law says, what it means, or his staff is lying to try to reduce opposition.

The law says this: "(1) For the privilege of selling munitions at retail there is hereby imposed a tax upon all retailers at the rate of 5 cents ($0.05) for each munition sold at retail in this state on or after January 1, 2003.

(2) An excise tax is hereby imposed on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of each munition purchased from any retailer on or after January 1, 2003, for the storage, use, or other consumption in this state at the rate of 5 cents ($0.05) for each munition that is so stored, used, or consumed....

(c) For purposes of this section, `munition' means a projectile with its fuse, propelling charge, or primer fired from a weapon, or any of the individual components thereof. `Munition' does not include a BB or a pellet commonly used in an air rifle or pistol." Yet Perata's office recently apparently isn't clear about this. A shooter who called to complain was told emphatically: Each component will NOT be taxed individually. Reloading supplies will NOT be taxed at all. This law only applies to pre-manufactured ammo.

It appears Perata's staff has rewritten SCA 12 without the knowledge of anyone or they're as ignorant as we all suspect. As the law is written, all ammunition and components will be taxed.

These people are spooky. It's time to call your state Senator's office and let him or her know this debacle of a law is wrongheaded and prejudicial against a group of people (legal shooters). Why should legal users pay for harm caused by illegal users? It's just plain stupid government.

And these people wonder why we have so little faith in their ability to govern.

HUNTER SAFETY CLASSES ARE BACK: The state's largest hunter safety classes run by Turner's Outdoorsman and Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises will resume beginning later this month. The Department of Fish and Game's Sonke Mastrup, deputy director, overruled the warden staff who shut down the classes. In a meeting Tuesday this week with Mike Raahauge and Andy McCormick, who administer the classes, Mastrup lauded the program after learning the details.

The Turner's classes had been held monthly until June when the DFG stopped the classes by not allowing for minimal advertising and space rental budget expenses -- both allowed under the guidelines for running the classes. The classes have cost students $35 for over 10 years.

"It was a real pleasure dealing with Sonke Mastrup. He came down here to resolve the issue. He understood we were on the same side with the same goal -- to put more hunters in the field and to educate more people in gun safety," said McCormick.

Mastrup also promised to speed up the two-year time frame it has been taking for new hunter education instructors to receive certification.

The next Turner's class will be held Saturday, July 13, and there will be classes every Sunday in August (4, 11, 18, and 25). All classes will be held at Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises in Norco, and students can sign up for a class at any Turner's store.

Why are these classes important? A hunter safety class is required for first-time hunters in California before they can purchase a hunting license. The Turner's-Raahauge classes accounted for around 10 percent of the hunter safety certificates given in the state each year. There was no way classes in this region were going to fill the void left by the Turner's program.

But in an odd way, the controversy has helped hunter safety. In addition to the return of the Turner's class, the DFG has also added a class at its Chino headquarters for Region 6 for the first time. This free class will be held Saturday, July 14, and students can call (909) 597-9823 to register. There are also at least 30 other classes slated in July at various locations throughout Southern California, and they have received more publicity than they'd ever had in the past. Most are one-day, 10-hour classes, but there are also some two, four, and five-day classes that space the mandatory instruction time out over several days. All these classes listed on the DFG's website at: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/huntered/he_classes.html. You can also call the DFG in Long Beach at (562) 590-5185 for information on classes in this region.

With dove season opener (Sept. 1) less than 60 days away, and the forecast for perhaps the best season in over a decade, now is the time for new hunters to sign up for a class.

Youth Outdoor Safari Day set for July 20 in Prado Basin

NORCO -- The Fourth Annual Youth Outdoor Safari Day will be held at Mike Raahauge's Shooting Sports Complex in Prado Basin on Saturday, July 20. More than 2,000 youngsters are expected to turn out for this unique, free outdoor experience which features an array of events -- from rock climbing to BB shooting to kayaking.

The annual event is co-sponsored by the Orange County and Los Angeles chapters of Safari Club International, and it is free to all boys and girls under the age of 17 when accompanied by an adult. Lunch is also free for the kids.

One of the most popular activities is the BB gun booth. Under the direction of Joel Depaoli and his volunteer staff, nearly 1/4 million BB's have been fired in the booth during the past three events. This year the booth has been redesigned and will offer a wide variety of moving and stationary targets to challenge the marksmanship of young kids. Experts will spend time with each child to insure they learn how to properly handle a rifle and know the importance of wearing safety glasses.

Olympic shotgunning gold medal winner Kim Rhode will make a special appearance on the sporting clays range sharing her memories of winning the medal at the Olympics and her quest for a second gold in 2004.

Other activities that are expected to draw large crowds of youngsters are the nature walk, kayaking, birds of prey display, the Safari Club's Sensory Safari trailer where youngsters can touch mounted wild game from around the world, shooting exhibitions, decoy painting, BMX biking, conservation projects, sporting dog handling and more.

For more information, pre-registration, or to volunteer to assist, you can log on to the Turner's Outdoorsman web page at www.turners.com, or contact Mike Raahauge's Shooting Sports Complex at (909) 735-7981.

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" I simply can't resist a cat, particularly a purring one. They are the cleanest, cunningest, and most
intelligent things I know, outside of the girl you love, of course."

-- Mark Twain