Eastern Wild Turkey

A hunter claims he was hassled and handcuffed by a man pretending to be a wildlife officer. Daniel Pittman, 19, says he was hunting on land off Zion road in Rutherford County on Saturday, when a man dressed as a wildlife officer approached him. The man allegedly pointed a gun at him, handcuffed him and placed him in the back of his jeep. Pittman says he saw stains on the seats that resembled blood. Pittman says he was scared for his safety, before the man finally let him go unharmed. The hunter filed a report with the North Carolina Wildlife Commission. They say the man wasn’t an officer and are now looking for a white male in his mid-twenties, 180-190 lbs with brown hair in a military style buzz cut. The man was reportedly driving a 1996 dark Jeep Grand Cherokee. Anyone with information is asked to call 911.

WLOS ABC 13 News :: Top Stories – Wildlife Officer Impersonator.

Six and a half feet tall maybe seven feet? Sure does limit your suspect pool significantly. I’ll admit I got some serious questions about this story and wonder if it’s true. I sure hope know one would make up a story like this besides the height and weight that makes me wonder who when confronted by an officer at gun point would remove and reinsert their rifle magazine? The last thing I want to do is do anything that an officer could view as dangerous.
We don’t know what is going on but to be on the safe side make sure if you encounter someone claiming to be a Wildlife officer that you see some ID.

We must pass on traditions and ethics to the next generation

I went to Dr Cobb’s Hunting lecture today, “Ethics in Modern Hunting: Distinguishing Virtues from Vices”, at the Wildlife Center on Centennial Campus at NC State. I found it very thought provoking. He presented it from his perspective and not from his position with NCWRC or the agency itself. This made for an interesting time because almost right off he dove into one of the biggest gray areas in the hunting rules for many of the Tar Heel state hunters what is “Take”.

Definition of Take To take is defined as all operations
during, immediately preparatory and immediately subsequent
to an attempt, whether successful or not, to capture, kill,
pursue, hunt or otherwise harm or reduce to possession
any fisheries resource or wildlife resource.

This a pretty wide open and vague definition that makes much of it subjective to the individuals involved. When one attempts to comply with other wildlife laws and rules they can directly conflict with the “Take’. He used the example of tracking a wounded deer after legal hunting time. Technically that is part of the take and could easily be seen as illegal, however on the other hand wanton waste of game is also illegal so you really in a pickle in the literal interpretation. Most of us will do the ethical thing and retrieve our game and I would hope enforcement would look at the totality of the situation and allow the retrieval of the animal. Dr. Cobb suggested that he was confident that he could successfully argue that in court if he found himself in that situation, me I don’t want to be in that situation. I would further hope that NCWRC would put some effort into cleaning some of the issues around the definition up.
He talked a lot about the vices and the virtues of hunting and the impact they have on both us as hunters as well as the non hunting public. I’m not going to list down the vices and virtues he talked about but I believe the same lists could be used to describe many other areas of our lives besides just hunting.
I think one of the key concepts he really tried to drive home was that the Non Hunting Population is the majority and their influence on hunting and what is and what will be allowed in the future is really controlled by them. We really need to educate the non hunters around us as well as mentor more folks into the outdoor community.
There was so much more that he talked about and it was really very thought provoking. I suspect the rest of this deer season I have some things to mull over as I sit in my tree. Dr. Cobb did a great job; to bad it was not better attended. There are a number of these free lectures offered throughout the year at Centennial Campus Center for Wildlife Education that if you get a chance you should check them out.

A new website Camo Underground is making a big splash on the net with lots of great hunting, outdoor, and firearm stories. As some others have said this is like Drudge on flannel. Check it out

Gun Rights is not a health issue.

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Coyote a very adaptable animal but a taxpayer?

Durham NC. Durham residents are frustrated with coyotes roaming their neighborhood and eating their cats and no one seems willing to help.

Fearful residents have called animal control, but neither the county nor the state can help.

“We’ve got cats missing, we’ve got cats the tails are off of them, so I did call animal control,” resident Linda Rowland said. “It’s a real concern of mine that something could hurt a child.”

But the close encounters have not convinced animal control to help out.

“We do have a presence of coyotes and we’re aware of it,” said Melinda Duarte with Durham Animal Control.

Duarte says by law she can’t trap a coyote. Most animal control offices in the Triangle are only licensed to handle domesticated animals, leaving people like Rowland with only one option.

“If they are on their property and they’re in the process of attacking or attempting to attack small animals they’d be in their legal right to shoot it,” Duarte said.

Rowland was told to call the North Carolina Wildlife Commission.

“Wildlife told me I couldn’t trap it, because I wasn’t licensed,” Rowland said. “I couldn’t shoot it, because wildlife has rights we should have rights too. We’re the ones paying the taxes.”

ABC 11

Animal control cannot help because coyotes are wildlife however I believe these folks have been giving some misinformation. North Carolina does not have a closed season on coyote so any licensed hunter can kill them. Now the county and or the city may have restrictions on discharging a weapon that prevent such actions.
Wildlife like foxes and coyotes are more visible right now because chance is pretty good they have young kits they are trying to raise. Thus this time of the year it is not unusual to see them hunting during daylight hours.
Now with how rapidly the coyote population has expanded across the state if we could find a way to tax them it might be good. Then again they probably want free health care that will just cost us more.

North Carolina’s turkey hunters
never had it so good. From a fledgling flock in the 1970s, the statewide wild turkey population stands at more than 150,000, with a new population study underway that will likely show an overall increase.
The 2009 spring gobbler harvest of 12,579 set a record, topping the former record of 11,706 that was set in 2006. The harvest dropped to 10,082 in 2007, and then increased in 2008 to 11,313. The new harvest record was a milestone, considering the increase was more than 11 percent from the year before.

NC Game & Fish

Read the rest of Mike Marsh’s article for a complete outlook on the upcoming season.

This is what Tred told Versus about his upcoming show;

This is an episode viewers cannot afford to miss. Remember I was just leaving for a bear hunt when I became paralyzed from the waist down and the cameramen were right there to capture it. Viewers will follow me from the day I left Longbow Ranch, where the incident happened, through the hospital for ninety days and then finally my return to the ranch. It is a sobering and an accurate account of what happened to me. Anni and I cannot watch this episode without tissues nearby. The fact is I’m paralyzed but healthy. I’m paralyzed but wake up every morning ready to attack life the way I’ve always lived it. And viewers can too. All they have to do is follow the on VERSUS and get up and out into the field. Life is about doing your best every single day. It is that simple. Please watch my new premiere show on December 18 and let’s travel around the world together. Thank you for this opportunity to say hello.

Sounds like a very interesting show and maybe we’ll learn more about what all Tred and his family has gone through over the past seven months. So check out Versus this week.