HUNTING – Allowing lighted nocks for bowhunting was among 17 measures adopted for the 2013 hunting seasons during the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting Saturday in Oympia.

Jim Sutton of Spokane has worked for several years to get the commission to approve the use of electronically illuminated nocks, which can be helpful in retrieving arrows. Traditional bowhunters had originally opposed the any use of electronics in primitive weapon seasons, but Sutton argued that lighted knocks had no impact on harvest success.

Some of the other new rules will:

• Restore archery hunts for antlerless elk in Yakima County in game management units 352 (Nile) and 356 (Bumping).
• Rescind the five special hunting permits previously available for the Tieton bighorn sheep herd, which the state recently eliminated to prevent the spread of a deadly outbreak of pneumonia.
• Restrict importation of dead game animals from Missouri, Texas and Pennsylvania, which are among a number of states with deer and elk populations known to harbor chronic wasting disease.  

All 17 hunting rules approved by the commission will be included in the 2013 Big-Game Hunting pamphlet, which will be available in sporting goods stores and other license vendors late this month.

HUNTING — By a 6-2 vote, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission today approved used of lighted nocks on arrows for bowhunting.

Spokane hunter Jim Sutton has been promoting the proposal for several years, as pointed out in a Spokesman-Review story published in 2011.

Sutton argued that lighted nocks are allowed for hunting in many states because they help archers recover wounded game as well as retrieve lost arrows from the field.

The proposal had been opposed by some groups, notably the state's traditional bowhunters.

Even though the Pope and Young Club has been dragging its feet on the issue, the trend is changing.

HUNTING –The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider adopting 17 new hunting rules for the upcoming season when it convenes Friday and Saturday April 12-13 in Olympia.

Among other proposals on the agenda, the panel will consider allowing bowhunters to use illuminated arrow nocks, which can be helpful in finding and retrieving arrows.

All of the proposals scheduled for a vote are posted online.

In other business, a plan will be discussed for transferring the Fish and Wildlife Department's Hunter Education Division and certain wildlife-conflict responsibilities from the Enforcement Program to the Wildlife Program.

HUNTING —  Idaho Fish and Game answers a question that's probably important to an share of my readers, the proportion of which we will keep to ourselves:

Ask Fish and Game: Archery for Felons?

Q.      Can a felon hunt with a bow in Idaho?

A.      It depends on the felony. Under Idaho law, anyone convicted of any of  36 felonies may not own, use or carry a firearm, which the law defines as “any weapon from which a shot, projectile or other object may be discharged by force of combustion, explosive, gas and/or mechanical means, whether operable or inoperable.” That would include a bow (and muzzleloader equipment).

The right can under some circumstances be restored, unless the crime was murder in the first or second degree, or if conviction included the use of a firearm in the commission of any the listed felonies.

(For a list of felonies see Idaho Code Title 18, Chapter 3, section 18-310.)

Montana Bull Elk Taking it out on a Tree from Bob Legasa on Vimeo.

HUNTING — North Idaho bowhunter Bob Legasa was in postion to put a nice bull elk in the freezer a couple weeks ago when it came to the calls of his hunting partner.  

But when he realized the elk was a hair smaller than the bull he wanted to tag this fall, he relaxed his bow and enjoyed the thrill of being 15 yards of a 600-pound animal with raging hormones.

BIG-GAME HUNTING — A Bozeman man has based a soon-to-be released movie around elk hunting season and his newborn son.

Visit the online trailer and you quickly see there's some unusual depth and quality to the making of Searching for West by Mark Seacat, a 33-year-old elk hunting fanatic. As Brett French, Billings Gazette outdoor writer points out:

A preview of the film shows dramatic aerial photos of elk on a ridgeline, jaw-dropping slow motion shots of an archer releasing an arrow, all accentuated by a vibrant sound track that makes you want to be in the woods hunting. Now!

While you're online, sign up for the prize drawings. Some good stuff there.

Searching for West will premier at Bozeman’s Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture’s Crawford Theater on Aug. 16 and will be released online at noon on Aug. 22.

  Read on for French's report on the film and the filmmaker.

OUTDOOR SPORTS — Maybe you'd like to try a traditional sport, such as canoeing or kayaking, or maybe you're curious about more modern sports such as geocaching, slacklining or stand-up paddling.

Sekani Adventure Day — Saturday (July 21) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. — at Camp Sekani Conservaton Area off Upriver Drive is the perfect opportunity. Try out a new sport while getting instruction and the chance to try a huge variety of outdoor equipment.

The event is sponsored by Spokane Parks and Recreation and boosted by volunteers from a variety of outdoor groups. Other sports covered include mountain biking, letterboxing, paddle rafting, archery, map and compass navigation, scrambling and maybe rock climbing this year

Nothing is sold at this event. It's strictly try it and see if you like it.

Where: Camp Sekani Conservation Area, 6707 E. Upriver Dr. See map.

Cost: $9 pre-registration or $15 at the gate.

Get more info and pre-register online, or call 625-6200.

OUTDOOR SPORTS — Maybe you'd like to try a traditional sport, such as canoeing or kayaking, or maybe you're curious about more modern sports such as geocaching, slacklining or stand-up paddling.

Sekani Adventure Day — July 21 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. — at Camp Sekani Conservaton Area off Upriver Drive is the perfect opportunity. Try out a new sport while getting instruction and the chance to try a huge variety of outdoor equipment.

The event is sponsored by Spokane Parks and Recreation and boosted by volunteers from a variety of outdoor groups.  Other sports covered include mountain biking, letterboxing, paddle rafting, archery, map and compass navigation, scrambling and maybe rock climbing this year

Nothing is sold at this event. It's strictly try it and see if you like it.

Where: Camp Sekani Conservation Area, 6707 E. Upriver Dr. See map.

Cost: $9 pre-registration or $15 at the gate.

Get more info and pre-register online,  or call 625-6200.

OUTDOOR SKILLS — Women can learn the basics of fishing, hunting and other outdoor skills in a 15th annual September weekend workshop led by certified instructors.

Scheduled for Sept.14-16 at Camp River Ranch in Carnation, the annual workshop is coordinated by Washington Outdoor Women, a non-profit program dedicated to teaching women outdoor skills and natural resource stewardship.

Twenty different classes will be offered throughout the weekend on skills such as archery, basic freshwater fishing, fly fishing and tying, kayaking and the basics of big-game hunting.

Workshop participants must be at least 18 years old and must have a current Washington recreational fishing license to participate in the fishing and fly-fishing sessions.

Info: Ronni McGlenn, (425) 455-1986, or www.washingtonoutdoorwomen.org.

HUNTING — Taking a wild turkey gobbler can be difficult for a hunter with a shotgun, but think about the chances of spooking an incoming tom when you have to draw a bow.

Spokane-area hunter Chad Berry shows how it's done in a short, sweet video.

The spring gobbler season opened Sunday.

HUNTING — I heard an interesting discussion at the Big Horn Show.

A firearms hunter said to an archer:  “More skill and dedication is required to shoot deer at 1,000 yards than to hunt deer with a bow at 25 yards.”

I think he might be right while still being wrong.

What do you think?

BOWHUNTING — A proposal to allow lighted nocks to be used on arrows for bowhunting seasons in Washington got a big vote of confidence for bowhunters in an email survey conducted last month by the Fish and Wildlife Department.

The survey results were released to The Spokesman-Review this afternoon. The proposal had been opposed by some groups, notably the state's traditional bowhunters.

The proposal comes from Spokane hunter Jim Sutton, who couldn’t even get his idea discussed at the Spokane public meeting held this summer to gather public comment on the first round of proposals.

In a Spokesman-Review story published this summer, Sutton argued that lighted nocks are allowed for hunting in many states because they help archers recover wounded game as well as retrieve lost arrows from the field.

Even though the Pope and Young Club has been dragging its feet on the issue, the trend is changing.

Survey results:

• 86 percent favored the use of lighted nocks,
• 10 percent said no lighted nocks should be allowed,
• 4 percent were undecided.

Dave Ware, WDFW big-game manager in Olympia said 3,800 people responded to the email survey presented to hunters who'd purchased archery tags in the past two years.

Washington has about 24,000 licensed archery deer hunters and 22,000 archery elk hunters, he said.

The proposal will be worked into the package of revised proposals to be presented for more public review in January and ultimately to the Fish and Wildlife Commission for a vote in March.

ARCHERY — This photo is going around the Internet.  Although I cannot verify it since there are no contacts or specifics, I agree it illustrates a point of caution needed when trying out archery equipment.

The photo reportedly was taken on a cell phone after a man took his friend
to a shop to buy his first bow.  

The clerk reportedly was assisting him in zeroing it in, and, after shooting several arrows, making adjustments etc., the clerk is reported to have accidently handed him an arrow that was too short.

Here's the rest of the report from the anonymous e-mail:

When the man drew back, the arrow tip fell down onto his hand as he released it. They rode to the hospital with the bow in his buddy's hand because it impaled his finger also!  They are both archery amateurs (I'm thinking the clerk is also?).

HUNTING — Years ago, before Jim Ebel had retired as manager of the Colville Fish Hatchery, I wrote a story about his unnerving encounter with a cougar.

He was putting up a tree stand before the archery deer season when a cougar came in below the tree and waited for an easy meal to come down.  Ebel was unarmed.

Eventually the cat left the immediate area, so Ebel crawled down and began hiking a mile to his pickup, but the cougar immediately showed up again and stalked him from beihind and from the side, slipping in and out of sight at close range.

That experience — something most hunters will never experience in their lifetimes — was enough to convince Ebel to carry a weapon in the woods.

But last year's hunting season seemed to move Ebel's status from hunter to “bait.”

Read on for the rest of the story:

WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS — It's worth emphasizing that an Idaho archer was able to end a grizzly attack on his bowhunting partner on Saturday by using pepper spray, an essential that should be on the pack straps of every hunters in grizzly country.

The elk hunter who apparently stumbled across a bear’s resting spot and was hospitalized after the animal bit him and broke his right arm, officials said.

Richard Paini, 40, suffered puncture wounds and an injured left hand along with the broken forearm in the attack at about 9 a.m. He was taken to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls.

A hospital spokesman said Paini, of Island Park, was listed in serious condition Saturday afternoon.

The bear involved in the attack fled after Paini’s archery hunting partner, John Stiehl of Island Park, used bear spray to scare off the bear. Stiehl told authorities he believed it was a grizzly bear.

Gregg Losinski, an Idaho Fish and Game bear specialist, said hunters are at more risk of surprising bears because they are understandably being stealthy when they're in the woods.

BOWHUNTING — Alex McClean, a senior at Timberlake High School/Spirit Lake is an avid bow hunter who boasts of being able to “Robin Hood” an arrow on numerous occasions. (He can shoot a bull's eye, then split the arrow with another shot, reports photographer David Nall).

Alex caught the attention earlier this week of Huckleberries blogger D.F. Oliveria.

Alex still has the target he used with the two arrows, one split right down the middle up to the point, hanging in his room as proof, Oliveria said. Nall snapped the photo above in a group of trees right down the divider of Seltice Way, in Post Falls, near the National Guard.

See David Nall's Facebook page here.

Archery Elk Hunt with Montana Guide services from Bob Legasa on Vimeo.

HUNTING — North Idaho bowhunter Bob Legasa followed some hunting guides into the Gardner, Mont., area to bugle in elk. First came a young cow, then a bull that would stand out in any crowd of large beasts.

Check out this short sample of a longer video he's producing to document the hunt.

“More than 70 elk seen in 2.5 days, 5 set up-close encounters with a bull screaming within 75-100 yards,” Legasa reports.  “The taxidermist I was filming guessed the bull would score around 370 (Boone and Crockett points). Pretty impressive ground over there!”

BIG-GAME HUNTING — The 2011 archery elk permit drawing results are in, and for some it was a day of reward and excitement. For others there was disappointment in not drawing a permit for this year. For Montana it was an economic bloodletting.

The details are spelled out in an op-ed piece published in the Missoulian by Mac Minard, executive director of the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association.

“More than $16 million in economic activity has been lost due to residents and nonresidents who wanted to archery hunt in Montana but could not draw the permit. Limitations on permits are not based on conservation concerns, as all of the hunting districts involved are either at or over published population objectives for elk.

How archery shops are thwarting their own sport.

BOWHUNTING — From my recent interview with Ted Nugent, here's an audio clip of his rant on the archery industry and its tendency to promote high-poundage bows.

WILD FOWL — In a testament to the species’ hardiness, reports of white wild turkeys among the region’s big wintering flocks are fairly common.

First, one must marvel that there are big wintering flocks after two bad winters in the past three years followed by this year’s unusually wet spring nesting conditions.

Then, to see white wild turkeys surviving through spring, summer, fall and into winter reinforces the bird’s top survivor status.

Albinism and white phases occur in many species, including skunks. But nature tends to be harsh on these aberrations. Lacking the natural camouflage, predators key in on them easily, although they might have some sort of advantage in the scattering of weeks when snow is on the ground. 

Sadly, another sign of their toughness is the beating they take.   Evan Johnson sent me the two photos accompanying this post.  — the white turkey and the normal wild turkey feeding among its flock with an arrow through its breast.

The only thing worse than the shot and the arrow choice some archer made is his unwillingness to do what it takes to finish the job on a noble bird.