Spirit of the Sportsman

Here we see yet another act of benevolence by sportsmen, this time in the great state of Delaware.

“During the 2009-2010 deer season, hunters donated 777 deer to the Delaware Sportsmen Against Hunger Program.

The donations were processed into 26,546 pounds of venison, which will provide more than 100,000 meals for needy Delawareans. DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife staff is working to distribute the frozen ground venison to more than 30 charitable organizations and food pantries throughout the state.

This venison has been processed by nine participating private butchers plus a butcher shop located at the Sussex Community Corrections Center in Georgetown. The venison processing facility is staffed by offenders who are serving sentences in the SCCC’s Violation of Probation Center, and who have been specially trained for the job.

Since the program began in 2005, the facility has processed nearly 40,000 pounds of venison. This year, the facility processed 213 deer into 8,110 pounds of venison at substantial savings to the program.”

Here we see more action by sportsmen to share with those in need. We salute everyone involved with the Sportsmen Against Hunger efforts in Delaware.

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Non-indigenous python species have been released over the years into the wetlands of Florida. The python has flourished particularly in the prey-rich areas protected by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commision.

Besides competing for prey, there have been multiple documented occurrences of pythons and alligators preying upon each other with the alligators usually winning.

The invasive python species now threaten species in Florida and as a result, the state of Florida has announced a python hunting season to cull python populations.

“TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — State wildlife officials have created a special python hunting season to try to stop the spread of the nonnative snakes throughout the Everglades.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says anyone with a hunting license who pays a $26 permit fee can kill the reptiles from March 8 to April 17 on state-managed lands around the Everglades in South Florida.

The season is open for Burmese and Indian pythons, African rock pythons, green anacondas and Nile monitor lizards.

Thousands of the nonnative Burmese pythons are believed to be in the region, upsetting the natural balance of the ecosystem.

Wildlife officials on Monday trained a group of hunters on how to identify, stalk, capture and remove them.”

No word from the state of Florida if they called-in a specialist.

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Safari Club International put on the 7th annual Feed The Hungry Feast in Reno, Nevada. Hunters from SCI along with local charities fed hungry families with the meat harvested from local hunts.

Kudos to hunters and SCI for yet another act of benevolence and conservation.

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The National Hunting And Fishing Day organization announced today that USA Shooting, the governing body on US olympic shooting sports will chair National Hunting And Fishing Day 2010.

“the entire USA Shooting Team is serving as honorary chair of National Hunting and Fishing Day 2010, set for Sept. 25. Congress established the annual commemoration to recognize hunters and anglers for their leading role in fish, wildlife and habitat conservation.”

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Don’t be caught un-awares.

Big game hunting application deadlines are looming.

Complete your applications soon.

*UPDATE*
Non-resident’s guide to hunting in the western U.S. from biggamehunt.net.

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In 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established the Light Goose Conservation Rules. The new regulations where established due to an overabundance of light geese which threatened aviary habitat. Under the new order, hunting of snow geese is dramatically liberalized and the season is extended through to April.

Fewer people know more about hunting snow geese than Tony Vandemore.

In this Ducks Unlimited interview ‘White Goose Wizards’ Tony does a Q and A on harvesting snow geese.

DU: What does one do with 2,030 snow geese once they’re in the back of the truck? NOTE: Vandemore, Keller and their friends killed 2,030 snows in spring 2006. Really.

Vandemore: We had people in place – needy families, church pantries, soup kitchens – to take the birds before we started hunting. Snow goose is by no means poor table fare; it’s actually very good. With snows, you can pick out the (grey) juvenile birds a lot easier and concentrate on those. But I had folks lined up who would take just about every snow goose we could bring them.

“Realism.  It’s all about realism.”

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A 50-year-old Hmong immigrant from northern Laos, Mr. Yang is the host of a regular all-things-hunting program on KJAY 1430-AM. The station serves one of the nation’s largest Hmong populations — one for whom the link between hunting and survival is still palpable.

Yia Yang, who hosts a Hmong radio show about hunting, and an on-air guest, Capt. Roy Griffith, who runs California’s hunter education program.

Important contribution by Mr. Yang to help preserve our hunting resources and heritage. Kudos to California Fish & Game.

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Montana completed it’s first wolf hunting season in decades and the state coordinator for wolf hunts for the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks department called it ‘a good day for Montana’.

“There weren’t any biological red flags raised during Montana’s first fair-chase wolf hunt earlier this year.

“Montana just pulled off a very successful hunt of a new species, especially given the level of scrutiny on the hunt,” Carolyn Sime, the statewide wolf coordinator for the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

“From every consideration, we showed the sky isn’t going to fall,” she said. “It was a good day for Montana.””

Montanans know best how to manage their wildlife resources.

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Saltyshores.com has some of the best photography and video related to fishing you’ll find on the web.  Sam Root’s work is a great way to spend a few minutes…or hours.

Sam Root Redfish

The River Time Forgot-Mongolia from Mikey Wier on Vimeo.

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