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Here’s what’s worth reading today, Sunday, September 13, 2020:
Tracking of wounded game the responsibility of ethical Texas hunters
14-year-old Kansas girl shoots potential state-record deer … a monster 40-point buck
The youth deer hunting season got off to a doozy of a start this past week. A potentially record-breaking doozy.
Fourteen-year-old Paslie Werth, of Cimarron, shot a once-in-a-lifetime deer last Sunday — a 40-point, free-range whitetail buck tallying a gross green score of 282 6/8 inches — while rifle hunting on family property with her father, Kurt, in Kiowa County.
To put that score in perspective, the state record Kansas nontypical whitetail taken by a firearm, dating back all the way to 1987, is 280 4/8 inches, taken by Joseph Waters in Shawnee County. Another deer, taken in 2018 in Brown County by Horton’s Mark Watson, came just shy of that record mark at 280 inches flat.
The current nontypical archery record for a Kansas whitetail, meanwhile, was shot in 1998 by Olsburg’s Dale Larson in Pottawatomie County and scored 264 1/8 inches, though the likely record-breaker was shot last October by Andover bowhunter Brian Butcher in Chase County — a monstrous 67-point buck with a gaudy unofficial net score of 321 3/8 on the Boone and Crockett scale. That score would make it the fourth-largest nontypical deer ever harvested worldwide. That rack won’t be officially certified until 2022, however, when it is measured at the Boone and Crockett Club’s next awards ceremony.
Texoma fishing charter honors first responders on 9/11
A Lake Texoma fishing charter is honoring first responders in a special way. Every year on September 11, they take a group of firefighters, EMTs and law enforcement officers on a fishing trip.
It’s a more than three decades long tradition started by Striper Express Owner Bill Carey. He said they’ve been doing this fishing trip since 1983 and for around seven years on September 11.
“It’s our way of thanking them, honoring them and we celebrate what they do,” Carey said.
“9/11. Something to do special with the guys, with firefighters. Remember, never forget and try to have some brotherhood on the water as well,” said The Colony Fire Dept. Driver Michael Powers.
Powers is one of around a dozen firefighters from The Colony who came to Lake Texoma to fish Friday morning.
“So this is a great way to do it if we’re off duty, to spend some time together. Be on the water, have some laughs and remember our fallen brothers and sisters,” Powers said.
Mother bear attacks bow hunters in North Idaho
A pair of hunters survived a grizzly attack after they accidentally surprised a mother bear with her cubs Wednesday morning.
The attack happened north of Sandpoint in the Apache Ridge area of the Upper Pack River drainage.
The archery hunters say they did not realize the grizzly and her cubs were nearby until they came upon her suddenly. The men used bear spray to fend off the attack, but one of the hunters was injured by the bear.
Both hunters were able to walk out of the backcounty by themselves. The injured man was taken to a local hospital, where he received stitches and was later released.
The attack is under investigation by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. People who plan to hunt and recreate in the area are asked to use caution and be prepared for an encounter with a bear.
Teen hunter killed when run over by corn harvester
A 14-year-old deer hunter who possibly fell asleep in a farm field was killed when he was run over by a corn harvester in Michigan’s Thumb region, police said.
Emergency workers were called about 9 a.m. Saturday to the cornfield in a rural area near the Huron County city of Caseville after a farm worker spotted the boy soon after accidentally driving over him, according to the county sheriff’s office.
The boy from the nearby city of Elkton had been dropped off earlier for deer hunting at the field and might have fallen asleep, the sheriff’s office said. The farm worker wasn’t aware that anyone was in the field.
Pennsylvania man faces charges in fatal hunting accident
John J. Markel, 56, of Tyrone was hunting with 42-year-old Mahlon Osterhout in a wooded area off Route 453 north of Tyrone at dusk on Dec. 2 when he shot Osterhout while trying to down a whitetail deer, according to the charges.
State police determined Osterhout’s shooting death to be a hunting accident and turned the case over to Pennsylvania Game Commission wardens who charged Markel on Thursday with one misdemeanor count of shooting at and killing another person while hunting, along with summary charges of unlawful killing or taking big game and drinking on Game Commission public land.
The two men were hunting together when Markel shot at a doe he saw that was about 75 yards away, according to the charges. Not knowing if he hit the animal, he walked toward the last spot he saw it after Osterhout asked him over a walkie-talkie if he got the deer. Markel then shot again. Markel saw movement in some thick brush where he assumed the deer had run and he shot.
Markel walked toward the direction of his shot but then followed a blood trail in another direction that led to the deer that had fallen. He started to gut the deer and when he didn’t get a response from Osterhout over the walkie-talkie, he went to look for him.
Osterhout was shot in the neck and was not breathing when Markel found him, so he ran to Route 453 to find help, the Game Commission investigation concluded. The charges indicate Osterhout had alcohol and drugs in his system and state police found beer cans in Markel’s vehicle when it was searched after the shooting.
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