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Here’s what’s worth reading today, Friday, September 18, 2020:
Correctly sizing up deer, antelope adds to Texas hunting experiences
Organization engaging a new generation of Texas dove hunters
Dove hunting season is a longtime tradition across Texas. Many hunters will tell you there’s a lot of nostalgia involved, but wildlife agencies have been struggling to effectively engage with young adults, especially people of color. The Stewards of the Wild Program is looking to change that by getting younger people interested in getting outdoors.
“I was taught how to get outside growing up and so to work with a lot of people, especially with minorities, people who didn’t have experience getting outside growing up. Especially in Texas, there’s a lot more navigation that goes into that, and so I like helping people navigate – even going on a simple hike,” said Matt Hughes, who runs the Stewards of the Wild Program.
The program is part of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation and was designed to get young professionals between the ages of 21 and 45 outside.
Hughes recently took a group of members on a to hunt dove and even though some of them left empty handed, Hughes says the mission of getting participants outside was successful.
South Texas ranch owners sue, say they didn’t get the deer hunting mecca they expected
An advertising brochure for the Rosita Creek Ranch in Eagle Pass touted the more than 7,000-acre property — with an asking price of about $14.5 million — as a “true sportsman’s paradise.”
The ranch features four massive lakes that offer waterfowl hunting and fishing, and it’s home to some blackbuck antelope and other South Texas species. What really hooked the buyers, however, were the white-tailed trophy deer they were told roamed the property.
The company and partnership that bought the ranch now say it’s not the deer hunting mecca they were led to believe.
The “deer did not exist on this ranch but on another piece of property, and the deer herd has been mismanaged and overharvested,” according to a lawsuit filed in state District Court in San Antonio.
Lufkin-based 2350 Senator Partners LLC and Gillespie Partners Ltd. have sued the seller, Corpus Christi’s Winn Exploration Co., and San Antonio real estate broker Stephen Stransky for fraud, violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and breach of contract over the sale.
Michigan boy fatally shot while hunting; stepfather arrested
An 11-year-old boy was shot and killed by his stepfather while hunting with his family in southeast Michigan, the second hunting death of a youth since Saturday.
Police were called out to a hunting accident Sunday night in Clay Township, the Times Herald of Port Huron reported.
Police said its believed the family was looking for deer in some woods when the boy was “struck by a round discharged by his 40-year-old stepfather.” The boy later died at a hospital.
The stepfather was arrested. The shooting was being reviewed by the St. Clair County prosecutor’s office. Fox 2 Detroit reported that while police were there, another gunshot went off. Police said the child’s mother had shot herself in the hand as she was trying to unload a gun and it mistakenly went off.
On Saturday, 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.
Grizzly bear attacks 69-year-old man in Montana mountains
A mother grizzly bear with cubs attacked a 69-year-old man in the mountains of southwestern Montana.
The victim had been hunting near Flattop Mountain near Big Sky when he called 911 to say he had been attacked by a bear, the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office said. He was later walked out to a nearby road and waiting ambulance by rescuers and transported to a hospital for injuries to his shoulder and hip.
Officials said the man suspected he had been too close to a site where another hunter had recently harvested an animal, the sheriff’s office said. Grizzly bears are drawn to carcasses of elk and other big game shot by hunters. Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin says hunters need to remember that bears search for food in the fall and can be protective of their food sources.
Hunting grizzly bears is illegal in Montana but they are sometimes shot in self-defense or killed after repeated run-ins with humans.
Other Stuff That Might Tickle Your Fancy
🦌 BREAKING NEWS 🦌
This potential women's world record buck was harvested in Kansas by 14-year-old Paslie Werth during the youth hunting season! @NAWhitetail has the full story: https://t.co/K3MjuNoLMr#WhatGetsYouOutdoors #Hunting #DeerWeek #Whitetail pic.twitter.com/XX3NHgcENH
— Outdoor Channel (@OUTDChannel) September 15, 2020
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