COME NEXT Saturday, there will be more hunters in Maryland's woods than there will be football fans today at M&T Bank Stadium.
Count on it.
The Department of Natural Resources estimates that close to 75,000 of the state's 123,000 licensed hunters will mark the opening of the two-week deer firearms season with a walk in the woods. And this time next week, a lot of them will be back out there for the second of two Sundays of hunting.
Deer skin vs. pigskin? You decide.
Stadium capacity: 69,084. Forest capacity: Nearly endless, unless the state sells it all as surplus. (Just kidding.)
Ravens' prey: Eagles, Colts, Bengals, Dolphins. Hunters' prey: does and bucks.
Game ticket: $245 on Ticketmaster or "How much do you have?" Hunting license: $24.50.
Ravens/PSINet/Ravens/M&T Bank Stadium opened: Aug. 8, 1998. Woods opened: when dinosaurs roamed the earth or when William Donald Schaefer took his first steps, whichever came first.
Ravens' playing surface: artificial turf. Hunters' playing surface: dirt, twigs and leaves.
Ravens fans' garb: ridiculous purple camo. Hunters' garb: original earth-tones camo with a hint of blaze orange.
The 6-3 Ravens are on the playoff bubble entering the NFL's 11th week. It's still too early to say what kind of a season sportsmen will have.
Last year, hunters killed 87,223 deer - 85,352 white-tailed deer and 1,871 sika deer - during the bow, muzzleloader and firearms seasons. That was down about 6 percent from the record season of 2002.
Doug Hotton, the head deer man at the Department of Natural Resources, guesses 16,000 deer will be shot on opening day and an additional 3,000 will fall next Sunday.
"Our deer are really healthy," Hotton said. "The only thing that could set us back is the weather."
That was the problem last year, when gusty winds kicked up and the deer bedded down.
Maryland's robust deer population and bag limits are the talk of outdoors magazines and Web sites. Thirty years ago, Maryland had 190,321 hunters who bagged 10,212 deer.
This year's crowd may break the 100,000 mark by the time bow season ends Jan. 31.
Unfortunately, the suburban herd is still growing because of the limited means to cull the population. Managed hunts at regional parks do some good. But neighborhoods aren't conducive to hunting, managed or otherwise, and deer feel right at home in a back yard with a gas grill and badminton set.
The picture is better in rural areas, where the management program has checked the population explosion.
"We've got a good balance between antlered bucks and adult does," Hotton said. "The buck numbers haven't changed in the last three or four years, which means the management plan is doing what it's supposed to."
In one respect, however, the hunting season already is off to a bad start, with one death and three injuries.
"It comes and goes. There's no rhyme or reason for why these things seem to come in bunches," said Cpl. Ken Turner of Natural Resources Police.
Stamos Courpas, 35, of Fairfax, Va., was killed on Nov. 6, when he was mistaken for a turkey while hunting in Green Ridge State Forest in Allegany County. Turner said Courpas was shot by Charles Lepovetski, of Ranson, W.Va. The accident is still being investigated.
One of the non-fatal accidents involved that old chestnut, "falling from a tree because you neglected to wear a safety harness." Tree stand accidents account for about half of Maryland's hunting injuries.
The other two cases this year could be put in the personal error category: one hunter shooting another. In both, the shooter has been charged with negligent hunting, which carries a fine of $1,500.
Last year, there were three fatalities during all hunting seasons; one was a case of carelessness and the other two were mistaken identity. From 2001 to 2003, the state had just one fatal hunting accident.
"These accidents are very unfortunate, but they're very preventable," said Turner. "Hopefully, we've gotten them out of our systems."
Finally, here's a little bit of deer camp housekeeping:
The deer management regions and bag limits have changed. Instead of four regions there are two. Region A is Garrett and Allegany counties. The firearms bag limit is two deer; only one can be antlered. Region B is everywhere else. The bag limit is two antlered deer and 10 antlerless deer. Two antlerless deer must be killed before a hunter can pursue a second antlered deer.
Baltimore County hunters have a new check station: Hillbilly's at 21429 York Road, Maryland Line, which is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. The phone is 410-357-9222.
If you're looking to fill up before heading out, St. Luke's Lutheran Church on Route 75 in New Windsor is putting on the feedbag for the fourth season. The doors open at 3:30 a.m. The cost is $5, with proceeds benefiting the church.
A new entry in the breakfast entree business is the La Plata Volunteer Fire Department's all-you-can-eat spread, starting at 3:45 a.m. at its hall on Washington Avenue. The cost is $10, with proceeds going to the department.
Finally, if you want to feed others, consider making a donation of bucks or bucks, does or dough to Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry.
I don't have to tell many of you how great a program this is. Gov. Bob Ehrlich has been so impressed that for the second year, he has proclaimed November "Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry Month."
Last year, hunters donated 62 tons, or 460,000 quarter-pound servings of venison, to food banks and programs for the needy. But the Hagerstown-based, non-profit group ran out of money to pay for processing.
For more information, go to www.fhfh.org or call 866-GET-FHFH.
