Deer Hunters

The recent article about rules and regulations at Loch Raven Reservoir ("Think before you leap," June 25) was very informative and was an important reminder for citizens using the reservoir. The public needs to abide by the rules in order to preserve our drinking water and for safety reasons, too. Bikers, hikers, nature photographers, birdwatchers and any other groups or individuals need to work together to support the laws put into place so that we can enjoy our beautiful Loch Raven in a respectful manner.

Charles Samuel "Sam" Poole Sr., a Carroll County butcher whose Sam's Deer Processing in Finksburg has been a destination for lucky hunters for decades, died Saturday from complications after heart surgery at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury. The longtime Louisville, Carroll County, resident was 65. The son of a butcher and a homemaker, Mr. Poole was born in Gaithersburg and raised in Sykesville. He attended Sykesville High School. Mr. Poole began his butchering career when he was 16, working at small grocery stores and butcher shops.

QUANTICO -- Early last week, the stroll into the bright moonlight at Nanticoke River Wildlife Management Area had quickly become a trudge, the pace slowed by a bagful of duck decoys, a day bag crammed with chest waders, a couple of boxes of shot shells, gloves, sandwiches and drinks, and about seven pounds of shotgun.Yesterday morning, opening day of modern firearms deer season, the walking was easier.The bag of decoys, the two boxes of shells and the nine pounds of chest waders had been left behind, replaced with a small day bag packed with a box of deer slugs, a coil of quarter-inch braided line, a strong-backed knife, a water bottle and two sliced turkey sandwiches.

The recent letter by Anne Roberts ("Loch Raven needs rules, but not deer hunters" June 28) was mind boggling. Yes, of course, we need to abide by the rules in order to preserve our drinking water and for safety reasons. Regarding the survey of residential properties adjacent to Loch Raven that found half of the respondents had negative experiences with hunters and hunting, I have not had one negative experience with hunters through decades of hiking in numerous states. I am a hike leader for the Community College of Baltimore County and have had negative experiences with mountain bikers each time I have led a group of hikers as well as when I hike alone.

This hunting season, Maryland deer hunters spent more than 1 million days in the field, funneled more than $200 million into the state economy and killed a record number of deer, according to John R. Griffin, secretary of the Department of Natural Resources.In 13 counties the total kill was above the 1993 figures, which totaled 51,234 compared with 51,593 this past season.Although the modern firearms kill of 32,758 was down from 34,251 in 1993, bow and muzzleloader hunters recorded higher totals than last season.

The first Saturday after Thanksgiving is a day some Harford County residents feel should be declared a state holiday. Nov. 27 is opening day of Maryland's regular firearms season for whitetail deer.When opening day arrives, more than 120,000 Maryland hunters will take to the woods in search of what has been described as the nation's most elusive big-game animal.A substantial number of Harford's hunters, however, will travel to the lower Eastern Shore or to large tracts of state land in Western Maryland in search of their quarry.

The three-day early muzzleloader hunting season for deer opens Thursday across the state, with an increasing number of hunters expected to be in the field.According to the Department of Natural Resources, the number of hunters using muzzleloading, black-powder weapons has increased steadily over the past few years and the take of deer has increased as well.In the early muzzleloader season last year, hunters took 4,589 deer, an increase of 19 percent over the previous season. The total muzzleloader take, including the two-week winter season, was a state-record 9,831.

Charles Samuel "Sam" Poole Sr., a Carroll County butcher whose Sam's Deer Processing in Finksburg has been a destination for lucky hunters for decades, died Saturday from complications after heart surgery at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury. The longtime Louisville, Carroll County, resident was 65. The son of a butcher and a homemaker, Mr. Poole was born in Gaithersburg and raised in Sykesville. He attended Sykesville High School. Mr. Poole began his butchering career when he was 16, working at small grocery stores and butcher shops.

DEER HUNTERS in Maryland may be about to breach a 300-year-old precedent. In a last-minute vote, the General Assembly gave them permission for the first time in three centuries to bag their quarry on Sundays. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is sure to be under pressure to veto the bill from hikers, birders, horseback riders and others who use the same woodlands on the weekends. But the measure as amended in the waning hours of the session requires of them such a small sacrifice -- only two Sundays a year, and only in the state's most rural counties -- that it represents a reasonable compromise worth the governor's approval.

Lingering moderate weather continues to curtail slightly the Maryland deer kill, but unseasonable temperatures have added a new perspective to late fall outdoor life.Spike Brown got an 8-point buck of 145 pounds in Pocomoke State Forest, then journeyed to Assateague Island where he landed a 12-pound, 3-ounce bluefish on cut mullet. What a day, but his wasn't the only bluefish catch, nor the biggest.Bill Shockley, who handles the scales -- for both fish and deer -- at Shockley's Weighing Station, reports a flurry of late bluefish action.

The recent article about rules and regulations at Loch Raven Reservoir ("Think before you leap," June 25) was very informative and was an important reminder for citizens using the reservoir. The public needs to abide by the rules in order to preserve our drinking water and for safety reasons, too. Bikers, hikers, nature photographers, birdwatchers and any other groups or individuals need to work together to support the laws put into place so that we can enjoy our beautiful Loch Raven in a respectful manner.

When Colleen Ballantine, Cheryl Sanders and Bradley Kennedy size up meat for their freezers, they're thinking three things: free-range, low-fat, clean of antibiotics. The three women are deer hunters, and their market of choice is the woods of Maryland. With consumer demand rapidly growing for animals raised humanely and meat free of things not found in nature, supermarkets are stocking bison and pasture-raised beef at premium prices. But hunters -- especially women -- say white-tailed deer are nearby and plentiful, healthful and economical.

Austin's Deer Processing is hard by BWI Marshall Airport and a stone's throw from Arundel Mills on a bend in the road that really makes you slow down and pay attention. While folks were winging their way home after a visit with relatives or fighting mall traffic for those must-have holiday gifts, lots of hunters made the turn off Ridge Road and into Austin's the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the first day of Maryland gun season. There was a sense of purpose this year as hunters raced to put deer in the freezer as a way to pinch pennies.

Man shot on the street dies later at hospital A man was shot last night on a street in the Ellwood Park-Monument neighborhood in East Baltimore and died later at a hospital. No arrest had been made and the man's identity was being withheld pending notification of family members, said a police spokesman. Agent Donny Moses, the spokesman, said Southeastern District police responding to a 911 call about 8:30 p.m. of a shooting in the 3000 block of Pulaski Highway, between Potomac Street and Ellwood Avenue, found the man lying on the ground and bleeding from bullet wounds to the head and upper body.

Jason Christopher Leonard, a truck driver and outdoorsman, died of undetermined causes June 20 at his Catonsville home. He was 30. "We are waiting for the results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death," said Junaita White, an aunt who lives in Lansdowne. Mr. Leonard was born in Baltimore and raised in Lansdowne and Catonsville. He was a 1995 graduate of Catonsville High School, where he had played baseball. He had attended the Community College of Baltimore County. He had worked as warehouse manager at Ann's House of Nuts in Jessup for two years before taking a job in 1997, as a truck driver for Consolidated Freight, and at his death, for Wall Works USA Inc. Mr. Leonard was an avid fisherman and deer hunter.

What do hunters and Brutus have in common? Both have been accused of inflicting the "most unkindest cut of all." Brutus came by his reputation honestly after his famous dustup with Julius Caesar (Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 2). Deer hunters -- not all, mind you -- innocently earn theirs at chow time, as diners gnaw the main course into submission. Watching someone who knows how to turn a deer into delicious roasts and steaks is a humbling experience, much like watching a master decoy carver.

The recent letter by Anne Roberts ("Loch Raven needs rules, but not deer hunters" June 28) was mind boggling. Yes, of course, we need to abide by the rules in order to preserve our drinking water and for safety reasons. Regarding the survey of residential properties adjacent to Loch Raven that found half of the respondents had negative experiences with hunters and hunting, I have not had one negative experience with hunters through decades of hiking in numerous states. I am a hike leader for the Community College of Baltimore County and have had negative experiences with mountain bikers each time I have led a group of hikers as well as when I hike alone.

Judging by preliminary numbers compiled by the Department of Natural Resources, Maryland deer hunters had a good modern firearms season, even though the two-week total of 31,585 deer is well below last year's take of 34,251.According to Wildlife Division game managers, the take was off primarily because of changes in regulations on antlerless deer in the western counties.In all or parts of Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Frederick and Carroll counties, only antlered deer could be hunted in the first week of the season.

CLEAR SPRING - When the director of the Outdoor Sports Program asked Danielle Shives to come to the Izaak Walton League and talk to his group Tuesday night to help promote Junior Deer Hunting Day on Nov. 15, she had no reason to think he meant anything other than what he said. After all, it was not the first time she has been approached to speak to other kids about what it's like to be a blind deer hunter. Danielle, who is 16, has spoken to students at her school, Clear Spring High, and last year she spoke at Clear Spring Elementary, where she showed fifth-graders the cane she uses to get around and how she does her homework in Braille.