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Outdoors

Roads opening for hunters

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Raystown Lake announced the opening of the following access roads to accommodate upcoming hunting seasons. The following gate will be open from Oct. 1-Dec. 11: n High Germany Road (Gate 28, off Old Plank Road) The following gates will be open from Oct. 15-Dec. 11: n Hawns Bridge Road (Gate 1, end of Hawns Bridge Road) n Susquehannock Campground Road (Gate 8, off Bakers Hollow Road) n Upper Corners Road (Gate 13, off Upper Corners Road) n Fink Road (Gate 27, off John Bum Road) n Miller Farm Road (Gate 35, end of Weaver Falls Road) The ...

PGC wants to do waterfowl testing

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Game Commission is seeking cooperation from waterfowl hunters in a study that will evaluate to what extent contaminants such as PCBs, dioxins and heavy metals are affecting ducks and geese. Like fish, waterfowl can store these contaminants at levels that affect their own health and pose a risk to hunters who harvest and consume them. Existing statewide guidelines recommend mergansers should not be eaten; other diving ducks, if properly prepared, should be eaten only occasionally; and dabbling ducks and geese safely can be eaten, if properly ...

State game lands tours to resume this fall

The Pennsylvania Game Commission announced last week that they will be again offering self-guided driving tours of several state game lands around the state during early fall. In 2016, the agency canceled its annual autumn game lands driving tours. The reason cited was “financial constraints.” The resumption of these tours provides a welcome opportunity for hunters and non-hunters alike to see the interior of some of the 1.5 million acres of state game lands that we hunters have purchased for all citizens of Pennsylvania to use and enjoy. All tours are free, held rain or shine ...

A trip down memory lane takes a detour through Texas

Early in the 1990s, I crossed the border in Del Rio, Texas. It brings back so many memories of one of the most exciting turkey hunts I ever had. And how I never would have believed the circumstances down there now. I had the honor of being invited to go there to hunt Rio Grande turkeys with Preston Pittman, one of the country’s best turkey hunters and call manufacturers and a friend of his, Ken Woodard, a policeman from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It was wondrous experience and the three of us each got two gobblers on that trip. While hunting on that private ranch that bordered ...

Tyrone camp receives grant money to use toward gun range

TYRONE — The National Rifle Association Foundation recently awarded Camp Anderson in Tyrone a grant totaling $1,378 to fund new shotguns for the range on its property. “We are very excited about the camp shotgun program and pleased that the NRA is making an investment in our community,” said Dale DeLozier, camp shooting director for the range. Camp Anderson is a private, non-profit, all-volunteer organization that serves as a venue for citizens of central Pennsylvania who enjoy the outdoors. The camp offers public hiking trails, a fishing pond and stream as well as rental ...

PGC to host open house on CWD

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Game Commission is hosting an open house to inform the public about Chronic Wasting Disease, which poses a serious threat to the state’s white-tailed deer and elk. The event is set for 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Russell Volunteer Fire Co., 111 Perrigo Lane, Russell, Pa. CWD, which is always fatal to the deer and elk it infects, was first detected in Pennsylvania in captive deer in 2012 and in wild, free-ranging whitetails a few months later. Since then, CWD has been detected in 730 whitetails. No Pennsylvania elk have ever tested positive for the ...