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Outdoors

Enter your buck in The Sentinel’s annual contest

LEWISTOWN — Hundreds of local hunters will be successful in bagging bucks this year and we look forward to seeing them in The Sentinel’s annual Big Buck Contest. Antlered deer that meet the three-point standard and are killed during the archery season or the regular firearms deer season are eligible. Winners will be declared in adult and junior divisions (junior license or mentored youth hunters), with the first-place deer featured on the cover of the Big Buck edition to be published after the season ends. Winners will be rewarded with a gift card. This year, each division ...

Trapper’s dream comes true, from catch to cap

Now that trapping season is in full swing, I feel this is a great time to share the tale of a furtaking mission recently completed by a very enthusiastic young raccoon catcher. My son, who is now in first grade, loves trying to catch raccoons. From the time I took him out to check our first set of traps, he was hooked. Each year we try and catch a few coons for population control. We have also released quite a few that were caught in live traps. The first coon River caught as a pre-schooler is proudly displayed at our cabin. The others he took that year were sold. Going into last ...

Archery hunter surprised to learn he harvests 500-pound bear

MOUNTAIN TOP (AP) — Devon Woolfolk didn’t expect to see a bear while he was archery hunting in Rice Township on Oct. 31. In fact, Woolfolk wasn’t anticipating a bear walking in front of his treestand and offering a broadside shot. But just in case the unexpected happened, Woolfolk purchased a bear license days earlier. And it’s a good thing he did. The Mountain Top resident spent the morning watching a small buck chase a doe 75 yards away. If the buck approached close enough, Woolfolk thought, he would take the shot. All of a sudden, the buck and doe bolted away in ...

Conditions right for memorable season

HARRISBURG — An abundance of fall foods will have a huge black-bear population on the move as hunters head out Nov. 18 for the opening day of Pennsylvania’s four-day statewide firearms bear season. Penn’s Woods has been smothered by hard and soft mast this past summer and fall. Leaf-drop also was delayed by uncommonly warm weather into early November. Combined, these conditions have given bears reasons to stay out of dens, and plenty of cover to sneak about the Commonwealth. With cooperative weather, particularly on the opening day, Pennsylvania is poised to take a run at ...

Outdoors TV: The good, the bad, the indifferent

I had the privilege this spring to be a part of an Archery Assassins filming session about my turkey call company and spring turkey hunting. Up until this point I had done nothing other than dabble in self inking a few hunts. A crew of three guys came into my small town of Front Royal, Virginia, from nearly 17 hours away in Kansas with hopes of harvesting a mature gobbler with their bows. No, we were not successful, but that’s not what this story is about. What a learning curve filming for an actual TV show was for me. It seemed there were cameras everywhere and that was ...

Elk hunters achieve a high success rate

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Game Commission reports that 104 elk were taken by hunters during the regular one-week elk season that ended Nov. 4. For those licensed to hunt antlered (bull) elk, the success rate was 100 percent. The 2017 harvest included some large elk. Ten bulls each were estimated to weigh 700 pounds or more, with three of them going more than 800 pounds. The heaviest bull taken in this year’s hunt was estimated at 833 pounds. That bull, which sported an 8-by-7 rack, was taken Oct. 30 by Shawn Latshaw of Franklin. Meanwhile, an 832-pounder with an 8-by-9 rack ...