Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-08-24
HUNTING SEASON NEAR.


01T.00.
HUNTING SEASON NEAR.
Sportsmen Are Preparing for Fall
Shooting Next Month.
The man VINO values day or a
week with his gun above every other
form of sport is beginning to grow
anxious. He has overhauled his outfit
and is counting the days until the sea-
son opens, as he was wont to count the
days until Christmas in those happy
years when he wore pants.
On September ! the season opens for
prairie chickens and plnnated grouse,
ruffied grouse or pheasant. wild tur-
key, quail, goose. duck and brant.
Owing to the scarcity of game IN
Iowa many local sportsmen are con-
templating trips to South Dakota
and Minnesota. Reports from
South Dakota Indicate that the chicken
crop this season is the largest In the
history of, the state. The game laws
are said to have something to do with
1t, but the season has been good ex-
cept along the lowlands. where the
nests were drowned out. In the CEN
trail part of South Dakota, along the
Milwaukee road, chickens are said to
be so thick that they are flushed along
the right-of- by trains. Passengers
who have recently come over that
branch state that they could have had
several hours of good shooting II they
had been allowed to use guns on the
trains.
The birds are probably not as
numerous in the eastern part of the
state as they We're several years ago,
owing to the campaign made against
them by sportsmen and others who
are not sportsmen. Moreover, the
chickens prefer country not thickly
settled, 50 that the best hunting
west Of the Missouri river.
Even when there were only few
settlers in the reservation country,
grouse and chickens were to be found
in large numbers along the gulches
and creeks. The birds spend part Of
the day in the buffalo berry patches
and it was nc trick at all to go out
and bag enough game to last several
days.
Few if any Of the settlers owned
bird dogs ten years ago and the method
of f1ndig the birds was regarded as
unique by the eastern sportsmen who
have all the up -to-date paraphernalia
for hunting.
All one had to do was to stand on a
high bank above a buffalo berry patch
and hurl sticks into the underground.
Almost Immediately with whirr of
wings brown spot would rise out of
the gray bushes and whirl rapidly off.
From an eminence the shooter had an
excellent chance at the bird.
Later in the fall the grouse are ac-
customed to roost in the cottonwoods
of the timber along the creeks Ranch
men along White river were accus-
toned to picking off wagon load of
the birds by means of a Winchester
rifle.
The grouse flock together and it is
no unusual sight in November to see a
tree loaded with them. The hunter OF
pot shooter" has then only to lie in
concealment and commencing on the
lower limbs of the tree begin picking
them off. The birds sitting above
those who are being exterrninated are
startled, but they merely crane their
necks and stare curiously at their
fluttering companions beneath. If the
shooter picks off bird in the top of
the tree, when the body f1utters down
thru the branches, possibly strik-
ing some of the birds roosting there,
the flock Immediately takes to flight.
In South Dakota now license fee of
$40 is required to get action with the
game. Game wardens have been pretty
active the past few years and many of
the farmers who are shooting them
selves are inclined to keep hunters off
their land even in the open season.
AS result the chicken crop is much
larger than it was two or three years
ago. Nevertheless, in many of the
towns in South Dakota there are
"sooners" who take chance with the
law and go out to try on the chickens
before they are scarcely able to fly.
The excuse is made that they are sim
ply training their dogs, but practically
every dog trainer finds it convenient
to take along a gun and few shells.
Some of the farmers wink at violation
of the law, for they occasionally in
dulge in premature shooting them
selves. In this way, for a distance of
possibly three or four miles around
the towns the chickens are pretty well
cleaned out before the season opens.
Twenty-Five birds is the limit for
each shooter now according to the law.
but few, if any. observe it. 1t is moth
ing uncommon for many shooters to
kiln as many as a hundred of the
chickens in a day. These unsports-
menlike individuals, however are SIM
ply making impossible future sport.
An observance of the law will go far
toward preserving the birds. Where
dozens of men hunted a few years ago,
now hunt, and the fact that
more chickens will be killed next
month than for years past means the
next thing to humiliation.
nu$v