Feb 11, 2017 4 min read

Waynesburg High School graduate Earl Taylor was not just a smallbore shooter, but a good human being. Few people could have higher status than the rifleman from Greene County.

A longtime member of Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsman’s Club and a past officer, Taylor is no longer with us. He passed away just as he shot and served other sportsmen – quietly.

I can remember having a disagreement on a trivial subject with some of the club directors when Earl quietly stepped forward and with his confident but non-threatening manner, pacified me and swung the board in my direction. When Earl spoke others listened.

Earl was a member of the National Indoor Rifle Championship team at Frazier-Simplex and one of the top shooters in the country during his prime. He also was a past president of Pittsburgh and Suburban Rifle League.

He was known to operate with intelligence and common sense. He mentored many a rookie smallbore shooter and many owe him their thanks. Like the dinosaur, men like him are becoming extinct. Rest in peace Earl. We will all see you soon.

• Last week, I wrote about a few of the potential changes that will be decided in the near future. Pennsylvania Game Commission is struggling to keep its head above water and is asking for a raise in the cost of licenses.

It has been 18 years since such a raise was granted by the legislature. Over that period, the cost of everything has risen dramatically.

A raise is warranted.

My hunting license is, was and will always be one of life’s biggest bargains. As my friend, Mike Weber, said the other day, there is always something to hunt every day of the year.

Yes, that includes Sundays when coyotes, crows and foxes are legal game.

When Mike isn’t working he usually is hunting something. Denny Fredericks of Lone Pine, past president of the Game Commission board, once said Mike is either hunting or cooking what he bagged.

I just got done talking to Mike on the phone and he was cooking beaver. Now that is something new.

As much as I agree the commission needs and should have an increase in license fees, there are a few questions I constantly hear. The most common one is why doesn’t the commission have a ton of income from gas drilling?

After all, it is the biggest landowner in the state. If a person living in the area with 700 acres can get $3 million for his gas rights, what does the commission get for thousands of acres in Washington and Greene counties?

Is some of this gas money being siphoned off into the general fund? I can’t help but wonder and so do many others I have spoken to.

What about a merger with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission? I believe this would be a mistake and am against such a forced merger.

What we have now works well and the tired old reason for the joint merger is most other states have just one organization that oversees fishing, boating and hunting.

Just because they do doesn’t make our system inferior. England doesn’t allow the private ownership of handguns. Does that make its’ system better?

Different can be right and so it is with our two commission system.

• Another sports show has come and gone with a dramatic drop in the number of deer measured. In the early 2000s we would always do 25 deer Saturday and about 20 Sundays.

This year the numbers were 10 Saturday and eight Sunday.

As far as top scores, we had but one rifle kill and that one came up with a final score of 161. That is a monster buck!

In comparison last year’s top buck was downed by Joe Cole who lives in the Bentleyville area and it scored 162. Pretty close.

But take note only one buck measured Saturday was taken with a rifle. Indeed, the tail is wagging the dog and almost 40 percent of all bucks taken in the state are downed in archery season.

Is this the result of hunting the rut?

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.