Nov 21, 2015 4 min read

As I write this, bear season hasn’t arrived yet but will be here by the time this is being read. It’s a rest period between hunting days.

In many instances, the bear hunter must choose between hunting the first day, twiddle his thumbs and wait to hunt the rest of the season or just hunt the one day. It just doesn’t make sense to have Sunday in the middle of this short season. Many hunters have trouble getting time off of work, let alone spend a day away that is wasted.

Either we should be allowed to hunt Sundays or the days of the season should run consecutively.

When looking at the statistics relating to a bear hunting success, it usually comes out to be around a 3 percent success rate, or at least that is what it seems to be as more than 100,000 hunters down about 3,000 bears.

That figure, however, is tricky. First, remove all the cubs that are taken accidentally because most of us do not want to shoot a cub. I didn’t say wouldn’t shoot a cub, but instead said don’t want to.

After all, a bear’s size is hard to judge and we all make mistakes when excited.

Let’s go back to that 3 percent and remove the bears that fall to locals who know where the bear is and just maybe have one visiting their garbage every morning.

That is why a fellow like myself, who doesn’t want a cub and who doesn’t live up north, just takes his rifle for a walk. While hardly an expert bear hunter, I do have opinions – most important of which is that most bear hunters sit in an open place where they can see at least 100 yards. The bears, on the other hand, stick to the thicker cover. We tend to hunt them where they aren’t.

When did I have time to work? This is the question that goes through my mind every day at this time of the year. Preparation for the upcoming deer season takes time. The steelhead are in streams flowing into Lake Erie, and while not related to hunting, the leaves also need to be raked. Even archery season is busy here in Wildlife Management Unit 2-B. And that doesn’t take into account hunting deer in Ohio.

The decision is whether to hunt deer in Ohio or Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has far more deer but Ohio has the big ones. For the first time, Ohio is allowing the use of certain rifle cartridges to be used for hunting deer. The restriction is that the cartridge must be a straight-walled one. This allows the use of other rounds like the 44 magnum and the 45-70. Another good round that is now legal is the 444 Marlin.

Here in Pennsylvania, I have seen some really nice bucks this fall. When I say nice I’m talking 130 Boone & Crockett at least, and I have spotted three that I think will top 150. Of those four, I have heard a rumor that one was taken with the bow.

• While working in a gun shop, I saw the folly of buying a cheap scope. One can get away with a lower-priced rifle but when it comes to optics, it pays to buy the best one can afford. Putting a cheap scope on a quality rifle is akin to putting recap tires on a corvette.

A troublesome scope can lead to frustration as you try to sight the outfit in. The adjustments are erratic many times, and while the scope might be marked as moving the bullet hole ¼ minute, it will often move 1 inch sometimes and 2 or 3 inches others times with each click. This can drive a shooter crazy.

There is more to a scope than clear optics.

While clarity is important, it’s just as important that the sealing be tight and the adjustments move as stated.

It also is much better to detect a problem with the scope, and for that matter, the rifle long before the season starts. This gives the owner the chance to return the scope for repairs and get it back before the hunt begins.

Also, the weather deteriorates this time of year, making shooting more difficult. This problem is added to the fact that the ranges become more crowded the closer we get to the opener.

With that in mind this Sunday, the 22nd is the Dormont-Mt.Lebanon Sportsman’s Club sight-in day. For a small fee, a non-club member can come to the club and sight in his rifle and there will be members like myself there to help if needed.

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