Columnist Paul DelGiudice: It’s wonderful to watch enthusiasm toward hunting

Paul DelGiudice

Thursday, Oct. 4, 2001 | 10:27 a.m.

Paula DelGiudice's outdoors notebook appears Wednesday. Reach her at desertdenizens@aol.com.

It's wonderful to write about the first hunting experiences of young people. Not only does it take us back to the memories of our first outdoor experiences and all the feelings that invokes, but it also assures us that a sport we enjoy so much will continue through the generations.

This week, my son, Kevin, picked up his first hunter safety handbook from the Nevada Division of Wildlife. Two hours later, he had absorbed nearly all of it. It's great to see him excited about becoming a hunter.

He was bound to either really like it or really hate it. I was pregnant with him when I took a Nevada book antelope in Elko County and when Mike, my husband, took his second Nevada elk. He was 10 months old when we took him deer hunting with us. It was so cold, our breath turned to frost inside the two-person (and a baby) dome tent. He sat in the backpack while we hiked through sage grouse country.

Soon, autumn days gave way to baseball games and birthday parties, soccer games and sleepovers, baby sisters and full-time jobs with lesson plans and papers to grade, and our hunting waned.

We've all kind of missed that connection with the Earth that we shared when we left city pursuits behind and headed for the country. I couldn't be more pleased that he wants to share the hunting heritage that has been part of his family for generations.

Mike Cox, staff biologist, said NDOW collected brain samples from 303 mule deer and 25 elk at check stations and meat processors during the past two hunting seasons. All were examined by the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory and were found to be disease free.

NDOW suggests avoiding contact with animals that appear to be sick. A hunter who harvests an emaciated or unhealthy animal should contact a Division of Wildlife office. Observations of sickly or unhealthy deer and elk should be reported as well.

NDOW will provide transportation to and from the base camp where the sheep will be brought after being captured by a helicopter crew. After arriving at the base camp, the sheep will be calmed and kept cool while they are fitted with tags and radio collars by agency personnel and blood is drawn by veterinarians. They will be loaded into trailers for transport to the release sites.

The base camp is in a primitive area that doesn't have drinking water or restroom facilities. Those attending should bring water and a sack lunch.

To make reservations, call NDOW's Las Vegas office at 486-5127, ext. 3504. Each caller may make no more than two reservations.

Duck hunting gets under way at the Lincoln County management area on Saturday, Oct. 13. Reservations will be limited to 55 hunters on that day.

Hunting will be permitted on the area on both days of the opening weekend. After the weekend, hunting will be permitted on alternate days beginning on Monday, Oct. 15.

Bart Tanner, manager of Key Pittman, said Frenchy Lake will be dry for the opener. Recent drought conditions are blamed for a lack of water on the area.