Ohio Valley Outdoors - June 2007 Newsletter

Volume I, Number 6, June 2007

Ohio DNR increases antlerless permits for archery hunters.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Division, recently announced guidelines for Ohio’s upcoming fall hunting season. Archery hunters can will now be able to purchase additional antlerless deer permits based upon their location. Hunters can take one additional antlerless deer in Zone A, up to two additional in Zone B and up to three additional in Zone C.

Archery hunters will still be required to buy a regular deer permit before purchasing any antlerless deer permits. The antlerless permits, formerly known as urban deer permits, will also be valid for controlled deer hunts and for hunting deer in an urban unit. Antlerless deer permits will cost $15 each .

Deer-gun season will open Monday, November 26 and run through Sunday, December 2. For the second year, hunters will have an additional weekend to hunt whitetails with a gun, on December 15-16.

Statewide muzzleloader season will open on Thursday, December 27, and run through Sunday, December 30. Early muzzleloader hunts will be open Monday, October 22 through Saturday, October 27 at Salt Fork, Shawnee and Wildcat Hollow. Muzzleloader hunts at these areas are by special permit only, with a random drawing held prior to the season for a limited number of antlered and an unlimited number of antlerless permits.

The state's three deer-hunting zones remain in place. A three-deer limit (Zone C) will cover 38 central, south, southeastern and southwestern counties. The 30 mid-state counties of Zone B will have a two-deer limit, and the 20 northwestern counties of Zone A will have a one-deer limit. A hunter may take only one buck in Ohio, regardless of zone, hunting method or season.

Information Courtesy of Ohio DNR

Concealed Carry Training

Our next class is scheduled for Saturday, June 9th. Call now to register, class size is limited. Cost for the Course is $149.99 and includes all necessary equipment. For more information, visit our website at www.ovoutdoors.com and click on Concealed Training.

Buying Guide: Long Gun Scopes

No single purchase increases the long range capabilities of your long gun like a quality scope. However, with the tens of different manufacturers and literally thousands of different models, selecting the perfect model can be a daunting task. Understanding the basic design and specifications of scopes can help you to match the correct model to you particular needs.

Telescopic sights, or scopes for short, are nothing more than small telescopes designed to be mounted on a firearm and able to withstand the shock of repeated firings. Scopes consist of three major parts: the objective lens, the eyepieces lens, and a tube to hold and align the lenses. While many different features are available on modern hunting scopes, all share the same basic construction.

The objective lens is the larger lens on the front of scope and gathers light reflected off of objects. This reflected light is not enough to be clearly seen by the naked eye, but once it is collected by the objective lens and focused into a small point through the eyepiece lens, it becomes a clear and bright picture. The tube simply serves as a storage device and alignment tool, protecting the lenses and maintaining the precision alignment required for the scope to function correctly.

Most modern scopes available in the United States will be marked with two numbers. These numbers indicate the magnification and the size of the objective lens. For example, a 4 x 32 scope will magnify objects by a factor of 4, or make them look four times closer. The objective lens for a 4 x 32 scope is 32mm in diameter.

A higher magnification will allow you to focus on objects which are further away. Many scopes also offer variable magnifications. For example, a 3-9 x 32 scope allows you to change the magnification from 3 times to 9 times. This would be useful while hunting in an area where the ranges may change frequently. A higher magnification is not always better. When hunting with a short range gun, like a shotgun or muzzleloader, a low power scope is usually better than a high power scope. Typical shotgun and muzzleloader scopes are in the 1.5 to 3 power range. Anything higher will make it too difficult to focus on targets that are in the range of your gun.

The size of the objective lens determines how much light your scope collects. The more light collected, the brighter your image will be. Large objective lenses can be very helpful when hunting early in the morning, late in the day, or during other low light situations. Objective lens size also affects your field of view, or how much you can see at one time. A larger field of view helps to pick a target up quickly.

Scopes, while simple in their basic design, can come with many additional features. Please stop by our showroom and let us assist you in choosing the perfect scope for the upcoming season.

Next month's buying guide: Binoculars.

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