Events to add to your fall calendar

We’re definitely into the fall season!

Salmon fishing is pretty much over and while other angling opportunities like lake fishing for trout or northern pike still exist, most folks have put away their fishing gear for the year. However, if you’re looking for one last outing this season, there is a fishing derby Sept. 26-27 on Big Lake.

Moose hunting is also in full swing right now. The general season closes Sept. 25. In my opinion, this is actually the best time of the moose season. The leaves are largely down, improving visibility, the bugs are gone, and the bulls are beginning their rutting behavior. Calling is more effective for the many bulls on the move looking for receptive females.

Now if the rain will only stop!

Something else to mark on your calendar is the upcoming Alaska Gun Collector’s Association fall gun show scheduled at Raven Hall, on the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer. The show will run Oct. 3-4.

If you’ve been reading this column over time, you know I enjoy shooting blackpowder firearms, whether they are muzzleloaders or blackpowder cartridge guns. The fall rendezvous for the Mt. McKinley Mountainmen will be held at Ft. Wick, up near Talkeetna, over the weekend of Sept. 26-27.

I don’t have the gear to overnight in primitive style and I’m too old and grumpy to deal with sleeping on the ground anyway, but I do have the clothing to fit into the look of the event. I plan to attend during the day, probably Saturday, to visit and enjoy interacting with the other participants. There will be various muzzleloading shooting matches, knife and tomahawk throwing contests, and other activities that can be a lot of fun to watch.

Visitors are always welcome.

To folks unfamiliar with the history of Western expansion, specifically, the Rocky Mountain fur trade era, and the “living history” culture in the blackpowder community, this whole thing probably seems a little “unusual.”

Just as there is an extensive re-enactment program regarding the American Civil War which occurs all over the country (one group being the North-South Skirmish Association), this event features a partial re-enactment, on a much smaller scale, of the annual rendezvous’ that occurred from about 1825 to 1840 in the Rocky Mountains. The purpose of the rendezvous was for merchants to resupply the trappers with necessities like powder and lead, blankets, knives, and trade beads, in exchange for beaver pelts used in making felt hats.

Again, I hope the rain stops!

In my recent reading, I came across an interesting group of numbers. Apparently, the anti-police riots and civil unrest in Baltimore this past summer combined with the general political climate revolving around attempted gun control on the federal level have triggered (pun intended) a continuing buying spree of firearms nationwide. For the months of May through August, over 600,000 more dealer background checks on gun purchasers were conducted by the FBI compared to the same time period a year ago. Those previous numbers were at record setting levels then. New all-time high firearm sales figures were established for each of the four months. Totals for the 2015 four-month period are 6,456,500 checks verses 5,817,000 checks in 2014.

I have an FFL but have not seen that increased level of sales or anything close through my business. Other gun sales outlets in Alaska may have seen some of this increased activity; however, we haven’t faced the unrest folks in the Lower 48 seem to deal with on an almost daily basis, if you don’t count the Anchorage gang and drug-related shootings. I’m not a stocking dealer and tend to only deal with folks I know or who are referred to me by friends. I’m what is known in the industry as “a little guy.”

I have also seen reports that indicate violent crime rates, specifically murders, have decreased over the same time period when additional states passed legislation and started issuing concealed carry permits to their residents. Law-abiding citizens buying and owning guns is a good thing!

Howard Delo, a retired fisheries biologist, writes a weekly outdoors column for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. This column is the writer’s and does not necessariy reflect the views of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman or its parent company, Wick Communications.