Season starts with roadkill

Last week I posed the question of how many geezers does it take to harvest a moose in a “hot spot” hunt, and said I would answer in today’s column.

Well, I spent a day earlier this week helping Gnarly Dan and three other friends butcher and process a large cow moose. Gnarly and I did the grinding and most of the packaging while the other guys did the initial meat cleanup and deboning. I’ll mention more in a bit after touching on some other topics.

There are several gun shows scheduled in the Valley over the next few months, starting with the Wasilla Hockey Boosters Gun Show at Wasilla High School tomorrow and Sunday. The Matanuska Valley Sportsmen’s Association Gun Show will be held at Raven Hall on the Palmer State Fairgrounds Feb. 9 and 10. The Palmer Lion’s Club 45th Annual Gun Show is scheduled for March 9 and 10, also at Raven Hall. And finally, the Alaska Gun Collectors’ Association Gun Show will be held April 20 and 21, again at Raven Hall.

Some of these shows are advertising that there will be vendors present selling items that will appeal to the fairer sex, just in case the lady in your life isn’t quite as enamored with firearms as you might be. However, after seeing Christine Cunningham’s new book “Women Hunting Alaska,” published by Tony Russ’ Northern Publishing in Wasilla, I suspect there will be ladies attending who are less interested in jewelry or other non-gun-related items and will be looking for hunting firearms and gear. Good for them, or as my wife says, “You go, girl!”

President Obama released his ideas on what he feels are appropriate gun control measures earlier this week. These proposals are supposed to be based on the findings of a task force chaired by Vice President Bidden. A couple of the items call for the banning of so-called “assault weapons” and high-capacity “clips.” Again, we see a serious misuse of terminology, but I’ve discussed that before. The thing I find interesting is that a handful of Western states have either already passed or are proposing to pass state legislation making it a criminal offense for a federal agent to enforce any federal law restricting ownership of semi-auto firearm or banning of high capacity magazines.

Rep. Mike Chenault, speaker of the Alaska House, has introduced similar legislation in Alaska this session (HB 69). His bill would make it a misdemeanor offense for a federal agent to enforce a so-called assault weapon ban or any prohibition on high capacity magazines in Alaska. If you don’t know, a misdemeanor offense is considered criminal and usually carries a prison term of up to one year and a fine of something like $5,000. It’s a serious offense.

I have also seen news reports where sheriffs offices all over the country are saying they will not enforce any federal gun control laws they deem unconstitutional — and many see a semi-auto firearms and magazine capacity restriction ban as unconstitutional. Are we seeing the beginning of widespread civil disobedience, like the civil rights movement back in the 1960s? We’ll see.

Along these lines, I’ve also seen reported that Oklahoma, Texas, Montana and Utah have already passed — and Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, West Virginia, Mississippi and Florida are likely to pass — state legislation declaring that state as a sovereign state not under the federal government’s directives. Do you think Alaska belongs with this group? That will make for some interesting coffee break discussions.

On a somewhat lighter note, back to the geezers verses moose discussion. Gnarly and I spent a couple days last week hunting for a moose with his hot spot permit. Because of schedules, two days was all we could squeeze out of the week once the permit was issued. Gnarly is a pastor at a church in the Butte and his responsibilities prohibited any more time in the field.

The first day out, we spotted two cows within maybe 30 yards of the road. We probably could have gotten a shot at either moose, except they both were standing directly behind “Posted – No Hunting or Trespassing” signs. Don’t tell me moose don’t know the seasons, regulations and permit hunt requirements. We never saw another moose.

Oh, that moose we butchered this week — it was a roadkill the Alaska Moose Federation had dropped off at Gnarly’s church under the roadkill program a few days before.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.