Syracuse.com - Donating deer hides can help disabled or sick veterans

[HuntingNY-News]

If you get a deer this hunting season, there’s a way you can help disabled or sick veterans. The Camillus Elks Club is once again collecting raw deer hides from hunters. The hides will be cleaned and salted by members of the club and then sold to a tannery. Proceeds from the hides collected will be used to buy incidentals...

If you get a deer this hunting season, there’s a way you can help disabled or sick veterans.

The Camillus Elks Club is once again collecting raw deer hides from hunters.

The hides will be cleaned and salted by members of the club and then sold to a tannery. Proceeds from the hides collected will be used to buy incidentals for the veterans at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Syracuse.

Donated hides may be dropped off at the lodge at 6117 Newport Road, Camillus.

“Since the hides deteriorate rapidly, do this as soon as possible,” said Bob Maraio, a Camillus club member who is in charge of the effort.

“Deterioration is more rapid if a plastic bag without holes is used,” he said. “We recommend a cardboard box. In any case, time is of the essence. Several hides are usually discarded each year as unacceptable by the tanner.”

For more on this, call 672-3106.

“Please help us help the vets,” Maraio said.

Oneida Lake TV show

The Backwoods Angler TV show visits Oneida Lake this week on the Versus/NBC Sports Network.

In the show, host Blaine Mengel takes viewers to some of the best-known and some of the most hidden lakes, rivers and ponds in the Northeast.

This week’s show, scheduled to air at 7:30 a.m. Monday, features walleye fishing on Oneida Lake, guided by Capt. Tony Buffa.

Buffa said Thursday he went out with the TV crew for the show back in June 2010.

“It was a decent day. We probably boated 12 walleyes or so and we caught bass while we were catching the walleyes,” he said, adding he, Mengel and Mengel’s fishing partner, Chris Gorsuch, were using bucktail jigs tipped with worms and blade baits.

“Our best area that day was the Shackleton Shoals area near Buoy 121, and we also caught them at Sugar Loaf Bar and Big Isle Bar,” he said.

Buffa said he and the two TV anglers also did a “bass fishing shoot” on the lake, which will air at a later date on Versus.

“It was annihilation city. It was preseason and we caught and released a lot of bass that day,” Buffa said.

He said previews of both shows are on his website at www.captaintonybuffafishingcharters.com, embedded on his home page.

“They were fun people to fish with. Gorsuch is a fishing guide on the Susquehanna River and really knows his bass fishing. In fact, they are both excellent fisherman,” Buffa said.

Got coyote?

The Independent Fur Harvesters of Central New York is sponsoring a unique fundraiser early next year. It’s a wintry hunt, with the all proceeds going to Advanced Strategies, a non-profit group that offers hunting adventures for handicapped hunters.

The Bob Evans Memorial Predator Hunt is set to begin at 5 p.m. Jan. 6, with the final weigh-in from noon to 2 p.m. Jan. 8. at the Pompey Rod and Gun Club, Swift Road, Pompey. The entry fee is $20 per hunter, or $30 for a two-person team. Al LaFrance, president of the local trappers group, emphasized “there will be no hound hunting permitted” for this competition.

The grand prize is $1,000 for most points accumulated by a hunter. Five points will be awarded for each coyote taken, three points for each fox and one point for a raccoon — with a $200 bonus for the heaviest coyote taken. There will also be door prizes and raffles.

LaFrance added a state Department of Environmental Conservation staffer will be at the final weigh-in to examine the carcasses brought in by the hunters.

For more information or an entry form, call LaFrance at 682-2050.

Outdoor tales wanted

Have a funny, eye-opening or lesson-teaching fall fishing or hunting tale you’d like to share?

Write, call or email me about it. It’s not required, but it helps if you have pictures to go with it.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog