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About 60,000 in Ohio participate in special weekend hunt
By Bill Lilley Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, Nov 20, 2007
CARROLLTON: It's a typical cold, windy, gray-sky Saturday morning in November.
Jessica Capestrain is a typical high school student in almost every way.
And when her alarm wakes her at 4 a.m., she is well aware of what most of her classmates at North Canton Hoover High School are doing.
Sleeping.
She is motivated by a call.
Not the one that comes into her bedroom from her father, Carl, but the silent one that hardly anyone expects a young girl her age to hear.
''I love to hunt,'' said Jessica, a 17-year-old senior at Hoover who carries a 3.99 grade-point average and is in the top 15 percent of her class.
''I have a tough time getting up early during the week to go to school, but. . . . ''
So while her classmates slept under plush comforters, she added about 25 pounds of clothing to her 100-pound body in preparation for her idea of ultimate comfort — sitting for hours in a tree stand or on a
camouflaged folding chair behind a thicket of woods, with numb toes and shivering limbs.
She was one of perhaps 60,000 youthful deer hunters in Ohio who participated in a special Saturday-Sunday hunt last weekend, set aside for people under the age of 18. Nearly 7,000 were likely to be licensed in the five-county Akron-Canton area this year.
''You can't beat the feeling of being alone in the woods with all the anticipation of getting a big buck,'' Capestrain said.
''And there is no feeling like the incredible adrenalin rush you get when you shoot a deer.''
Youth hunting is on the rise throughout Ohio, especially in Stark County, where the sale of youth permits more than doubled in a five-year period from 1,210 in 2001 to 2,552 in 2006.
Tim Jordan, an Ohio Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Officer in Stark County for the past 25 years, isn't surprised.
''The outdoor heritage in Stark County always has been outstanding,'' said Jordan, who attributed some of the enthusiasm to 30 local clubs that sponsor related events.
Fighting a decline
The peak in Ohio deer hunting came in 1949 when 737,675 licenses were sold. That was one license for every 10 Ohio residents.
Sales slumped throughout the next three decades, bottoming out at 216,055 in 1980 and rising last year to about 440,000 for all forms of deer permits — or about one in every 26 residents.
Several factors were cited for the decline, including increased recreational options and television.
Other factors included the need to create living space for the baby boom, which caused Ohio's population to grow from 7.9 million in 1950 to 11.5 million in recent years, and farmers' concern for safety and liability.
The ODNR's first effort to turn around the decline was the creation of the half-price youth deer-hunting license in 1992, available to anyone under age 16.
Previously, they paid full price. They were not exempt, however, from an eight- to nine-hour hunter training course that all first-time hunters must atttend.
The holder of a youth license also must be accompanied by a nonhunting adult at least 18. A youth deer-hunting permit is $12.
In 2006, the qualified age was raised to 17, accounting for a sharp increase last year.
In last weekend's special youth hunt — the second time that 16- and 17-year-olds could qualify — the preliminary deer kill statewide surged 19 percent to 10,515, and in the Akron-Canton area it was up 11 percent to 329, according to data released Monday.
''The kids are the future for hunting,'' said Vicki Mountz, ODNR executive administrator for information and education. ''And we realized there was more and more competition for their time every year with all the things like video games, computers that were evolving.''
In 2003, the special youth season was created. That gave possessors of a youth license the opportunity to have their own weekend to hunt, just prior to the regular season Nov. 26 through Dec. 2 and Dec. 15 through Dec. 16.
That special weekend, Mountz said, has proven to be very popular.
''This weekend gives the youth hunters the opportunity to have a much higher-quality hunting experience,'' Mountz said.
And safer, despite the fact that hunters — as young as 7, according to Graham — can be found toting, aiming and firing a 12-gauge shotgun in the woods.
Pat Tilton, a longtime Stark County hunter and father of a teen hunter, agreed.
''It's great to get the kids out there on their own because you don't have a lot of lead flying around,'' he said. ''I think it's a lot safer than the regular season.''
A third change was made in 2006 — an apprentice license — with a cost of $10 and temporary exemption from the hunter-education course. The apprentice does have to be accompanied by a licensed hunter at least 21.
''The apprentice program really has helped the numbers grow,'' said Jamey Graham, Wildlife Communications Specialist for 19 counties in Northeast Ohio. ''We're finding that kids who won't invest the time to take a hunter safety course before they hunt will get hooked on the hunting experience and then will take the course in order to get the youth license.''
A youngster may purchase an apprentice license three times.
There were 33,817 youth deer-hunting permits sold in Ohio in 1996.
A decade later, the number had nearly doubled to 66,626.
Building relationships
Stark County-based psychologist Dr. Ray Guarendi sees value in hunting if young people are with parents.
He also dismisses attempts to relate hunting to increased violence on television and in society.
''That would be a typical cliche reason, and it would be wrong,'' said Guarendi, who has a nationally syndicated radio show that focuses on his specialty — raising children.
''Hunting is certainly a lot better in developing kids and their relationships with their parents, especially their father, than playing video games.''
Watching television during dinner and other typical habits don't promote family conversation, he said.
''In terms of developing relationships and communicating, I think hunting is great,'' he said. ''And I don't own a gun.''
Cole Tilton, a 15-year-old sophomore at Perry High School who has been hunting for four years, agrees with Guarendi.
''I think I have a better understanding of my dad than other kids my age because of the time we spend hunting in the woods together,'' Tilton said. ''I love being in the woods, there's nothing like it.''
The case of Carl Capestrain, who works for Time Warner Cable in Canton, is even more profound.
Capestrain has two daughters and no sons.
He wasn't sure the Capestrain hunting legacy, which goes through several generations in Stark County, would survive on his limb of the family tree.
''It's absolutely the greatest thing in the world being able to hunt with my kid, especially since it's my daughter,'' he said. ''I never pressured her into hunting, but I did make it very available.''
Jessica Capestrain said her father's stories intrigued her.
''As far back as I can remember, my father came home from hunting and would talk about it,'' Jessica said.
She started spending time in the woods at age 3 or 4 and at 7 was shooting with a scaled-down bow and arrow.
She began bow hunting at 12 after completing her hunter safety course and passing the test with a near-perfect score of 99. She also began training with a shotgun at 12.
Jessica, who hopes to study engineering in college, knows she's cutting a different mold at Hoover High, a suburban school known more for BMWs in the parking lots than pickup trucks with gun racks.
''Hunter definitely isn't the stereotype of Hoover students,'' Jessica said. ''But there are a handful of us in the school who are really into it.
''And kids at school love to ask me 'Did you see anything on Saturday' and then we'll laugh and talk about it.''
She had plenty to talk about in 2004, when she shot a 7-point buck with a 12-gauge shotgun in her first deer gun season.
She got a doe last fall.
Both times, she helped her father field dress, tag and check in the deer. She had the buck mounted ''not so much because of its size, but because it was the first deer I had shot.''
''It's taught me a lot, especially about patience, perseverance and preparation,'' said Jessica, who only saw two doe but did not get off a shot during a four-hour session of silence and waiting Saturday morning. ''And it's taught me a lot about myself, things I wouldn't have realized about myself at this age if I had not had the opportunity to hunt — not the least of which is I love deer meat.''
And she has no plans to stop.
''I'll definitely hunt forever because I love it so much,'' Jessica said. ''There's simply no question in my mind about that.
''And my dad keeps teasing me that I'll be the one providing for my family, both with a pencil and a gun.''
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Bill Lilley can be reached at 330-996-3811 or blilley@thebeaconjournal.com.
CARROLLTON: It's a typical cold, windy, gray-sky Saturday morning in November.
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