By Mike Roche

To start this column, it seems only appropriate to acknowledge the passing of Leslie Barnes. He was a true sportsman and lover of the outdoors. His lifelong passion for hunting and fishing was obvious to all who knew him.

Whether hunting pheasants and deer or deep trolling the Quabbin Reservoir, he was very much at home outdoors and passed that love on to his family. He was a dedicated member of the Orange Gun Club and a fine trapshooter in his time who contributed greatly to the club. He was a great example of why we refer to those who lived during his time as members of the “Greatest Generation.”

In today’s world, marketing is everywhere, and Black Friday has taken on a life of its own. The quest for bargains and the Christmas shopping frenzy dominates our lives. Everyone likes to get a great price on things we buy, and retailers are driven to make sales during the pre-Christmas months, which absolutely determines financial success or failure.

The craziness of mobbing stores at midnight to get the great Black Friday sale prices seems to have been replaced by Amazon and the other venues bombarding everyone with special pricing “for a short time only.” Certainly, it is a chance to save our hard-earned money on things we need, but often we are tempted to buy things we might have been able to live without. Clearly there is a fine line between necessities and luxuries, but that is life in 2024!

Meanwhile, Massachusetts shotgun deer hunting season opens Monday. There are a lot of serious deer hunters out there and many have been pursuing whitetails since the bow season opened on Oct. 7. With Massachusetts’ liberal bag limits, that gives you two buck tags to be used during the archery, shotgun and primitive arms season and with the ability to obtain antlerless deer permits in a lottery and also purchase surplus permits which can be used in select zones, there are ample opportunities.

Those participating in the upcoming two-week shotgun season must wear 500 square inches of approved hunter orange on their head, chest and back. All deer must be immediately tagged, and all deer must be reported within 48 hours. All deer taken during the first week of shotgun season must be brought to a check station. Thanks go out to the Orange Gun Club for serving as a check station locally that first week. There will be other places you may check your deer after the first week, including MassWildlife facilities such as Bitzer Hatchery in Montague, Valley District Headquarters in Belchertown, Central District Headquarters in West Boylston, and Field Headquarters in Westboro. There is a map of check stations available online at the MassWildlife site and you can call for information as to when they will be open.

Preparation for the upcoming deer hunting season is going on and that means locating the clothing and gear. We all have too much “stuff” but that is the nature of the beast. My brother Chris brought that abundance of hunting gear to my attention when we were setting up my spare Remington 1100 20-gauge shotgun for him. The first attempt to mount a combination of an older side-mounted scope plate and a vintage Burris 1X4 variable scope was a dismal failure. Going back to the drawing board, my supply of different sights included a magnetic front and rear fiber optic sights. They were put on and the results should make any buck that wanders in front of Chris nervous.

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That search also turned up scope mounts to attach to a shotgun vent rib in order to mount a scope and not one, but two “red dot” sights. They are popular and quicker than a scope but slower to acquire a moving target than open sights. My 12-gauge Remington 1100, a gun that was put together over years and improved with a Hastings cantilevered barrel, Timney adjustable trigger (no longer being made), and a Zeiss Conquest scope now sits in the safe with the scope removed. That was an extremely accurate shotgun, but the scope is now atop my new Winchester SuperX4 20-gauge deer gun. That gun, which is considerably lighter than the 12-gauge, is sighted in and ready to go should the need arise.

Other gear is all where it was left, and it is just a matter of deciding which hunter orange hat to wear. My few forays scouting have revealed that there is not much fresh sign in my most frequent locations [chosen by my desire to kill a small deer that will not require a long drag] and more research is needed. This writer is not a big trail camera guy. I have had the same three for over 10 years and the most captured images are my dogs running in the backyard. Hopefully my detective work will locate a good spot to sit but, as always, it will probably come down to being in the right place at the right time.

Mike Roche is a retired teacher who has been involved in conservation and wildlife issues his entire life. He has written the Sportsman’s Corner since 1984 and has served as advisor to the Mahar Fish’N Game Club, counselor and director of the Massachusetts Conservation Camp, former Connecticut Valley District representative on the Massachusetts Fisheries and Wildlife Board, a Massachusetts Hunter Education Instructor and is a licensed New York hunting guide. He can be reached at mikeroche3@msn.com.