Pair charged with illegal deer hunting

Police charged Thomas Ethan Allen, 40, of Hanover and Timothy Sean Harmon, 30, of Halethorpe with poaching on Nov. 22.

Police responded to a complaint of illegal hunting on Ridge Ridge at 9:20 p.m. The officers located Allen and Harmon in the woods inside an all-terrain vehicle with a freshly killed eight-point, whitetail buck.

An investigation revealed that Allen and Harmon apparently used a spotlight and a 12-gauge shotgun to shoot the deer.

Both men were charged with casting the rays of artificial light with an implement capable of killing a deer in possession, possession of deer during closed season, hunting deer on Sunday, and hunting-pursuing wildlife with an off-road vehicle. The shotgun, spotlight, a flashlight, a knife and

the deer were confiscated.The charges came just days before the Nov. 28 opening of the firearms season for deer. From now until Dec. 12, and again on two days in January, hunters will be out en masse trying to bag their 12-deer limit: 10 antlerless and two antlered whitetails.

"The two-week deer firearm season is the main event for many Maryland hunters," said Brian Eyler, DNR's deer project leader. "Deer hunters look forward to sharing time with family and friends in the woods and having venison on the table."

Deer hunting has waned in Anne Arundel and other areas of the state over the years as access to open land has dwindled amid ever-expanding suburbia. The proximity of possible hunting grounds to residential areas led the DNR to outlaw high-powered rifles in many counties, including Anne Arundel and Queen Anne's.

Hunters are limited to using shotguns during firearm season, presumably because of the limited range of a shotgun blast as opposed to a rifle. But advances in technology have increased the wallop of a shotgun. Rifle slugs and barrels are now available for hunters to attach to shotguns.

The whitetail was nearly hunted into oblivion as the state's population grew and its habitat was destroyed. A concerted effort to boost the deer population back in the beginning of the last century banned deer hunting until the early 1930s. The first year hunting was reinstated there were 32 deer taken.

Last season 100,437 deer were taken, a little more than half of them in the two-week firearm season.

There are other opportunities for deer hunters, among them bow-hunting and muzzleloader seasons.

Overall, hunters reported taking 8,232 antlered and 16,152 antlerless deer so far this year, the agency reported.

"We are very satisfied to see hunters taking nearly twice as many antlerless as antlered deer," said Pete Jayne, DNR associate director for game management. "Harvesting antlerless deer is a critical part of our deer management plan."

Maryland Gazette Rick Hutzell and Staff Writer E.B. Furgurson III contributed to this story.