Earl's newest book, "Longbeards, Callmakers and Memories" follows his first two successes, "Turkey Callmakers Past and Present, MICK'S PICKS" and its follow up "The Rest of the Best". Earl's latest book is a chronicle that any turkey-hunting enthusiast would love.

It details Earl's unique quest to kill a longbearded gobbler in all 49 states that have turkey populations none in Alaska!, and one that he takes in Mexico to round out to 50.

Even more interesting was his desire to take that gobbler using only a call that was made in the state in which he would be hunting. There are of course, lots more callmakers featured in the book, in all 150 for you to check out.

Some of these callmakers I know and have even hunted with, but still many others I have never heard of. There is a story about each of the callmakers and their calls.

Some are so unique they would end up in my collection only, never to see the woods. Earl Mickel has done an outstanding job at paying tribute to some of the most unsung callmakers, while putting them right alongside some better known.

This book is a must have for your coffee table collection. This edition is a beautiful, hard covered feature with a cost of $50. Order yours by writing Earl Mickel, 44 Catholic Church Road, Beach Lake PA 18405.

Crossbow Opportunity
If you hunt with a crossbow, the commissioners did decide at their meeting that you would now be able to use your crossbow to hunt turkeys.

This is one I was waiting for because I do believe this will be a fun hunt.

Currently, crossbows may be used to hunt bear, elk, during any statewide firearms deer season and during any established deer season in Wildlife Management Units 2B, 5C and 5D. The change will permit crossbows to be legal to use as early as the 2006 spring gobbler season.

And last but not least, for the hound hunters, a decision has been made in the right direction about a controversial issue regarding the use of electronic collars.

Presently the regs say you cannot use most electronic devices for hunting. Houndsmen often use tracking collars to recover their dogs.

It seems that hunters ran into trouble over the use of these collars and so the discussion ensued. The commissioners have now issued a preliminary approval to a regulatory change that clarifies electronic devices, including "e-collars," radio-telemetry dog tracking systems and "beeper collars" may be used to locate dogs while training or hunting. They may not be used, directly or indirectly, for locating game.

Meeting Notes
The board of Game Commissioners met this past week in Harrisburg and a lot of material was covered. Then, there were some items that were not covered.

One important part from the norm, was the board's decision not to give final approval to the seasons and bag limits for 2006-2007. The reason; not enough information to make the decision.

It seems that the commission is awaiting further harvest data and information about deer, bear and turkey seasons from 2005. This action is surely spurred by the tremendous rumbling among hunters about the numbers of deer they are NOT seeing in the woods.

So this is your chance to get your opinions in to the board about next year's deer season before their next meeting in April.

On that note, I recently offered to buy a group of hunters a couple of hundred deer, to prove a point.

After listening to them discuss the lack of deer in the woods, and whose fault it was, I made the offer. I offered to put the deer on their property and then take bets about how long the deer would stay there. They pondered the offer.

I then asked how long they would stand there, in the middle of the room, before they decided to head off to get something to eat and find a place to rest; two functions we cannot do without, nor can the deer. They started to connect.

I offered that no matter how many deer you put in most areas of our region, they would not just stand there without food to eat or cover to seek shelter and rest among. If we do not fix our humongous lack of habitat, we will never be able to support more deer. It's called "carrying capacity".

But one thing that was decided preliminarily at the commission meeting, is that you will now be able to hunt what deer you can find with your brand new atlatl! A what? What is an atlatl anyway, you ask?

When one researches tools used for hunting from the archives, one can locate the atlatl and dart system. The atlatl is an accelerator, into which the dart fits. The hunter hurls the propelling arm forward and down, basically launching the dart forward toward its target. I did a little searching and found information comparing the atlatl and dart to the modern bow and arrow.

Like the bow, the atlatl accelerates a flexible shaft from the rear. For the bow the flexible shaft is called an arrow. For the atlatl the flexible shaft is called a dart. The only difference between these two tools is the type of acceleration imparted to the rear of the flexible shaft.

The bow is a linear accelerator, accelerating the arrow from the rear in a straight line. The atlatl is an angular accelerator, accelerating the dart from the rear in an arc. Both physically and mathematically the bow and the atlatl are exactly the same type of weapon.

When accelerated from the rear, the arrow and the dart flex and store spring energy. This stored energy is then used to push away from the launching platform, whether the launching platform is the spur of the atlatl or the string of the bow. The mass of the projectile point influences the amount and rate at which energy is stored and released. The atlatl and dart and the bow and arrow are considered to be and defined as spring mass systems.

There is your lesson in atlatl technology, now try to find one!