COURTLAND—Timmy Hunter has been hunting his family’s land in Southampton County for generations. For years, he’s dreamed of being able to hunt just like his great grandfather did, with black powder rifles. On Thursday, that dream was shattered, as the Southampton County board dismissed the black powder method as a form of legal hunting.
“We felt that the current options for hunting were more than enough for today’s hunter,” Board director Dick Johnson read in a statement Thursday night to disappointed hunters. “We have too much trouble right now with the white powder issues in our area, we don’t want to complicate matters more by bringing in a rival powder.”
Local hunter, Buck Wild felt that “Dis sum bullsheit. To hell wid’em. I’m gone do it anyway.”
The matter was not completely lost to hunters however. The board did approve a hunting method not seen in Virginia for quite some time.
“In light of dismissing black powder,” Johnson said, “we’ve decided to allow spear hunting effective immediately. When discussing the merits of black powder hunting, one aspect that always came up is that people wanted it to be like the days of their great grandfathers. We decided to take it a further step back, to the Bronze age that is. Now you can have something in common with your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great to the eighth power grandfather. Spear hunting, now that’s a challenge!”
“Dat don’t make no sense” Wild said. “What the hell I’m ‘posed to do wit a daggum spear?”
“Throw it at the deer,” said Johnson.
The new spear hunting makes legal the “physical throwing of a sharp instrument no longer than 8 feet long, without mechanical assistance.” There is no limit on the amount of spears a hunter may carry.
Local historian, Reedin N. Cipherin, argued that, “Spears are just as dangerous to humans as guns, and before guns were invented, spears trailed only the sword and the bubonic plague as the top cause of death. I hope this decision wasn’t reached lightly.”
Spear season starts January 1, 2012 and is open to any animals other than domestic.