Fishing tournaments have been around out country for a long time. From BASS tournaments to the offshore big game tournaments, fishermen have found their niche in the world of competitive sports.

The same thing goes for the world of competitive shooting. Not only is shooting a world class Olympic Sport, thousands of people are flocking to commercial and private shooting ranges for fun as well as competition.

For some reason, hunting as a competitive sport is still low on the radar of competitive sports (with the exception of hunting with dogs as a competitive sport).

In the small mountain community of Maggie, Virginia deer hunters and outdoor enthusiasts from far outside the area come here for the abundance of deer, bear and scenic mountains. The Appalachian Trail meanders through the Johns Creek Hollow and trout fishermen still brave the icy water to wet a line in search of rainbow or brook trout. Unless you know that this valley exist along the Virginia-West Virginia border, you’d miss seeing it. This relatively remote aspect of the Johns Creek Hollow is just what appeals to many.

Deer hunter’s camps are situated every few miles apart on both paved secondary roads and the graveled U.S. Forest Service roads that meaner through this area. Some of these hunter’s camps are very nice but others are optimistically described as “rustic.”

Most of the surrounding area is encompassed within the 710,000 acre Jefferson National Forest. Within this vast National Forest there are still privately owned in-holdings where nice vacation get-aways exist but the rustic deer camps prevail. If the local folks have their way, the valley (hollow) will remain that way.

If deer hunting is not enough, the Virginia state hunting license also includes a single tag the allows the hunters in this area to take one elk per year. It’s seldom that elk are seen here but there are some that wander in from the nearby mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee.

Strictly non-competitive hunting has grown into a very productive method for charities to generate money for various causes. The sport of deer hunting generates a lot of hungry outdoorsmen who are attracted to a good, home cooked meal and this is a resource that can be used to generate money for a good cause.

In the small community of Maggie in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia a benefit for deer hunters has been going on for years. It’s always held on the weekend of the general deer season and it attracts hunters as well as others to this small church for a good meal and fellowship. You don’t see many shirts and ties or fancy hunting clothes here. These are home folks who welcome well-behaved visiting outdoorsmen to their community.

I should imagine that the deer season population of the valley would be at an annual high just before and during the general deer season every year. I’ve seen similar “invasions of the pumpkin army” (so called for the hunter orange clothing that the law requires of deer hunters) in the hills of Pennsylvania where deer hunters from nearby population centers take a week off from work to join the migration to the deer woods. Some of the stories that originate from the deer hunting camps in Pennsylvania are legendary.

The big difference in what I’ve observed up in Pennsylvania versus what happens in Maggie, Virginia is that a lot of the Pennsylvania deer camps are serviced by motor homes that are really traveling fast food restaurants (among other things). These industries make big bucks during the Pennsylvania deer season while local charities have reaped the benefits of the deer hunters in the more rural areas that I’ve visited. I hope the deer hunts in the more rural areas stay that way and don’t turn into the circuses I’ve seen in Pennsylvania.

All the attempts that I’ve heard of that tried to turn hunting into truly competitive sports have (thus far) failed and, personally, I hope it stays that way. To use hunting as a fund raiser for deserving charities is fine and we’ve seen a good number of these used to great advantage in North Carolina.

One of the very best examples of a deer hunt for a good cause was the now defunct Bucks for Bertie deer hunt that was for the benefit of the Bertie County High School. Local farmers, most of who were graduates of Bertie County High School, volunteered their farms for this hunt. Landowners and some of the students acted as guides for the visiting hunters most of whom seemed to be from places to the north of Bertie County.

The school gymnasium was the site for a big pig picking and local restaurants, motels and other service businesses benefited. The lure of two deer per day limits and very reasonable non-resident hunting licenses had great appeal to a lot of city dwellers from northern areas. Estimates placed the economic impact of this two-day hunt at tens-of-thousands of dollars and the high school reportedly brought in some $65,000.00 for the school Beta Club. .

Chowan College also used to have a hunt to bring in hunters to benefit the school and this hunt too went out of business after just a few years. After the ‘hullabaloo” of the gun giveaway (raffle) for the benefit of the Hobgood Academy the “antis” put pressure on to stop such programs.

Thank goodness they haven’t decided to hit-on the fishing tournaments yet. I suppose that’s a future goal on the PETA agenda.