Way Back When – December 1-2, 1984
Guymon motels and restaurants are filled to capacity this weekend as hundreds of pheasant hunter poured into town for this season opening.
A survey showed that all local motels were completely booked, one for as long ago as two months. They still were receiving calls Friday for reservations but those who waited couldn't get accommodations. A spokesman at Townsman Motel said most of their rooms have been booked since May. At Byerley's it was reported that most of their weekend guests here to hunt are repeat customers.
Desk clerks surveyed were not certain where all the hunters were coming from but said most were from eastern Oklahoma and south Texas.
Ambassador Inn Restaurant cashier Barbara David said they prepared for an overload crowd this weekend. They opened for breakfast at 4:30 a.m. Saturday. They usually are opened at 6 a.m. She said, “It is a madhouse on pheasant season weekend. The place is full of men running around.”
The Ambassador has a “longest tailfeather contest” offering gift certificate prizes for the longest tailfeathers
brought in.
Wildlife officials predicted a hunt not quite as good as last year. Populations are down as a result of last winter's severe weather, but pheasants numbers are still above average for the past five years. Last year more than 20,000 hunters bagged nearly 80,000 pheasants.
Wildlife Department officials had several reminders for pheasant hunters. The daily limit for pheasants in the Panhandle is three cocks, according to Assistant Law Enforcement Cheif Derrel Musgrove. Hunters must leave evidence of each bird's sex on the carcass when it is cleaned. They can leave on either one foot or the head.
Musgrove said additional state game rangers are in three counties checking hunters. Those possessing birds not meeting the identification test are subject to a $72 citation for each bird.
Hunters on private property must have permission from the landowner or lessee, Musgrove emphasized. Violators are subject to a $120 fine should a landowner file a complaint for
hunting without consent.
Musgrove added, “The hunting technique of driving and blocking used in the Panhandle makes pheasant hunting a potentially dangerous situation. Bright colored garments help hunters keep visual contact with each other.”