This week we should change the name of the column to Tell Outdoors Girl. As I expected, many of you filled in the blanks to Gene Boyd's question about the details of when the start of firearms season for white-tailed deer was shifted one day, from the day after Thanksgiving, to Saturday. He wondered whether the one-day change had something to do with wives not wanting their husbands in deer camp for an extra day. Thanks for all of your help. Here's some of what you had to offer.

Edward D. E. Rollins III of Elkton wrote: I started hunting with my father when I was about 8. The first year that I was allowed to deer hunt was 1967. We hunted on the Shaeffer farm, along the C&D Canal. He killed a nine-pointer on the first day, which was a Friday after Thanksgiving. I killed a six-pointer on the second day, which was a Saturday. We had our picture taken with dad's deer, which was published in the Cecil Whig. I can't say for sure how long prior to 1967 that deer season opened on Friday, but I know that it did on that date. I believe that the following year the season went to a Saturday opener, and it has been that way ever since. I could probably dig up the old picture for verification if necessary.

Tom Uzarowski of Harford County replied: I have held a Maryland hunting license since about 1964. My first several licenses were when a "county only" license was available for about $1.50. At 14 years old, the $5 statewide license was more than I thought affordable. I was living in Anne Arundel County at this time. It was at this time that firearms deer season always started on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. I always had a turkey sandwich for the opening day lunch break. The firearms season was one week only, Friday through the second Saturday. If my recall is correct, the season opener was changed from Friday to Saturday somewhere around 1980-1981.

Robert A. McIntire of Towson weighed in: Having hunted deer in Garrett County every year for the last 50 years (except for two years when I was in the U.S. Army), I can confirm that the firearms deer season started on the Friday after Thanksgiving for at least one or two years in the 1960s. This arrangement was especially beneficial for teenage hunters, as it gave us an additional day when we could hunt before going back to school (although for some time hunting deer was considered an excused absence by the Garrett County schools). At that time, most of the herd was in western Maryland, and many hunters had to drive from the Baltimore/Washington area and stay overnight to be ready for the start of the season. The Friday start was changed back to Saturday supposedly because these down-state hunters did not want to leave their families on Thanksgiving to travel to western Maryland for the beginning of deer season.

Bruce Grammer, another Baltimore County hunter, said: I began hunting deer in 1963, and I'm absolutely certain that at least through 1965 the regular firearms deer season started the Friday after Thanksgiving. After 1965 I'm not so sure, so I don't remember when it switched to a Saturday opening.

For the first three seasons of my deer hunting career, my uncle and cousin would pick me up about 2 a.m. Friday and we would head for Green Ridge. We'd get there just before shooting time, hunt all day Friday, camp overnight (just pitch a tent in the woods), hunt until about noon on Saturday and then head back to the Towson area.

I hope this helps some; sorry I can't remember the year the season switched to a Saturday opening. I've been wanting to know that also so I could tell my son-in-law, who's been hunting with me since 1991, and grandson Dean, who started this past season.

Don Leidy of Baltimore replied by snail mail (with a terrific animal rescue stamp): Gene Boyd was right about Friday hunting and about women complaining about their men jumping up from Thanksgiving dinner and heading for hunting camp. I was one of them. I came to Dundalk in 1953 and it was Friday hunting at that time. Hunting cost a lot of money and for the working man we only got three Saturdays to hunt. Having the Friday after Thanksgiving gave us four.

P.S. Candy, you are probably the only woman in the world who can bring this back to us because you have the pen.

Bill Hanna of Whiteford added this humorous punctuation: I remember hearing from friends and relatives about this scenario. The husbands would tell their spouses that Friday was the opening day in order to get an extra day at deer camp with their friends and fellow hunters. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't!

candy.thomson@baltsun.com