State Sen. Dale M. Volker (R-I-C, Depew) on Aug. 31 announced that New York Gov. George E. Pataki has signed S-918, Volker’s bill which would allow sportsmen to hunt deer and bear in most of the state’s Southern Zone counties with rifles.

“This new law is a common sense approach to humanely thinning out our deer herds, stopping the spread of Lyme Disease in many Southern Tier counties and allows sportsmen and sportswomen to have enhanced opportunities in participating in our cultural heritage,” said Volker.

The legislation was sponsored in the State Assembly by Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte.

The Volker-DelMonte bill, which goes into effect immediately, would allow hunters to use rifles during open season for deer and bear in the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chenango, Herkimer, Montgomery, Oneida, Oswego, Otsego, Schoharie and Tioga, as well as certain rural towns on Broome County in those areas east of the Susquehanna River.

For several years, the growth in the population of deer in the state’s Southern Tier has been profound, Volker said.

“By allowing rifle hunting for deer and bear in this region of our state, we can humanely lower the deer population as they often die of starvation. It will also prevent human deaths from automobile accidents that have been rising from vehicles hitting deer on our highways, and also see a reduction in the spread of Lyme Disease throughout the state of New York, which is often spread by deer ticks.”

Before the governor signed the bill, The Olean Times Herald had reported that some sportsmen’s group’s chapters in Allegany and Cattaraugus counties had been opposed to legalizing rifles for big game hunting. Some had even urged Pataki to veto the measure.

Rifles for big game hunting have been legal in most of the state’s Northern and Catskill Zones, while hunters in the Southern Zone, which includes all of the counties west of Interstate-81 have been limited to slugged shotguns, certain handguns, muzzleloading firearms and long- and compound bows.

Because of their longer range, rifles were considered too dangerous for relatively flat, open landscapes. But with the increased range of modern shotguns and the use of rifle-barreled (in-line) muzzleloaders, there is no longer a compelling reason to ban rifles, said Howard Cushing, president of the New York State Conservation Council, according to The Oneota Daily Star.

Cushing said the greater accuracy of rifles will improve hunters’ success rates and help control the state’s deer population, which is approaching 1 million. That is crucial in preventing the spread of chronic wasting disease in the state, he said.

New York’s first case of the disease, which has devastated herds in the West, was found in a captive deer herd in Oneida County in March. The disease was also detected in two wild deer in that county, but samples from more than 4,000 other wild deer from around the state uncovered no other cases.

The regular deer season in the state’s Southern Zone opens Nov. 19.