FBI shooting range is popular deer hangout
In recent years, a black bear was spotted running across a parking lot, and a groundhog cornered an FBI agent coming out of the cafeteria, hoping to score some human food, FBI spokesman Kurt Crawford said. Turkey vultures are often seen perched atop the 500,000-square-foot national crime lab where the FBI analyzes evidence, including the remains of the former al-Qaida leader in Iraq.
"They're pretty immune to the sound," said Sean Boyle, supervisory special agent bomb technician and principal firearms instructor for the Critical Incident Response Group based at the academy. The deer typically graze on top of the berm, about 15 feet away from the targets and rarely go directly in the line of fire. Boyle said he doesn't recall an instance where a deer was shot accidentally.
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries does not keep direct tabs on the deer population at the FBI academy, but a spokeswoman said statewide the deer population has remained about the same over the past decade, partly because of regulated hunting. Licensed deer hunters are allowed on parts of the Marine Corps base but not at the academy where the FBI does not hunt its animals.
At the FBI Academy, the deer have even become part of the training in some of the driving courses, said Tim Moles, the supervisory special agent who oversees the Tactical and Emergency Vehicle Operations Center, where recruits learn to avoid crashing their cars and conduct surveillance without being spotted. The deer are convenient when recruits learn to avoid collisions, Moles said. "There's times when it seems like they're playing chicken with us," Moles said. "We respect them because they can do damage. We'd rather avoid all deer stories in this end of the academy.
Deer Season Washington - News
The 547-acre FBI Academy, where some of the nation's best marksmen fire off more than 1 million bullets every month, happens to be one of the safest places for deer during hunting season. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) By Eileen Sullivan Associated
Although the number of deer checked in Washington County during the week-long deer-gun season was the tenth highest in the state, the county was not in the top 10 for the number of deer killed last weekend. According to figures provided by the Ohio
In early November, 28 hunters participated statewide in a special three-day deer season hunt for paraplegics at five locations in Massachusetts. A total of seven deer (one buck, one button buck, and five does) were taken for an overall success rate of
“(They think) it's a cool thing to do.'' What's really cool is the thought of Kuznetsov joining Ovechkin in Washington. And the prospect of teaming up with Alex the Great in the US capital as early as next season is definitely in the cards.
I'll save most of the details for our future deer season wrap-up column. However, there is one story I'd like to share. My 19-year-old cousin, Warren Chaney of Hartford in Washington County, killed his first Adirondack buck a few weeks ago.