cntryboy657 said:
i love to muzzleloader hunt.i do shoot an inline muzzleloader and yes i do shot 209 primer but to me if u take the smoke away it kinda takes the fun out. i mean whats next?
You really want to know?
DEER Season.
Just a matter of time, there will be no "special" weapons seasons.
The opening day of the November rifle season will soon become what was the opening day of muzzleloader season. You'll simply be able to use any rifle you choose, whether smokeless or black powder, muzzleloading or breech loading.
Archery season segments will be around a few years longer, but just a matter of time until a simple
"DEER" season replaces "bow" season, and for the same reasons it is becoming no longer necessary to keep a special muzzleloader season. A big step in this direction was when compound bows replaced recurve and long bows. The next big step was when crossbows were made legal archery equipment to all.
Of course, there will be a growing number of places that will stop allowing firearms for hunting because "they", being the powers that be, will say that firearms are simply no longer "safe" in a certain community, county, township, or even a WMA. Much of the future's "urban" deer hunting will be "archery only". But this is a totally different issue than the "special" weapons seasons we currently have, like "archery" and "muzzleloader".
"Special" weapon season segments were initially allowed because state game agencies felt they would "do little or no harm" to a deer herd they were trying to grow and expand. There were so relatively few participants (initially), and using such ineffective weapons (relative to a modern centerfire), that few people had much problem with these "special" extra hunting opportunities for the few, the proud, the strong, who would identify themselves as "bowhunters", and then "black powder hunters".
I can remember when hats were off to any hunter who had the skill to kill a deer,
ANY deer, with a stick and a string. And if not a deer, a squirrel. Even a blackbird would do. The process and thinking repeated with the new black powder "special" deer seasons. We considered ourselves extra "special" just for being participants in these special events.
I remember one day when a very young TWRA Officer Mark Gudlin, probably on his first assignment with TWRA, "checked" me while I was bowhunting for deer. He asked if I'd seen any deer, and I said "no". But before I could say more, "Well, what's that fresh blood there from?" I had two large fox squirrels, both shot thru the head with an arrow. I was about as proud of those squirrels as I would have been with a deer. Mark seemed equally impressed. Many moons ago.
But that was back in the day when there were real skills involved in just learning and using the equipment, or getting that old gun to even fire. Daily archery practice was once a requirement to even acquire borderline shooting skills to take a deer at 15 or 20 yards. Now, it's just "pull the trigger" on a 90% let-off bow, or a scoped crossbow, or a modern firearm. Just "pull the trigger". Of course I'm oversimplifying, but you get my drift.
Much of the "specialness" of the participation has long since gone away. Once seen as very special hunters, many have now become seen more as an arrogant group with an entitlement mentality. They were "entitled" to more and more days afield because after all, they were "special". Not so much any more. Just pull your trigger.
Of course, there are still a few hunters around still using a real stick & string, or a real black-powder flintlock --- but they're getting fewer and farther between and maybe even more special in the eyes of the rest of us.
And I have nothing but respect for the hunter's choice to use a bow, any bow, during a gun season.
It's still a greater challenge. But it's a personal choice, not necessarily a choice that will or should grant exclusive hunting days in the future.
I say these things, hypocritically guilty as charged myself, because I started out the "special seasons" with a simple stick & string, and later an old Hawken muzzleloader. My very first "special season" deer was killed with a 40-lb recurve, real cedar arrows, and some type of homemade head. I still vividly remember smelling the cedar where the arrow had broken, a piece fell from the deer. Every time I smell cedar, I think of that moment when I was 13 years old and killed my first deer with a very simple bow. I used to be a bowhunter. Now I'm just proud to be a deer hunter, and counting each next day I get to hunt again. It matters little to me what weapon I may have in my hand. But like most modern deer hunters, I'll probably be using something among the most effective of legal weapons allowed. That will probably be a Savage smokeless during muzzleloader. Never mind I tried to redeem myself in 2007 by going back to bow hunting with a simple recurve bow. I have no plans to go back to a flintlock.
As hunter numbers decline and statewide deer herds spiral out of control, we'll just have a long deer season. And you can hunt with whatever you want. Well, at least until the next generation outlaws hunting at the voting booth. After that, the hunt is over.
