Is It Just Me?

[yellowlab]

I agree with "Spikebuck" on this. Most of these hunts were started as primitive seasons. Then the gun manufactures started coming up with newer/better tech. and skirting the game laws so they could keep up with their competition and sell their products. They are only making what the consumer is buying. Do I get bent if some one uses a megamagnum to hunt? No I don't, As long as they don't do it during the "primitive season". Im not sure about other states, but here in Oregon we get ONE opportunity to hunt deer or elk per year. If I want to hunt during the muzzleloader season I have to first buy a hunting license, then apply for that hunt through a draw system. Each application costs an additional 8.00 weather you were successful or not. If I don't draw a tag Im stuck hunting the general season with the megamag crowed. I cant start out in the early bow season then rifle hunt then muzzleloader hunt, you get only one hunt (most elk hunts are one week long). The problem is the newer/better tech. has improved success rates to the point that tag numbers had to be lowered, so now getting one of those tags is getting harder and harder and as the "new and improved" muzzleloaders have enticed more and more hunters there is more competition for less tags. Check out the latest abomination from Traditions. The NITROFIRE. It only cost about 3.00 per shot to fire it.

 

[spudnut]

The worst Ive seen is northwest tradegun with the front sight painted dayglo pink with a matching line painted on the breech

 

[Blogman]

The worst Ive seen is northwest tradegun with the front sight painted dayglo pink with a matching line painted on the breech

Seriously?

 

[Patched]

To Spikebucks's point;
Here in Nevada with a tag draw "lottery"...the opening day of Elk muzzleloader season has fallen on the opening day of the mule deer rifle season...I've seen a very long stalk on a trophy bull totally ruined by multiple shots taken at the deer near by.

I believe those primitive weapons hunters should be give their short 2 weeks in the mountains to themselves unmolested by repeater gun fire especially pursuing another species.
No scopes allowed in Nevada...so the "slug guns" only serve to extend a hunters range somewhat...but the whole point of even having a muzzleloader season was to let us old school traditional guys have our time out hunting apart from the more populous pressured hunts...where long range shots at spooked game are perhaps even necessary.

 

[Spikebuck]

I think I may have dragged this thread off topic a bit because the original post was about scopes on traditional guns, but it is all linked because once any type of added technology is allowed then everyone else wants to keep upping the ante and adding more technology.

I fought hard to keep scopes out of our muzzleloader season even though modern muzzleloaders were in season. Every year it came up and every year I wrote letters to the editor of Minnesota sporting magazines/papers and to my legislators. We already had an exemption for those that medically needed optics, which I figured was valid, but not to the general population. Eventually, however, it passed.

Our DNR said it was a "social issue" and they could manage the deer numbers with or without it. Same thing they said about crossbows in bow season. While it hasn't happened here and I suspect will not, this then ties to what others in other states have just said about drawing permits getting harder, fewer opportunities for those the season was meant for, etc. So for those individuals that still have primitive seasons in your state, fight to keep it that way!

 

[Col. Batguano]

The thing many legislatures and the hunting community in general is struggling with, is that participation levels (license sales) are trending down, not up. So those organizations are looking for ways to up their revenue, and sales. Allowing more advanced technology like scopes is one way to make things easier for the hunters, and if things are easier, more people are likely to want to participate.

Of course right after having the desire to go hunting, comes the need of having a place to do it, at a price that is affordable to the participant.

 

[Carbon 6]

The thing many legislatures and the hunting community in general is struggling with, is that participation levels (license sales) are trending down, not up. So those organizations are looking for ways to up their revenue, and sales. Allowing more advanced technology like scopes is one way to make things easier for the hunters, and if things are easier, more people are likely to want to participate.

That strategy was adopted 30 years ago and the overall numbers have been steadily dropping ever since.
I'd say it's not working.

 

[David Veale]

That strategy was adopted 30 years ago and the overall numbers have been steadily dropping ever since.
I'd say it's not working.

Population growth leads to greater population density, a more urban existence, and fewer wild areas suitable for hunting (and more pressure/regulations on those that still exist). I remember one acquaintance who went moose hunting in Wyoming (20 years ago -- I would imagine things have only grown worse) saying that he didn't need a rifle, but just a pair of running shoes so he could be the first one there to throw his tag on the animal that many had shot at once it crossed into legal territory. I've heard similar stories of Idaho elk hunts (multiple shots on a single animal from multiple hunters trying to determine who made the fatal shot), and experienced terrible crowds miles into the backcountry of the Cascade mountains. We can try all the remedies we want, but the trend starts in the bedroom! How many of us were thinking of hunting trends when we had kids? Granted, in the US nowadays, most of the culprit is immigration. Those who benefit from it financially (such as my current employer) are loathe to make any changes. A little more actual democracy might be helpful there.

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

To the OP's point, yes, to me, it is. Just the way you see a nice old Bear Super Kodiak bow for sale and upon further inspection, find that someone had drilled holes in the riser to mount sights, or in the handle to mount a fishing reel. Disgusting to me, but to many, the gun or bow is just a tool to kill game. They dont give a rat's rump about looks. To each, his own. Just dont put a scope on a stainless steel synthetic stocked in-line gun and call it a "smoke pole".

 

[Carbon 6]

Sometimes I wonder what people think the word "traditional" means.