Late Muzzleloading season

[arw22lr]

oops I meant to respond to RC.

 

[RC]

Well as long as i can remember, bowhunters hunted after the reg season, used to be 5 days..then 7..now..9??...but........ as for the nysmla, they are trying to get ANY pre-season for ml's first....they were trying for primitive, and state came up with primitive doe only, but got "voted" down...course 350-400 members don't give ya much pull... IMHO the almighty dollar is the deciding factor....hence the "transferable doe permit" take that away and licence sales plummet! :hmm:

 

[Renegade Dan]

I really like that Idea. :thumbsup:

 

[pepperonis]

I grew up in the Southern zone of NY and never hunted muzzleloader for this reason. Always ticked me off too!
Now I'm in Maine and have the same problem, late season after everyone comes up and scares everything away. Don't see it ever changing.

 

[bigbore442001]

MaineTracker:

I can give you some advice on how you may get one of the biggest deer of your life using a muzzleloader in the Pine Tree State. It isn't easy but it can work if everything comes together.

More than a decade ago I befriended a game warden in NW Maine and actually he guided me on a black bear hunt. I chatted about hunting for deer and he commented that the best way to get a trophy deer is to get on a run used by deer that are about to head to their deer yard. If the area starts getting snow early, the deer will instinctively head to their yards. He commented that if you find one of the runs you can post yourself and see up to fifty deer a day headed for their winter quarters, so to speak. He commented that at that time, the fish and game was worried that muzzleloader hunters were taking too many trophy grade deer and it may negatively affect the overall herd. He told me of two places which I never have gotten to go to. It seems that life has conspired against me in taking a week off and doing just that. PM me and I will tell you where it may work.

Another method that may work,again told to me by a guide, is to use a varmint call. I remember a guide who advertized tent camps in the Ashland area and was intrigued by his muzzleloading hunt out of a heated tent. Ok. I am still a romantic and envisioned a Nordic type of hunt away from the BS of civilization. Ok. I tend to go off on a tangent so back to the topic.

We chatted and he commented that a varmint type of call sometimes picqued the curiosity of deer in winter. I cannot state whether or not it works because I have not done so. Maybe this late muzzleloader in Massachusetts( which is December 15th to December 31st) I may do it for the fun of it. I too feel the same way in the fact that the deer in the Bay State have been hunted hard with bow and then for two solid weeks with the shotgun.

Another method which may help you is food. When I hunted black bear in Maine I befriended a Passamaquoddy Indian who was the guide's assistant. He tended to be somewhat of a loner but for some strange reason we hit it off and he invited me to his camp on Indian land for small game and a place to stay for the deer season off of Indian land( at that time non tribal members were not allowed to hunt deer, bear or moose. With a tribal member you could hunt small game) He told me that his father tracked many deer and he found that if you can hound a deer for about three days straight it will more or less give up. You can do that if there is snow on the ground and are able to walk long distances.

A fourth trick although the timber company may not be happy about it is to cut down a silver birch. He told me that it can be a deer magnet since they browse on the tips. Feed in Maine can be tough due to the climate and tough winters. Last winter basically killed half of the deer in northern Maine. You will be facing a tough hunt due to that factor.

 

[pepperonis]

I know a little of the area in NW Maine and have been dying to give it a try late season. You can still get a feel for real wild up there.
I'll take you up on your ideas. Thanks.

 

[Renegade Dan]

I recently joined NYSMuzzleloading assoc. Maybe someday with enough members we can change the vote and get an early season. :thumbsup: Good Luck in maine.

 

[RC]

atta boy Dan! glad to have ya aboard! :thumbsup:

 

[Renegade Dan]

Why thank ya, RC :v

 

[maineguide]

I know here in Downeast Maine we get 2 weeks extra. Sometimes it is better then I think cause it is after the regular hunting season and things start to quiet down. Not as many people out at that time.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[bigbore442001]

No matter what, it is at the tail end of everything. There is a lot more hunting pressure in southern Maine so the deer have been pushed around a little bit by archers then the big push by the gun season. By the time muzzleloader rolls around the deer are real nervous nellies .

 

[Yagee]

New York still will not give us an early muzzleloading season. We get 8 days after regular season [shotgun].By that time, the deer are so scared your lucky if you see them in 8 days.So I'm refusing to buy another muzzleloading tag.If your a bow hunter you have it made in NY. I'm not saying bowhunting is easy, I just wish they would give us traditional muzzleloading hunters a break, and give us a couple of weeks before regular season. Just Blowing off a little steam. thanks for listening.

Bow hunters have become very arrogant when discussing season changes.
I had made this suggestion, to a DEC Chief Instructor who is a Bow Hunter. Why not split the season alternating every year. Allow gun and compound bow at the same time, since both are very modern hunting implements, and than a time frame for traditional Muzzleloading and Long bow. The reaction was as if I had cursed in front of his mother.:shocked2: When I remarked that the reason Bow hunting has grown so much is that now a weakling can hold back the string on a compound. that really stirred the pot.
I have a question to ask. How many Muzzleloading hunters hunt from Tree stands? :hmm:

Yagee :thumbsup:

 

[Little Wattsy]

New York still will not give us an early muzzleloading season. We get 8 days after regular season [shotgun].By that time, the deer are so scared your lucky if you see them in 8 days.So I'm refusing to buy another muzzleloading tag.If your a bow hunter you have it made in NY. I'm not saying bowhunting is easy, I just wish they would give us traditional muzzleloading hunters a break, and give us a couple of weeks before regular season. Just Blowing off a little steam. thanks for listening.

Bow hunters have become very arrogant when discussing season changes.
I had made this suggestion, to a DEC Chief Instructor who is a Bow Hunter. Why not split the season alternating every year. Allow gun and compound bow at the same time, since both are very modern hunting implements, and than a time frame for traditional Muzzleloading and Long bow. The reaction was as if I had cursed in front of his mother.:shocked2: When I remarked that the reason Bow hunting has grown so much is that now a weakling can hold back the string on a compound. that really stirred the pot.
I have a question to ask. How many Muzzleloading hunters hunt from Tree stands? :hmm:

Yagee :thumbsup:

I do about 50% of the time....Still hunt the rest.

 

[bigbore442001]

I'll say about 90 percent of my muzzleloader hunting for deer is from a treestand. The fact of life in southern New England is that huntable property is limited. You are hunting patches of woods as well as pockets of cover. If you go stalking around there is a very good chance you will push a deer into someone else who has more patience to sit somewhere all day.

 

[rabjr]

If you go stalking around there is a very good chance you will push a deer into someone else who has more patience to sit somewhere all day.

Not being able to use tree stands, I can't tell you how many times this tactic has worked for me, especially those times I hunted State lands. More than once I dropped a nice deer only to have a hunter show up 5 to 20 minutes later whining and upset he had chased that/his! deer for an hour that morning. :rotf:

 

[arcticap]

I never hunt from a tree stand and where ever I've gone, I don't recall seeing any other ML hunters using one either.
Maybe that's because I only hunt on state lands.
Archers usually do and only a small % of state land shotgunners use tree stands from my observations.

 

[rabjr]

Actually after thinking about it I have to agree with you on that. I do know my uncle and a friend use tree stands or a pop ground blind for all seasons, depending on the situation. But when I look at all the guys I have hunted with over the years no one ever used a tree stand during a gun season. But, they found found a spot and sat, no one ever walked around or stalked unless there was a planned "push" where we would have people on stand and 2 or 3 guys doing a little push.

 

[Renegade Dan]

Swamp Rat that was my deer you shot. :cursing: Just kidding :blah:

 

[Renegade Dan]

Go Yagee :thumbsup:

 

[Yagee]

The description Swamp Rat posted is the way I hunt. I am closing in on 50 yrs afield hunting small and big game. I don't have the luxury of owning my own land, and hunt either State or private land. I hunt mainly with modern firearms, and not until a few years ago did start with Muzzleloaders. I did hunt with a recurve bow at one time but most of my friends and family hunted with firearms. Hunting with a bow meant getting close enough to take a quality shot either by stalking or sitting in a ground blind. A number of years ago when Compound bows and tree stands became popular it created a new type of hunter, and creating shooting lanes became a big thing. This has now started gun hunters to use tree stands. Now comes the arrogance of the tree stand gun and bow hunter who because of his tree stand visibly has complained the fact that the hunter who is stalking is crossing his shooting lanes. Call me old fashion but I don't need tree stands to put meat on my table.

Sorry for the rant, but that's my 2 cents.

Yagee :hatsoff: