Muzzleloading hunting declining?

[Robert Egler]

I noticed recently that while out squirrel hunting during muzzleloading deer season (those muzzleloading deer are dangerous if they sneeze! :haha: ) that I was the only one out on every day I hunted. It was like when I go squirrel hunting after the regular deer season, no other hunters parked along the road, saw no one in the woods, heard no shots.

Seems that I remember fewer people last year than the year before also. What is your experience, fewer people in muzzleloading season?

 

[SgtSchutzen]

Just the opposite around here unless your talking about folks that use traditional style guns. Every year it seems like there are more people in the woods than ever before. About 99% of them are using modern inlines though, us traditional minded folks are just about extinct in this neck of the woods. The deer population is showing the effects of the pressure too. Around here if you own private land you can just about shoot as many deer as you want :cursing: Private land antlerless tags can simply be bought at will over the counter.

Bow season is getting to be just about as bad. As of this year crossbows have been legal weapons for anybody and people are buying them and taking up "bow hunting" like never before because now you don`t have to actually know how to use a bow to hunt in the archery season. It`s sad too because most of these idiots seem to think that a cross bow has an effective range of about a 100yds and are in the woods flinging bolts at any deer they can see.

Nope, hunters aren`t declining around here, just the deer population. :cursing: :shake:

 

[Spikebuck]

Same story in Minnesota except there are no over-the-counter "private land" doe permits (ours are managed by units whether private or public land in the unit)and we are still fighting the general crossbow initiatives. But more and more people in the woods and fewer deer in general.

This is why I finally broke down and went into a lease this year. All the land I have been hunting since I couldn't even carry a gun but followed my Dad around squirrel hunting to chase the squirrels to his side of the tree is being leased out. Pretty soon everyone who is not an owner or lessee will be fighting over the already overcrowded public lands (at least here in SE MN). Peace and quiet is a primary goal of mine while hunting. The lease I got into is worth every penny....low pressure, quiet, lots of deer. I hate to see it go this way, but there doesn't seem to be a way to stop it, so if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

 

[Kentuckywindage]

nope, ML hunting is strong here in Colorado.

MLing for squirrel on the other hand is rare in this part of the country.

 

[Idaho Ron]

Here in Idaho the ML seasons tend to either be trophy hunts with limited tags and that means slim chance at drawing a tag, or they are cow only. The draw tags are tough to get. I have drawn one time in 17 years for antelope. I have drawn only 4 or 5 deer tags in the last 20 years. I have never drawn an elk tag. I have killed a few cows with a ML. While they are fun and most of the time good to eat I would like to draw a bull. So here in Idaho it depends on which tag you want as to the number of people that will be hunting at the same time. Ron

I noticed recently that while out squirrel hunting during muzzleloading deer season (those muzzleloading deer are dangerous if they sneeze! :haha: ) that I was the only one out on every day I hunted. It was like when I go squirrel hunting after the regular deer season, no other hunters parked along the road, saw no one in the woods, heard no shots.

Seems that I remember fewer people last year than the year before also. What is your experience, fewer people in muzzleloading season?

 

[Supercracker]

I've never seen another trad MLer in the woods that I didn't bring there. I have however seen a few guys with inlines and modern weapons that after I let them mess with my flinter declared they wanted to get one.

 

[hanshi]

I hunt mostly private land so it's only me and a friend. When we've hunted public land there seemed to be a goodly number of N-line hunters out and about. Real muzzleloaders? Haven't seen any of those that I can recall.

 

[jrmflintlock]

Lots of hunter for all of my hunts!!

I was happy to see several flitlock and caplock hunters for my deer hunt. From what i remember, if they were walking they were toting a real rifle (flint or perc. and of all thing wood), if they were cruizing (truck or atv) it was a plastic inline.

Either way, too many hunters.. and not enough critters, its tough to find the balance.

We need the hunter numbers in order to keep the tradition alive, but at what point does it affect the resource and the experience.

 

[Matt85]

tradtional muzzleloading in general is rare in this state, most people use inlines. havent hunted locally yet but did here a fair amount of shots while out at cynthias place. unfortunetly more then a few of those shots were not black powder...

-matt

 

[ncmtmike]

That just leaves more for us Squirrel Tail in iur grand state. :bow:

 

[George T.]

In Texas the hunting licence sales have been on a free fall for the last 20 years. All the while the population has grown 40%. For one the lease system in Texas has become very expensive and the modern generation doesn't have much love for doing things the hard way.I was on the National Muzzle loader Rifle Association site and they said that the average age of members is 60+ in that case the ranks will thin with time! Geo. T.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I haven't seen a "traditional" muzzleloader in the field except me and my buddy in almost a decade. LOTS of inliners though. In fact "we" are so rare, that when I was squirrel hunting with my flinter, I had to actually show the DNR officer a dead squirrel in my game bag to convince him I wasn't poaching deer. He didn't think they could be accurate enough to hit the squirrel in the head. :shocked2:

LD

 

[roundball]

I was on the National Muzzle loader Rifle Association site and they said that the average age of members is 60+ in that case the ranks will thin with time!

And IMO.....compounding that problem has been the disappearance of manufacturers that were the main backbone of America's resurgence into traditionally oriented muzzleloading in the first place.

In spite of the handful of self proclaimed historians who usually jump on posts about a T/C Hawken with claims it's not really traditional...(like nobody knows that)...Thompson / Center was the single biggest reason for the groundswell of renewed interest in muzzleloading all through the 70's/80's/90's, in concert with specially established primitive weapons seasons.
Then a variety of other companies jumped on the band wagon too, like Lyman, CVA, Traditions, etc.

Then the modern craze started building through the 90's, and I think the states wildlife departments did a very poor job of staying on top of the situation and protecting the primitive weapons seasons from the onslaught of modern long range scope sighted "MLs"...but the horses are out of the gate now...damage is done and there's no turning back the clock.

So we know the modern "muzzleloaders" began the downward spiral of the overall traditional muzzleloader movement in the early 90's, and there are virtually no entry level traditional style MLs sitting on store shelves to even catch anyone's eye.
Then fold in the movement of people from farming / country life to urban environments, and the declining availability of places to shoot...there's simply no new crop of ML enthusiasts coming up like there was during the 70's/80's/90's.
Places like TVM are more important now than they've ever been with T/C and rest basically out of production.

 

[oletymepreacher]

I hunt only in designated Wilderness Area, so don't see many other hunters. The archery hunters seem to be getting more guys and gals. Haven't seen anyone else dragging a sidelock in about 8 years.

 

[cynthialee]

I have seen a number of them in the local stores and on the hiways. You can tell because they are in hunting gear without beacon bright orange, durring the muzzel loading season. And you don't tend to see guys dressed in those clothes off season. The few I have tried to chat up seemed like the kind of fellas my daddy and grandpa would have called 'real men', but they were very stand offish and didn't care to talk.

 

[Rev_William]

nope, ML hunting is strong here in Colorado.

MLing for squirrel on the other hand is rare in this part of the country.

Maybe it's just where I go but I have not seen any small game hunters at all let alone with a muzzleloader. This year I didn't see any hunters except the jerk who kept putting a scope on me in my camp. He stopped when I worked my way up to him from behind and told him I wasn't a deer. When he was done having a heart attack he left very quickly.

 

[MattC]

If there was a rifle attached to that scope that would be a different story.

 

[Richard J.]

Three days of muzzleloading here in the Panhandle of Fl starting Dec.1 on WMA. I would bet money I will be the only one with a flintlock. Way to many in-lines. The funny part is they gripe about them but still use them. seems most people hate them but go for the season. Trying to educate these people. Dont know if I will have enough years left to do it.

 

[Supercracker]

If you want to attract new blood to the hobby, craft, tradition whatever, then the inline "if i buy this gun I can hunt an extra week" crowd is not the place to recruit. Make an effort to talk to traditional archery people. They've already shown that they appreciate the challenge, like simplicity and don't mind going down the less traveled more difficult road.

 

[MattC]

You're right about the trad archery crowd. I am on Traditional bowhunter Mag forum as well, and someone there posted a mz deer pic. It was well received.
I think the psychologies are the same; you mentioned the extra challenge, and I would include a added conservationist attitude. I would call it respect for the game, instead of "whack 'em and stack 'em"