Why do you need a "special season"? :hmm:
The arguments to "return" to the special season where all there was to shoot with were caplocks and flintlocks has been debunked, for throughout those seasons most states had small game seasons open too. So folks in the woods with single shot inlines, that's bad, but folks with ruger 10-22's or shotguns blasting away at squirrels, that's good? Waterfowl season was open too, with folks banging away at geese and ducks, and the swampy areas of the woods were full of duck hunters after mallards and wood ducks....
So instead of trying to mandate a change, lets first figure out what went wrong and why, and then see if a better approach can be made.
Inlines entered into the picture, because hunters wanted a longer season, but didn't want what they thought were the "disadvantages" one gets from a "traditional" caplock. (Flintlocks were completely out of the picture for these folks.)
So somebody comes along and creates more modern looking guns, very similar to single shot breechloaders, and then similar to bolt action rifles..., especially in appearance. They used caps at first, then switched to primers. All so a large group of hunters could have a longer season, and in their minds have "more reliable" rifles.
Bottom line..., the hunters wanted a longer period to get deer, and to get more deer. They not only got a full extra week, in some places two weeks, but they got a chance extra buck by horning-in on the ML season. Add to this the problem of the exploding deer populations, and the DNR is more than happy to allow a situation that gets more hunters into the woods and more deer taken...
So..., what's the objective?
Do you want less hunters in the woods when you go out with your muzzleloader?
Do you want to foster the continuance of the traditional firearms?
Both?
Instead of trying to limit human activity, try to promote it into the area where you want it to go.
We have hunter safety education classes, and a card that comes with the completion of that..., so get the state to institute a certified master hunter program. There is a class to qualify, you have to use either a traditional caplock, flintlock, or earlier ingnition gun, or regular draw bow (no compounds or crossbows). AND when you have said certification, so long as you are using your traditional tool..., you get to hunt two extra weeks in the year, as the "early ML season" goes from 3 days to 7 and is ONLY for certified master hunters, and the week between regular gun season and the old ML season is open to a CMH for hunting deer (when it's closed for everybody else). Add to that the CMH gets to harvest an extra buck, and several more antlerless deer. (This is based on how Maryland does their seasons..., your state would vary some I am sure).
The folks who started using inlines did so to get more time and more deer, so the way to "fix" that is to reward "us", and those that come over to our group, by giving more time, and more deer.
It wouldn't cause as much of change as the invention of the inlines caused, but it might just reverse the decline in the use of the traditional guns and bows, and increase the use a bit over time.
LD
The arguments to "return" to the special season where all there was to shoot with were caplocks and flintlocks has been debunked, for throughout those seasons most states had small game seasons open too. So folks in the woods with single shot inlines, that's bad, but folks with ruger 10-22's or shotguns blasting away at squirrels, that's good? Waterfowl season was open too, with folks banging away at geese and ducks, and the swampy areas of the woods were full of duck hunters after mallards and wood ducks....
So instead of trying to mandate a change, lets first figure out what went wrong and why, and then see if a better approach can be made.
Inlines entered into the picture, because hunters wanted a longer season, but didn't want what they thought were the "disadvantages" one gets from a "traditional" caplock. (Flintlocks were completely out of the picture for these folks.)
So somebody comes along and creates more modern looking guns, very similar to single shot breechloaders, and then similar to bolt action rifles..., especially in appearance. They used caps at first, then switched to primers. All so a large group of hunters could have a longer season, and in their minds have "more reliable" rifles.
Bottom line..., the hunters wanted a longer period to get deer, and to get more deer. They not only got a full extra week, in some places two weeks, but they got a chance extra buck by horning-in on the ML season. Add to this the problem of the exploding deer populations, and the DNR is more than happy to allow a situation that gets more hunters into the woods and more deer taken...
So..., what's the objective?
Do you want less hunters in the woods when you go out with your muzzleloader?
Do you want to foster the continuance of the traditional firearms?
Both?
Instead of trying to limit human activity, try to promote it into the area where you want it to go.
We have hunter safety education classes, and a card that comes with the completion of that..., so get the state to institute a certified master hunter program. There is a class to qualify, you have to use either a traditional caplock, flintlock, or earlier ingnition gun, or regular draw bow (no compounds or crossbows). AND when you have said certification, so long as you are using your traditional tool..., you get to hunt two extra weeks in the year, as the "early ML season" goes from 3 days to 7 and is ONLY for certified master hunters, and the week between regular gun season and the old ML season is open to a CMH for hunting deer (when it's closed for everybody else). Add to that the CMH gets to harvest an extra buck, and several more antlerless deer. (This is based on how Maryland does their seasons..., your state would vary some I am sure).
The folks who started using inlines did so to get more time and more deer, so the way to "fix" that is to reward "us", and those that come over to our group, by giving more time, and more deer.
It wouldn't cause as much of change as the invention of the inlines caused, but it might just reverse the decline in the use of the traditional guns and bows, and increase the use a bit over time.
LD
