i agree....i am beginning to think even GOOD public land has seen its toll....and its about time for it to come to a slow...i love the early muzzleloader season......but i think its a little to easy to grab a scoped inline muzzleloader that shoots as well as a singleshot rifle...and kill off alot of does for a WHOLE WEEK....im not against it...but i think it should have been an early flintlock season from the start...or maybe a traditional season....sidelock only.....a few years ago on a SGL i hunt EVERYONE grouse hunted the first day up there....excellent grouse hunting....very thick area....the one or 2 guys you seen hunting the early season were hunting with flinters for the most part...and not many deer were killed......this year i think i saw one bird hunter.......the rest had scoped inlines......they looked at me like i was nuts with my possibles bag and a flinter!...and in the past on the first day of rifle me and dad would see TONS of deer there.....one opening day we seen over 20 by 9am there....sure we took a few does out of there.....but everyone else must have too.....we never saw anyone else killing much....but this year im not seeing what we used to there....the area is a huge thicket....holds deer very well....but even it seems to have seen its toll....back home on private property we are seeing less deer......but not TOO much less.....so if wed dont produce alot of sightings i wont fill my tags up there....and go home for saturdays last day of ML season....but even though up here in 1a im not seeing deer...down home in 1a i have private land to hunt...and ALWAYS see deer...so late season i can still fill a 1a tag or both my 1a tags.....if not...i saved 2 deer on SGLs from being killed off......i think they made it too easy from the start.....and it will be a hard season to change or take away without hunters complaining.....but then they will complain theres no deer....i love it.......hunters wont be happy no matter what.......