PABowhunter
I don' t understand how you can say 1 week and 1 Saturday.

Sat. October 4 thorugh Friday Oct. 17 it is archery only. That is nearly 2 full weeks and 2 Saturdays of acrhery. Then one week including 2 saturdays of the interuptions(Early muzzleloading season and Jr. Sr. Antlerless)

Then nearly 3 weeks including 3 Saturdays of archery only yet again Monday Oct.27- sat Nov. 15. Which this time frame is just about guaranteed to be the closest to peak rutting time in PA and only archers get to hunt during this time.

I call the early muzzleloading an interuption for that reason it brings more people into the woods and causes changes in deer patterns and pressures them more than archers would like. Is it better to eliminate the does before the rut? yes there is a benefit there. I won' t argue that. I will say I think the fact that archery requires a ton of patience, skill and scouting and it all goes to crap once the deer get pressured is frustrating. Does the added pressure take all the patterning learned from scouting and early archery hunting days and toss it out the window? to a certain degree it does.

Does that effect me? No I have the privellege to hunt on private land where I don' t have to deal with added pressure. But If the time comes around when I can' t hunt the private land I will understand the frustrations of the added pressure all too well.

Do I use my muzzleloader in early season? Yes I hunt the morning archery and afternoon I go to public land with the smokepole.

Without getting much further off-topic I think the use of in-lines is great. (I prefer my flintlock) but if it brings more excitement to hunting and doesn' t become detrimental to the deer herd as a whole then great. A few less does that probably aren' t bred yet is a good thing. I mean we could discuss the management plan in great detail I am a fan of the AR but not the mangement plan and we would probably have a great thread but the issue on this thread is early muzzleloading season. It is kind of nice to be able to sit without freezing my rear-end off and use the muzzleloader.
I wish more people would still hunt in the early season and maybe PGC should make driving deer illegal during early season out of respect for the archers. Can we all co-exist afield during this early season? You bet with a little mutual respect we can all have a great time during October.