To me, the shoe is on the other foot. If people want scopes, let them show the data that in states like Colorado, who give a limited number of tags to muzzleloaders DURING THE ELK RUT, that it will not increase harvest. There may be no cold hard facts, but I think it is a pretty good assumption that if you add 50-100 yards to the effective shooting range for elk hunting in September, more elk will be killed.

I am not the only one who thinks so. Found this quote:

"Put a scope on top of any black-powder weapon and "it no longer becomes a primitive weapon," said Ron Anglin, the state's Wildlife Division administrator.

Anglin said Oregon's various muzzleloader hunts are designed based on success rates with primitive weaponry.


The rifle shown here is representative of the modern technology that much of today's muzzleloading hunters desire.
Add optics and success rates will increase, Anglin said. That means fewer available tags and, possibly, the withdrawal of some hunts, he explained.

"We've received requests for scopes in the past," Anglin said. "When we've explained it, people have backed off."

So, show me the data to support your contention that it won't increase harvest on comparable limited draw, rut hunts.

No concrete proof, but say starting next year, Colorado allowed scopes for the special muzzy elk season. And lets say you had a million dollars and were required to place a wager with it on one side of this question: "Will adding scopes increase or result in no change/decrease in harvest/success rates over a 5 year period?"

You gonna tell me that you would risk a million that it would stay the same/decrease? And as I showed earlier, it doesn't take much of an increase for them to lower tags a lot. Even a 2-3% increase in harvest could result in an 8-12% reduction in tags.

You notice I have not mentioned mule deer, but for elk hunting during the rut, I think it is a pretty safe bet that there would be SOME increase in harvest rates. I would make that bet in a heartbeat.

In places where game is plentiful like Texas (4 million whitetail) and other similar states who cares if you use scopes or not or if it increases harvest or not. Last year, 208,000 hunters hunted elk in Colorado. That is almost 1 hunter per elk. Comparing Colorado to a lot of other states is apples and oranges.