The bottom line is that there are more deer now than when Christopher Columbus landed on the western hemisphere. So whats the beef? I believe this topic is alive ONLY because of the political desires and "powertrips" of the buckskinners in our sport who are politically involved enough to have a voice in some states. Whats next, bow and muzzleloader season in the spring for turkey?
The more deer we kill, the more they breed. Hunter rates have been edging downward for 15 years as herds have increased despite our "harvest per man effectiveness" having gone up. That tells me that regardless of WHAT weapons we use, there really wont be any serious damage done too our herds (inside of safe and sound biologically principled management and harvest guidelines of course. I'm not talking about throwing all caution too the wind and cutting em all down with reckless abandon). Its plain and simple GREED by the buckskinners that is driving this debate. They want the seasons and some falsely percieved glory from some imagined "audience" so they feel threatened by modern equipment. On that note lets not forget that a percussion cap weapon is NOT the first generation nor the oldest of muzzleloading weapons. What about the manually lit smoothbore weapons of several hundred years ago? A 150 year old percussion Kentucky longrifle would make them look practically archaic. But I don't see the guys willing to give up their #11s for such fare!
25-30 years ago the same debate ran among the traditionalist archers regarding the then new, mass produced compound bows. Yet we see that even the BADDEST cam bow of today with its potentially double range over most stickbows did absolutely NOTHING to harm the deer populations. What a hunter uses or doesn't use (within sane and moral guidelines of course, I'm not suggesting C4 or landmines for hunters) should be up too them by broadly setout guidelines. Bow season should be that, BOWS! Muzzleloader season should be just that, front stuffers. And firearms seasons should be anything legally owned as defined by our current system of laws concerning firearms ownership in this country.
Personally I think we should ALL put aside our differences and concentrate on defeating the MANY groups that seek to stop us ALL and know that our most vulnerable state will be that of a divided group! [:'(]
RA