tocs

As of yet no one has commented on the earlier Bear opener! If I am reading it correctly the Bear opener will be the Monday that the rifle season traditionally began,instead of the first saturday of the rifle season.That should dramatically increase the bear harvest.Which in our part of Ulster county is a good thing!

bow27

I think bowhunters had their chance at an earlier season but didn't compromise with the mz. hunters. I don't think you can go much later into Dec. because of snowmobile associations. Alot of them wait until big game season is over to open their trails.

All you really have left is Oct. I think the DEC saw that bowhunters wanted no part of muzzleloaders in their season. So why would DEC give bowhunters a longer season, just so they can have a bigger fight next time they try to implement the early mz season?

I don't see the DEC giving archers anything earlier without archers giving something in the early season to the muzzleloaders.

BuckAlley

Bow27, what I read in my local newspaper yesterday from the DEC was the early MZ season has been dropped all together by the DEC, becasue it met such enourmous opposition from both bowhunters, and small game hunters. It continues on to read extending early bowhunting opportunities was opposed by small game hunters. However I never heard that at the public meeting I attended. Personnally I don't see how bowhunters could interfer w/ small game hunters. If anything its the complete opposite. I'm not against small game hunters or MZ, as I myself enjoy both of those. I also wasn't against a early MZ during the 1st wk of Oct. I was opposed to mz in the middle of archery season, becasue I live & hunt the northern tier. The MZ/archery combined early season has become dangerous in areas I've hunted. You have camo'd bowhunters, and guns in the woods at the sametime. The mz season has become very popular. So popular I put my bow down now, and don't even bother attempting to use it. The deer are chased around, and become spooky. Its like a single shot southern tier gun opener, shots going off everywhere. So I just mz hunt that wk. I even thought the rumor of a 3-5 day early primitive mz season was a good idea. I don't know what happened to that. If anything that'd been a good test for future attempts. I'm not against Inlines, I own both inline, and side hammer. I just don't see anything wrong with extending the archery season, and I don't agree with the small game hunter reason.

bow27

I don't see anything wrong with it either. But why do archers deserve more time without muzzleloaders getting anything?