SOSO:Southern Zone Muzzleloading

[hansg/Ups]

Same old,same old: [traditional] muzzleloaders shafted in Southern Zone.
No early season like in the Northern Zone.As usual.
I guess the archers can pick up the tab, for those of us who have ceased hunting in NY.
May be Albany et al will figure that out,seeing as the state debt hasn't decreased.
..but I doubt it.
I can't wait to permanently relocate out of New York.

[str8shooter48]

Same old,same old: [traditional] muzzleloaders shafted in Southern Zone.
No early season like in the Northern Zone.As usual.
I guess the archers can pick up the tab, for those of us who have ceased hunting in NY.
May be Albany et al will figure that out,seeing as the state debt hasn't decreased.
..but I doubt it.
I can't wait to permanently relocate out of New York.

Agreed 100% haven't hunted in two years now and the incentive to buy a license just dropped another notch. An early muzzleloader season may have sparked a little interest but I guess thats gone for another year or so....................

[Leatherstocking]

I don't advocate either position, and don't really care either way. But if you like using the smokepole, why don't you just use it in the regular gun season? I have done that quite often, just cuz I like hunting with it.

[str8shooter48]

I don't advocate either position, and don't really care either way. But if you like using the smokepole, why don't you just use it in the regular gun season? I have done that quite often, just cuz I like hunting with it.

I do most of the time. It sure would be nice to be out there in a little warmer and nicer weather though.

[rebAL]

The point is that NYS can't seem to regulate the deer herd so enough antlerless deer are harvested in so. zone.   Early muzzleloading would be an effective tool and there is just no excuse not to use it.  The argument that sole BP hunters hunting with traditional firearms would disturb archery hunting is baseless, stupid and selfish.  Squirrel hunters make more of a disturbance than traditional muzzleloaders.

[Leatherstocking]

Agreed that small game hunters already "disturb" the woods as much as a guy with a ML would (truthfully I don't think the presence of folks in the woods matters that much anyway, but that's another debate). I guess the purist bow guys feel that an early ML season would put the armies in the woods that we now see in the regular gun season. If it were kept to primitive ML's there probably would not be an army of guys in an early season. However, as I have posted before, I think the best solution for the southern zone would be a VERY early antlerless ML season (say late Sept or first week in October). That way we provide the nice early warm weather ML season and get the deer population control by taking does out, but don't significantly disrupt the rut in late October with a ML season. And I mean that not as a bowhunter, but rather to simply avoid disrupting the majority of breeding behavior necessary to maintain a health herd. I provided this in comments to DEC when they were soliciting comments on the last round of changes. Biologically, there is no reason you couldn't have a doe season that early.

[mspaci]

why not make it a private land thing? If the land owner approves then its Ok to hunt Muzzleloader early season. I can see where a guy who only hunts public land would not want to be disturbed by the muzleloader & if the land owner says no then its bow only on thier land? Mike

[str8shooter48]

why not make it a private land thing? If the land owner approves then its Ok to hunt Muzzleloader early season. I can see where a guy who only hunts public land would not want to be disturbed by the muzleloader & if the land owner says no then its bow only on thier land? Mike

Why not now we'll let the bowhunters try to dictate where we can or cannot hunt with a gun. Maybe we can make all public land bowhunting only. 

[spikehorn]

I hunt the northern zone early ML season evry year and my buddy doesn't because he wants to bow hunt. I.m not that avid of a bow hunter to me its just another way to harvest a deer. The difference being is bthat I usually come home with at least a doe from the early ML while my buddy bowhunting in the southern zone is still hunting and hasn't gotten anything yet. Every year i invite him to camp and ebery year he says he wants to bow hunt. To each his own, If they open early ML in the southern zone I will hunt it, if it's primitve I'll use my hawkins if its not I'll use my in line.

[woodsdweller]

i dont see anything wrong with the late mz season. we harvest deer every year in the late season. you have it all to yourself. why dose everyone say its too cold, didnt you just put your rifle or shotgun back in the safe the evening before? you still have out all you gear from the day before,just switched to a mz loder. if you want an early season head north. the deer pouplation here in the catskills is getting just as spars as the norther country. lets just keep handing out dmp's or antlerless tags so we have no deer left, but thats another topic we can all disagree on!!! if it ant broke dont fix it!!!!!!!!!!!!

[spikehorn]

Not sure why you think the deer population in the north country is getting sparse. Our hunting camp is in lewis county and last year for the early ML season 4 out of the 5 of us a camp took deer, and the only reason the 5th person didn't was he had a fail to fire.

[woodsdweller]

well it depends on what part you are in. i hunt in around corinth. but i was speaking in general. here in the catskills it was nothing to drive around in an evening and see 100+ deer. try it now same roads same places lucky if you see 15-20. i use to go out w/my dad with the light and you could see 20 to 40 in just one field back in the early 80's. i havent hunted the northern zone in 3 years, and it was only 2 days for mz season and 3 days for gun season when i use to. i hunted around mulleyville pond area. but i do live in the catskills and have hunted here for 25 years and see the decline.

[spikehorn]

I remember that back in the early 80s in the southern zone also, but I think it had more to do with the party permits that were issued in the mid 80s rather than the DMPs they are handing out now. back then they wanted to dramatically reduce the deer population because of the number deer car accidents. it certainly worked. now with the DMPs they are just trying to keep the population steady.

[bubba]

I don't advocate either position, and don't really care either way. But if you like using the smokepole, why don't you just use it in the regular gun season? I have done that quite often, just cuz I like hunting with it.

you can also use a bow during regular season.  I live and hunt is the st lawrence valley as far north as one can get basically. We have no problem filling tags, and we have both an early and late season for muzzlelaoding and dmp's.  Spikehorn a party permit as they were known is the same as a dmp. They got the name party permit because you had to have two or three people apply together to get one permit to use amongst them. So it was one permit three guys.  Now it is sone guy two or three permits, plus his buddies permits.  I think we need to start some serious muzzleloading oganizations to show the state we have as much clout and interest as the bow hunters who control everything   

[lonewolf5348]

I would like to see early m/l season in the  Southern Zone Don't think it will ever happen
The bow hunting will cry foul play,I myself hunt with the bow in the southern zone:yep they throw you a bone for the late season ,I have no complaints I am up hunting with my flinter :I like it only because it seem the only guy on the mountain is myself.I find the deer move a lot more only because they go into the survival time zone and need to feed most of the day and night for the cold cold winters.
I think the numbers are down only because the hunting pressure is also way down.
I can say the last 40 plus years deer hunting in n.y.s is not what it use to be.