MN muzzleloader article from Star Tribune

[dewey]

Here is an article from the Star Tribune about muzzleloader hunting in MN.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdo ... anchO7DiUs

Is anyone else going out with the old smoke pole this weekend? I will be in the woods and ready to go Saturday morning looking to harvest my first deer with a muzzleloader.[:D]

Good luck to anyone else out there going muzzleloader hunting.

Dewey

[nromn]

Dewey,
 
Thanks for the article. It was an intersting read. I posted the "muzzleloader help" topic in the guns and ammo section. So this was a nice read for me.
 
A question I have though, which is similar to a question I asked in another thread is this:
 
So you can only tag one buck, regardless of if its with a firearm, bow or ML?
 
Sorry for the ignorance, I only have experienced slug hunting. I am self taught for the most part and spend most of my hunting years out in the woods by myself(although I did get my dad back into it this year), so am trying to expand my horizons, first with ML and then hopefully in a few years with bow. But that is kind of a buzzkill if only one buck is allowed for all seasons. Not that I want to be slaughtering deer left and right, but if I start bow and ML hunting, it would be a huge disappointment to bag a deer in the first couple weeks of Bow hunting and have to miss out on slug and ML hunting (doe tags are by lottery only in our area) after waiting all year for it to come around.

[Patriot]

ORIGINAL: nromn

A question I have though, which is similar to a question I asked in another thread is this:

So you can only tag one buck, regardless of if its with a firearm, bow or ML?

 
Good question nromn.  The short answer is you can only tag one buck per year regardless of weapon.  You can, of course, utilize party hunting (use another hunting partners tag).  Please check the regulations in your area as well.

[dewey]

ORIGINAL: nromn
So you can only tag one buck, regardless of if its with a firearm, bow or ML?

Hey nromn,

You are correct in that you can only tag one buck per year regardless of firearm, bow or ML. What a lot of people do is party hunting so that way if you harvest a buck you could have someone else in your party tag it. An ideal situation for this might be if you are bow, firearm and muzzleloader hunting and your hunting partner is only there for a few days you could have him/her tag it and that leaves your tag open. Then if your hunting partner harvests a buck you tag it but if they don't harvest a buck it leaves your tag open. I am not 100% sure of the complete legality of this but I know it is common practice by many hunting parties.

Make sense?

Hey Patriot, that sound right? I want to make sure I am giving accurate advice.

I am not familiar with bow hunting rules but I believe in lottery areas you can harest a anterless deer (See page 61 of the MNDNR 2010 Hunting Regulations) but to harvest a antlerless deer in lottery areas with a firearm or muzzleloader you need to have drawn an antlerless tag (See page 82 of the MNDNR 2010 Hunting Regulations)

Hope this helps.

Let me know if there is anything else I can help out with. I kow what it is like to have more questions than answers I am a self taught hunter myself.

Dewey

[nromn]

Patriot,

Thanks for the info. That definately puts a damper on my desire to pick up ML (and bowhunting in the future). I don't know if I could handle all the mind games of do I shoot this deer and end all of my seasons so soon. And if I passed up deer early in the year and ended up skunked for all seasons, I would definately be second guessing myself for not taking a legal animal when I had the chance--even more than I do with just a 9 day slug hunt season.
 
And party hunting would be an option, but up until this year, I only went out by myself. I got my dad back into it again this year, but still only 2 people.

[dewey]

ORIGINAL: nromn
I don't know if I could handle all the mind games of do I shoot this deer and end all of my seasons so soon. And if I passed up deer early in the year and ended up skunked for all seasons, I would definately be second guessing myself for not taking a legal animal when I had the chance--even more than I do with just a 9 day slug hunt season.

You now know what a lot of other hunters go through every year "Do I shoot him or not?" "If I wait will I see something bigger?" and "If I pass will I see anything else?"

My thought is I try to get a bigger deer every year I go hunting and I have passed on some bucks that I would have shot before but regardless of whether you are successful or not the best part of the hunt is the hunt itself.

I hope my boss isn't on this forum because I am supposed to be working right now[:D][:D][:D] but I am leaving right now.

Dewey

[nromn]

Dewey,
 
Thanks for your input. I know what you mean about the passing vs not passing. I think its bad enough with the second guessing and hindsight and regrets just during the 9 day slug season.
 
I don't know if I could take all that over the course of 2-3 different seasons.
 
I think I will just need to eventually move to SD. They don't have any of those types of restrictions.

[Brad Juaire]

Thanks for posting the ML article Dewey. I found it interesting that the hunters increased rapidly over the last few years and then it went down a couple thousand hunters last year.

What is everyone's thoughts on whether or not a hunter should be able to use a scopes on their muzzleloader? I have mixed feelings about it. It seems like it's getting further away from primitive hunting being able to use inlines and now maybe even scopes in the future. On the other hand, if it helps hunters with better accuracy and less wounded animals, then I guess that's a good thing.

[dewey]

ORIGINAL: Brad Juaire

Thanks for posting the ML article Dewey. I found it interesting that the hunters increased rapidly over the last few years and then it went down a couple thousand hunters last year.

What is everyone's thoughts on whether or not a hunter should be able to use a scopes on their muzzleloader? I have mixed feelings about it. It seems like it's getting further away from primitive hunting being able to use inlines and now maybe even scopes in the future. On the other hand, if it helps hunters with better accuracy and less wounded animals, then I guess that's a good thing.

Very good question Brad. I guess I would ever so slightly lean towards not allowing scopes for the fact that these are supposed to be primitive weapons. However I also understand that I am contradicting myself as I have a new inline rifled barrel ML with sabots instead of the old school models and if they allowed scopes I would be at Cabelas getting a scope for my ML[:D]. Some states allow scopes and some do not just as some states have specific seasons for ML hunters and some states do not.

Dewey