OH hunters: What are your opinions on October muzzle loader hunt?

You guys need to just ignore him. He has been trying to start and argument since the thread opened. He doesn't hunt here and has no idea what we are talking about. Let him flap and just talk around him.

 

You guys will see that you are screaming about the sky falling and that it will be a non-event. Ohio does not have the market cornered on hillbillies or poachers or whatever you want to call them. Your woods will NOT be crawling with orange armies of guys shooting everything that moves. I am only trying to bring some common sense to the thread that is full of knee-jerk reactions to a season change that will likely not change much. I am in fact from Iowa. One of the only states that still allows deer drives for ALL deer seasons and always has. Party hunting is even legal here for regular gun season. We have had early doe seasons, we have drives, we have hillbillies and poachers and rednecks and you name it. I can assure you, you are putting yourself through a lot of needless worry. Your state is not unique in any way to ours.

 

Its just a change that we do not think is positive.

Why must we accept everything the state does as good anyways?

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy s4

 

Agreed.... He knows everything about Ohio........

 

lol. Hardly. But I know that the sky will not fall and your deer seasons will not be ruined by a one weekend doe season in October. It did nothing here and believe it or not, they are even allowed to kill BUCKS during a NINE DAY early muzzy season. Sorry for being optimistic. I hope your season is not ruined and all of your bucks don't get poached or go nocturnal for the rest of the year. Best of luck gentlemen.

 

Thanks for keeping it classy Fletch...best of luck to ya!

 

Thank you. But seriously, I think things will work out just fine and everyone will have a chance to enjoy the resource without major conflict. I pick on bow-hunters reaction to these things for obvious reasons. We tend to be obsessive about "our" deer hunting and hate it when anything changes. lol My apologies for ruffling feathers.

 

I don't like the idea of the early muzzle season either, kind of throws a monkey wrench into pre-rut activity for sure.... Maybe it won't, just trying to think positive. I will be calling the Dept. of Wildlife and voicing my opinion, and hopefully others will do the same. They eliminated the "bonus" shotgun weekend and replaced it with the early muzzleloader. If anything, I would say it would make less of an impact on bow hunting and make more sense to have the muzzle season then. Bow hunting requires much more thinking, scouting, and preparing to get deer located, patterned, and give yourself the best oppurtunity to get them in range. It could make some bucks change patterns earlier than expected, but rut should get them back into wandering around during the day.

 

IMO it will affect the bow season for a couple of weeks after IF there is a decent amount of hunting that goes on that weekend. Up here in Michigan we have an early doe season that comes in about a week before bow season does and every year since they have instituted it our deer in those areas go nocturnal for most of October. The hunting pressure has a lot to do with it though and one place might not see anything change while others may see a dramatic change.

 

I called the Ohio Division of Wildlife today and talked with them briefly about the early muzzleloader season. A few points were brought up about the weekend: Based on data from 2012 season, October 13-14 held the lowest harvest numbers for the early season. It only accounted for roughly 2,000 of the 200,000+ deer taken. That is a plus I guess. I also asked him what I could do to voice my opinion about it. He said that I could email the central office and let them know what i thought about it. He also said that throughout the year, they have information on their website that allows you to give input before the rules are made by the wildlife council. I guess I will pay a little more attention to the web site throughout the year, not just when deer season is approaching.

 

Are you in Wood County by chance?