Proposal for primitive hunting season in Maryland

nedsurf said:

They should list the atlatl as an allowable hunting piece.

Click to expand...

Well, I learned what an atlatl is and does today.

I'm not up for removing scopes for the early ML season with regards to Sika Deer hunting or for WT's now that i think about it even more. In fact I think they should increase the antlered (sika) bag limit by at least one for them as well. That's the best time to be in the woods for them. The second best time is when It's cold out so a February primitive hunt would be fine by me. By then they are moving during daylight so irons would do no complaints from me. The whole month of February should be open if they want to kill some deer off whether they are WT or Sika.
I never remember having to hunt with a flintlock in Md but do remember irons only for muzzle loader, single lead projectile etc etc.
I still occasionally hunt with a recurve and started hunting with a recurve about 40 years ago so I don't care what they do with that.

BossmanPJ said:

Yeah I like my early muzzleloader season. I’m going to be pretty pissed if they take it away. They could take a week out of archery and add this new category or do it later after late rifle.

Click to expand...

hobiecat590 said:

It is that "or" thing that has me concerned. I can already use my old percussion scope-less CVA rifle now in all 3 seasons if I want to handicap myself. They had better not not make modern inline scoped Muzzy's illegal during early Muzzy season! I'm hope the intention is to ADD hunting days w/ primitive weapons in addition to the the regular season to promote hunting.

Click to expand...

lazarus said:

That’s my preference. Want to tinker, add 3 days of primitive first 3 days of February. Maybe make the limits for primitive as per of the bow limits so they count towards each other.

Leave early ML alone. Or at a minimum leave the either sex first 3 days alone.

Click to expand...

That's the problem with any change if it involves taking days away from the stick-n-stringers in this state. The folks who bowhunt only think they are holier than thou and that the whole deer season belongs to them. They unsuccessfully fought against the 2nd firearms week, the 3-day early ML season, and then the expanded early ML season. They fought against and succeeded the push a couple of years ago for the expansion of the firearms season to 2 months. They didn't like compounds and absolutely hate crossbows. Once they catch wind of some group taking more of their "bow only" days from them, there'll be hell to pay.

I’m all for it, but I still use my cap lock open sighted muzzleloader during the muzzleloader season. Never had a reason to change. I’ve killed more deer with my Hawkin rifle, than all my others combined. I’ve had it since I was 14 years old.

I like the idea of hunting in the colder month of February, the problem is most bucks have started to lose their antlers by then. Id hate to harvest a huge buck without antlers, that would suck.

One thing I’d like to see them change is to back up the date on squirrel hunting. September is way to early. It needs to be in until the end of March instead of the end of February. Wouldn’t have to start until October.

Brickman301 said:

Id hate to harvest a huge buck without antlers, that would suck.

Click to expand...

This is my concern, too. I noticed last weekend the deer in my hunting area in MoCo were all yarded up daytime. I saw two separate groups of 30+ across a several hundred acre property. I can be easier looking down from up in a tree with binoculars, but I had to really look hard to try to pick out the bucks and don't know if I was right.

I'm 100% focused on lifting the Sunday hunting ban beyond deer though, so that was the focus of my comment.

Derwood said:

I'm 100% focused on lifting the Sunday hunting ban beyond deer though, so that was the focus of my comment.

Click to expand...

Here is the latest push for Sunday hunting. The problem with Statewide is too many people come out against it. Even the guides and big watefowl leases don't want Sunday hunting. But the guys rallying against are off all week during the season.

As far as Sunday hunting goes, right now it’s only for deer hunting. Why not have Sunday hunting for small game, as well? To me adding Sunday’s makes a lot of sense. I like to squirrel and rabbit hunt just as much, if not more than deer hunting. I rarely see or hear of anyone squirrel hunting, and rabbit hunters are few and far between these days.

As a kid, the 1st day of rabbit season, there was a lot of people in the fields. I remember everyone stopping by the farm, asking for permission to hunt, or for us to join them wherever they were going. Always, was an exciting time!

Read the book, We already have it in some counties. In the three west counties we can hunt just about everything but waterfowl on Sunday. Deer is every Sunday but a few.

Sunday Hunting- The following small game species may be hunted on all Sundays during the open season on private and designated public lands in Allegany, Cecil, Garrett,
St. Mary’s and Washington counties: eastern cottontail rabbits, gray squirrels, eastern fox squirrels, red squirrels, quail (Washington County only), ruffed grouse, pheasants

Click to expand...

Archeryrob said:

Read the book, We already have it in some counties. In the three west counties we can hunt just about everything but waterfowl on Sunday. Deer is every Sunday but a few.

Click to expand...

5 county’s in the entire state allow Sunday hunting of small game. I’d like to see it for the entire state.

As it should be, BUT you need to contact your state Delegate or Senator to sponsor it in a bill. Or support the other statewide Sunday hunting bill they are proposing for everything. The later is likely to fail as it will draw more heat and even some hunters will support against it like the guide association.

The western maryland sportsmen got the western three counties and I am surprised Frederick did not go also as the county is part of the group. There was a State Delegate they had trouble with years back down there and I don't remember who it was. They might have pulled the county from the bill to get it passed, which is common for these kind of bills.

I have helped with Sunday hunting since the 90's with helping Tim Lambert with MD Sportsmen. That's when we learned of the entire state model was too hard to make happen. You would be surprised how many high profile hunters in this state will not support Sunday hunting. Full Sunday hunting in the entire state will open waterfowl and mean the loss of the compensatory days. (meaning the extra days on the season for the loss of Sundays) That goes over like a fart in church with the guides. This is part of the reason the county by model is the only thing working.

This issue is so complex and political even though on first appearance it would seem like a non-issue to most people.

Archeryrob, I appreciate everything you have done/are doing.
I kinda agree with not having Sunday’s to hunt waterfowl. By not having Sunday’s to hunt, it makes the season longer, and with all the overlap in seasons and animals to hunt, if gives people more opportunities to hunt all of them. Waterfowl is also a popular thing to hunt, probably on second to deer hunting in this state.
I think the most of the small game species (rabbit, squirrel), are not in any danger of being over hunted, so Sunday hunting makes sense.

I know a lot of pushback about Sunday hunting comes form the horse groups.

Brickman301 said:

I’m all for it, but I still use my cap lock open sighted muzzleloader during the muzzleloader season. Never had a reason to change. I’ve killed more deer with my Hawkin rifle, than all my others combined. I’ve had it since I was 14 years old.

I like the idea of hunting in the colder month of February, the problem is most bucks have started to lose their antlers by then. Id hate to harvest a huge buck without antlers, that would suck.

One thing I’d like to see them change is to back up the date on squirrel hunting. September is way to early. It needs to be in until the end of March instead of the end of February. Wouldn’t have to start until October.

Click to expand...

Me and my brother have recovered 1,000+ shed antlers over the years, I look from Jan through the end of april. 70% of whitetail deer hold antlers until early march. Sikas even later. February hunting should be allowed especially for sika deer if that's the main concern.