PA ML deer season Oct. 14-21, 2006

[Tioga Flinter]

Although an avid muzzleloader hunter, I couldn’t disagree with you more. The archery season has been traditionally the early season in PA and for good reason. To successfully harvest a deer a bow hunter must close the range with the animal. The average deer taken in the state with a bow is a short 20 yards. Once the bullets start flying an archers success rate drops considerably. Based on the 2003 harvest report, Tioga County shows there were 430 antlered and 520 antlerless deer taken with a bow. This low number has little impact on the deer herd.
You mentioned a mere 7 days in October for muzzleloaders, not true. As you well know, you can use the muzzleloader in the regular rifle deer season.
The early muzzleloader season was implemented for a deer management tool only, not to give anyone a special license. If the PGC allowed an extra week as well as harvesting either sex it would severely impact the deer herd. If it was held to primative only it might work, but with the modern inlines, well, it would decimate the deer herd.