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Muzzleloader License Question

marco

marco

Member
When do most of you guys purchase your licenses? I went in yesterday to get a tag for today and found the quota was full. I decided to get a late season antlerless tag instead and found the quotas for all my surrounding counties are full! The store clerk made the comment that a lot of guys will buy late anterless tags and party hunt with one person that has a buck tag and they'll all shoot bucks. Anybody else have trouble getting a muzzleloader tag? I guess I'm just frustrated, bought a new Knight and won't even get to take it out this year.
 
You should be able to get a late season any sex muzzleloader tag that is valid statewide. Never has been a quota on the late muzzy season that I know of. I also always thought that the you could only party hunt during the 1st and 2nd shotgun seasons. Party hunting is not legal during the other seasons. I could be wrong though as I don't party hunt and don't hunt the special late antlerless seasons. I do know that you should always have a regulations brochure in hand when getting tags. Sometimes those people selling them have their wires crossed about what they can and can't sell.
 
Marc, just get a regular late muzzleloader tag. You will be able to shoot a buck or doe. You can also use your muzzleloader during the shotgun seasons if you want to. You can still use that Knight, dont give up!
 
Silvertip is correct. Don't ever take advise from the person at Wal-mart, they are clueless. Nobody has a buck tag valid during late antlerless season, thats why they call it the antlerless season.
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They're all correct...you can get the late season any deer tag whenever you want. I usually wait to see what the weather looks like to decide between gun season and late muzzleloader. As for when to buy them, it depends on the county. Our county quota up here is just 100 antlerless, so they sell fast. Before noon on the first day, so I bought mine online at 5 AM the day it opened. Some counties with the big quotas never sell out. Only down side to that is that they'll also be dealing with high power seasons over Thanksgiving weekend. The early muzzleloader quota (7500) sold out about 10 days ago if I remember correctly. You can check availability of tags at the following link.

http://hf.centraltechnology.net/ia_quota/app/main.jsp

NWBuck
 
I was hoping to hunt shotgun as well as muzzleloader, which limits my options. My frustration was around the guys illegally party hunting during late season antlerless season, taking bucks. Anyone else hear or know of guys doing this?
 
NWBUCK,
I think that only high power is going to be a week added onto the late antlerless only season in January and will only be for the lower two tiers of counties. The Thanksgiving weekend antlerless is shotgun/pistol/mz/bow but not high power. I could be wrong though
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I think with no antlerless tags in the area, your options were already very limited due to that. One either sex gun tag and one season only. You can use the Knight in any one of the other statewide gun seasons.

As for the party hunt during the late antlerless, that is OK. However, they don't sell any either sex tags for that so no antlered bucks can be taken legally. Anyone taking antlered bucks then is poaching. It is my opinion that the store clerk was screwed up in saying what they did.

JNRBRONC is correct in that the high power is only for the late antlerless but it is only for the one lower tier of counties, not two,and only for the extended 7 days of Jan. 23-29. It is not high power for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Since the antlerless are first come first served, I buy my tags in August. Then, if there are still some left, I buy some more in October. Early muzzleloader is first come first served also and has been selling out each year for at least the last two.
 
The high-power rifle season is for the bottom TWO tiers of counties........not to be picky or anything.....
 
Hmmm... I think I have bottom third vs. tier screwed up. I think you are correct that it is the bottom two tiers. Sorry about that.
 
I think our C.O.'s are going to be busy during the Nov. Antlerless season. I was trying to convince a guy the other day that he could not use a high power during the Nov. Gun season and he told me I better read the reg's?? To top it off he was talking about going around here(cetral Iowa) and not down south.... I tried to convince him but I don't think It sunk in. There are some peole out there that just don't pay attention. I think I'll be goose hunting that weekend and just stay out of the timber altogether.
 
There is so much confussion on these issues that there are bound to be problems. As I understand it you can't even buy antlerless tags for that stupid November season until the middle of Nov and then only if there are unsold tags available. The really stupid rifle season is for the bottom 2 tiers of counties and again only for the allocated number of tags and is 1 week added to the end of the special antlerless season. You can party hunt but you can't shoot ANY THING with HORNS.My concern with the Nov season is the poaching that will undoubtley happen. Shoot that monster buck a few days early and just leave it until you can put a shotgun tags on it the next Saturday, or sneek it home and tag it before it goes to the locker. Lots of TEMPTATION resulting in lots of poaching.
 
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