Now the first early ML season was a Thursday through Saturday "season" for ML's, and was so successful that they extended it (antlerless however) to the following Monday through the next Saturday, for a total of 9 days. It's great. The bow hunters got the woods to themselves for deer hunting for 6 weeks prior to that.
It appears that the 9-day "early" ML season is being considered to allow modern firearms use. Apparently the deer harvest was low this year, and they don't want to buck the residents where there are large parks that have huge deer populations that are devastating the habitat and destroying neighborhood landscaping, and have NO HUNTING, and won't hold controlled hunts in these parks, bow or otherwise. So we have a major portion of the state are parks without hunting, PLUS there is "no hunting" on adjacent private lands because of county enacted "no hunting zones" plus the 100/150/300 rule that even applies to bow hunters.
It is unlawful to..., ..., Hunt, trap or shoot at wildlife within 150 yards of an occupied building or camp without written permission of the owner or occupant. For archery hunters this distance is 100 yards in Harford and Montgomery counties, and 50 yards in Carroll and Frederick counties.
..., Discharge a firearm within 300 yards of a public or nonpublic school while hunting. This prohibition only applies during school hours or when the building is occupied. DUH which are the hours when people hunt...
So some nebbish (imho) has decided that more hunters in the woods for those 9 days will correct the problem. Nobody wants to open the normal "modern gun" season a week early and let it run for three weeks instead of the traditional two.
:youcrazy:
LD
It appears that the 9-day "early" ML season is being considered to allow modern firearms use. Apparently the deer harvest was low this year, and they don't want to buck the residents where there are large parks that have huge deer populations that are devastating the habitat and destroying neighborhood landscaping, and have NO HUNTING, and won't hold controlled hunts in these parks, bow or otherwise. So we have a major portion of the state are parks without hunting, PLUS there is "no hunting" on adjacent private lands because of county enacted "no hunting zones" plus the 100/150/300 rule that even applies to bow hunters.
It is unlawful to..., ..., Hunt, trap or shoot at wildlife within 150 yards of an occupied building or camp without written permission of the owner or occupant. For archery hunters this distance is 100 yards in Harford and Montgomery counties, and 50 yards in Carroll and Frederick counties.
..., Discharge a firearm within 300 yards of a public or nonpublic school while hunting. This prohibition only applies during school hours or when the building is occupied. DUH which are the hours when people hunt...
So some nebbish (imho) has decided that more hunters in the woods for those 9 days will correct the problem. Nobody wants to open the normal "modern gun" season a week early and let it run for three weeks instead of the traditional two.
:youcrazy:
LD