mn might be allowing scopes for muzzleloader season?

[Crow Hunter]

Tom, using the scope on my centerfire rifle at 5x last year helped a lot, but the cataract is much worse now. I have not looked through that scope for a while. My first visit with the eye surgeon is scheduled for July 1, hope to get the cataract fixed up before fall. Crow Hunter

[TooTallTom]

Interesting, maybe it has something to do with light transmission to the eye, rather than magnification?

I hope things go well for you, and that you're back in the saddle soon.

[x1957x]

I agree with Crow Hunter. I have a serious Stygnatism? in my eyes and what it does is makes it hard to focus on something. Actually what happens is when you focus on your front open sight you cant see the back sight or focus on the animal(which will be blurry) or vice versus if you focus on the animal you cant see down the sights. They are both blurry and so forth. People with this problem will agree with me. It is impossible to do when it gets bad! I am 54 years old and it gets worse every year. And I have to take a lot of [PoorWordUsage] from my kids when I miss at 40 or 50 yards. THEY DONT UNDERSTAND how bad this is.(57)

[flipper]

I am 56 myself and can relate to what you are saying. I still feel I can shoot accurately with peep sites out to maybe 75 yards but my eyes get a little worse each year. I was hoping to be able to use a scope just to insure a clean kill, I am not one of those guys that would try to take a 200 yard shot just because I had a scope. There are always those people who take unethical shots with or without a scope. I just thought it would be nice to compensate for some of my loss of vision over the last few years.

[lakevet]

Crow Hunter, x1957x, and flipper,

I have been blessed with good eyesight, but several in our group have not.

One relative has permanent damage and vision loss from diabetes. Even with a scope (as he is more than qualified to have one and easily got the permission to use a scope) he has a tough time. Strangely he is almost 100% shooting at running deer while struggles to hit standing deer. This is likely because he has central vision loss. So we put him on stand where he is most likely to see a running deer! He also has to carry an eye patch to cover his non-shooting eye, because it is his dominant eye, but he has more vision loss in the dominant eye than his non-dominant eye. So out comes the eye patch, he switches from being a lifelong righty to a lefty and PRACTICES ALOT!!!!!! He also has an eye doc who is as hard core about hunting as he is, a very key point!

In summary:

1) Find a good eye doctor who hunts deer themselves and understands the whole sight, target etc dynamic as well as

the love of the hunt! (Sounds like maybe an eye clinic could have a marketing niche on this HSOforum)

2) Be willing to do what it takes to experiment with different open sights, if you can't qualify for a medical exemption.

3) Change your hunting tactics to match your shooting abilities. Our group has shot most of our biggest deer at under

50 yds, many under 25 yds. This is also true for the medium and small deer also.

4) PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

5) Hopefully your group works with you to solve your problem, as you are part of the group.

Hopefully you won't have to use an eye patch and switch from a right to left (or visa versa) but do what it takes.

Our group doesn't tease him, but works hard to position him in the best spot possible for his abilities. We have shot several very large deer the past few years, but the most excited we have been is when he shot 2 does from one stand on one drive. It was a very good day and memorable day for the family, without question.

Keep practicing!!! It is doable!!!!

lakevet

[lakevet]

I agree with Crow Hunter. I have a serious Stygnatism? in my eyes and what it does is makes it hard to focus on something. Actually what happens is when you focus on your front open sight you cant see the back sight or focus on the animal(which will be blurry) or vice versus if you focus on the animal you cant see down the sights. They are both blurry and so forth. People with this problem will agree with me. It is impossible to do when it gets bad! I am 54 years old and it gets worse every year. And I have to take a lot of [PoorWordUsage] from my kids when I miss at 40 or 50 yards. THEY DONT UNDERSTAND how bad this is.(57)

Have you tried a peep sight? The back sight, which is a ring, is supposed to be blurry. In sniper school they teach to stay focused on the crosshairs, not the target. My Dad who coached the Army biathalon team in Alaska in the 1950's always told me to focus on the front sight, not the target. A retired eye doc friend has long sang the praises of peep sights, as they are more accurate, line up faster, and solve the majority of problems that aging eyes experience. If you haven't used them before, you will have to......Practice. But it is worth it. Maybe get a .22 with peep sights to get in more practice. Maybe calling up a shooting range and see if there is a coach that can help with shooting skills, and tips on how to compensate? Not that you are not an accomplished hunter, but if olympic shooters need a coach, nothing wrong with us using a coach for a tune up

Sorry to hear about your kids attitude. Hunting is supposed to be a memorable enjoyable family outing.

lakevet

[PFUNK]

Good. Got 3 bucks with open sights and could've had 3 more with a scope, had to pass on them as I couldn't declare they were up to our standards so I had to hope to meet up with them again which never happened, with a scope they would've been easy shots, with the naked eye I couldn't tell with certainty. If you can't shoot open sights give it up or get out of your heated box stand and ground hunt closer to where you expect him to come out, you actually have to hunt according to your range but many have shooting lanes cut to rifle hunt and can't comfortably blast those ranges with open sights, there are already plenty putting that pop on pop off scope on already with no regard to the law so there you go. Simple terms, I feel the muzzy hunt should be different than a bonus rifle season with an extra week. After allowing scopes then it would be how about single shot rifles there the same as these in-lines, where does it end in our state, they allow it so we should to, etc. etc. No regard to the resources, just for self gain, people gain, financial gain, what about the over pressured, over hunted, over stressed deer in many parts of Minnesota anyone care or only care about your own ? I want the DNR to make all decisions without pressure about our resources, I don't want some high brow figure who has a relative that wants to hunt or fish a certain way with the know how to float a bill, tired of all of this 2 line fishing, baiting deer, scopes on muskets, etc. Embrace change right, I tried with zone 4 going to zone 2 and in our farming area it changed things for the worse, not all change is successful. You can bash me now.

So why would have the scope made those shots easier? You said it was an issue of judging size to make sure the bucks were up to your personal standards, so what if you had a pair of binoculars with? Then you would have been able to judge their size and harvest them with the open sights? Better just ban binoculars too cuz it looks like they might give a guy more opportunity to start throwing lead.

[Musky Buck]

From scoping the head to the body and boom. Fumbling binocs around, trying to get them in focus with numb hands etc. and then low light then 2 more deer are standing with him now which is which etc, back to binocs I guess now 4 are over there, etc.

[BuckKiller]

From scoping the head to the body and boom. Fumbling binocs around, trying to get them in focus with numb hands etc. and then low light then 2 more deer are standing with him now which is which etc, back to binocs I guess now 4 are over there, etc.

Sounds like your just making excuses. Personnaly im 100% against scopes during the muzzleloader season. If youbwant to use a scope on your muzzleloader use it during the riffle season.

[laker1]

A scope would make it just a one shot rifle season. Why than even have the season. Leave it alone it was set up to be a primitive hunt.

[Musky Buck]

Read further up buck killer, I'm with ya 100% against. Just saying with a scope that buck would be on the wall, without I had no chance to make that shot so I guess I should be in favor for selfish reasons, I'd have 3 more bucks down. For the resource sake, I'm glad those 3 survived because in my area there's not enough decent bucks making it to maturity.

[BuckKiller]

Sorry I misread your point. The way your last post was written it sounded like you where for scopes.

[Musky Buck]

Wish I could chime in more but I work for the government (not really) and tripped over my thousands in per diem money I've accumulated over the years and broke all my fingers slamming them into my state purchased keyboard. Now I may send body shots like that Weiner guy with my state purchased web cam, smoke a stogy like bill clinton with my female aide, then rub some guys leg at a urinal in the cities like whoever he was. Just trying to lighten the mood and 4 months from now we can head to the woods with our heater of choice.