Pennsylvania Game News - December 2022 - 43

SEPTEMBER COMMISSIONERS MEETING
Urine-ban proposal fails to advance
Commissioners deadlock on vote, measure removed from agenda.
The proposed statewide ban on the use
and field possession of urine-based deer
attractants and other cervid excretions
failed to gain majority support from the
Board of Commissioners in September,
meaning it will advance no further toward
adoption at this time.
The Board of Commissioners was
split 4-4 on whether to move the proposal
toward final adoption.
Commissioners Michael Mitrick,
Dennis Fredericks, Scott Foradora and
Todd Pride voted to preliminarily approve
the statewide ban. Commissioners Kristen
Schnepp-Giger, Allen Di Marco, Stanley
Knick Jr. and Haley Sankey voted against
preliminary approval. Commissioner
Robert Schwalm was not in attendance.
Knick said that, while the proposal
failed, there always will be the opportunity
to reintroduce it in the future.
Many of the commissioners
commented on the proposal, and the
difficulty with which they arrived at a
decision to vote for or against it. While
there's evidence commercially produced
urine-based deer attractants might contain
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) prions,
making them potentially infectious, the
actual risk of such attractants spreading
CWD to deer and elk is less clear.
CWD is fatal to deer, elk and other
cervids.
Where CWD is detected in free-ranging
or captive deer, the Game Commission
establishes regulations meant to slow the
spread of CWD to other areas. Within
CWD Disease Management Areas, the
use or field possession of urine-based deer
attractants is prohibited.
Captured-powder charges OK'd for muzzleloaders
Legal definitions that prohibited hunters
from using muzzleloading firearms accepting
breech-loaded, captured-powder charges
have been amended through a vote of the
Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners.
The board in September adopted a
measure that will permit hunters to use
muzzleloaders accepting captured-powder
charges beginning in the 2023-24 seasons.
As their name suggests, muzzleloading
firearms typically are loaded from the
muzzle. And previous law prohibited
any muzzleloaders accepting cartridge
ammunition.
Some modern muzzleloaders, however,
accept charges similar to cartridges, but that
contain only powder. These captured-powder
DECEMBER 2022
charges are loaded from the breech while
the projectiles are loaded from the muzzle.
Those muzzleloaders, however, had been
prohibited because of the prohibition on
cartridge use in muzzleloaders.
The commissioners have said the
prohibition on cartridge use in muzzleloaders
originally was intended to restrict modern
firearms that accept cartridges containing
both projectile and powder. Amending the
law to allow muzzleloaders that accept
captured powder charges preserves that
original intent.
Hunters using captured powder charges in
appropriate firearms also might find greater
convenience in the ability to more easily
unload their muzzleloader without firing it.
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Pennsylvania Game News - December 2022

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