Pennsylvania Game News - January 2024 - 5

gether. So the Game Commission and
the state's organized flintlock hunters
worked to tighten things up.
" We had to say whoa, yes, all these
innovations make the rifle more effective,
but that was not the original intent
of the season, " Ehrig said.
New regulations were put into effect
limiting flintlocks to single-barrel,
flintlock-ignition rifles built before
1800 - or reproductions of the same
- in .44 caliber or larger (pistols have
to be .50 caliber or larger). Telescopic
sights were outlawed, too, among other
things.
In time, starting in 1985, the season
went back to being held after Christmas.
Game Commissioners eventually
lengthened it, too.
These days, the flintlock season is a
staple of Pennsylvania's hunting calendar,
and a unique one at that. Forty-four
states allow muzzleloaders to be used
for big game; only Pennsylvania has a
season dedicated to flintlocks only.
" And that makes us iconic, " Ehrig
said.
The appeal of the season - more so
than being just another chance to harvest
a deer - is tied to heritage, said
Don Blazier, of Bellwood in Blair
County. A Field Representative for the
National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association,
he first shot a flintlock in 1972,
after his dad bought one second-hand.
He began hunting with one in Pennsylvania
in 1976.
All these years later, he's still at it,
and for all the same reasons.
" This may sound a little goofy, but
I grew up in the days of Daniel Boone
and Davy Crockett on TV, and there's
no doubt that the nostalgia and the
challenge of the hunt has a lot to do
with it, " he said.
JANUARY 2024
" The image of the longhunter going
out and procuring game with a flintlock,
it was always cool. It was just always
neat. It wasn't the kill, it was the
hunt and the camaraderie. "
In the early days of flintlock hunting
here, other muzzleloaders were few and
far between, Blazier said. It was rare to
cross tracks with anyone else out after
deer with flint and steel beyond those in
his own group.
He and friends went all in, though.
They used to camp out in primitive
tents and hunt wearing traditional
capotes - hooded, blanket-like cloaks
once common among mountain men
- along with bear fur-lined boots and
buckskins.
He no longer does that, but still
builds his own flintlocks. He's taken
all kinds of game with them, too, from
squirrels on up. In 2017, for example,
he shot a gobbler in spring and then
an 8-point buck in the flintlock season
with one of his own guns.
" When I shot that turkey, I sat down
on that hill beside it and thought, this
is maybe the first turkey killed up here
with a flintlock in the last 150 years, "
Blazier said. " That gives you a feeling
of accomplishment. "
Still a competitive blackpowder
shooter - he's in his 42nd year as a
member of the state's flintlock team -
he sees plenty of interest in the sport
yet today.
There is, indeed, a new generation of
flintlock enthusiasts joining the game,
said 33-year-old Jeff Warner, of Beccaria,
President of the once-again-growing
Pennsylvania Federation of Black
Powder Shooters. Most, he said, are
drawn by the same sense of history that
first attracted the 77-year-old Ehrig and
the 71-year-old Blazier.
5
Pennsylvania Game News - January 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - January 2024
