Although no hunting season has been proposed for 2024-2025, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is seeking public input on two important topics.
One is that ground-drive motors could be banned in state-owned wildlife management areas.
The other is to allow hunters to use straight-walled centerfire cartridges during the statewide muzzleloading deer season.
Float drive motors are commonly known as “mud” motors because they can operate in waters too deep for traditional outboards. Traditional outboard motors have a drive shaft oriented perpendicular to the boat’s keel built into a lower gear unit that rotates a propeller parallel to and below the keel.
Traditional outboards are water-cooled, so they don’t work well in shallow, muddy environments because silt gets into the cooling system. Abrasive silt destroys water pumps and clogs engine water cooling jackets. Additionally, fallen leaves and debris can block or clog the water intake and cause the motor to overheat.
Finally, the propeller descending below the keel essentially deepens the boat’s draft to the lowest point of the propeller’s circumference. The shallowest depth a propeller can rotate is the depth of water required to operate a conventional outboard-powered boat.
Surface drive motors have a straight drive shaft with a strut at the end. There is no 90 degree angle to the propeller. The water-driven motor is air-cooled, so there is no chance of dirty water pumps or clogged intake ports. The surface drive motor tilts up and down so it can be constantly adjusted as water depth decreases. When there is water under the keel, the surface drive motor can push the boat.
Surface drive motors are deafeningly loud. This has a huge impact on the hunting environment.
Mud motors can operate in very shallow water, allowing hunters to penetrate by boat into areas that were once only accessible by foot. As a result, mud motors also allow hunters to view and observe ducks by boat rather than on foot. This will disturb other hunters. It also disturbs the ducks and makes the Game Management Area an inhospitable place for ducks, which defeats the purpose of the Game Management Area.
The Game and Fish Commission plans to keep pool levels low in the greenbelt, likely resulting in less total area being flooded throughout the season. To reduce the potential for conflict between hunters and reduce the impact on wildlife from actions associated with the use of mud motors, the Game and Fish Commission has determined that mud motors are incompatible with modern wildlife management area concepts. may be concluded. The public’s opinion on this issue will have some influence on that trend.
straight wall cartridge
Allowing the use of straight-wall centerfire rifle ammunition during the muzzleloading season is an idea that has been percolating within the commission for nearly 20 years. Repeated use of the rifle is prohibited during the muzzleloading season. Hunters may only use single-shot rifles loaded with cartridges such as .45-70 Government or 350 Legend.
Muzzleloading gun purists may object to this as a violation of the spirit of fighting with primitive firearms. That barrier has long since been torn down. Modern muzzleloaders have little in common with their primitive flintlock counterparts. Modern propellants and primers have nothing in common with traditional types.
However, they all have one thing in common. The components must be inserted one at a time through the muzzle. Reloading a muzzleloader takes time.
A single-shot rifle that fires a metal cartridge from the breech. A competent hunter can quickly reload one gun and fire a second shot in a fraction of the time it takes to reload, aim and fire a muzzleloader again. can.
Allowing hunters to use straight-walled metal cartridges will not negatively impact deer populations or deprive traditional muzzleloading enthusiasts of hunting opportunities.
Such regulations could recruit new hunters. Perhaps some experienced hunters will abandon muzzleloaders in favor of more efficient guns.