Thoughts on a Board of Game proposal

The Alaska Board of Game (BOG) is wrapping up their cyclic, once every three years meeting which encompasses our Game Management Units 14 and 16. I’m writing this before I know the results of the board deliberations on a proposal I submitted a few years ago before board schedules were impacted by the COVID pandemic, which caused this meeting to be delayed a year.

My proposal #81 is a “methods and means” proposal which asked the board to add black powder cartridge rifles (BPCR) and muzzleloading rifles (ML) to the list of approved hunting tools for the GMU 14A and 14B late season, “targeted antlerless moose” permit hunts. These hunts are used to thin the number of moose using the highway corridors during years of heavy snows to decrease moose/vehicle encounters, and to remove destructive or nuisance moose from specific areas.

Currently, 10 and 12-gauge shotguns using rifled slugs, bow and arrow equipment, and crossbows are the only legal tools allowed in this hunt. The reason shotguns with slugs were originally allowed was because they are short-range firearms compared to a modern, centerfire hunting rifle capable of harvesting a moose. Given the highway corridors and proximity to houses encountered in this permit hunt, short-range capability is necessary to address safety considerations.

My argument to allow BPCR and ML firearms is based on comparative ballistics between the shotguns and the blackpowder firearms. The modern lead shotgun slugs weigh from 420 to around 550 grains and travel at a velocity of between 1250 to 1500 feet-per-second (fps). The BPCR calibers which would be most encountered in this hunt use lead bullets weighing from about 405 to around 550 grains and travel at a velocity of around 1250 to 1500 fps. As you can see, the ballistics are virtually identical.

I am a certified ADF&G Muzzleloader Hunter Education instructor and in the department supplied information we give folks seeking a muzzleloader hunting certification, it states that, given the same caliber, same barrel length, same bullet weight, and same powder charge, there is no ballistic difference between a BPCR and a ML rifle. That’s why I added ML rifles to the request. They are ballistically equivalent to the BPCR, which are equivalent to the already legal shotguns.

I don’t think there will be that many folks who would opt to use the black powder rifles in this hunt, but for some of us “aging hunters,” having the additional option would be appreciated, since our opportunities to hunt moose are becoming more limited for health and mobility considerations.

I didn’t personally attend the BOG meeting because of my recent surgery and COVID exposure concerns. I did, however, submit a written comment during the meeting where I disagreed with a statement in the department comments on proposal #81.

The comment states: “Blackpowder cartridge rifles (BPCR) are different from muzzleloaders (ML) because the blackpowder cartridge rifle loads from the breech and fires a preloaded cartridge that contains black powder. Blackpowder cartridge rifles cannot be legally used in muzzleloader-only seasons and are closer to modern centerfire rifles than muzzleloaders.” The last half of the last sentence is incorrect!

The only similarity between a BPCR and a modern centerfire rifle is that they both use a cartridge to fire. Black powder is not even close to smokeless powder in power as a propellant. Any attempt to claim a BPCR is “closer” to a modern centerfire rifle, ballistically, is disingenuous and misleading.

Whoever wrote that comment for the department doesn’t appear to know anything about the ballistics of the firearms involved and didn’t appear to have consulted information the department distributes to the public as part of their educational programs.

I really wish the department would ask someone who knows something about the topic being discussed to comment rather than “wing it” and go with how something looks instead of how it functions in the real world. There are several folks out there who could explain the difference between smokeless and black powder as a propellent.

If this proposal fails because of the misleading statement in the department comments, I will be contacting the Commissioner and the Wildlife Division Director to register my disappointment and frustration with them stating things to a regulatory body about which the commentator knows nothing.

If this proposal is accepted, I hope the firearms requirements would encompass the same specifications for ML as currently stated in regulation for big game and to use the outlined BPCR specifications as contained in the Delta Junction bison hunting regulations when participating in this permitted hunt.