I've gotta agree with TraderVic, Boomer. We've got to start working together to protect our freedoms and not creating divisions. We'll be much stronger if we do.
I've come to see legislated 'fairness' as the enemy of freedom. Look at it this way. You have one Muzzleloader season. You are free to choose whatever kind of M/L you want; be it flinter, percussion sidelock, or inline. The freedom of this arrangement is greater than one where there's one M/L season for 'traditional' guns and another for inlines. Once the 'traditional' season was declared, some would advocate yet another 'more traditional' season for flinters, or PRB shooters or whatever.
This will never end and there will always be someone dissatisfied. And the more fairness that's legislated, the less freedom there will be; not to mention the unintentional unfairness that always seems to be a byproduct of 'fairness' legislation.
When you think about it the only totally 'fair' approach to this is to eliminate the freedom to hunt deer entirely. That way everyone suffers an equal amount because no one can hunt. Therefore:
Maximum Fairness = Zero Freedom
Hopefully our elected officials won't take this approach to bestowing fairness on all.
On this forum, the issue of being historically correct is taken quite seriously. So what is the historically correct approach to the issue you raise? In the case of our American forebears, would it not be to maximize freedom?
I'm aware that this is no longer the America of the 1830s. We do need game laws and seasons. Still it seems we have more than enough already and to demand more is to directly oppose the spirit of the period our hobby harkens back to.
FWIW
Bob