Apologies for the length of this. It’s kinda a sore subject with me.
I would gladly give up being able to hunt with a muzzleloader during shotgun season in exchange for a TRADITIONAL ONLY muzzleloader season if for no other reason than the likelihood of inlines going away. I don’t even own a modern firearm legal for deer in my state, but if I did, and I cared to, I could shell out the money for a modern license as well.
I’ve debated getting involved in this thread because my interests have always been geared more toward competition than hunting. The fact that I pretty much quit shooting completely for almost ten years aside, when I shot my first squirrel this fall it was the first game I’d taken in at least fifteen years, probably longer, with ANY kind of firearm.
The weapon of choice in that instance was a flint smoothbore. I had access to dad’s old 311 Stevens double-barrel, his first shotgun, a .410 single shot, and a scoped Ruger 10/22. The Ruger has never killed anything, it has less than two boxes of cartridges through it even though I have had it for about ten years. I hunted with both shotguns when I in my early teens and killed a lot of squirrels with each of them. They both have tremendous sentimental value, but I doubt I will ever use either of them for hunting again. Why? For the simple reason that I WANT to hunt with a traditional muzzleloader. Even in a situation where I could use a multi-shot firearm, equipped with a scope that would bring the animal of the moment within rock throwing distance, I choose to hunt with open sights and the high probability of only getting one chance/shot.
Once upon a time when deer were nowhere near as plentiful as they are now people like me who would use a muzzleloader - a REAL muzzleloader - even when they didn’t have to, thought it would be nice to have a time set aside just for the primitive weapons they enjoyed hunting with. In many states, one of the selling points for muzzleloading only seasons was that the range of a roundball was far less than that of, say, a 30/30. This was a legitimate concern particularly in some of the eastern states where someone’s house might be out of sight but well within the range of a projectile fired from a modern rifle chambered for anything from a 30/30 on up. At any rate, the reason the early muzzleloader seasons were also referred to as PRIMITIVE weapons seasons is because that is what they were. They were for firearms using real-honest-to-God black powder and firing LEAD projectiles. Some states went so far as to make it round ball only.
Suddenly, all the folks who had been laughing at those idiots who shot, or even, if you can believe it, HUNTED with a muzzleloader, wanted one. Well, not really, but they wanted the extra season, and almost from the beginning steps were taken to follow the letter of the law while avoiding, or even discarding, the SPIRIT of it. At, or close, to the time that TC brought out the “Hawken”, they also introduced the Maxi-ball. Not wanting to lose out on any potential revenue, most DNRs rewrote the regs to allow the use of first Maxi-balls, and soon after other projectiles that were “superior” to those hopelessly antiquated roundballs. It has snowballed from there.
Forget flints or percussion caps. We now have “muzzleloaders” that don’t even require rifle or shotgun primers - the charge is ignited with a battery charged wire. I wasn’t aware of it before reading this thread, but I guess there are even “muzzleloaders” that use smokeless powder.
It’s only a matter of time before someone markets a double barrel with superimposed loads so your “muzzleloader” will be capable of four quick shots in succession.
And even if I loved shooting but abhorred hunting that would bother me. A lot.
Black powder is getting harder and harder to get. Federal regulations are often blamed, but time after time, when a retailer that once carried it and no longer does is asked why, the answer is, “we didn’t sell enough of it”. Of course, the REASON they don’t sell it is because the current, most commonly used “muzzleloaders” don’t require it. And the people shooting those rifles sure as *&^&% are not going to use it if they don’t have to.
Anyone who wants to hunt with a scoped, synthetic stocked, stainless steel barreled firearm using, at best, a shotgun primer to set of the little pellets that were loaded down the barrel in lieu of lose powder should be allowed to. In competition with all of the other modern firearms. Because that is what they are. If the inline boys don’t like it let ”˜em get a model 94 or a model 70. They still make ”˜em
Muzzleloader seasons should be black powder - real black powder - , exposed ignition, patched round ball, or, in the case of a military styled musket a Minnie-ball. Open sights only.
With a return to requiring traditional muzzleloaders only in muzzleloader season, there may be another resurgence in not only the guns themselves, but in the things (like real black powder) needed to shoot them.
The alternative may well be finding out (too late) that the resurgence in muzzleloading that occurred in the 1970s and 80s was in fact the beginning of the end for the game played by men like Cline, Ferris, Vickery”¦”¦. And most of the members of this board.
