RE: less hunters.
While fewer hunters is always a bonus, it is far from the main reason I hunt with a muzzleloader. In fact I hunt my own property almost all the time, so there are no other hunters (or at leastthey better hope I don't run into them.) Even in our modern season you will see me hauling around one kind of muzzleloader or another, much to the jokes and kidding by my good friends. The fact that I only get one shot does not worry me. Even with center fire rifles, how many actually needed that second shot? How many center fire shooters take that second shot more in panic, only to later discover, they really did not need it as the first was fatal.
The area I hunt now also is about custom made for a muzzleloader. Ranges are short, normally under 100 yards, shooting situations are such that a quick shot is seldom encountered unless you like to sleep and have the deer wake you (as a friend of mine is famous for), and the bone breaking power of a muzzleloader is a real plus when you need to plant an animal to stop it from running into the brush. I've had just as many, or more deer run off for short distances, from hits with a center fire rifle as I have a muzzleloader.
I also like the challenge. I really have gotten to the point in life that while I enjoy the meat, and everyone wants to shoot the monster buck of the woods, if I don't get a deer that is all right too.They sell lots of beef, pork, and poultry in the store to keep me fat. I've shot a lot of deer, but the ones I have taken with a muzzleloader just seem a little more special. Even a simple does at fiftyyards that I had to wait out for twenty minutes for that perfect shot is just as rewarding as a buck I took with a 7mm Mag shooting400+ yardsacross a cornfield.
None of us hunt with a muzzleloader because we want to hunt with a rifle easy to maintain, has near positive ignition (yes even inlines will fail), and cleaning at the end of the day is not necessary unless you want. We all have different reasons why we hunt with muzzleloaders just as we have different preferences in the kind of muzzleloader rifle we pick. The easy thing is to accept each of us for our differences in reasons, and enjoy the outdoors.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
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Al
