Lots of good points made here, for traditionals and in-lines both. CO may very well ban the use of smokeless powder during the muzzleloader season. But, that is no big surprise, CO has always been wishie washie that way. A few years ago when they banned in-lines and suffered financially for their mistake, they quickly saw the error of their way, and reversed themselves so fast that half of them probably had to be hospitalized with back injuries. In the next few years there may be more states that follow CO's example, but there may be some that have seen there error of there ways and allow smokeless, only time will tell.

Here in the state of NC, basically as long as it loads from the muzzle and is .45 cal or larger, it is legal during muzzleloading season. Scopes, saboted bullets, and even smokeless powder.

As far in-lines go, the first ones were around in the early 1700's. With the perfection of the percusion cap, in the early 1800's there were also in-lines. Muzzleloading performance reached a new penical of evalution during the Civil War. Conferedate sharpshooters made life very dangerous for Union officers out to 1,000yds with muzzleloaded Whittworth Rifles.

30-40 years ago when many of these special muzzleloading seasons were established, the T/C Hawkin was state of the art. There were very few hunters and you only had two choice either flintlock or sidelock percussion. These hunters had the woods to themselves. Many of these were beautiful hand made peices of art. Most muzzleloaders of that period were designed to shoot patch & ball. The mini-ball and conicals had yet to be perfected. The modern in-lines and sabots, were still a couple decades away.

Evalution caught up and in a hurry. Todays muzzleloader hunter doesn't seem to care for the forefathers way, and tradition doesn't play into the reason they decide to go with an in-line. In-line sells make up about 80% of the muzzleloader market today. The Savage is just the next logical step in this evalution. If given a choice of a Knight in-line or their long rifles, do you think Davey Crokkett and those at the Alamo, do you think they would have looked upon the in-line with as much disgust as some of you? I think not.

The game dept.'s first and foremaost concern should be the game herds in their charge. like it or not, hunters wishes are way down on the priority list, or at least they should be. Some lobbying groups have been very effective in keeping their wishes and wants on the front burners, at the expense of majority of their fellow hunters. PA is a prime example, of the small minority, yet very effective lobbying group, keeping out dated hunting methods as the law of the land. Most muzzleloader hunters in that state would give their left testical to be able to legally hunt with an in-line.

All we want is just to extend hunitng opportunities, just another chance to get that extra kill. That is a bunch of Bravo Seirra. Traditionalist are no more and no better hunters, than the in-line hunters, period. The bottom line is when I squeeze the trigger of my Savage on a deer, the deer will be laying right there, whether it's at 50yds or 200yds. Can you say the same when the smoke clears?

If I had my wishes here in NC, patch & ball would be outlawed. These may be effective at 50yds but anything past that and they are just cripplers and manglers, leaving game to wonder off and suffer an agonizing death. I know this will upset some, but it is JMHO, that's all.