I was reading through my American Hunter magazine today (July 07 edition), and saw a couple new muzzleloaders that redefine what I've ever seen for a muzzleloader.
The first is produced by Traditions, and is called the Express Double. It goes for $1600-1750 depending on the configuration, but it's basically like an over/under shotgun, but with 2 rifled barrels. To me, muzzleloaders have their place as a one shot opportunity rifle, so this is definitely something new that I wouldn't be suprised to see some legislation about when it comes to hunting to keep it that way. Here's the link to that one:
http://www.traditionsfirearms.com/eshop/10Browse.asp?Category=Muzzleloaders%3A+Express+Dou ble+Shot+Over+%26+Under+%28In+Lines%29
The other one that made me stop and think was one produced by CVA called the Electra. It uses a 9-volt battery good for up to 500 shots to arc across the breech instead of using any types of primers. They advertise that it's 5 times hotter than a 209.There's no breech plug hole to get fouled, it's 100% waterproof, and the trigger is built on a circuit board rather than a fully mechanical trigger, which allows the shot to be nearly instantaneous w/o any lock time. Again, this seems to be a revolutionary change to what I think of as muzzleloaders, and I'm not sure what to think of it. I'm all for bringing new people into the sport, but where do we draw the line? I for one will not own either of these guns, but they definitely made me look twice to see what they were all about. Here's a link to that one:
www.cva.com/electra
Sorry if either of these have been discussed, but I didn't see them off the bat and a search didn't come up with anything about either.