The performance advantage of smokeless is one thing, the inline vs sidehammer argument is borderline ridiculous. It's primarily cosmetic. My old sidelock shot well to 200 yds. If you want strong performance restrictions, keep out smokeless and scopes. Once you allow scopes, any standard ML with commonly accepted bullets and decidedly standard charges, regardless of what the gun looks like, is a 300+ yd gun in the right hands.

You guys got to remember that the goal of ML season differs greatly by state too. Out west, I can see the emphasis on an opportunity for a more traditional hunt. In southern Michigan and, to a lesser extent Indiana, it is an important additional population control season where you need more people afield not less. This year my buddies back where I grew up said they went so far as to extend regular firearms seasons -- at the expense of bow and ML hunters -- to get more does taken.

I don't know about you but I'd rather see more guys in the field with me with scoped inlines than shotguns....

I am not going to pay the outlandish prices for these guns, switching to smokeless, for some reason, is the point at which I stop seeing the point in it. I don't know why, it's as arbitrary as any of the other lines people draw to define these guns (which are all arbitrary opinions by the way). I have one ML with a scope that I shoot long range, and TWO with open sights. I rarely get out during ML-only seasons, so the long range gun is used primarily during firearms opener. Come to think of it, I think the rare occasions I get out and take deer during ML-only season I've always used one of the open sight guns...