They will remain legal in shotgun/smokepole hunting zones until enough blood is shed to outlaw them. It is unfortunate that our laws won't change until innocent folks sitting in their living rooms watching TV get shot.... but that's how the system works with our government.
Oh please! Fist of all, there are muzzleloaders that achieve velocities within 200 fps of the Savages smokeless loads. Secondly, your argument is baseless, since there is no more likely a chance that there will be a stray bullet from a Savage than from a Knight. On top of that, you are doing what so many ignorant antis do and blame the gun instead of the shooter for any accident that occurs. If a hunter puts a bullet through someones living room it is because he was negligent/reckless and didn't know what was behind his target and assure a solid backstop. I'd also like you to find me ONE SHRED OF EVIDENCE that innocent bystanders are in greater danger from a Savage than from any other "magnum" muzzleloader. Unfortunately for you and your baseless argument and blatantly biased position, I don't think such evidence exists.
And ask yourself this question...who is more dangerous; a hunter with a Savage muzzleloader with, like any other muzzleloader, one and only one shot to take on a target, or a shotgun hunter who is able to blast out 5+ 3" magnum sabot slugs at a running deer that are currently achieving velocities of 2000fps or more?
Smokeless Savages are nice/advantageous, but if you can see your harvest fall upon firing, then it ain't no smokepole.
But like it or not, they are still a muzzleloader. I can't understand why there is so much division and infighting among our ranks, considering the Savage is no less a muzzleloader than a Brown Bess musket. Maybe we should ban Triple Seven and 150 grain charges before "innocent folks sitting in their living rooms watching TV get shot" and because it gives you an "unfair" advantage over those who choose to hunt with smoothbore flintlock muskets. Oh wait, did I say CHOOSE. Maybe we should quit nitpicking and allow people to hunt with whatever they CHOOSE to hunt with, as long as it loads from the front, even if some people don't like it? Wouldn't that be a novel concept...I think they call it "freedom."
Man, I just don't get some people.
Mike