What you will find is many of us that have inlines also own traditional rifles as well. Whether we hunt with them or not is personal preference. During the hunting season I use inlines when hunting the large fields because I need the longer range they offer. When in the thick woods I will often times hunt with a sidelock or flintlock. Many times the sidelock is a better choice because at the close range I encounter, I can load a much larger caliber projectile and at close range get the benifit from that.

If you took the scope off many of the inline rifles, other then a better BC on the projectile there is little advantage over them and the .. say cap lock rifle shooting a conical or roundball. Most people without scopes would have a hard time shooting at anything over 100 yards and honestly say they are able to place their shots every time. Granted there are some of them that can shoot 150 yards with the open sights, but the average person would have a hard time doing that.

Once you learn to weather proof the traditional rifles, they are almost as dependable as the 209 ignition of an inline. In fact this year I had one rifle fail to fire. It was an inline with a 209 cap. Thank goodness it was during a morning load testing instead of an actual hunting situation.

So what I am saying is if you like the challenge of the traditonal rifle then go for it. It is exciting to shoot your deer with a traditional rifle. If you're out for long range and high tech then go with the inline rifles. The inportant thing is both of them get us more time in the woods and change the overall hunting experience... The more hunters we get into this sport no matter what we carry, the stronger voice we have on issues that concern us.