Mike Hill

I am mostly a deer hunter!!!! That said I love toshoot black powder more then shotgun, bow or smokless powder rifle. It is such a great feeling when you can put a bullet and powder combo together for the results you want is unbeliveable. And when you can take those results and harvest a deer with it. Itis even the greatest high there is. Who needs dope or booze when we have this. Anyway I want to use what ever helps me cleanly and most effectivly (legal) harvest a deer. Scoped, inline, sabots, clean powder,209 caps do it for me. Fun is fun but again I am a deer hunter first, and above all , and my ethics rest with my commitment of a clean quick and humane kill. And I think reaching that gole supports the use of the most advance technolegies. Thats my 2 cents Mike

AQUATECH

Where is our sport going? As far as the buying public
will allow it to. I respect the guy who will put on
his buckskins & charcoal. But in reality, there are some
that want the "MAGNUM" powder charge, the super
duper technically treated teflon sabots and projectiles
straight from "NASSA". And they are as much as
part of our sport as the primative hunter.
Modern Muzzleloading is a supply & demand billion
dollar business. So where is it going?? I'm not sure,
but where ever it goes, we need to assure that
clean, humane, kills with the ut-most in hunter ethetics
doesnt fall by the way side.

Sharp Shooter

There are times when I think that same thing. People are putting scopes on their muzzleloaders and now there are even muzzleloaders using smokeless powder. I respect all of your opinions though and what you use and think.

cayugad

I think the rifles in designhave went about as far as they can other then their powder charge capabilities. You might see some breech plug modifications, maybe even some progression in the type of sights. There are some good sights out there but they are out of the average shooters price range. I think they will come down in price and become part of the muzzleloading market as well. I am sure smokeless rifles will enter the market. How popular they will become is another thing.

The place where I think real strides will come is in projectile design. I think everyone out there is looking how to capture the bullet market. Powerbelt started out in the conical department, and the XTP did great in the projectile department.

You might also see bigger and better optics in the future. Yet remember, a lot of this will be controlled by the State Laws we encounter. I would not be surprised if it turned and went just the other way, back to the flintlocks and percussion lock rifles only with roundball.

There really is no telling, but it will be fun to see what happens.

snowman69

Thanks for all the opinions guys this was all I was looking to get out of this post(everyones views). Just remember that I was not trying to knock down anyone for there choice in gear. I believe that you shoot what you want and what you are most comfortable with and ofcourse what you enjoy because in the end that's what it is all about, weather it be an omega or a renegade.

For me other than hunting/fishing my favorite thing to do is go to the local rendezvous and live like they did in the mid 1800's.So the buckskins and fur hat is fun for me, but I am not saying because I do it everyone has to, so please nobody take like that( I didn't mean for it to sound like that, if it did).

Pglasgow

I hope it goes where each and everyone of us wants it go. I don't see why it can't within the limitations of the state laws. No hunting sport is more versatile than muzzleloading. A muzzleloaderis so many different guns, it justdepends on who owns it. Thatswhat is so great about muzzleloading, at least in my way of thinking.

Frankly, I don't like hunting rights to berestricted except by ethics and harvest objectives.In that sense, I think if one group tries to limit another's access to hunting privilege simply becausethe other's choice of weapon or projectile differs from their own, then that is bad forour sport and hunting in general. That said, I don't mind a special primitive hunt either, provided, its not primitive hunters lobbying for it as means to impose their preference on others. If the state is trying to acheive a particular harvest objective while giving more access to the privilege of hunting a primitive season, then I am behind it 100 percent. Shoot, I don't mind imposing the use of sabots and scopes in muzzleloading season, if the objective is to increase harvest.

Let's face it.Inmany states, we simply can't keep up with herd growth. Year after year, harvest objectivesfail to be achieved. I know this to be the case in my home state of Oklahoma. I have a sense it is the same in many other states. Provided a hunter harvests his game in a humane manner, with a capable weapon, I just don't think one can ask for any more, whether one's choice is roundball, conical, sabot, whatever.

You know, I haven't fired a sabot in many years, unless you want to call a patch a sabot. Even so, I am delighted I could hunt with them during regular rifle season here, if I so chose. I want to be able to use whatever, and go down the path of whereever, and do it within the ethical guidelines we as hunters consider to be ethical and responsible hunting and harvesting.

Personally, hunting privilege is so limited for deer in Colorado for muzzleloading season, I don't bother to apply for muzzleloading season. I just want to be able to pursue my sport along with everyone else during the rifle season. In that sense, the question could be asked, "Where is rifle season going in Colorado?". The answer may be that is going the way of muzzleloading in all its various expressions, being brought there by people who chose to take their muzzleloaders to the field. In my way of thinking, thats a good thing for our sport.

Happy Hunting, Phil

lemoyne

Well, I think it will go where the majority send it, we control it by what we buy and what we demand from our law makers. The conservation people do a good job in most states, I would have said all before I moved to AR and they will make the changes necessary to keep a good deer herd if that CWD don't wipe out all of them. Lee

danowak

One thing we should have figured out by now is that you can't stop technology. It's kind of funny to see some of you guys saying that muzzleloading has gone as far as it can when you think about recent advances (if you think they are advances) in bullets, powder, and now even a Savage muzzleloader that uses smokeless powder. I think we are far from done with new technologies in muzzleloading.

Frankly, I got into muzzleloading because it extends my hunting season by another 3 weeks. I would not have done it if it meant using a flintlock. Not to say that I won't eventually go there, but I think for a lot of people more technology means more options which means more hunters. Just because you have an option to use a "modern" muzzleloader doesn't mean you have to. So I say use whatever weapon you want, just hunt.

jaybe

danowak: I was thinking the same thing about "it's gone about as far as it can go."
I wonder if people haven't thought that about many things in the past. At one time, a car that went 45 mph was considered "breakneck speed". Who would have thought 100 years ago that medical technology would allow all the surgeries & procedures that are done routinely today, etc, etc.
I'd say that the sport will continue to evolve, and it's hard to say where it will stop - if it does.

jaybe

statjunk

I don't much mind the shotgun rule in the lower part. I just use my muzzle loader. It's more accurate than my rifle is.

Tom