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I'm with ya Coondog, the original intent of muzzleloading season was for preserving the old ways of hunting, when hunting skills and knowledge was important. I start to wondering when a fella talks about hunting with his in line and sabots, pyradex pellets, shotgun primers, and then whines because he thinks he should be allowed to use a scope too. That just isn't the spirit of what this season is all about in my opinion

It seems like different state legislatures have different reasons for implementing muzzleloader seasons anyway. I think originally most of the states wanted to offer the traditionalists a chance to hunt with their "antique" style guns, but now I think some just use it as a way to manage the herd by having another season. Why they dont just extend the regular season and include muzzleloaders as legal firearms I dont know. Lots of tough questions on this topic. Playing the devils advocate, why do we need to have seperate seasons for different types of devices anyway? Why can't bowhunters and muzzleloader hunters and centerfire hunters all hunt at the same time with whatever suits them? On the other end of the argument, we need a season for longbows, one for recurves, one for compounds with less than 65%letoff, one for super compounds, one for matchlocks, flintlocks, caplocks, inlines, scoped inlines, smokeless mz, centerfires, etc. I suppose when you get right down to it, it depends on what group lobbies the hardest for whatever season they advocate. Some consideration is probably given to revenues, in ga, I think we sell about 400,000 hunting licenses a year. If half of those people buy a muzzleloader and all the fixins, thats a lot of revenue for the state. It would be interesting to know, and maybe a little scary, how these seasons are constructed by our state govts.

The reason for all the seperate seasons is simple, MONEY. They charge you to hunt with each individual weapon choice.
As far as keeping it primitive goes, HOGWASH. You same people insist on taking game cleanly, stressing ethics and making accurate shots, and turn right around and want them to outlaw the most efficient means available to do just that. I dont tell you where to get your flint, heck lets make it illegal to use store bought flint, chip your own! Make your own powder too while you are at it! Can't you people see? DIVIDE AND CONQUER!
As far as Colorado outlawing muzzleloading equipment goes, that aint no surprise, they have always had it bassakwards anyway. I put in for three years in order to get my muzzleloading elk tag in 1997. Then in order to hunt there, I had to take a consistent 1 1/2" or less grouping rifle, and turn it into something that wasnt really fit to hunt with!
I had to remove my scope and replace the sights that had long ago been removed because of their uselessness (by comparision to a leupold)and put a peep sight on. At least they did allow that. Shhh dont tell em, no peeps will be next on the blacklist. I then had to can my sabots and find SOMETHING that was "legal" to use. Never again! And for those wondering, yes, I did kill an elk, so the sore loser argument is out.
My main goal has and always will be, to harvest game cleanly. Like it or not, the newest equipment on the market does that best, and that is what I will use. Probably not in Colorado ever again, but everywhere else I decide to hunt, even if it is only for the first shot! <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>

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what was the first state to have a muzzleloader season anyway? Here in ga, we have only had a ml season for the last two years. Before that there were wma hunts on state lands for bows and muzzleloaders but no special season. Tn hunter, do you have to buy a muzzleloading license in Tenn.? In ga its covered on the regular license.

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Lots of good points made here, for traditionals and in-lines both. CO may very well ban the use of smokeless powder during the muzzleloader season. But, that is no big surprise, CO has always been wishie washie that way. A few years ago when they banned in-lines and suffered financially for their mistake, they quickly saw the error of their way, and reversed themselves so fast that half of them probably had to be hospitalized with back injuries. In the next few years there may be more states that follow CO's example, but there may be some that have seen there error of there ways and allow smokeless, only time will tell.

Here in the state of NC, basically as long as it loads from the muzzle and is .45 cal or larger, it is legal during muzzleloading season. Scopes, saboted bullets, and even smokeless powder.

As far in-lines go, the first ones were around in the early 1700's. With the perfection of the percusion cap, in the early 1800's there were also in-lines. Muzzleloading performance reached a new penical of evalution during the Civil War. Conferedate sharpshooters made life very dangerous for Union officers out to 1,000yds with muzzleloaded Whittworth Rifles.

30-40 years ago when many of these special muzzleloading seasons were established, the T/C Hawkin was state of the art. There were very few hunters and you only had two choice either flintlock or sidelock percussion. These hunters had the woods to themselves. Many of these were beautiful hand made peices of art. Most muzzleloaders of that period were designed to shoot patch & ball. The mini-ball and conicals had yet to be perfected. The modern in-lines and sabots, were still a couple decades away.

Evalution caught up and in a hurry. Todays muzzleloader hunter doesn't seem to care for the forefathers way, and tradition doesn't play into the reason they decide to go with an in-line. In-line sells make up about 80% of the muzzleloader market today. The Savage is just the next logical step in this evalution. If given a choice of a Knight in-line or their long rifles, do you think Davey Crokkett and those at the Alamo, do you think they would have looked upon the in-line with as much disgust as some of you? I think not.

The game dept.'s first and foremaost concern should be the game herds in their charge. like it or not, hunters wishes are way down on the priority list, or at least they should be. Some lobbying groups have been very effective in keeping their wishes and wants on the front burners, at the expense of majority of their fellow hunters. PA is a prime example, of the small minority, yet very effective lobbying group, keeping out dated hunting methods as the law of the land. Most muzzleloader hunters in that state would give their left testical to be able to legally hunt with an in-line.

All we want is just to extend hunitng opportunities, just another chance to get that extra kill. That is a bunch of Bravo Seirra. Traditionalist are no more and no better hunters, than the in-line hunters, period. The bottom line is when I squeeze the trigger of my Savage on a deer, the deer will be laying right there, whether it's at 50yds or 200yds. Can you say the same when the smoke clears?

If I had my wishes here in NC, patch & ball would be outlawed. These may be effective at 50yds but anything past that and they are just cripplers and manglers, leaving game to wonder off and suffer an agonizing death. I know this will upset some, but it is JMHO, that's all.