Who Hunts Reg Seasons With Their Muzzleloader?

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Yanqui

I hate change! It’s never the same! Archie Bunker
Joined
Aug 2, 2024
Messages
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Location
Michigan
Just curious who hunts traditional during the “regular”season and thoughts? I have for many years and can’t say I’ve felt handi-capped. I do tend to hunt quite remote areas where I rarely see anyone. Not sure how I’d feel about it with heavy hunting pressure? I’ll say I could care less if I actually do succeed at this point in life, but, I do hunt hard and am not shy to shoot if opportunity presents itself. All in all it’s a great feeling to be out in the boonies with one good shot at the ready and that sweet looking piece of WOOD on my lap. Thoughts or comments?
 
I hunt deer here with a traditional ML. There is no centerfire season in my state so it’s all ML or shotgun….

I have a modern inline with all the bells and whistles, but the terrain here is rocky, dense and long shots are almost unheard of. I can hit a deer pretty much just as easily with a PRB out of my percussion Lyman Deerstalker. I’ve found myself using the inline less and less. At this point I’m only holding onto it in case an out of state hunting opportunity that requires a longer range gun presents itself.
 
Just curious who hunts traditional during the “regular”season and thoughts? I have for many years and can’t say I’ve felt handi-capped. I do tend to hunt quite remote areas where I rarely see anyone. Not sure how I’d feel about it with heavy hunting pressure? I’ll say I could care less if I actually do succeed at this point in life, but, I do hunt hard and am not shy to shoot if opportunity presents itself. All in all it’s a great feeling to be out in the boonies with one good shot at the ready and that sweet looking piece of WOOD on my lap. Thoughts or comments?
I'm too old to hunt [92] but that's how I hunted. I haven't shot a modern rifle since ... well the ones I shot are vintage now, probably in 50s [military].
 
I have for the last few seasons, but won’t this year. Got a new gun I want to try out, so the ML will be used in ML season only this year. Well, maybe…possibly.😁
 
If I get an archery buck, I will often take my flintlock out during regular fire arms season for doe. Often depends on where I am going to hunt and the weather. I may end up with a rifle hunting over power line right of ways where I could shoot 200+ yards or in a tree stand where I'd shoot about 40 to 50 yards. I picked up a .45 Seneca this summer so I have an itch to take a doe with that this fall so it will surely get some opportunities.
 
Big or small game, I try to only use muzzleloaders for hunting. The one exception I make is dove, as public land dove hunts are limiting enough for me. Deer, squirrel, and rabbits are my usual go tos for ML hunting. Hoping to get a shot at a black bear this year with my new woodsrunner, and picked up some bismuth shot to try my hand at some waterfowl.
 
75% of the time I use flintlock. However 75% of the time I have killed my state buck already with a bow and only leaving doe tags left. The military base I also hunt is bonus tags not counted against the state tags is muzzleloader or shotgun only, and another buck and doe tag for archery. Numerous times I have killed my gun buck with a bow during gun season because I am a die hard bowhunter, and I don't want to give away a honeyhole on public land by a gun shot. But this year I have gone 100 percent primitive ditching the $2500 compound for recurve, modern shotgun for fowler and cf for flintlock. And to be honest its been a very rewarding season and I have looked forward to this season more than any in recent times. I am actually having fun hunting again, well having more fun its defiantly a different kind of challenge. Maybe next year will be full primitive attire and all we see where this leads.
 
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