Hunting Archery Duck Deer

Hunting deer with muzzle loaders can be effective, enjoyable experience - The muzzle loader portion of Missouri deer season began on Thursday and runs until Dec. 4. The regular rifle tags filled during rifle season are good for this season as there are no longer special tags for muzzle loading.

Deer can be hunted with any muzzle loading or cap and ball firearm, including multi-barrel muzzle loading guns and revolvers of at least 40 calibers firing a single projectile at one discharge. Missouri law does not place many restrictions on muzzle loading hunters as scopes, inline guns, 209 primers, sabots, etc., are all legal. All muzzle loading hunters are required to wear hunter orange while hunting. Archery hunters are not required to wear orange during muzzle loading season. A hunting license in addition to your deer tag is not required unless you also harvest some other game.

When I was small boy, a long time ago, my great uncle had an old muzzle loading shotgun, but had never fired it. My grandfather told about older friends of his that had hunted with muzzle loaders that their fathers had. I went to work at Miller’s Dairy in 1954 and met Mr. Ralph Hooker and learned that people still shot muzzle loaders. Marshal Hooker, as he was known, told me about a Sunday afternoon shoot that was held close to Carthage so I went out and heard the crack of the a long rifle, smelled the black powder smoke and shot a few rounds and knew that I just had to have a muzzle loader. It was a few years before I had my own and several years more before I killed a deer with a muzzle loader, but I was hooked.

Muzzle loading has changed a lot since those days when we had to drive 50 miles to buy black powder and caps and then made everything else. Now the powder is molded into pellets so you don’t even need a powder measure and bullets have come a long way from a hand cast lead ball and a piece of cotton pillow ticking. There are smokeless substitutes for black powder that are much less corrosive and 209 shotgun primers that replace caps. Everything is advertised as easy and the new generation of guns and supplies are fine if you only want to harvest a deer, but those who have never heard the crack of a long rifle or primed the pan of a flintlock are missing the real spirit of muzzle loading. Cost wise, muzzle loading is within everyone’s reach as there are some inexpensive rifles that work well, but if you have to have the latest thing, it can be expensive. A lead ball, patch, black powder and cap are cheap, but some of the latest bullets cost over $1 each and some black powder substitutes approach $30 per pound.

Safety is important in any sport, but beyond normal gun safety rules, muzzle loading safety is pretty simple. Don’t smoke while loading or handling powder, never use any powder except black powder and black powder substitutes and never mix and smokeless powder into black powder. Never load directly from a powder horn or flask. Go from a measuring flask or horn to a measure then down the barrel because if you if you go from a flask down the barrel you have a bomb in your hands if you should have a tiny ember or spark in the barrel. And finally, your bullet or ball must be firmly seated on the powder charge or you will put a bulge in your barrel where the bullet was stuck.

When you load your gun, point it up and away from young body. Don’t have your face over the muzzle for obvious reasons.

Cleaning your black powder rifle is a little different from cleaning your old 3030.

The residue from black powder or Pyrodex dissolves in water, not oil, so smokeless powder solvents are useless on black powder.

There are some very effective solvents for black powder available, but they are expensive and you must use enough to remove all the fouling. Hot soap and water does a fine job and is cheap.

With proper care, your muzzle loader will last a lifetime of deer hunting. However, if you put your muzzle loader in the closet without proper cleaning, it will be ruined by next year.

With inline guns, it is very important to use the proper breach plug grease to avoid sticking the breech plug.

Muzzle loading is a little more of a challenge than rifle hunting due to the limited range and one shot of the muzzle loader, but can be a very effective way of harvesting deer and provide many hours of enjoyment.

If you want to extend your quest for that all-time record buck, or just put meat on the table, try a muzzle loader.

And be careful that you may trade that inline in on a flintlock if you get bit by the bug.

Outdoors Corner

By Bob Sheldon Guest Columnist