The Outdoors

By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist

Last week I shared some changes that were taking place in Minnesota in regards to the deer archery season and how these changes were being received very differently by differing groups of archery hunters. You can look back to last week if you missed it.

I promised I would again cover some changes in the way hunters harvest deer in Minnesota and this weeks’ subject matter is the muzzle loader season. This is a separate season that starts after the ending of the regular gun season and allows for the hunter to use a muzzle loader firearm.

A muzzle loader is a separate group of guns that can only shoot one round at a time. They are loaded from the muzzle.  This is the end of the gun the projectile comes out of. You load this gun one component at a time. The operator will pour black powder down the barrel in a measured amount. The user then will use a rod and push a round lead ball placed into a small cotton swab down the barrel until it is seated on the powder charge.

In the old days you would pour a small amount of powder in the pan located at the rear end of the barrel. You would cock a hammer and when you pulled the trigger the lever would come forward, striking a flint and igniting the powder in the pan that would then ignite the powder in the barrel through a small hole. A huge plume of smoke would be the result of the ball being shot at the target.

They were primitive firearms and very prone to failure. If it was even remotely wet or raining these guns simply did not function. These were what most muzzle loader deer hunters used when the deer season of this type was started in Minnesota. There are still some old school hunters that use a muzzle loader of this type.

Fast forward 25 years and the primitive muzzle loader of the past has gone the way of the American bison. Today’s muzzle loaders still load from the muzzle but they have advanced to the point where they can shoot as accurately as any center fire rifle of the modern age out to about 200 yards.

The pan and powder have been replaced with a 209 primer like the ones used in modern day shotgun shells. The powder is all premeasured in cylinders and the inaccurate round balls have been replaced with sabot slugs shot through a rifled barrel for much greater accuracy. The ignitions systems are now enclosed so wet conditions really have no negative effect.

For all practical purposes a modern muzzle loader is now a fine-tuned super accurate single shot rifle. They can still only shoot one round at a time so this is their only limitation. The seasons for this type of deer hunting are longer than traditional firearms deer seasons. They get two full weeks which includes three full weekends. This lengthy season is a result of the fact that there are only about 5,500 licenses of this type purchased every year. All deer licenses sold in Minnesota total over 400,000.

What has many hunters up in arms is the fact that you can now add a rifle scope to these guns which makes them even more deadly than before. With greater ranges and far more accuracy other deer hunters believe they will take a much larger toll on the overall deer herd. With long seasons many believe the harvest will swing towards muzzle loader deer hunters and away from traditional firearms users.

The jury is still out on whether this will happen or not but with crossbow now legal in the archery season and scopes on muzzle loaders during their season, harvest will most likely go up. This could mean shorter seasons for all hunters in order to keep the harvest in line with harvest goals and overall herd number goals. Muzzle loaders have come a long way and in no fashion do they operate like the guns of the same type from 25 years ago. We will have to see if any of these changes shift hunters to switch from one method to a different one. The DNR needs to monitor these changes closely and make the necessary season changes if the science proves they are needed.

I will let the armchair quarterbacks debate this until the science is known.  Until then I am going to take my dogs for walks in the tall grass and help keep the rooster pheasant populations is check.

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If you have any questions, reach out to me at scottarall@gmail.com.