Plenty of us fall somewhere between these two types. I have an old college buddy who hunts solely with a flintlock, and to him, any more advanced firearm isn't a true primitive weapon. While he's never come down too hard on me for using a caplock, I'd never consider showing up at his camp with one of my modern in-line muzzleloaders, complete with scope. And I'm quite certain that if I showed up with one of the now-legal breech-loading cartridge rifles, my friend would go into instant cardiac arrest.

Being an avid archer as well as a high-powered rifle enthusiast, I've found muzzleloading hunting to be an excellent way to combine the two passions. While nothing's more exciting than taking a buck by means of archery tackle, I still enjoy making a well-placed 300-yard shot with my .300 Remington Ultra Mag. By hunting with a muzzleloader, I can experience the best of the world between those experiences.

In order to harvest a deer with a muzzleloader, you must get much closer than you do with a high-powered rifle. And much as is the case with bowhunting, you must know the game better, and be more conscious of the wind and your scent. In opting for a muzzleloader, you're making a conscious decision to hunt as our forebears did. While you'll have to overcome greater handicaps, the heightened sense of satisfaction makes it worth the effort.

When you decide to hunt whitetails with a blackpowder rifle, three major hurdles must be taken into account. I can think of no hunting method that requires you to carry more accessories afield than does muzzleloader hunting. A properly stocked possibles bag should contain such items as powder, bullets, patches, lubricant, primers, solvent, a bullet starter, a powder measure, cleaning jags, a ball-pulling worm, a capper and a nipple wrench. Also, when it comes to a blackpowder possibles bag, organization is the name of the game. Knowing where each item is and how to access it at a moment's notice is crucial when quickly reloading for a second shot becomes necessary.

The second obstacle is one of the most difficult for the blackpowder hunter to overcome: All of those extras that you're carrying into the woods have their own very strong scents. If you thought your body odor was tough to conceal from the wary nose of the whitetail, you should be aware that this set of aromas is far more difficult to obscure. With all these additional smells floating around, you have to be much more conscious of the wind and its ability to carry these unnatural fragrances to the deer you are hunting.

The final obstacle, and the one most overlooked, is that muzzleloader hunts are typically one-shot events. Modern-day rifle hunters have been conditioned to think in terms of multiple shots, and are accustomed to the idea that they can always get the deer with a second or third effort -- even a fourth, if need be. Many find it difficult to make the mental transition from a multiple-shot scenario to a one-shot deal, but the fact of the matter is that with a muzzleloader, one shot is the rule, so you'd better make it count.

Because there's no possibility of a do-over in most cases, muzzleloader hunters need to be extremely careful not to settle for anything less than a solid kill shot.

IN-LINE AND BEYOND
Tony Knight reinvented the in-line muzzleloader in the 1980s. These rifles had been around since the American Revolution but had never caught on with military or sporting shooters. This new persona for the rifles was introduced to help eliminate many of the frustrations of traditional designs. The spark from the primer in an in-line muzzleloader travels in a straight line to ignite the powder from behind, increasing the rifle's dependability, a removable breech plug greatly simplifies the cleaning process, and the enclosed action of many in-line models makes them almost waterproof as well.

In just more than two decades in-line muzzleloaders have come to dominate the blackpowder market. Prior to 1985, almost all primitive-weapons hunters carried traditional sidelock muzzleloaders; today, more than 95 percent of these hunters tote in-lines.