Break Out the Buckskins

By Harry Morse, Southeast Region Conservation Educator Break out the buckskins, coonskin cap and take the muzzleloader down from the mantle. Check the "possibles bag" for powder horn, percussion caps, round balls and patches. Get ready to stalk through the woods with the ghosts of Davey Crockett and Daniel Boone. Thanksgiving season is here and it is time to hunt deer and elk with traditional muzzleloaders, a time to return to our pilgrim roots and pioneer heritage, and to enjoy and endure pleasures and frustrations of primitive weapon hunting From Payette to Preston muzzleloaders are checking the hunting regulations and circling their favorite traditional muzzleloader hunts. Some of these hunts are open to anyone with a license and a deer or elk tag. Other highly prized hunts required applications to be mailed in May and a lottery-type draw to determine the winners of the coveted permits. "Traditional muzzleloader hunts are a way to offer an excellent hunting experience and opportunity for a late deer or elk hunt," says Brad Compton, Idaho Fish and Game. "Late traditional muzzleloader hunts out of Payette, Ashton, and Grace, Idaho give hunters the chance to see and hunt some really fine mule deer bucks." What the heck is traditional muzzleloading? Can any hunter master the art of traditional muzzleloading? According to Pocatello gunsmith Davey Crockett (I am not making this name up) just about anyone with the interest and stick-to-it-tiveness can learn the basics of traditional muzzleloading. Modern day man tinkered and engineered all kind of improvements to muzzleloading rifles. Traditional muzzleloader seasons eliminate most of these high-tech improvements from scopes to specialized powder packets and sealed ignition systems. Space age improvements are prohibited for traditional muzzleloader hunts. Modern day rifles chamber shells assembled to rigorous safety specifications. You pull the trigger and the bullet hurtles through the barrel at speeds exceeding 3,000 feet per second. No problem just put another shell in and shoot again with precise accuracy. Not so with traditional muzzleloading. The hunter builds the load on the spot by measuring the powder and pouring it into the barrel, wrapping a patch of cloth under a round lead ball and pounding it down the barrel of the gun with a long wooden stick. Kind of like building a pipe bomb. The hunter must place a percussion or musket cap over a striking hole or nipple for the muzzleloader's hammer to strike and explode. This sends a miniature ball of fire to the powder loaded in the barrel. If all goes well, the powder ignites sending the round ball down the barrel at about 1,500 feet per second. Sounds easy? Long-time friend and traditional muzzleloader Bill Gillespie tells of hunting elk and missing a fine bull on the first shot. Distracted by the giant bull elk tearing up a tree in front of him, he frantically reloaded but forgot one step: putting the powder in. Oops. After crawling through cactus on my hands and knees sneaking up on a pronghorn antelope; I cocked the hammer, sighted, pulled the trigger and the percussion cap popped, but the powder did not ignite. The antelope vanished. With a giant buck in his sights on last year, a veteran hunter pulled the trigger on a buck of a lifetime near Grace. The percussion cap did not ignite. Off went the deer. How did those pilgrims put food on the table? The list of things that can and do go wrong for traditional muzzleloaders is as long as the human experience with muzzleloaders. Nothing is a sure thing with traditional muzzleloaders. That is the fun of it! So they say. Break out the coonskin hat!