Joe Cannella is an avid deer hunter, but he has forsaken the regular firearms deer season in recent years.
Instead, armed with a replica of an 1840s Great Plains rifle, he now hunts the 16-day muzzleloader season, which opens Saturday in Minnesota.
"You pretty much have the woods to yourself," said Cannella, 43, of Grand Rapids. It's far different from the regular firearms season, when about 450,000 deer hunters flood the landscape.
"The woods go back to being very quiet; I just really enjoy it," he said.
But Cannella isn't alone out there. Ten years ago, Minnesota counted about 12,000 muzzleloader hunters. Two years ago, nearly 65,000 were out there. The number fell a tad last year, to 63,000.
The popularity grew after the Department of Natural Resources allowed hunters to be afield in the regular firearms and the muzzleloader (and archery) seasons. (They can kill only one buck per season, regardless of how many different ways they hunt.)
The growth in muzzleloader hunting -- just 1,000 hunted in 1977 during the first muzzleloader season -- appears to have tapered off.
"I think the last couple of years, we've flattened out," said Lou Cornicelli, DNR big game coordinator.