Hunting for the past

They are a breed apart, muzzleloader hunters.

Just now, in the cold of late November and early December, when most whitetail hunters have hung up their modern day rifles, or have forgone long mornings and evenings in bow stands, these throwbacks to an earlier time trudge from home or camp with guns in tow that in some cases date back to the early 1800s.

A few of these men and women will also wear the attire of yesterday, wool and leather both, some of the latter fringed. Like their retro firearms, their appearances recall a time when round balls flew only more-or-less true, balancing the odds somewhat more evenly between predator and prey.

Technically, a muzzleloader is any firearm in which a projectile and its charge are loaded from the muzzle, or the end of the barrel.

By contrast, more modern rifles load cartridges from the breech, a far quicker process that Oliver Fisher Winchester employed in his 1866, 1873 and 1876 rifles. John M. Browning followed with the 1894 Winchester, the gun that was said to have won the West (it arrived too late for that distinction), but one that accurately dispatched smokeless .30-30 cartridges, a novelty at the time.

Smokeless does not describe the discharge of most muzzleloaders. Just the opposite. Once black powder has been measured and emptied into the barrel (or, in a more modern "in-line'' muzzleloader, a powder "pellet'' is dropped down the barrel), the stage is set for an explosion of smoke when the trigger is pulled, regardless whether it's a round ball that is sent down range, or a more modern conical projectile — in effect, a slug, or large bullet.

These particulars notwithstanding, and no matter whether the firearm of choice is a sidelock, flintlock, percussion long gun or a more modern in-line muzzleloader, the hunter who shoulders one of these smoke poles cares most about how he or she hunts, and secondarily about filling the freezer.