Sportsmen searching for an additional hunting challenge sometimes turn to old-style black powder rifles, hunting deer and other big game at a closer range, with a one-shot limit. It’s an examination of a hunter’s patience and skill – you have to actually know the overall game you’re hunting, you have to be more aware of the wind, and you will need to manage to get much closer. It’s a simple weapon, but many hunters find so it gives them a great sense of accomplishment, and makes them feel more connected for their ancestors, who used weapons like these to look for food.
Black powder hunting for deer requires you to carry to carry more accessories than you do when hunting with a contemporary rifle. The black-powder shooter needs to carry powder, balls, patches, a ramrod, cleaning jags, patch lube, solvent, and a baseball pulling worm Primers in stock. Even if you have a bag that stores all of this gear comfortably, you’ll still need to be extremely organized. It also ups the challenge of hunting big game at a closer distance, since those powders, lubes and solvents increase your scent, increasing your need to be aware of what sort of wind carries.
Interestingly, the reason why that black-powder hunting is completed at this kind of close range isn’t because of the power or accuracy of the weapon but because of the limitation of one’s sight. A contemporary hunting rifle with a scope enables you to see for countless yards – however the open sight of a black-powder gun doesn’t offer you that advantage. Some hunters decide to mount rifle scopes on their black-powder rifles, however the traditionalists say that this removes from the purpose of black-powder hunting.
You also have to patient and accurate with a black-powder gun, as you only get one shot – something that’s a real novelty for hunters used to autoloading or bolt-action rifles. And it’s a completely different type of hunting, one that many hunters have difficulty adjusting to. With a multiple shot rifle, a hunter will require whatever shot is presented to him as soon as he spots it, figuring when misses he is able to take another shot. With muzzleloaded black-powder gun, however, the hunter has to wait for his one good shot. Even if the deer’s right out in the open before him, if he doesn’t have this 1 good shot, he just has to wait it out.
There’s a lot of skill and knowledge that switches into this sort of deer hunting – you need to know how close you may get to the deer, what you range is, and whether you may get this 1 shot. However when all of it comes together, black-powder deer hunting is an accomplishment unlike any other.