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Muzzy season - your strategy?

Who is all hunting the muzzy season and what is your strategy? I haven't hunted rifle season in 5 years now and don't regret that one bit. I wait to hunt the private land we have permission to hunt in western farmland country. Temps are going to be very nice. Have a 4 day weekend coming up with PTO to hunt Saturday - Tuesday, with a trip to Lambeau thrown in on Sunday. Lots of standing corn yet, so hunting will remain tough. Saturday, we'll have 3 guys hunting and plan on sitting in morning then pushing some small areas and probably sitting again in afternoon. We have antlerless tags plus our gun buck tags to try and get some meat. On Monday/Tuesday, I'll be hunting alone and may try to work on my stalking/still-hunting skills, especially if corn is still standing.

Pray for a lot colder weather than we have right now.

Cold weather and snow would be optimal. But that isn't going to happen. I will be headed into the swamp to try and find a place where they are coming out earlier than the end of shooting hours. With the neighbors corn, I will have to pick a trail to cover and hope for the best!

My strategy is to hope the weather is even warmer and nicer than predicted. That should save some deer from the single shot rifle guys.

I stay at least 200 yards away from anyone with a muz :P

Mine is dead on to 250.

Get lost in the C.N.F. for 2 days, then come out.

I'm sure I'm wrong but.....once upon a time wasn't orange optional during muzzy season?

Rut I will say this,,, I have 2 ML,,, one is a TC Omega ( a gift by my daughter) and my TC plains rifle,,,,,,, The only difference in loading is that on the Omega, the 209 primer is protected, in a closed system, and my cap is not protected on the plains rifle,,,, other wise loading is the same,,,,,,,,

Door Knob - in 1780, with German made rifles, the Pennsylvania rifle was capable of killing out to 300 yards, no problem,,,,,,,,

how they went back to muskets, and toe to toe fighting in the civil war is beyond me.....

Bigger profit margins selling muskets than quality crafted rifles.

My cap lock shoots much better than my inline. I guess this isn't surprising considering one is a Lyman Great Plains and the other the cheapest CVA they make. Neither has as scope, and never will, but the main difference for me is the sights. The CVA has some cracker jack fiber optic sight the covers your target at 25 yards. Guess they are made with the thinking a scope will go on it. My Lyman shoots great groups out to 100 yards. Im looking to upgrade the sights and hopefully be able to shoot a respectable group at 150 and maybe even 200 yards. Not to hunt that far but to shoot better at the range with a muzzleloader and iron sights than what I see a lot of people do with rifles and scopes.

The problem I have with my Hawkins is I can't see the iron sites well anymore during lower light. Just a big blur in front of me. Any fix for that would be welcome.

Live2hunt - paint them with red nail polish?

Don't have any advice for that besides glasses or New glasses. I put off getting a new pair to long and it has made shooting a bit more interesting. I'm looking at putting on a peep sight but have heard bad things about 28th hem in low light.

I find white nail Polish easiest to see. My .22 varmint guns all this treatment. And it isn't a problem in snow either. My ml has a nikon omega scope and has since as soon as they where aloud. I would hate to give it up. Helps my confidence tremendously, only thing it's ever killed is yotes over the gun season gut piles. Someday a deer I hope

Live2hunt

You can have it drilled and tapped and put a red dot on it if needed.

I've painted the sights all different colors, didn't work. Don't want to put a scope on it, may have to go inline with a scope. To bad, shot a few deer with that Hawkins. But, missed the past couple, trying to see the sights. Sucks getting old eyes.

I have a Lyman Great Plains that I put a peep sight on and it works great. It's not cheap but no more expensive than a scope which I too do not approve of. I also have a TC Omega that I'm thinking of replacing the Tru Glo sights with a peep.

Camp 2 dukes, that is the perfect strategy!

Thompson Center does make a nice fiber optic open sights, front and rear for their original hawkens and such,,,,, check their web site......

Ground, I have looked at those also. I picked someones inline up that had something like those on it and they haloed on me. I'm going to end up with a scoped M.L. after this year. For those who think it's just another rifle, close, but not exactly. A guy I know said he was after a buck all bow season, and rifle season without a shot. His shot came during the M.L. season, one shot, one miss. No reload time. Buck, Gone. You had better make that first shot count or that your gun will go off with them.

I agree, its a one shot deal,,,, those that complain, are at home sitting on a couch

Guys I used a muzzleloader for years when our land was shotgun/muzzleloader zone. It was nothing to shoot 1.5" groups at 100 with my CVA's. Easy to keep it at 2.5" at 200 yards. Still minute of deer at 250 plus. Never shot it over 300. I'm not that great of a shot, not bad but definitely not great. There are guys that can shoot 500 all day with modern inlines. I have seen it at our gun club.

Anything is possible if you take the time to be proficient with your weapons.

Considering a 290 grain bullet propelled by 110 grains of Black Horn 209 at 250 yards will drop 36” (rounded number) with a 100 yard zero. This will also still have about 1200 ft pounds of energy. More than adequate to tip over a deer.

500 yards is doable to ring a plate but highly doubt it has the required 800 ft pounds or more of energy to kill a deer. More like lobbing pumpkins.

I went to fire my gun after hunting yesterday and it did not fire. I guess I'm glad I didn't see a giant. Lol

I had the same thing. I talked to some people who said they get away with leaving them loaded for a couple weeks without an issue. It was a bit f a damp season so I guess my powder got wet. No more leaving it loaded for me. This afternoons strategy will be to freeze my tuckus off in the wind.

Droptine there are custom built inlines that are 500 yard guns all day long. The shooters may not be, but the gun is quite capable. A scoped modern inline with a shotgun primer and a sabot is an easy 150 yard gun. That's even in the hands of a mediocre or newby shooter. Take the magnified scopes off any gun used in the muzzleloader season, and it is a bit closer to what the season was intended to be. There is a reason I chose a modern scoped ML over my scoped, rifled barrel shotgun. The ML was the far more accurate weapon. I'm no newbie with slug guns either. I started my gun deer hunting with a slug gun in 1982. I have killed deer with just about every combo of slugs/barrels. The modern ML and accessories are far more accurate.

LOL, that is alway's in the back of your mind when you pull that trigger. You generally hear a big bang, sometimes it's just a little pop and the deer just looks at you and walks away.

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