Best Muzzleloader for Western Hunting: Budget vs. Premium Rifles | Muzzle-Loaders Podcast Ep. 95

Today, our topic that we wanted to talk about is what is the best muzzleloader for Western hunting? And so kind of wanted to pick your brain on that.

I know we have a few different options that we're going to be going over, both for a budget and then as if money was no object, kind of two different categories just to kind of cover everyone's bait or cover different bases because everyone has a different budget that they're working off of and everything.

But

I figured we could start off with some of the Western regulations because they're different from what the Eastern side of the state is.

So just kind of laying the groundwork for what we have to work with out West.

And I know we're not going to be able to cover every single detail, every single regulation for every state, but there's a few different categories that kind of reign over most Western muzzleloading states for hunting.

And so maybe you could kind of break those down for us.

Yeah, the two big ones that really stand out, I would say, is going to be Oregon and Idaho.

Washington used to be a part of it, but they actually lifted these regulations.

So we've got two states left in the union who pretty much have their entire muzzleloader season this way.

So what we have with Northwest regs here is that we have to have open sites, so we can't put magnified optics on our guns.

We have to use loose powder, so no pelletized and loose powder only.

and a primitive ignition.

That's the big one when it comes to Northwest hunting is that you can't use a 209 ignition, which is the modern ignition for all these inlines that are out there on the market.

So you can run a side lock, or we have Northwest variant muzzle loaders now that are using musket cap ignition.

So there's still an inline, but it has a primitive ignition on it.

And so it'll comply with the regs, at least for Oregon and Idaho.

You know, you've got Montana with a heritage season.

I think Utah now has one as well, where you are locked into a traditional style gun.

But for the Northwestern specific states, Oregon and Idaho... that's going to be the big defining factors for the guns we can use.

Primitive ignition, loose powder, open sight capability.

Thank you for breaking those down for us.

And I kind of wanted to throw in a few other states in there for kind of the Western style of hunting.

I know Colorado is a huge one.

They're not as restrictive on the regulations as what Oregon and Idaho are, but you're still gonna be working with open sites and maybe loose powder.