GREAT OUTDOORS: Use of black powder during muzzleloader season fizzling

White-tailed deer muzzleloader season, the last chance for Ohio hunters to hear a loud bang and smell gunpowder while firing at a deer this season, runs from January 8-11, 2022. The "Primitive Weapons Season" started in 1968, and presently the allowable weapons for this special season are guns loaded from the front (muzzle) and all legal archery equipment. When referring to the muzzleloader season, some of us older hunters still slip up and call it "black powder season," named for the propellent used in muzzleloader guns at the time. Since then, new substitutes have been developed, namely Pyrodex. Some hunters still remain true to using black powder, which has been in use for more than 1,000 years, especially in traditional flintlock ignition rifles. It provides a more reliable burn with consistent velocities and comes in different burn rates, depending upon the grain size selected. However, some of the downfalls of black gunpowder are its copious, barrel-fouling deposits that can lead to a rusty, clogged barrel and corrosion of other gun parts if not properly cleaned in a timely manner. It also has much more of a rotten egg smell when burned due to its higher sulfur content. Hunters, historical re-enactment participants and competitive shooters were all disappointed to learn that the last black powder factory in the U.S. was closing. Hodgdon, which makes other types of ammunition propellants, eliminated the production of its black powder line of products this fall at its Camp Minden, Louisiana, plant. This news in late September set off a predictable chain reaction by those who need or prefer to use this type of gunpowder to operate their "smoke poles" hoarding the remaining stocks. With world trade moving at a snail's pace ever since the COVID pandemic, obtaining supplies from the diminishing list of other counties that still produce black powder is difficult. Regardless of how much ammunition is being made, American gun enthusiasts are snatching up every container that reaches retail shelves nationwide, perpetuating shortages that date back years. In 2020, there were record gun sales, along with increased interest in ammunition purchases for hunting, target shooting and personal protection. For those do-it-yourselfers who make their own bullets and shotshells, even reloading components remain on months-long backorder. Shoppers can rarely find the proper combination of gunpowder, primers (igniters), shotshell wads, brass hulls and lead all in one place any more. I went over several of my shotgun shell "recipes" that are provided by the makers of these components to see how I could piecemeal the right ones together to make shells suitable for shooting clay pigeons. I gave up when one after another was out of stock, on back order, discontinued or listed as unavailable. Not following a cake recipe may make it burn, collapse or taste bad, but failure to use the proper combination of ammunition cases/hulls, measured powder and shot pellets and correct ignition primer can lead to deadly consequences. When mistakes are made at the reloader bench, the ammunition can create pressures in excess of what the gun is designed to handle. The chamber or barrel can blow up into metal shrapnel and cause disfigurement or death of the shooter or bystanders (think pipe bomb). The earliest muzzleloader hunters used iron sights and individually measured a precise amount of black powder, then tapped a cloth-wrapped round projectile down the barrel with a ram rod. Modern muzzleloaders can outfit their guns with a scope. They can shoot pre-formed and weighed gunpowder pellets (wafers) and use copper-jacketed, aerodynamic, plastic coated (sabot) bullets that with practice can produce tight groups at hundreds of yards after their load is ignited with a powerful shotgun shell-style primer. The three-year average muzzleloader harvest is less than 13,000 in Ohio during this special season, but some hunters legally use them during the 9-day general firearms season. Fewer hunters participate in the muzzleloader season as not everyone owns this type of weapon, cares to hunt in typical January weather or have already filled their tags.