Mississippi hunters must use primitive weapons currently in pursuit of the plentiful whitetail deer (today being the final day of the December primitive weapon season with the Jan. 18 through 31, 2008, primitive weapons season upcoming.) Primitive weapons were recently defined by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks to include single shot and double rifles made for certain large caliber centerfire cartridges that were available in rifles manufactured prior to 1900. Thousands take to the woods with long guns that load and fire like the earliest firearms used by our ancestors, and since the addition of the centerfires thousands more are hunting this primitive weapon season with the newly legal cartridges, most of which are loaded with smokeless powder.

Black powder, like that of many generations hence, is poured down long rifled barrels followed by a cloth wad and lead ball or a greased molded lead bullet. The charge is tamped down with a ramrod. A cap is fitted onto a nipple of percussion rifles or the pan of the flintlocks is stoked with a dash of black powder to complete the loading of these replicas.



No second chance



Those of us who still shoot the muzzle loading rifles with black powder go into the woods knowing we must get much closer to the buck than would be the case were we armed with our modern deer rifles. We get only one shot unless we own a rare double barrel rifle; one chance before we have to pull out all the components from our pockets and go through the lengthy loading procedure all over again.

And when we shoot, we commit to a lengthy and dirty job of disassembling the rifle and cleaning the barrel and a half dozen pieces with brushes, solvent, boiling water, detergent, more boiling water and a lot of scrubbing, drying and then reassembling. And thousands do all this willingly, even enthusiastically.

Why, some may ask, would we set a deer season that handicaps us so, when we have modern firearms capable of taking deer three football fields away? Could it be that we do it in large part because the modern rifles we enjoy and the rangefinders and the binoculars and the other aids that make getting a deer to eat almost easy? Is there a little inner rebellion here against the advanced equipment we enjoy and maybe some defiance against the flood of life’s excesses? Do we eventually come to a point in these times when we feel swallowed up by stuff; stuff that pampers us and makes things too convenient; like collecting a deer?

And with Christmas and the primitive weapon deer season both falling in December, are our minds primed with questions about why we stream like programmed robots to stores and buy every sort of stuff imaginable, often more than we can afford? True, giving of ourselves to others through gifts has a lot going for it in the area of human relations, and we could do worse with the money earned by our time and sweat. We need to give gifts to our loved ones and friends, not just at Christmas but as a habit. Still, during the Christmas season the marketplaces showcase the overabundance that surrounds us. Does this collective opulence lead us to cherish the few weeks we set aside each fall to walk away from the easy hunting and feel how it used to be? I don’t know why for certain, but I know some of the things I like about hunting with primitive arms.

I like to discover that I can figure out a good load for a .54 caliber rifle and measure my own powder and get all the components ready and handy. I like to feel the slow burning powder give my shoulder a giant, lasting push instead of the sharp crack of modern smokeless powder. And I like to see the white smoke boil out the muzzle and smell its pungent odor. I like to take the rifle apart and clean the black soot from each piece and really see what each piece does.



Pondering tradition





But most of all I like the thoughts that come to mind as I wait quietly overlooking a trail or tread softly on the pine straw to peer into an acorn flat. How good did my forefathers have to be at stalking in order to feed themselves and their families before the days of camouflage clothing and game scents and smokeless powder? I ponder the question in the autumn woods where they once stalked, my black powder rifle in hand.

I wonder what the old timers thought about as they waited near a game trail. I try, in the moments of primitive weapon season, to hunt as they must have hunted, knowing that my success or failure has fewer serious consequences than theirs. And I hope that by imitating the original black powder hunters, I will become a better hunter myself.

Still, I realize as I measure my experience, that I might better find a deer and make a better shot if my shoes were animal skin moccasins instead of waterproof boots and my clothes were deerskin instead of Goretex. And I am certain I would hold a finer bead for the shot if my stomach were growling for lack of meat for three days instead of being fed from my pocket full of snacks. No, we can’t return there to those times and places except in part, as we embrace some of their tools and some of their ways. Perhaps it is best. But I sometimes wonder.