Missouri Muzzleloader Season 2009 – New Time Slot

With the ruckus of the warm season birds and insects gone, to the untrained ear, the woods seem completely void of the usual hustle and bustle. In the air there is a hint of musty, decaying forest liter and the occasional whiff of smoke from a distant fire. A very slight breeze blows from the northwest as the overcast skies spit a skiff of snow that accumulates and drifts like a light dust on the top layer of dry oak leaves. The few errant snowflakes that find your exposed parts briefly sting your already numb cheeks and ears. No matter how hard you try, each step sounds like you are walking in a giant bowl of corn flakes. It is late December and Nature is preparing to ‘batten down the hatches’ for the long, cold winter. It is also Missouri muzzleloader deer season and the hunting is more challenging from the November modern firearms season, not only because of the more primitive firearms, but also because of the harsher weather potential. While deer hunting, if solitude mixed with a more challenging firearm hunt is your bag, then muzzleloader season is your answer.

For 2009, the Missouri muzzleloader deer season has moved to a new time slot on the calendar, December 19 thru December 29, statewide. If you can get away with it, a quick Christmas hunting jaunt is not out of the question…(I’ll never admit I suggested that). Legal are all muzzle loading rifles firing a single projectile, .40 caliber or larger, per discharge. Modern in-line rifles and telescopic sights are legal. Multi-barreled muzzleloaders as well as muzzleloader and cap-and-ball pistols, including revolvers, .40 caliber or larger are also legal. Any valid, unfilled Missouri firearms deer hunting permit in your name is a legal permit to use while muzzleloader hunting. All state regulations pertaining to wearing hunter orange apply during muzzleloader season just the same as during modern firearms season.

With today’s more modern in-lines, hunting tactics can be close to the same during muzzleloader season as they are for modern firearms season. Ranges for modern, scoped in-lines are 200 + yards for the skilled shooter so tree-stand hunting over large fields is not out of the question. If more primitive cap-lock or flintlock rifles with open sights are more your style then still-hunting from the ground may be your tactic of choice. Big bucks are still a possibility since the second rut (approximately 30 days after the November firearms season) is still underway during the early part of muzzleloader season. All the does that were not bred during the first rut are being actively pursued by those super-sly bruisers that made it past the archery and firearms hunters during the early season. As the season winds down the deer patterns will shift from breeding to preparing for the long winter so food sources and travel routes between bedding areas and food sources will be major traffic areas to hunt.

This time of the year is truly magical for the outdoorsman. It is a time to find peace in the outdoors. During this time of year at our farm, from the top of the McFarland Ridge, just as it begins to get dark, a person can gaze across the valley and see, through the snow-filled air, in the distance, the old house and barn with the nightlight just beginning to shine. It is a modern-day Norman Rockwell scene. It is a time of the year that reminds me of one of my favorite Robert Frost poems that my grandfather used to quote to me, “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening”:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sounds, the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

The poem gives one a sense of quiet solitude and beauty on a cold winter night in the outdoors. This is what an outdoorsman experiences during late season hunting and trapping. It is an experience that moves your soul and entwines the participant in the original design - Nature’s Economy. I hope you get the chance to muzzleloader hunt this season. And if you do, take the time to introduce a child to the outdoors by taking them with you. Good luck, be safe, and get a big one.