Primitive season is time for tradition

The 'blackpowder' deer season is Dec. 27-30.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
This year's primitive weapon deer season in Ohio follows a record harvest of more than 22,000 deer.
The number of deer killed during last year's four-day "primitive blackpowder" season was the highest on record in the state, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife.
Season dates
The season will run from Dec. 27-30 for hunters armed with longbow, crossbow, muzzleloading rifle in .38-caliber or larger, or muzzleloading shotgun of 10-, 12-, 16-, 20-, 28- or .410-gauge using one ball per barrel.
Open in all 88 of Ohio's counties, the primitive weapons season offers more traditional hunters a chance to have the woods to themselves and practice their craft of using a weapon of days gone by.
The existence of gunpowder was first made known to the Western world in the 13th century. It took almost 300 years before American hunters finally regarded this new substance seriously enough to fashion firearms from it. It was an additional 200 years before technology made those firearms reliable and effective enough to use for bringing home the bacon.
Crude and erratic
Early firearms were crude, unreliable and erratic shooting cousins of today's modern front loaders. Early rifles were flintlocks requiring the systematic loading of a primer or ignition source, powder, a round or spherical-shaped ball, all placed down the barrel with the help of a ramrod.
Then the hunter would take to the woods, carrying a loaded and primed weapon. One shot was it, and this was a systematic shot as the hunter would first ignite the primer or cap, which would then ignite the powder charge resulting in the firing of the ball toward the intended target.
Muzzleloaders are obvious by the distinctive "bang" of the cap igniting, followed by a momentary pause when the powder ignites and then a much louder and deeper percussion "BANG" producing a cloud of black smoke. Sometimes the smoke is so thick the shooter needs to wait for it to clear before being able to see if the intended game was hit.