Curl- no I didn't see that article, wish I had. I've only picked up a couple DG Journals, years ago. Is the article in a current one? One of the newstands downtown carries them & I can try to find one for the article, or read it in the store - HA!
: We lost our "Primitive Weapons" season for a number of reasons. Primary reasons were the lost moose, wounded by maxiballs fired from .50's and .54's with button rifled 48" twist rifles, popular in those days and advertised as dual purpose due to the buttoned rifling in a round ball twist.
: The game branch over-flew the area after every year and saw 10's of lost dead moose. They'd land and do an autopsy and find 1 or more maxiballs in each which they kept. Every year, the same thing.
: The never found a lost dead moose with a round ball or normal conical in it, which speaks volumes for the round ball shooters and the Whitworth shooters then. The Whitworths were the only real slug guns avaialble, with their 22" twist barrels.
: When the Knights and Whites showed up, the season was cancelled - the bolt acitons and scopes really put the game officers off their feed.
; The last year of the hunt, 2 game officers shared a pot of coffee with 3 of us, in our tent and told us of all of this. They then said, if everyone had been hunting with guns and balls such as us, the season would not be cancelled, but that the 2 trucks they checked out that morning on the drive into the area, had 1 scoped Knight inline + a scoped .30/06 or 7m mag in the cab for 3 hunters. They said the .30/06 was only for wolves and they shared the musket-loader for moose. The Game boys said, "that's going too far - this is the last season boys, I hope you get your moose". The maxiballs left them wondering if a muzzleloader could kill a moose - yet we'd taken lots of them by then, with single patched round balls, even in the guns where guys had previously been wounding them with maxis. Common were the days when they'd return to camp saying I 'think' I got maxi's into 2 bulls this morning, but they ran away & I lost them.
: The season has now re-opened, but only for deer - side hammer, round ball only allowed in the area during the season. Gone is our moose hunt - thank-you Knight and all the rest of the money grubbing gun makers for ruining our sport!