LAST EDITED ON Jan-05-15 AT 05:53PM (MST)[p]In my experience, an open sight, blade or bead, at 150 yards, will nearly cover half a deer. In Utah we're limited to a one power scope, which actually reduces the size of image and a deer through a 1x scope is very, very small, so even with a cross hair, it's a pretty tricky shoot to put one right in the lung/heart every time. From my personal experience, at least in Utah, I'm toast past 150 yards. Mind you, most of my muzzleloader hunting has been done with the old slow twist barreled rifles and I missed a lot of deer between 100 and 150 yards, some of those shots were from a dead rest, dead calm, laying on the ground, with all the time in the world. I clearly remember missing 3 shots at 147 yards, at a standing buck, over a period of 30 minutes, off a dead cedar tree. I thought, how can I miss a target the size of a half sheet of plywood, but I did!
The fast twist barrels help, no doubt, but you still have the front sight bead to body size issue and the 1x scope issue in Utah.
Have fun John, hunting with a muzzleloader is a great way to hunt.
DC