While buying some percussion caps this week for my Thompson Scout muzzleloader at a local sporting goods store, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on a conversation between a store clerk and a customer. The customer appeared to be a seasoned deer hunter who was a babe in the woods when it came to primitive guns. A well-intentioned young clerk was going through the fundamentals of blackpowder guns with the customer.

“Tell me again, now,” the customer said, “I will need a primer, a powder charge and a projectile, right?”

“Uh-huh,” said the clerk, “and of course there are different options, ya know? You can buy a gun that fires a percussion cap on an outside hammer, or you can go with what is called an in-line gun.”

He went on to explain the difference between an inline gun and all the rest.

The clerk then gestured to a prominently displayed inline muzzleloader. For a little under three hundred bucks, the store offered a sort of “starter kit” for the new blackpowder hobbyist. The kit provided the aspiring blackpowder hunter with just about everything but a jackfir and a whitetail deer – the gun, the wads, the bore cleaner, bore lube, some .50 caliber balls, a primer dispenser, a powder dispenser, a rod rammer, a ball-pulling auger screw, a nice necessities bag and an instruction book (in three languages, no doubt).

“Great,” the man said. “What else will I need to get started?”

“Just a box of primers and some powder, and you’re in business,” said the clerk.

The customer didn’t have a clue. His innocence tempted me to add my two cents worth and put words to my thoughts: “Hmmm, Let’s see now. You’ll need a boy to carry your blackpowder accessories, and a small dozer to get the new gun out of the Blister Pack. Oh, yes, bring along some plastic baggies to cover your barrel and percussion cap. And a sharp knife to cut through the gunsmoke can be helpful, especially if you like to see the target after you fire…”

But life has taught me things. I’ve learned to control my mouth, and speak when invited to do so.

“How messy is this blackpowder stuff,” the customer asked the clerk with a slightly furrowed brow.

The clerk looked skyward, as if carefully weighing that question.

“Well, er …”

“Very messy,” I broke in uninvited, and added, “Don’t kid yourself, blackpowder is dirty and smelly. In fact, most meticulous muzzleloaders bathe their gun barrels (in scalding hot water) more often than they do themselves.”

The clerk looked mildly annoyed, but forced a smile.

The customer seemed pleased that I had joined the conversation, which only emboldened me to step into the conversational circle.

“What about reliability?” the customer asked.

“If you keep your powder dry and your gun clean, these inlines will perform with dependability and accuracy,” the clerk avowed with a straight face.

With raised eyebrows, as if waiting for affirmation from a neutral party, the customer turned to me. I told him my blackpowder buck story, the one about the fat little cornfed Maryland buck that stood and looked at me after my muzzleloader misfired. (Nobody, including the three-language instruction book, had advised that it is good practice to ALWAYS fire two or three percussion caps through your gun before frontloading the powder and ball).

As the clerk and customer discussed the various projectile choices that face a smokepole shooter (that’s jargon for muzzleloader), I got to thinking about my confusion over projectiles. Although conventional wisdom teaches that Sabot bullets shoot more accurately than the old-fashioned steel balls, my Thompson Scout seems to shoot better with a ball than a plastic-jacketed Sabot slug. I decided it best not to add to the customer’s already overloaded circuits by introducing this little trajectory tidbit.

Heck, Ray Hamilton over in Livermore, who wrote the book on blackpowder hunting, has been known to experiment around with grapeshot in his primitive guns.

The customer was not at all cowed by my observations or the store’s vast array of choices. He bought the gun. We chatted on the way to our trucks. He confessed that he was about to join the ranks of the blackpowder community for much the same reason that I did a number of years back: He didn’t get his deer in November.

For all the folderol that goes with the blackpowder option, I felt happy for this new Maine muzzleloader. He has joined the ranks of nearly 11,000 other December deer hunters who have extended their hunt opportunity for another few weeks.

As he drove off, I wondered if he was aware that a $14 muzzleloader stamp is required on his hunting license.

I should have told him.

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal.He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on 103.9, and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.