bobcat you are the only one that has given me a decent response on this. I've been asking it for years now and that response will satisfy me. I agree that the regs were written in a way that inlines were meant to be illegal to hunt with in Washington. My reasoning behind this is because they want muzzleloader hunters to have more of a challenge and with the inlines now they can shoot 250-300 yards where as like with my old hawkens .50 cal I wouldn't shoot beyond 100 yards even with a sabot.
Well, even today that is not true anymore...
This is on of my Renegade sidlelocks with a GM barrel on it and if I were to put a scope on it I could do anything a modern scoped inline using BP or BP subs can do. Smokeless ML's can stretch the envelope a little further.

With open sights I have a self imposed range of 150 yards on a deer and 200 on an elk... using a peep sight system like a Lyman sight system or TC mounted on the tang.


The real factor in distance shooting is the sight system that you are using...