The 2010 Tennessee Muzzle loader season was very productive. The Bucks starting rut and the weather was mild. The TWRA set the seasons very liberal, with 4 does being allowed to be taken. My opening day was as good as I could remember, seeing 5 small bucks within 50 yards by noon, and taking one at 1:00 pm. My hunting partner and brother missed a nice buck and got two does. By the amount of summer sausage that I have made during the two weeks of the season and from the reports that I heard, everyone had done well.
As for the gun themselves, they have come a long way from the conventional black powder of Daniel Boone days. No longer does anyone use an unreliable flint lock or side hammer guns of yesteryear. They have been replaced with inline guns resembling high power rifles with scopes. The big cloud of smoke of black powder has been replaced with Pyrodex or some other smokeless easy cleaning powder.
A new generation of gun that shoots conventional powder with no smoke cloud and accurate up to two hundred yards, sounding like a high powered rifle when fired has hit the market. I used one of these on a recent trip to Ohio for my best deer of my life. If I would have used my shot gun which is accurate out to a 100 yards. I would have had to let this deer walk which was at 175 yards. 
The second two day juvenile deer season is coming in January. Be sure to take someone hunting,
– Greg