Is Your Muzzleloader Colorado-Legal?

Colorado Hunting · Regulations

Elk River Sports · Steamboat Springs, Colorado · Verified against 2 CCR 406-2, September 2026

If you hunt muzzleloader anywhere else, read this before you load the truck.

Colorado bans sabots, pelletized powder, smokeless powder and any sight that isn’t open or iron. A setup that’s completely normal in most states — scoped, pellets, sabot bullets — is illegal here on all three counts.

Colorado’s 2026 muzzleloader deer and elk season runs September 12–20.

We have this conversation across the counter every September. Someone drives in from the Midwest or the Southeast with a rifle that’s been legal everywhere they’ve ever hunted, and three separate things about it are against Colorado regulation. It’s a bad discovery to make the night before an opener.

Here’s the checklist, with the regulation text underneath it.

The pre-trip check

• Open or iron sights onlyNo scope. No magnification. If it has glass on it, it’s not legal for Colorado’s muzzleloader season. 203.A.2.b.4
• Nothing electronic on the rifleNo battery-powered or electronic devices incorporated into or attached to the firearm. 203.A.2.b.5
• Loose powder only — no pelletsPelletized powder systems are prohibited. So is smokeless powder. Loose black powder or a loose black-powder substitute. 203.A.2.b.1
• No sabotsProhibited outright. Cloth patches are specifically not sabots, so a patched round ball is fine. 203.A.2.b.2
• Caliber big enough for what you drew.40 minimum for most big game. Elk and moose need .50 with conicals or .54 with round ball. 203.A.2
• Bullet heavy enoughAt least 170 grains in .40 to .50 caliber. At least 210 grains above .50. 203.A.2
• 500 square inches of blaze orange, plus a hatMuzzleloader hunters are not exempt. What actually counts

Caliber and bullet weight

“minimum caliber shall be forty (.40) for all big game except elk and moose” … “fifty (.50) when hunting with conical bullets and fifty-four (.54) when hunting with round ball bullets”
2 CCR 406-2-203.A.2

Powder

“pelletized powder systems and smokeless powder are prohibited”
2 CCR 406-2-203.A.2.b.1

This is the one that surprises people most, because pellets are how a large share of the country loads. In Colorado you are measuring loose powder. If you have never done it, practice before the season rather than in the dark on the twelfth.

Projectiles

“Sabots are prohibited. For the purposes of this regulation cloth patches are not sabots.”
2 CCR 406-2-203.A.2.b.2

That second sentence is doing important work and people miss it. A patched round ball is legal. What’s out is the plastic sabot carrying an undersized bullet — which is, again, how much of the country shoots. You want conicals or round ball sized to your bore.

Sights and electronics

“muzzle-loading rifle or smoothbore musket with any sighting device other than open or ‘iron’ sights is prohibited”
2 CCR 406-2-203.A.2.b.4

“Electronic or battery-powered devices cannot be incorporated into or attached to the muzzle-loading firearm”
2 CCR 406-2-203.A.2.b.5

No scope, no red dot, no magnifier, nothing lit or powered hanging off the rifle. Fiber-optic front sights are widely used and understood to be acceptable as iron sights, but they are not named in the regulation text we are quoting, so if yours are unusual, ask CPW rather than us.

One more, and it catches people in the parking lot. CPW states that it is illegal to have a loaded electronic-ignition muzzleloader in or on a motor vehicle — the chamber has to be unloaded, or the battery disconnected and removed from its compartment. Separately, a muzzleloader counts as unloaded when the percussion cap or shotshell primer is removed, or the powder is out of the flashpan. Worth knowing before you drive between spots.

What this means if you’re coming from out of state

Practically, a lot of visiting hunters need three changes: pull the scope and fit irons, switch from pellets to loose powder, and switch from sabots to conicals or patched round ball. That is not a small adjustment to make the week of the hunt — the rifle will shoot to a different place, and you need range time to find out where.

Sort it at home. If you are already on the road and something is wrong, call us before you drive up the pass and we will tell you honestly whether we can help or where to go.

We don’t stock powder, primers or projectiles. Elk River Sports is gear, clothing and optics. Plan the consumable side before you get here.

What we can help with

You can’t put glass on the rifle, which means your binoculars are doing more work in muzzleloader season than in any other. September elk are vocal and the country is thick — you are finding them by ear and eye before you ever get to a shot.

Blaze orange →

• Binoculars and range finders — you have no magnification on the rifle, so it all lives in your glass
• Game calls — September elk are still talking during the muzzleloader window
• Packs, boots and gloves
• First aid and headlamps — short days, dark walks out

Season reminders from a shop that hunts here

A note before each season opens, and the dates when CPW confirms them. Nothing else.

Related

• 2026 Colorado big game season dates — muzzleloader runs September 12–20
• Colorado’s blaze orange rule — muzzleloader hunters are not exempt
• Are trail cameras legal in Colorado?
• 2027 Colorado big game season dates

Sources. Muzzleloader requirements quoted from the Code of Colorado Regulations, 2 CCR 406-2-203, Manner of Take. Transport and unloaded-firearm points from Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s elk in-the-field guidance.

Regulations change and this is a summary with the text quoted, not legal advice. Confirm against the current CPW big game brochure before you hunt. If we have something wrong, tell us and we’ll fix it the same day.