Ka-boom! That’s the familiar sound hunters in the woods this time of year look forward to hearing.

Monday was the first day of the three-week flintlock rifle season in Pennsylvania. It’s believed to be the only muzzleloader season in the country where hunters can only use flints to ignite their gun’s charge. Having the flint make the spark before the gun actually fires leads to a unique, delayed sound best described as "ka-boom."

Other states have muzzleloaders seasons, but they allow advancements such as percussion caps or inline ignition systems. But since 1974, Pennsylvania has been keeping the season that occurs just after Christmas limited to only primitive flintlock muzzleloaders that resemble what was used prior to 1800.

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Shooting a flintlock is a primitive experience. A flint strikes a metal frizzen to create a spark that ignites black powder that burns into the side of the barrel of the gun. That spark fires the charge that propels a ball of lead toward its target. Only open sights, no scopes, are allowed.

If you’re thinking that’s complicated or crazy, you’re right. To get a deer with a flintlock is a unique challenge that keeps hunters coming back year after year.

In 2020, 150,447 residents of Pennsylvania and 7,228 nonresidents bought muzzleloader licenses. The permits also included a week-long season in October that also allows modern muzzleloaders with more efficient ignition systems and scopes.

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The late flintlock season is such a challenge to get a deer, the commission allows those who only have a buck deer tag to have the option to use it on an antlerless deer instead.

I received my flintlock rifle about three decades ago as a college graduation gift from my parents. It’s been the source of many memories and good days in the woods with family members.  It’s a sport where you need to have a sense of humor as there’s always a chance your gun won’t fire or there will be enough of a delay before the black powder ignites that you miss your target. Keep in mind, the powder is sensitive to moisture and hunters are counting on a piece of rock to make the spark.

It’s more of a tradition about being in the woods when the deer have calmed down from the early rifle hunting season than expecting to get a deer.

Dan Osgood, 61, of Middleburg, Snyder County, has been enjoying the flintlock season for more than four decades.

“Ever since I was young,” he said about carrying a muzzleloader. “My dad (Terry, now deceased) got me into it and we had quite a few memories.”

Osgood said when he was 20 years old, his father bought him a kit to build a .45 caliber Thompson Center Hawken muzzleloading rifle for Christmas. He remembers building the gun with his dad, who had carpentry skills to customize and engrave the gun. “I just followed his lead,” Osgood said.

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They also made leather items to hold the items they take to the woods such as powder, ball starters, lead balls and brushes.

“It still shoots the same as the day I put it together,” he said. “There are very few years I didn’t fill a (deer) tag." While he enjoys other seasons, like rifle and archery, he said he always wants to save a tag to hunt with his flintlock.

While Osgood has been able to connect with numerous doe over the years with his muzzleloader, he’s taken only one buck ever with a flintlock. It was a buck he grazed in 2002 with his bullet on the last day of rifle deer season. He remembers he couldn’t believe it when the deer reappeared on a foggy, misty morning a couple weeks later during muzzleloader season .

When the gun fired, he said the smoke filled the air and he couldn’t tell if his shot hit its mark. “I heard it crashing,” he said about the large animal falling through the thick brush. Fortunately he made a good shot and the 9-point measuring about 125 inches was easily found.

His father passed on years before this hunt, but he said he knows his dad was looking down on him that day. While he has shot bucks in rifle seasons over the years, he said this was a special accomplishment. “There’s nothing that compares to that. … I felt so blessed.”

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Thinking about his early years in the sport, Osgood said, “There’s just something special for me and my dad to do together, to carry on that tradition.”

He remembers going through numerous pounds of black powder to fine tune his accuracy. “I was obsessed with it,” he said.

The season is always something he looks forward to each winter. “I’m like a kid at Christmas.”

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He now looks forward to hunting with his son, Dan, to carry on the tradition.

For those who have never tried black powder, he said, “I encourage people to get out and do it.”

It takes practice to get used to the follow through of the shot of a gun that has a slower ignition than a centerfire rifle. “It’s something I cherish. ... The season means the world to me.”

Christopher Schantz, 43, of New Tripoli, Lehigh County, hunts near his home but also has a hunting cabin in Pottersdale, Clearfield County. He’s hoping his daughter, Harper, 9, will be able to get a deer with the .50 caliber Hawkens muzzleloader he inherited from his father, Edwin. “She really likes it,” he said.

Schantz said he remembers as a child enjoying the smell of black powder when his father, Edwin, cleaned his gun. At age 11, he was able to tag along with his dad and watched him take a button buck with his flintlock. “I was mesmerized by it. I said, 'Oh my God, this is great.' The powder and and flash.”

He’s been hunting ever since. Tragically, his father died in 1997 of a massive heart attack while hunting with him on the first day of rifle season that year.

Schantz now thinks of his dad each time he holds the muzzleloader his dad used to hunt deer. “I have other guns, but this one means the most,” he said.

He said archery is his favorite season to hunt, but there’s something uniquely special about late muzzleloader season. “It’s late, it's cold, a lot of guys don’t want to do it, but it’s fun. It’s tradition.” It’s what they hunted with 200 years ago, and you usually only get one shot at a deer.

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He’s determined to hunt even though he hasn’t ever taken a deer with the flintlock. He’s taken deer with archery gear, rifles and inline muzzleloaders but never with his flintlock. “I get so excited,” he said about shooting the gun. When smoke flies during the ignition, he ends up missing the deer. “I keep trying," he said. "That’s my one goal in life. I hope I get one.”

He’s taken his daughter Haley, 16, along in the past, and now he hopes to have his younger daughter, Harper, get a deer with the family heirloom. He said she enjoys shooting the gun and is looking forward to spending time in the woods. “My grand reward is my daughter gets one before I do. … It means a lot to be able to pass this along.”

The statewide season runs through Jan. 17 in Pennsylvania. In Wildlife Management Units 2B, 5C and 5D the season runs longer, until Jan. 29.

Brian Whipkey is the outdoor columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Outdoors Newsletter email on your website's homepage under your login name.