[El Gato]

If civilians possessed a weapon for ordinary purposes (hunting and defense) it would have been a rifle

Now that depends on what they were hunting and what sort of defense. A musket could be loaded with birdshot, and used as a fowling piece, or it could be loaded with buckshot or "buck and ball", and make a good defensive weapon, although not as handy as it's short barreled cousin the blunderbuss. As you point out, rifles were expensive and slow. Slow might be a bigger problem in the "Big Woods" than "inaccurate", not so much so in more open country, but expensive would be a limitation everywhere. Many colonists, especilly on the frontier were people of extremely modest means.

[robertpaulsen]

Well, if muskets were as versatile as you say, used for hunting and defense, people would have already had them and there would have been no need in the Militia Act of 1792 to give Militia members 6 months to acquire one.

You pick the strangest points on which to take a stand.