Semisane

Every now and then one of us mentions the desire to have a load combination that allows loading a quick second shot while hunting. That topic came up today in a bull session with one of my hunting buddies.

After kicking it around a bit we realized that between us a quick reload was wanted exactly twice in our entire combined muzzleloading careers of about 70 years - once for me and once for him. Both occasions involved a deer down withing view, but not dead.

There were many occasions for both of us where the deer was down and kicking, but expired before a second shot could have been loaded no matter how fast the reload would have been. There were other occasions where a follow-up shot was required. But the deer had moved out of sight immediately after the shot and required tracking anyway. So a fast or slow reload before the tracking began didn't make any real difference to the situation. In those situations we agreed that waiting a bit before beginning tracking is generally a good idea anyway.

Also, neither one of us had ever had a situation where the game remained within view after a clear miss. So even a very quick reload wouldn't have produced a kill.

So, what are your thoughts or experience regarding the need for a "quick" reload? And how quick is quick anyway?