roundball is right on as usual. I also like a heavy barrel muzzleloader for free hand shooting. They just seem to balance better. My .58 caliber Green Mountain rifle with roundball seems to do the best free hand because of the barrel length and extra weight.

For excellent targets, I was given the idea on a different forum and now it is all I use for most of the shooting I do, I buy a pack of 3"x5" index cards. They come in all colors also. I draw a simple X from corner to corner and then try and shoot for the center of the card. Tape that to some cardboard and you have a very respectable target.

I also started doing more free hand shooting now after a lesson humility one afternoon with friends. We were bench shooting as usual and then I suggested free hand shooting at that card. We all thought such a big target was easy until we started shooting. At 50 yards, I missed that card once out of three shots and the other two you could not call a group by any means. Some of the others could not hit that card free hand shooting at 50 yards on their first attempts. Like I said, a real lesson in humility.

That is one reason I always carry shooting sticks with me when I hunt. When I take to a stand or even decide to sit and scope an area for fifteen or twenty minutes, I open the sticks to the right hight and have an instance solid shooting platform. This simple little one minute job has payed off big time in filling the freezer and adding confidence to my shooting.