ORIGINAL: Charley
Why do so many here refer to ML rifles as black powder guns, when the vast majority of them are used with other propellants? A small point, but I am curious. I shoot traditional rifles, but don't care what others use, so I'm not throwing rocks at the inline crowd. Just seems kind of an imprecise description, that's all.
Just because you shoot traditional rifles does not mean you have to shoot only black powder. There are other powders such as Triple Se7en, Pyrodex, AAP, and Black Mag3 that will work for you under many circumstances. So does that mean unless you are shooting a traditional rifle with only traditional black powder, that is the only time you can refer to yourself as a black powder shooter?
Would you not agree that all the muzzleloaders
normally mentioned here are capable of using black powder such as Goex, Swiss, Elephant and others as a propellant? Hence making them a black powder rifle.
I guess what I am trying to say is many people use the term black powder guns in this instance as a means of identifying them in a classification different then centerfires, breech loaders (even though some of them use black powder), or who only knows what's out there.
If in a discussion I tell someone I hunt with a black powder rifle instead of using the term, a muzzleloader, my point is still understood in most cases by the person I am talking to.
No one is trying to beat their own drum or take anything away from the traditional shooters and their use of black powder. I shoot tradtional rifles that range from flintlocks to percussion caplocks. I also shoot inlines. I shoot 99% of the time with Goex, but I really do not care if in my post I refer to my choice of weapon as a black powder rifle or a muzzleloader.... When used in general terms they are one in the same to me. If a poster wished additional information, I am sure most people on the board would be more then happy to post
the type of propellant they use as well as the amount of charge and the kind of projectile.
I guess what you're wondering is why some posters are not being more accurate in their descriptions... Perhaps an oversite on their part, lazy maybe, or they find the word muzzleloader hard to spell. Maybe they are just proud of the fact that we hunt with a non conventional, non smokless powder weapon, using strange projectiles with some unorthodoxed meaning of ignition...
