Why Shoot a Muzzleloader?
 

I have been intrested in muzzleloading guns since I was a child watching Davy Crockett and Daniel Boon shoot them on television. In 1970 a Friend of mine had built one and loaned me his Dixie Gun Works catalog. For $35.00 plus shipping I ordered a plinker percusion kit. A week or so later it arrived, What I got was a lock, a maple board, and a 48 inch 30 caliber smooth bore barrel, trigger, trigger guard, butplate, underrib, two thimbles, and a set of plain sights. In those days I had very few tools but a friend bandsawed the roufh shape of a stock. From there with an electric drill, a wood rasp and a half inch wood chisel, I made it all work. It took me six months but when I finished it I ooaded it and it shot. I proudly displayed it on the livingroom wall and tookit out to the country to shoot on ocasion.

I had never considered a muzzleloader to be a serious hunting tool but Georgia was starting to hold primitave weapons hunts on several WMAs and Some of my friends were going and had told me how much fun they were having. In 1976 I bought myself a CVA Kentucky rifle kit 45 cal. Paid $59.95 . That November I went to a managed P.W hunt and killed a nice 7 pointer. The following year I took a nice doe. As the years started to go by I found myself taking my frontloader during the regular season and using carterage guns less.

About 1980 I ordereed a cva Big Bore Mountain rifle in 54 caliber. I killed a good nunber of deer and a wild boar with it. In 1985 I killed a nice 10 point buck with it. By now it was a rare ocasion if I used a conventenal deer rifle.

In 1989 I ordered a Hatfield Flintlock in 50 caliber. I had a lot of problems with hang-fires and mis-fires and several missed deer that year. I did manage to shoot a nice doe toward the end of the season with it. I got rid of the rifle and ordered another Hatfield in percussion.

It always nagged at me that I had not masrered the filnter. In 1993 I ordered a flint lock to convert an old percussion rifle to flint. I took it to the woods and killed nice spike with it but still had problems with mis-fires and hang-fires missed several deer.

I started using natural flints that were knapped and began to have better ignition and more success with my hunting. Since 1999 I have hunted pretty much exclusive with flint rifles. One exception, I ordered a 1874 sharps in 45-70 and killed a 6 point buck but it just didn't do much for me so i put it back in the cabinet and started hunting with flintlocks again.

Well, that's my story. what's yours? Why hunt with muzzleloaders?

Because it extends my season. This year we had a muzzle loader season from 12 December, 2009 till January 31, 2010.

First off I am and will always be a Bowhunter, that's what I love the most. I used to hate opening day of gun season as I knew most of the deer did'nt have a chance after the slugs starting flying. Sure I used the shotgun but I was'nt really feeling to good about using it so I decided a ML would ease my feelings a little and I'd be back to my Primitive way of Hunting I liked best.
So I started Hunting with a Old Dixie Gun Works 50cal. we could only use round ball and no scopes. I harvested my first Deer a Buck with it and after that I was hooked for life with the ML. I even gave up my Rifle Hunts in PA as here in N.Y. we could'nt use a Rifle, again I felt those real long 300+yd shots with a Rifle were'nt satisfying to me as the deer never knew what hit them.
So from that point in my life it was Bow and ML. But the biggest part of a ML I like is it is the most Devestating Gun I have ever used.
I know the newer Inlines shoot a long way but there still a ML and it kinda contradicts to what I said about giving up the Rifle, but I feel better using the ML so that's why I like them. Hooked for Life!
(BP)

I grew up in a shotgun-only zone in southern MI. The clip-on sights of the day were terrible and I got fed up with bad shots on deer even at short ranges. This anger peaked when I shot a doe twice at 70 yards only to learn that a walk through the brush had bumped my cheap sight off and I gut-shot her twice, never found her in a 2-mile tracking job.

Being a poor farm kid I could not afford a good slug gun (which did not exist back then like it does now anyways) or a fully rifled barrel for the gun I had. However a neighbor had bought a Traditions Deerhunter from Kmart the previous season and shot a deer with it, and suggested I try a ML. So I went to Kmart and bought one for $119 at age 15.

There was no internet. I had nobody to teach me how to shoot the thing. I got some lead balls and tried that, patched with squares cut out of old shirts. The results were terrible. Sabots were pretty new and some random person told me they were dangerous so I got some Buffalo Ball-ets. I took a doe with the setup that year, but was not impressed with the pencil-thru wound. When ML season arrived some acquaintances brought out some MLs and they were using sabots with no issues, so I worked up a load of 85gr Pyrodex and a 240gr Hornady HTP. I went on to take dozens of deer with that gun, right up until I could no longer find the HTPs (around 2001). I never did find another load it shot with comparable accuracy, and it developed a migrating zero that required the rear sight to be pounded over each year to the point it was near useless.

I got into inlines and have not gotten back to a percussion gun yet. I had never owned a scope until 2001 (shot competitively small bore with open sights) so I have had many years of new challenges and play time with inlines.

So I got into it primarily for accuracy, with increased range being secondary. Right now range is a primary reason, if rifles of comparable ballistics were legal here I would probably switch back and forth depending on my mood. There is just something nice about shooting a ML. Truth be told I use mine during regular firearm season, and am rarely still going out come ML-only season. If I am I typically take an open-sighted ML.

My Grand father started me out at 10 years old with an old original Remington 36. I liked shooting so well I started making my own. When I was about 25 I started selling some I made about 5 years later I bought half of a archery and muzzleloading shop when business got to where we were swamped we hired a old German gunsmith who considered me an apprenticed and put my nose on the grind stone. When I was 64 my wife got cancer and I quit every thing else to take care of her but she died a year later anyway. Along the way I managed a couple of state championships and some places in national at Friendship, its been a good life now I am 72 and consider my self lucky to still be able to hunt and shoot. Lee

I got started with them when I met a fellow (George) that shot them all the time and hunted with them. He had his own range (and three bass ponds) on his property and would invite me out to shoot. His two main rifles were a 1851 Springfield .58 (original) and a .58 caliber CVA Mountain Rifle. Well the bug bit me pretty good.

So I bought a T/C .54 caliber Renegade kit. I think I paid $129.00 for it. It took me all winter to put it together since I was working all the time. Finally George could not stand it any longer and he took over the finishing touches of it. I still own that rifle today.

I hunted and shot that Renegade for many years. Then I would find a rifle on sale, buy it and add it to the collection. Well this habit has carried on until present day and now my collection is as big as I want it to be. So I just sit back and shoot muzzleloaders.

Although, I have a very impressive collection of center fire rifles, handguns and shotguns as well.

Muzzleloaders give me a extra season in Illinois. Plus we can't use centerfire rifles 'yet" only shotguns and certain handguns. And I'm hoping that will change some day.

In 1961 a sixteen year old kid was wandering around a gun show in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, and came upon a table with a stack of funny looking rusty double barrel shotguns. These things had two hammers, two triggers, and a stick hung under the barrel. And boy, they were cheap. Well, that young fellow had been washing cars on week-ends for a buck a car and had money to burn. So he turned over thirty of his hard earned dollars for one of those things without knowing a thing about them, other than it looked to be about 20 gauge. The guy who sold him that gun sure had a funny look on his face - said something about "wall hangers".

Back home, the kid took the barrel off of the stock and cleaned up the wood with mineral spirits and rubbed it down with furniture polish. It looked pretty good. Then he rubbed the barrel down with fine steel wool and oil. Most of the rust came off and the barrels had a pleasing brown color. They even had a little engraving on the top rib between the barrels. The insides of the barrels was pretty rusty. So he began scrubbing it out with his shotgun cleaning kit, but the back end of both barrels seemed to be blocked with something. So he filled them with soapy water and began poking around. When he dumped the water out, a bunch of bird shot and black gook poured out of the muzzle. After a while he got them pretty clean, and with some more steel wool wrapped around a 20 gauge brush the were shiny and fairly smooth.

Now there was no way to put shells in the darn thing. No matter how hard he pressed those protrusions sticking out of the breech, the gun would not open. So he visited one of the several local gun smiths (remember when there were several in your area?)

The fine old gentlemen (well, he seemed old at the time) explained the intricacies of muzzle loading. He also replaced the nipples on the gun and inspected it thoroughly, at no cost. He said the gun was made in Belgium in the late 1800's. He sold the kid a can of Dupont black powder and a tin of percussion caps, and gave him a sock full of #6 shot.

"This is what you do" he said, "fill the cap of the powder can with powder, and dump one cap full down each barrel. Then ball up two or three sheets of toilet paper and shove them down on top of the powder with the ramrod and pack them tight. Then fill the powder cap with shot and dump them down. Then ball up another sheet of toilet paper and push it down to hold the shot in place. Put caps on the nipples and you're ready to go. Be sure to carry the gun with the muzzle pointed up as much as possible and don't **** it all the way until you're ready to shoot." Then he gave the kid an old Dixie Gun Works catalog and said "here, read this".

Well, that kid took the gun to the batture of the Mississippi River that same evening when the blackbirds were coming back from the grain elevator up-river to roost in the willows, and had a blast wingshooting blackbirds at twenty yards. HOOKED FOR LIFE! (And stayed up all night reading that Dixie catalog.)

Semi you have a nack for writing, you have some of the best readings I have ever read from funny to serious. You should write a book Im sure it would be a Best Seller. Looking forward to many more from you.
(BP)

Mr.Flintlock

Oh my Gosh!!!! let me count the ways.... I'll get back at cha when i have all the ways counted....

I am just getting into ml.
For 30 years I hunted with strictly centerfire rifles and wanted more of a challenge. I started hunting with traditional bows and wood arrows. I total enjoy bow hunting and will continue to do so. When the cold Nov. weather hits the arthur in my hands makes it hard for me to shoot my beloved bows. So not wanting to go back to the centerfires I am giving inline mlers a try.

:s4: Thanks for the compliment Breechplug. If I took a shot at a book I'd have to come up with a title. "Sanity Is For Wimps" seems too obvious, and "The Road To Semisaneville" too cute. How about "They Call Me Semisane"? :p

Well, I'm all packed up and heading for the hunting lease for the last weekend of deer season. It's raining like the devil right now, but I'm going anyway. See you guys Sunday night.

Good Luck Semi! Anyone of them titles would certainly draw attention.
(BP)

I lost about 35 years of ML shooting time listening to people who were just plain lazy in their ideas of ML'ing. They still laugh at me and make remarks about time and work in shooting them. I was at an auction and had my hand up before i knew it and bought an old Traditions Bolt action Hunter?. Had no ideas how to shoot, clean aim etc. that gun. Got fixed up ata big box store by an old timer laughing at me spending money and asking stupid questions. First year I shot a buck w/ it have not hunted w/ a centerfire in 2 years. I now shoot flint and inline and am loving it. This site and reading these posts just cranks me up more.

I picked up hunting after my dad signed me up for a hunter ed class. I was interested in it all, and always looked forward to getting my Outdoor Life or Field and Stream magazines in the mail. I read them cover to cover in no time at all, and hunting dominated the TV. It was media that pushed me towards muzzleloading--got my Omega for Christmas in '05. I've learned a lot since then and really enjoy helping friends with any of their guns. Reloading, archery, and minor gunsmithing have all become hobbies of mine. Hoping for a sidelock for my next gun.

The history, the process involved, the SMOKE and smell, the dirty hands from shooting and cleaning, and (of course) the satisfaction when a patched ball hits where you want it to. The 'dirty hands' occur more with my .44 Old Navy Colt revolver.

Davey Crockett Daniel Boone and Hawkeye on the TV when I was a kid got me primed. Firecrackers too. I love the smell of Goex in the morning because of that. I've done skeet with a 20 GA side by side. What a blast that was. You need a spotter to tell if you hit or not. A friend loaned me his 54 Renegade for BP season and even though I never shot at a deer that time I knew I had to have one. I have only 2 ml rifles, a 54 TC Hawken and a 50 TC White mtn. with GM lrh barrel. I need to get a rock sparker but I'm a lefty so I'm looking at a southpaw kit from Track of the wolf. A 36 cal squirrel rifle would be perfect.

Got back into muzzleloading in about 1999. Since then, 90 percent of my hog kills and nearly all of my deer kills have been with a muzzleloader. My muzzleloaders are accurate enough to take deer and hogs out to 150 yards or further. However, unless conditions are idea, my shots are limited to 100 yards. i like the concentration that comes from knowing that you have one shot.

IMO: A .50 muzzleloader kills hogs better than most centerfire guns.

I started about 30 years ago with a cheap Italian made sidelock, just to extend my deer hunting opportunities. Now, countless muzzleloaders later, I have narrowed it down to four, but I am always on the prowl for more.

They make me a better shot!
I started shooting/hunting at an early age. My first guns were an old single shot .22 and a single shot 20ga. I did pretty good with those guns. In my teens I switched to repeaters (a bolt action .222 and an autoloading 20ga, and I noticed my shots per game bagged was not as good a ratio anymore (especially with the autoloader). It wasn't the guns, they were accurate. It had to be my mental approach - oh well, if I miss the first shot I'll have a second.
In my early twenties I got into muzzleloaders. It's been a love affair ever since that first squirrel hunt with a .36 T/C Seneca. Nothing comes close to providing the level of personal satisfaction of taking game with a muzzleloader using bullets (or balls) I cast myself, using accessories I made myself, and taking the time to make sure that first shot does the job.

Its just plain fun, and I think it makes me a better hunter. Reminds me a lot of bow hunting, you have to be patient and wait for a good shot, after all you only get one (usually).
Doug

I was born in 1955 and the TV series Daniel Boone came out in 1964...I was 9, my younger brother 18 months behind me and we never missed a show...During that time when all we had were 3 channels we always watched The Wonderful World of Disney with the whole family...The Davy Crockett movie was also shown on that as well...

I read every biography in the elementary school that I went to...My folks took me to Williamsburg when I was a kid, we lived about an hour and a half from there...We also went to Jamestown and Yorktown and we had a cottage on the Outer Banks so I also visited The Lost Colony and the Wright Memorial down there...

During college I had a buddy that bought a CVA Kentucky that he couldn't get to shoot...He brought it to me and I worked up a load and ended up killing squirrels and a couple of deer with it...I then bought a CVA Kentucky pistol kit in a flintlock...I put the kit together and when finished the frizzen spring was too strong and the frizzen wouldn't fully flip over...I put it on the eye of the stove and heated to a cherry red, took it off and let it cool and the lock worked perfectly...I gave that pistol to our fraternity advisor as he was a history buff and author of several books on the Old South...

I moved to Atlanta in 1977 and went to work for John Deere...One Saturday afternoon I went to Stone Mountain and while walking down the street I saw a gunshop...Well, Bob Watts owned this shop, he is written up in Foxfire 5...I was in heaven when I started looking at some of the rifles...I had spent enough time in Williamsburg that I knew a factory built percussion wasn't for me...Bob had a few flintlocks for sale, he handed me one and that's all it took...That first was a .45 caliber flintlock with a Siler lock on her...The first range trip was all I needed, I was shooting inch and a half groups right off the bat...The only real learning curve was learning how to take knap and adjust the flint...

From 1977-1985 or so that's the only rifle I used...In 1987 I had an encounter with a bear and quickly decided a .54 was in my future...I built a .54 Lancaster flintlock which took 2 years and 200 hours...I've rebarreled the .45 to a .40 and now use it for small game...

btw...When I was building the .54 my older daughters were in grade school...We had craft days and I brought my work bench and rifle parts along with the .45 and showed the kids what I was doing and gave demonstrations with the .45 with blank loads...I now give talks on the Revolutionary War in period garb to schools and Boy Scout Troops in the area...The kids and teachers eat it up...

Oh yea...I now have 4 seasons of Daniel Boone on cd that the wife and kids have given me and of course the Davy Crockett movie from 1955 with Fess Parker...

It's become a tradition that when one of my nephews turns 5-6 I give them the Davy Crockett movie for Christmas along with a coonskin cap and one of those Kentucky caplock rifles...:)

At 54, I still remember the first time I shot a muzzleloader back in 1975...I still love telling stories to kids about how Daniel Boone went across the mountains into Kentucky in 1769, about how he rescued Jemima and the Callaway girls from the Shawanee in 1777, about how he was captured at the salt licks in 1778, about how Boonesboro was attacked by the Shawanee and British later that year and was saved by a thunderstorm after an 11 day siege...

So for me, it's the history, it's getting dressed into period garb, it's that feeling in the woods when hunting that the gun in my hand was the most advanced and reliable firearm at the time...It's what we won the American Revolution with, it's what was used to bring down deer, turkeys and other game...It's the type gun Lewis and Clark took from St Louis to the Pacific...It's what was used at the Battle of New Orelans, the gun Davy Crockett was using at the battle of the Alamo and the gun that eventually won Texas it's independence...

For a long time bow hunting was my favorite, but the muzzleloading bug has bit me bad, and it's hard to say which is my favorite anymore. I originally got into it because I was plain fed up with my shotgun. I've always hunted in a shotgun only state, and I never could afford a rifled shotgun. My always loved my Winchester cornshucker, that is, right up until the point deer gun season started.

With the old shotty, my 50 yard "groups" were in the 8" range on a good day. I did harvest deer with it, but had lots of bad shots and misses too. So I basically took the ML plunge to increase my accuracy and range. But it has grown on me more and more, to the point where I doubt I would use any other type of gun for deer hunting, regardless of what was legal.

At first I did it only to extend my hunting season. I started with and inline NEF Sidekick. I did that for a few years and met a guy who got me into traditional sidelocks.

I became intrigued with them and fell in live with them. I have gone from a .32 cal Crockett to .50, .54. and my latest buy a .58 Big Boar and a T.C New Englander 12 ga. I still hunt centerfire, but am thinking of going to ML the whole season next year!

They are not slow or complicated, they are just a bunch of fun to shoot.

I started flintlock hunting this year, only reason being that my uncles told me its the best hunting outside of archery. Needless to say it took me one drive in the morning to get hooked, wearing snow camo and having heards of deer damn near run ya over. Outside of my archery hunting i definitly say it is the best hunting. Never had a misfire yet (knock on wood lol). Shot alot, missed alot, but finally got one been hooked ever since!

Well I just recieved my first muzzleloader this year and originally I asked for one to extend my season. After shooting it at the range a few times, I find myself liking it more and more and I find myself looking at more traditional muzzleloaders now (the T/C hawken .54 cal is particularly interesting to me). I've been hunting deer for about 10 years now and killing deer with a .270 or .30-06 is a pretty easy process and I'm starting to find it less and less enjoyable. I bowhunt as well and, while very satisfying when I score, it is extremely frustrating to have deer get about 50 yards from me and stop (which has happened on more than one occasion). Muzzleloading seems to be a good blend of being challenging but not to the point of wanting to pull my hair out and quit. I haven't hunted with a muzzleloader yet so I don't know but I bet I'll have a good time.....

I am a Bowhunter first and will always be a Bowhunter. I like you found the ****Gun and Mostly the Rifle to be Unsatisfying. The Mler is just as deadly as the Shotgun and Rifle and in a-lot of cases will shoot just as far. But the biggest thing with the Mler is you have (just one shot) that is the difference between the Shotgun and Rifle. Your not gonna shoot Deer closer with the ML than with the others but knowing you only have that one shot will make you a better Hunter and you will only take your best shot, that's the satisfying part of Hunting with a MLer.
Getting Deer close with t your Bow or Gun is a whole nother ball game, that part should be mastered first in My Opinion, pnce you master this part you can take Deer with anything.
(BP)

It was my little brothers fault. He got tired of ML hunting alone so for Christmas of 1976 he bought me a T/C Hawkins 50cal kit. I worked on that kit nearly non stop for a couple of months. when It was finished I took it out in the back 40 loaded as recommended in the manual placed it in a tire with a string tied to the trigger. Got about a 100 yards away and pulled that string. It went boom and smoked up the place for a bit, but was still in one piece. Loaded it again after setting a can on a fence post and paced off 50 yards our adverage longest shot deer hunting and shot. Well right off I liked that set trigger thing., second I liked seeing that tin can all ripped apart when the smoke cleared.
My brother belonged to a group at work of low lifes who didn't want to do any thing except shoot ML and he got me doing the same thing. We worked the night shift so shot all morning and went to work smelling like sulfer. In 1983 I redid all the metal work and browned the barrel. That has about all been worn off now.
I hunted with and shot that old hawkins till 1992 when I decded my eyes were so bad trying to use open sights just wasn't working. No way I'm gonna put a scope on it so I bought a T/C plains rifle 50 cal. and put a T/C removable scope mount on it with a Weaver K4 I had bought at a yard sale for $5.00.
I've got a safe full of Remington 700 center fires I just love em. So when they came out with the ML I had to have one I got it in 1998. It's a 54 cal. latter I got another one in 50 cal. But for the last 4 years all I deer hunt with other than the bow is that 54cal Remington.

On January 8th My buddy and I were hunting youtes. I took the remmy 54 that I had loaded on November 14. It was negtive 8F that morning, when the yote came boiling out of the brush along the creek the fireing pin on the remmy moved in slow motion the first time but on the second trigger pull it went off rolling the youte about 5 yards and gutting him at the same time. those 300gr. Speer 50cal Gold Dot HP's do and awsome job.
I'll keep hunting the youtes with it as long as fur prices are down and my buddy doesn't want the hides.

I'm still shooting my center fires although not hunting with them as much. I am also wanting a rifled slug shot gun really bad.

:D Al

I enjoyed reading the great stories all of you posted. One other thing that I enjoy is that after almost 40 years of shooting muzzleloaders, I am still learning new things about shooting them.

:happy0001:Newbie here to MLs ,longtime bow hunter and centerfire rifle hunter.After I was iniated into bowhunting that was it for me I wanted to hunt each season with the bow,it is so much more personal then rifle shooting and takes much more commitment. For several years I used shotgun in our late shotgun/muzzle season here on the Island in NY and it was great in that it extended my deer season but being limited to a smooth bore shotgun most sightings were misses due to range. A couple of guys in my club muzzle hunted in the late archery muzzle / bow season at our cabin upstate and were always after me to try the ML but guns were losing their intrest to me. End of last summer Cabelas had a sale on the Traditions Pursuit LT scoped and camoed I thought the price was to good to pass up and on whim bought one. After hefting it and shooting same I had a new addiction, I started hitting several BP forums and before I even got my first deer with my ML I had to have a CVA Accura. My buddies thought I was nuts like with my bows I get a something in my mind and it eats on me till I figure a way I can get it. Last month got my first doe with the Traditions it was almost like bow hunting for me and I looked foward to shooting this smokepole more. Within a few days I gave in to the crave and ordered the Accura,havent shot it yet but cant wait will be soon. I think I like this smokepole business

I got into muzzleloading mainly to increase my odds of being able to draw a tag here in Nevada for cow elk. Everything is a draw, even deer. The rifle cow elk tags are tough to draw, so I started looking at how many people applied for muzzle loader tags, and it was very few. I have also since carried my muzzle loader on any legal weapon hunts. Since I bought my first muzzle loader, a CVA Bobcat, they have changed the cow elk ml season to the middle of the rut, which is even more exciting. I have taken one Elk with the Bobcat, and one with a Traditions Pursuit. I have also taken one deer with the Bobcat. I usually mix up my application for deer to include rifle and muzzle loader hunts, depending on the area and when I want to hunt. But even with that, nothing gets my blood boiling much like elk bugling at you, and then "smoking" one!

Later,

Marcial