Why Shoot a Muzzleloader?
01-29-2010, 05:58 AM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Georgia
Posts: 261
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?
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?
01-29-2010, 07:13 AM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Northern Chautauqua Co. N.Y.
Posts: 2,976
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)
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)
01-29-2010, 07:21 AM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location:
Posts: 1,408
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.
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.
01-29-2010, 07:35 AM
#5
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 6,585
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
01-29-2010, 07:47 AM
#6
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 21,193
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.
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.
01-29-2010, 09:26 AM
#8
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
Posts: 10,917
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.)
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.)
Last edited by Semisane; 01-29-2010 at 09:29 AM.
01-29-2010, 09:40 AM
#9
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Northern Chautauqua Co. N.Y.
Posts: 2,976
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.)
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.)
(BP)
01-29-2010, 09:40 AM
#10
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Idaho
Posts: 11,703
Mr.Flintlock
Oh my Gosh!!!! let me count the ways.... I'll get back at cha when i have all the ways counted....
Oh my Gosh!!!! let me count the ways.... I'll get back at cha when i have all the ways counted....