My first ml was a TC hawken I traded for. Unfortunately, I was pretty green & got a really bad barrel. That was replaced with a Green Mountain drop-in with a fast twist because I thought I wanted to use those plastic thingies. After shooting some heavy loads using that TC stock, I knew that wasn't what I wanted either. So, I decided it was time to build.
I used the GM barrel & all the metal parts off the hawken & used a cherry plank I had from my furniture building business. I figured if I was going to mess up my first build, I might as well use TC parts so it wouldn't be too costly a mistake. I based the stock design on a Boyd thumbhole I had put on my 30.06. Basically, the stock is thumbhole from the breech back & hawken from there forward. I was never concerned with pc/hc, so it looks good to me, especially if you stand back a few feet.
I needed more practice, so I scrounged up another set of hawken parts cause they were still relatively cheap & not too hard to find. Roundball was kind enough to sell me a TC new style flint lock & I bought an Oregon barrel, slow twist in .54 cal. The stock is similar to the first except it is a full stock. That build was never quite finished because I felt I 'needed' a real gun for moose hunting.
I was feeling more confident about my building skills, so I went all out. Rice TOW style jaeger swamped barrel in .58 cal. Chambers Late Ketland flint lock & Davis set trigger. Hooked breech & brass thimbles & trigger guard. The stock is from a curly maple plank my wholesaler had stashed away. It, also, is a thumbhole full stock finished with aqua fortis & tung oil.
Now that I am retired & getting my wife's honey do list (she wants me to build her some of my furniture, too) I'll get back to my #2 build & then figure out what to do with that 2nd Rice jaeger barrel I have stashed away
Paul

because i just love tc muzzleloaders

I had to go with "none of the above". An old friend at work got me started in 1975 with a traditional caplock. Thought that was really something. Didn't have alot to choose from back then around here. Caplock or flintlock were it. I've no interest at all in the in-lines that are offered today.

Nope I got it sometime in the late 80's or early 90's. It has been a while but from what I can remember it is a bit longer than the white mt carbine. I googled it and can only see info on the newer green mt drop in barrels and it was well before that time. Perhaps my memory is wrong and it is a New Englander. Being from the Green Mt State possibly had that on my mind. I remember I wanted something a little longer than the white Mt which was the most popular at that time.

I have two MLs. My first, I wanted to take advantage of the ML season in Virginia which generally coincides with the peak rut. A fair amount of research (this site and the other) and I settled on an Omega. I shouldered one at big box store, liked it, and started my search. Picked up an X7 from GunBroker, a carbine suited my hunting (mountains and heavy woods).

More recently I picked up a used Knight Disc Extreme, just because I already had the Lehigh breech plug. It's nice to have two MLs to shoot at the range in the summer.

Very happy with both. I won't ever buy another unless I find a used H&R Huntsman/Sidekick being sold out of a truck on the side of the road for a song. :wink:

Around 2002 I purchased the T/C Omega and sold my Pedersoli Rolling Block 54-cal inline, for it had the world's smallest trigger guard and I use two pair of gloves in Michigan winters.. The Omega was a technology leader at the time and I had the money back then to purchase their most loaded model.

In December 2014, Knight offered a Christmas-week sale on their normal price $349 Knight Vision for only $199. Absolutely no regrets on that no-brainer decision, for the break-action Vision's breech-area is significantly easier to clean than the fall-action Omega.

The worst decision of ML career (since 1992) was my decision to purchase the full-stock Traditions Shenandoah 14 years ago.

PEOPLE: Think twice.... make that three times, prior to selecting a full-stock over a half-stock. I normally enjoy cleaning my MLs, just as much as I shoot them. But I cuss like a two-bit whore every time I must clean that pinned full-stock ML, for the wood is not of craftsman variety and I choose to leave those two pins in.

What a PITA that ML is. But my wife absolutely loves it's brassy features / looks hanging on a wall, with a powder-horn hanging below the trigger.

Myself?....... I wish that had been my 2nd choice that year...... a CVA Mountain Rifle that Cabelas brought back for only one year of production from CVA. . Boy did I screw-up that choice between those two MLs. So excuse me while I kick myself in the pants for the 1003rd time.

My last muzzle loader purchase was an Omega Dream Season. It was a rifle i absolutely did not need. When shouldered it feels so very very good. It sat in the store for months, and months calling to me. It is a very good rifle to use whilst still hunting. Omega rifles are no longer being made. When hunting, the rifle doesn't need to be carried around whilst cocked, with a safety on. One cocks the rifle just before pulling the trigger.

Because i owned Omega rifles already, i knew i would like this one, if it shot straight, and it does.

I have 6 different brands not counting custom ML's. I bought all of mine simply because I love muzzleloaders. I hunt with all of my ML's and enjoy shooting and all aspects of these type firearms. I was 13 when I purchased my first ML which was a .45 cal Jukar "Junker". I paid $45 for it from my ginseng money. I was totally hooked even though my rifle wasn't top of the line; never the less I was smitten. I've now been muzzleloading for 37 years and lord willing I will be for another 37 years.

Question was simple.

Why did you buy your current muzzleloader?

As in......... the last one you bought.

Or....as in the one(s) you presently own. :D