Buy a muzzleloader( of any kind)on impulse, and now its become one of the " this one's going nowhere" items?
Mine is my factory laminated , percussion, TC Hawken. Got me appreciating sidelocks again.
Unfortunately, personal reasons compelled me to sell off all of my firearms, muzzleloaders included, back in the 90's.
Of all the ones purchased, and eventually let go, the one I regret the most, and circumstances aside, would have never sold otherwise; was a iron-mounted, Lancaster-style, curly maple, fullstock, flintlock, swamped octagon barrel, .62 caliber longrifle that weighed roughly 8.5 pounds. It had a sling swivel in front, and a sling button post in the rear. The Getz, factory coned barrel would shoot, in the hands of a competent rifleman, silver dollar size groups at 100 yards all day long.
I miss that rifle a lot. It was kind of an impulse purchase, as I was on a Hawken kick at the time, and had a pair of flintlock .62 caliber, walnut, halfstock, Hawken pistols, with iron swivel ramrods on order from another builder. I knew there was no such thing as a surviving flintlock Hawken half-stock rifle, and at the time I was pretty sure that there was no such thing as a flint Hawken longrifle. But, I had one built anyway.
And, I'm glad I did.
When the rifle showed up before the pistols, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it required only 75 grains of fffg Goex black powder to get those silver dollar size groups at 100 yards. And, with an 8.5 pound rifle, a 75 grain charge behind a 349 grain, 0.615" diameter ball made for some very pleasant, low recoiling shooting.
