So..... why a muzzleloader?

[Eagle223USA]

My first rifle was a Jukar .45 cap. Great shooting little rifle. My dad and brother shot at the local muzzleloading club, Fort Erie. I hunted small game and deer. I liked the history involved. I have hunted with modern rifles too. I remember the rise of the inline, all of us traditionalists referred to them as muzzleloaders for people who don't want to be muzzleloaders. They were a work around for states with bad laws and for people who wanted to extend their season and shoot at stuff farther away than they should. Stainless, synthetic, 209 primed, saboted jacketed bullets, scoped... Just a modern rifle that happens to load from the muzzle. All mine are iron sighted and made with half a dead tree tacked onto them. I hope I didn't offend anyone, but I'm sure I did. Muzzleloading is about tradition for me, I live in a state where true, modern high powered rifles are legal and I enjoy them as well, for what they are.

 

[toytruck]

To be honest I bought my first ML in 1993 a TC Renegade .54, still have it. VA didn't have a specific ML season till that year I believe, no scopes. Before that it was archery, no crossbows without a Dr. excuse. Firearms season was last two weeks of November. I killed my first ever ML buck with that Renegade and was hooked from then on. I got into the TC brand of .54 FireHawk, .32 Cherokee, .45/.50 Encore and another .50/.12ga. System One. I never was totally happy with them, till I tried a White .451 Super 91. Bought another Super 91 in .504 and a White Thunder shotgun. Sold all the TC's except the Renegade. Last March I bought an Omega, still haven't made it to the range. Only had three Whites I sold, both Bison's to fund upgrades for my grandsons to Model 97's and a Whitetail .410. VA didn't allow them in ML seasons then.
VA. has come a long way since those first ML seasons. Now scopes are allowed, .410 caliber is allowed, you can kill two deer a day instead of one, you can kill two bucks during ML seasons instead of one and Sunday hunting is now allowed and we have a three week late ML season, last two weeks of December-first week of January. Wish they had done all that 40 years ago!!
The first two weeks of November is prime rut time here and I have taken my share of deer with my muzzleloaders with them. Still my favorite time of year!

 

[bronko220002]

It was way back in 1972 when my cousin's dad bought him a .45 cal T/C Hawken flintlock for Christmas. We took it out later to a local striping pit with all the necessary gear. He couldn't hit anything with it and offer me a try. It was love at first sight. At 50 yards I was punching that little patched ball in and around the black dot colored on the paper plate.
We would take it out occasionally and usually with the same result. In '74 PA opened up its first primitive muzzleloader season. I asked if I could borrow his rifle as he had already taken a buck with his '06 earlier in the year (back then you could only shoot 1 deer a year in PA - period.) That first morning I recall sitting in a foot of newly fallen snow and not long after first light I watched a small 6 point buck angling up toward me. I cocked the hammer on the Hawken and when he was broadside head down at 25 yards I settled the front bead behind his front shoulder and pulled set the trigger. At the click he threw his head up and looked at me. I touched off the front trigger got the KA BOOM and a large cloud of white smoke. When the smoke cleared and I didn't see a him lying there I walked up to where he was standing and there was halo of hair so I knew I hit him. Looked ahead at his tracks and saw a couple spots of blood in the snow. I reloaded the rifle and slowly started following the tracks and the sparse blood trail. After about 50-60 yards I looked ahead and saw the familiar brown shape of a deer lying dead in the snow. The ball entered right where I was aiming taking out both lungs.That was the beginning of my love for muzleloaders and muzzleloader hunting.

 

[GBG]

I was always fascinated by how my grandparents (born in 1890s) lived and what they did in their youth. They also told me about the firsthand accounts their parents (born in early 1870s) and grandparents (born 1850s) had shared about their youth. I would sit or work and listen as long as my grandparents could talk.

In the 4th grade our American History book contained a true story of the Minutemen giving a demonstration of what longrifles could do. They drove 5'-6' wrist size stakes in the ground and from 100 paces systematically turned them into splinters and broken pieces. That description and the accompanying illustrations have been clear in my mind ever since.

A little later my maternal grandfather told me that as a young boy, a Civil War veteran owned and lived on the farm adjacent to the land my grandfather's family was renting and farming (sharecroppers). The elderly neighbor still had "some kind of long, heavy musket that you had to tamp powder and shot down from the muzzle" that he had brought home from the war. After my grandfather recounted watching the old man use a double load of shot to bring down a chicken hawk that several farmers had failed to kill with their modern breechloading shotguns, I became fascinated by MLs and read everything I could find about them - which was practically nothing in rural AL.

When I came across a DGW catalog and saw that CVA had just started offering a "longrifle kit" I worked all summer cutting grass (in my spare time after working on the family farm) and saved up $74. I bought and roughly assembled the .45 1:66 rifle kit, then followed sometime later with their .45 Kentucky pistol kit. Having no mentors or being able to afford any more information than CVA's instructions, I knew nothing about twist rates and ignorantly ordered a 250 grain .45 Mini mold that I still have. Getting that combination to shoot accurately enough to kill crows out of our cornfields at close range, along with being a history of science and technology addict, started a learning process and love of MLs that continues to this day.

I'm interested in every kind of ML, from hand gonnes to today's smokeless rifles that outclass any similar caliber cartridge gun. I view the 120 odd years from Appomattox to Tony Knight as just an unfortunate delay in the continued development of MLs - that would undoubtedly have taken place if brass cartridges had turned out to be as impractical as caseless ammunition.

 

[DKasprzak]

The first deer hunt I can recall, I was 6 years old. My father put me in a low tree stand and gave me his JC Higgins 12 ga pump. I’ll never know for certain, but I believe the gun was unloaded, as at that time the gun was as long as I was tall and the recoil most likely would have pushed me right out of that tree stand. Fast forward six years, I received a Marlin 30-30 with 4X scope as a Christmas present. I took several deer with that gun but, unfortunately I no longer have it. Then, at the age of sixteen I worked all summer “fixing flats and changing oil” at a local gas station along with mowing the neighbors yard to pay for a Remington .270 700 BDL with a Redfield Widefield 3x9. I have no true idea about how many deer I have taken with that gun but I remember the last.

Hunting in the Texas Hill Country I shot a nice 8 point at approximately 200 yards and a feeling came over me that the challenge was lost. That was 43 years ago, I still have the Remington and enjoy handling and looking at it, but have never shot it since. Maybe someday I will again.

Like many others who watched Jeremiah Johnson I caught the bug and just had to have a “sure ‘nuf Hawken”. In 1984 I purchased a TC Hawken .50 kit and spent the summer building it, then learning how to get something that resembled accuracy with it. Just like the last deer shot with the Remington, I remember the first deer I took with the Hawken during the 1984 season. A little spike shot at 25 or so yards, I can close my eyes and replay that scene still today. I’ve been hooked on that gun ever since.

I’ve never felt the need to have another muzzleloader other than a Traditions Trapper pistol I built from a kit this year to backup the TC Hawken. What was it that hooked me on muzzleloaders? The anticipation while loading the gun in preparation for a hunt. Waiting and waiting for the perfect shot to present itself. Knowing that if I do my part, the gun is more than capable of doing its part. As I am about to squeeze off the shot, the little prayer of “please let the ball fly true.” And, if the shot is never taken, enjoying the serenity of the woods.

Then there is also the fun of outshooting guys at the public range who are shooting scoped centerfire rifles, or letting a kid take a shot and seeing the smile after the shot. And yes, there is a lot of work in keeping these guns clean and functioning but that is all part of the experience.

Just a few of the reasons I shoot and hunt with my Hawken and now the Trapper. It’s that little bit of uncertainty that all will go as planned when I squeeze the trigger that that turns to a feeling of accomplishment when everything works.

 

[MrTom]

I put together a CVA kit in the early 80's and took a doe with it the first fall. .45 caliber. All I shot were round balls with it, but it did the trick. I sold it the following year and bought a .54 cal Renegade. Then came the Winchester bolt muzzy.

 

[CharlieTN]

It was way back in 1972 when my cousin's dad bought him a .45 cal T/C Hawken flintlock for Christmas. We took it out later to a local striping pit with all the necessary gear. He couldn't hit anything with it and offer me a try. It was love at first sight. At 50 yards I was punching that little patched ball in and around the black dot colored on the paper plate.
We would take it out occasionally and usually with the same result. In '74 PA opened up its first primitive muzzleloader season. I asked if I could borrow his rifle as he had already taken a buck with his '06 earlier in the year (back then you could only shoot 1 deer a year in PA - period.) That first morning I recall sitting in a foot of newly fallen snow and not long after first light I watched a small 6 point buck angling up toward me. I cocked the hammer on the Hawken and when he was broadside head down at 25 yards I settled the front bead behind his front shoulder and pulled set the trigger. At the click he threw his head up and looked at me. I touched off the front trigger got the KA BOOM and a large cloud of white smoke. When the smoke cleared and I didn't see a him lying there I walked up to where he was standing and there was halo of hair so I knew I hit him. Looked ahead at his tracks and saw a couple spots of blood in the snow. I reloaded the rifle and slowly started following the tracks and the sparse blood trail. After about 50-60 yards I looked ahead and saw the familiar brown shape of a deer lying dead in the snow. The ball entered right where I was aiming taking out both lungs.That was the beginning of my love for muzleloaders and muzzleloader hunting.

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Renegadehunter]

I like hunting with short range weapons. I have shot compound bows since my teens, for some reason I waited until I was 38 or so (I'm now 49) before ever shooting a caplock muzzleloader. Absolutely fell in love with it. I solely like caplocks and shooting PRB. There's a bit of interest in conicals but not much.
Zero interest in a flintlock or an inline. Zero interest in anything but "real" BP. Zero interest in sabots.
My weird brain has a small niche it likes I guess.
I like the slowed down process and the limit on the range I can shoot an animal. I like having to get closer. I like using open sights. I like feeling kind of "old-timey". I like making some of my own items to use, especially antler. I like the smell and cloud BP produces.

 

[Confederate rifleman]

Had to sell my breechloader in '98, to get my musket ( a 1853 Enfield) so's I could go shoot Yankees.
On weekends.
Got 4 deer with her, and was properly hooked!
Dabbled in breechloaders now and then, but am back to exclusively muzzleloader.
I went from sidelock, to Omega, but settled on the T/C Firehawk as my primary rifle. She has EARNED the spot.
I have more sidelocks than inlines and more flintlocks than percussion.
If I have to pour powder and ram, I'm in!
Some side benifits: off paper, under the radar, completely non threatening ( except the Firehawk to snobby sidelockers), RIDICULOUSLY effective too.
More fun than a human being should be allowed to have...

 

[idahoron]

When I was about 10, my dad was having me shoot rock Chucks on our farm. I was using a very under powered air rifle. My dad bought me a 54 cal CVA side lock. I don't recall what model it was. I used it to shoot chucks and rabbits on the desert next to the farm. That was about 1975.
That CVA wasn't as effective as my dad wanted so it was traded for a single shot 22lr.
I got another ML, an inline in the 1990's.
Idaho changed its laws and I wanted a rifle that would allow me to take advantage of the awesome seasons.
I had some magazines that had the Whitworth rifle in them.
I wanted to build a rifle to allow longer range and effectiveness.
My first Hot Rod was put together. About 5 years later I think. I dreamed up The paper patched Lee 500S&W.
The rest is, as they say history.

 

[TiggerLueb]

MrTom, thanks for starting this discussion I have enjoyed reading the stories from others on this forum. Here’s is the reason for addiction to muzzleloader firearms.

I started my whitetail hunting career with archery tackle. It was difficult for my dad and I to get permission to hunt during the firearms season. My freshman year of college I impressed a lot of friends and family by harvesting my first buck.(1981)

I made a great buy on a Thompson Center Contender pistol with .22lr and 30-30 barrels. I used a Lee hand loader for my 30-30 hunting loads and harvested deer on college friends farm. I enjoyed the idea that you have one shot and you better make it count. I finally bought a Savage 110 in 30-06 because of pear pressure from friends. It is a wonderful rifle that my hunting partner now owns and uses every season.

In 1989 I was fortunate to meet my love of my life to whom I am still married to and she bought me a T/C Renegade kit. It’s probably really similar to what others started with. I have yet to harvest a deer with it but I get it out annually to feed it some PRB. It enjoys them a side order of 70 grains of black powder. I am more proficient with it after adding a tang mounted peep sight.

I sold my friend the Savage so that I could purchase a T/C Encore in 30-06 and Super 209X45. I really appreciate the simplicity of the Encore action, the trigger which makes this front stuffer accurate. I am sure why it is but the average distance for deer harvested with the .45 is probably 30-40% further than the 30-06 barrel. Our late season muzzle loader hunting is almost 100 yard shots or further.

In the past 3/4 years I have bought a 2 CVAs in .45 because I can’t pass up $125 deals. I have harvested deer with both rifles and it is nice to have a spare or two around for others to use. The T/C Renegade still has a special place in my heart!

 

[user 20307]

When I was a young boy I would see the neighbor dressed in buckskins every November packing his vehicle for his mule deer hunt. I was intrigued as the bucks he brought home were on the large side and antlers were strategically placed around his yard. Then I saw the movie “Jeremiah Johnson” and I was hooked on the whole mountain man way of living. All the kids in the neighborhood were hooked as well. Dreaming of living in the mountains and acting things out as we roamed the fields with our air rifles. One of my neighbor friends started hunting with a Lyman Great Plains 54 and was telling stories of big bucks and the mountain man feel of it all. I bought me a Lyman Great Plains 54 and learned in a quick way that there was more to this than pull the trigger. Being frustrated I sold the rifle and bought a Thompson Grey Hawk 50. I went deer hunting several years but never saw a Buck. During the rut? Disappointed again I sold the Thompson. When my boys were old enough to hunt I took them along on a rifle mule deer hunt. In my state the rifle hunt is like those comicall drawing’s of all the hunters camped all over and shooting at deer running through camp. This excursion was no different bullets flying over head, so close you could hear them tumbling. When the shooting stopped my son asked me “is this what deer hunting is?” I put the rifle away and bought a Knight Bighorn 50 and didn’t look back. Reading and practicing in my free time. I’ve shot more and bigger deer with my muzzle loader. The season was changed to the fall of the year. Great time to be out! Fall colors, warm weather, nice where I live. Soon my son and I were having a great time in the outdoors. Each of us successfull nearly every season. No more bullets tumbling over head and very few hunters. Felt like we were really hunting. Love the smoke, the feel, the whole ambiance of it all! And I taught my boys how to hunt instead of dodge bullets.

 

[Steelheader323]

Being from southern Michigan shotguns and muzzleloaders were all we could use for deer hunting..first gun was an h&r 20 gauge single shot..first muzzleloader was a cva variant of the Kentucky long rifle in .45 caliber..round balls with 70 grains of black was death too a lot of whitetail when I was growing up..in fact my first deer was with that old rifle. I had missed a nice basket rack 8 pt the week prior to muzzlelaoder season with that 20 gauge..I spent days practicing with that cva sidelock and had it where I could hit at apple at 60 paces..was good enough for
Whitetail in the woods..on the last day of muzzleloader season I took a doe at 80 yards..first deer ever when I was 11…and that’s one reason I’m hooked on muzzleloaders. Now I own over 2 dozen both sidelock and in-line..we are now allowed to use straight wall cartridge rifles such as 450bm and 350 legend, .44 mag…I do own both 450 and 350 rifles..but my muzzleloaders are cheaper to feed And have just as much knockdown powder if not More

 

[jd24.5.48]

Like most here I started out with a smooth bore shotgun and then with a compound bow. If I remember it was 1995 and my dad received a Cva sidelock for Christmas and asked me to help him get it sighted in. The following week he went out and bought another one so I could shoot with him. We both harvested deer with em that deer season. I've been hooked every since 95! Got both my brothers into it and that's pretty much all we use for deer hunting anymore!

 

[bronko220002]

My fondness for muzzleloaders came way back in about '71 when my uncle bought my cousin a .45 cal T/C Hawken flintlock for Christmas along with all the accessories. A couple days later we went out to shoot it after reading the manual. This was all new to us. Well it turned out he couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with it but boy could I. At 50 yards I was putting PRBs in and around the 3" bull. I fell in love with the smoke and nostalgia of the flinter.
The following year my cousin tagged out during rifle season with his 30-06 and I asked if I could borrow his flintlock for the then new PA late primitive season hunt. I shot a nice fat little 6 pt that first morning and fell in love with muzzleloaders ever since. I have 5 inlines and 4 sidelocks presently and one Encore .50 cal pistol.

 

[CatamountRob]

I started down the long dark path so that I could hunt deer. It was in the mid 80’s, I don’t remember if it was so I could hunt in VT or because I wanted to go to MD but it was one or the other. My uncle gave me a .45 Seneca that he had but had never shot. I knew nothing about them and didn’t know anyone to ask so I started reading. I bought some Pyrodex, caps, bullets and various accessories and headed for the range. I got that sighted in and a few weeks later ordered a White Mtn Carbine which I eventually grew to hate. I went to MD and killed a couple deer, one with each rifle and I’ve been at it ever since. My first in-line was a .45 Black Diamond.
I couldn’t tell you how many muzzleloaders I have these days but it’s over 20.

 

[brad502a]

I started down the long dark path so that I could hunt deer. It was in the mid 80’s, I don’t remember if it was so I could hunt in VT or because I wanted to go to MD but it was one or the other. My uncle gave me a .45 Seneca that he had but had never shot. I knew nothing about them and didn’t know anyone to ask so I started reading. I bought some Pyrodex, caps, bullets and various accessories and headed for the range. I got that sighted in and a few weeks later ordered a White Mtn Carbine which I eventually grew to hate. I went to MD and killed a couple deer, one with each rifle and I’ve been at it ever since. My first in-line was a .45 Black Diamond.
I couldn’t tell you how many muzzleloaders I have these days but it’s over 20.

why hating the white mountain carbine.

 

[CatamountRob]

why hating the white mountain carbine.

Because the sights are really coarse and the trigger sucked. There was so much creep in the trigger you had to start pulling it and hope a deer showed up when it went off.

 

[brad502a]

but besides that what was the problem?

 

[Hatchet Jack]

I grew up in the Bronx until I was 14 years old. No one in my family ever hunted. No one in my family even owned a gun. My father was born in the Bronx and died in the Bronx. As a kid I could not stand living in New York City. At age 10 (1972), I saw the movie Jeremiah Johnson. It was a big influence on me as a kid. It is still one of my favorite movies.
My mother died about the time I was starting high school. My older sister moved us to Maryland. In Maryland I befriended some classmates who hunted. They showed me the ropes and the rest is history.
As far as answering the question ''so why a muzzleloader?'' I don't know why. I just love owning them, shooting them and hunting with them. There is just something about them that I can't explain.