Quote:
Originally posted by tabs
Where is Jeff higgins when U need him...
Muzzleloaders are alot of fun to shoot. The recoil is more of push than a jolt. Its a slow ritualistic process to reload the gun, you might shoot 25 rounds in an afternoon. Its relaxing, U talk to people, people are always interested in what your shooting. Accuracy is just as good in a ML as a Centerfire rifle.
There are 2 main types of weapons Military and commercial. Generally the Military guns are going to be in the larger calibers, while the hunting/target types are going to be smaller.
I shoot orginal as well as replicas.
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I'm right here, tabs. Beautiful rifle, and nice job on putting it together.
I used to love building the muzzle loader kits. I would generally build one every winter just for something to do. Yes, the level of work required to complete one varies tremendously with the manufacturer. Some have finished barrels and furniture, with fully inletted and shaped stocks. Others have raw castings, rough machined barrels, and a block of wood.
I find shooting black powder to be infinitely more pleasurable and relaxing than modern smokeless. Like tabs says, a day spent with a muzzle loader is spent at a much more liesurely pace, and a great deal of it is spent socializing. On top of that, it teaches you to really shoot. Every shot is near and dear to your heart, because it takes so long to prepare for the next one. Flintlocks teach attention to detail and follow-through like no other weapon. Gauranteed, a summer spent with one will make you a better shot.
The clean-up is not nearly so daunting as many of you think. Also, the change to some modern black powder substitute does not change the end-of-day clean-up proceedure one little bit. The substitutes allow you to shoot without the between shots bore swabbing, but that is about it. If your load is working properly with black powder, even that is less of an issue. I find original black powder to be more accurate and consistant than any of the substitutes anyway. Even with this sooty old stuff, I will have my muzzle loader, breach loader, or even revolver cleaned up faster than any of you can clean your smokeless centerfires. The revolvers, both cap'n'ball and .45 Colt or .44-40, are simply disassembled in a tupperware tub full of hot water and scrubbed with a toothbrush. I can do it in less than ten minutes and have it reassembled and oiled. Black powder fouling is not nearly as tenacious as smokeless and dissolves readily in plain old water.
While most of my hunting has been done with muzzle loaders from traditional round ball throwers to slug guns (even duck and goose hunting with a 10 guage side-byside front stuffer), my current black powder interests lie in target shooting with the breach loaders. Caliber of choice is .45, with the 2.1" and 2.6" chambers (aka .45-70 and .45-100). Locally we are shooting mid-range (500 and 600 yard) matches, with occasional long range (1,000 yard) events. These rifles, with lead bullets and black powder, will shoot scores in the high 90's on the standard NRA high power targets at those ranges. Iron sights only; no scopes allowed.
We have a couple of Canadians and a couple of Oregonians that used to regularly shoot muzzle loaders with us. They were very competitive, shooting Parker-Hale Witworth and Rigby .45 caliber target rifles. I haven't seen these guys at a match in a few years, but make no mistake, the front-stuffers are fully up to the task. Their only real drawback that I could see was the need to break position to re-load.
Anyway, this stuff is a lot of fun. In a different way than modern smokeless, which I also enjoy, but none the less a great deal of fun. Don't let the clean-up, supposed innaccuracy, or lack of power dissuade you from trying this. Oh, and one last thing - for God's sake, stay the hell away from those modern stainless steel, plastic stocked, Pyrodex pellet/saboted pistol bullet shooting abominations. They ain't the real deal. And always remember the immortal words of Steve Garbe, "smokeless powder is a passing fad".
