Anyone use a muzzleloader year-round?

[goon]

I am looking at the possiblility of building a 20 gauge flintlock fowler. What I am thinking is that you could use the gun for any hunting season in my state (PA). It would work for small game with shot, and regular big game as well as the muzzleloader seasons with a round ball and some practice. I know that I would be giving up some range and reliablity to everyone with a more modern gun, but I think that the experience that comes with using the same gun all year would make up for some of that.
Anyone ever try anything like this?

 

[Edgeofthewoods]

I use a .50 cal Shennendoa for most hunts year round here except for shotgun only hints. For pistol hunting I pack a New Model Army Remington in .44. I get a few looks when I show up with the old charcol burner but that changes when my boys and I are loading up winter meat. Here in New Mexico the ML hunt is in September and it is HOT. so we just wait for the Novemeber rifle hunts to pack the freezer. Sure I am limted to 100 yards but anything within 100 yards will be dropped by a .50 cal round ball!

Chuck

 

[Mercerlake]

You won't give up much to a modern shotgun other than time required to reload. I use an old Dixie Arms 10 ga. double for birds, works just fine in the rain when I'm grouse hunting. A single barrel is much safer to reload. With a double gun you better pull the unfired cap, as you will be working over the muzzle. Also suggest placing the ram-rod in the unfired barrel as you are recharging the fired barrel so you don't end up with a doubled load in one barrel, done that once. Teaches you to NOT get distracted! I occasionally shoot Sporting Clays, and do as well with the muzzle-loader as I do with a modern shotgun.
A patched round ball in the smooth bore works a little better than an unpatched ball, but without sights making a clean shot beyond 25 yds is pretty iffy.
If you are building your own, get two barrels,one smooth and one rifled then switch them as needed for whatever you are hunting that particular day. I have a Kodiak .72 cal double rifle and a 10 ga double shotgun, the barrels and stocks all interchange. I have a .62 rifle/ 20 bore with a very slow twist (1:144"), and it does double duty as a rifle or a shotgun with 20 ga AA wads and an overshot wad.
Bp puts the "hunt" back in huntng, go have a bunch of fun.

 

[sundance44s]

Mercer i was thinking the same thing 2 54cal barrels one rifle one smoothie for the scattergun // gonna buy a drop in smoothie for my Thompson flinter too ..

 

[MCgunner]

I had thought about shotgun BP, but it's not practical, I'm afraid, with the steel shot law. That's not to mention the thought of standing knee deep in a pot hole and trying to reload. Now, throw in a typical winter drizzle on a cold ducky day. No thanks, the Mossberg works fine.

 

[smokemaker]

I use a Knight shotgun for turkeys, a variety of ML's for deer, and am trying to buy a T/C PA hunter with a .32 barrel along with the .50. So, yeah, I use ML's throughout the year.

 

[frosty]

Year Round Muzzleloader

If you are a traditionalist, a fowler or a trade gun is an exellent choice! Why, you might ask? I have been building guns for around 25 years or so, and in my tests, smooth bore guns will shoot the correct patch and ball combination as good as a rifled barrel out to around 60 yds or so...Then, you can shoot shot in these barrels, also. Its just a good all-around gun, and most of those fowlers are 20 gauge, which would use a good size ball

 

[Tinker2]

Goon

I use to hunt with a 20 ga. Flint lock musket that I put
together. I put it together as my main hunting gun.
I loved it. Worked great.



Second from the left.


Tinker2

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I can reload and cap my 20 ga. SxS @ 20 seconds per barrel. The trick is you pre-load the powder in a paper cartridge made of heavy bond paper in your desired load, and a pre-loaded paper cartridge of newsprint with your shot. Tear open the powder, pour, then ram the heavy paper down for your wad, follow it with the paper-shot cartridge, cap and you're done.

Works fine in a single barrel fowler too.

Why not use Bismuth instead of steel shotm for waterfowl?

As for other game the patched round ball in .530 drops deer without problems.

LD

 

[ribbonstone]

Used a SXS 10ga. persusion year round for the last few years...with the exception of non-decoyed ducks, haven't felt the percusion SXS was a handicap at all. Decoyed ducks, squirrels, rabbits, doves, and two nutria.

(the nutria were warms-ups for deep swamp deer hunt which never happened, ranges are real short. Figured out which barrel was nearest to "on" with a patched .735" ball, and loaded the other barrel with OOO buck).

Shot balsitics aren't bad...pretty much the same as mon-magnum.