Looking for to buy a muzzleloader ?

[colbysdad]

Now that I'm retired and have some extra time, I would like to try deer hunting with a muzzleloader. I just came back from visiting our local gun shops. Now, I'am not sure what to buy. Some tell me a 50 cal , others tell me a 54 cal. Still others try and sell me stuff I never heard of. My question is, whats good and whats not...Thanks for all the help.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

If a .50 cal with 100 grains of powder won't kill it, I aint hunting it.
Plus, if you buy a .50 caliber, any local mom and pop store will carry supplies for it. The .45s and .54s, not so much. They are all fine for deer. Go with the one you can get components for.

 

[rori]

54cal and a very good rifle is the Lyman Great Plains Hunter. In muzzleloading the bigger the ball the farther it will go.

 

[SleazyRider]

I've gotten many deer with my .50 caliber percussion Thompson Center Hawken, all of which were taken using a round ball. Several years ago, I noticed that I couldn't find an exit wound, nor could I find he round ball in the deer. Turns out that it hit a rib on the way in, and fragmented into pieces that I found nder the skin on the opposite side, in other words, it absorbed all the energy. A devastating round, in my estimation.

Go with a flintlock to double the fun!

 

[jmstevens2]

The first question is, modern inline, or traditional cap and ball or flintlock? I have a modern inline Knight Bighorn .50 cal with a 3.5-9 lighted reticle truglo scope. It is good to 300+ yards for deer. I won't go over about 200 yards though. Don't trust my skill beyond that. In a bench position I can get 4" groups at 300 yards.

 

[303tom]

I agree with SleazyRider, if you really want to hunt with a front stuffer get a Side Lock if you want to experience the Primitive Hunt, but if you just want to shoot BP, get a in-line (NOT) LOL What I am saying is if you really want to experience Black Powder get a Side Lock be it a Percussion, Flint, or Match Lock there is nothing like it.

 

[arcticap]

There's some traditional sidelocks that come drilled & tapped for scope mounting.
Conversely, a modern inline rifle that uses 209 shotgun primers can be loaded with bore size conicals and used for hunting with open sights.
What kind of sights do you want to use, a scope or open sights (fiber optic or peep)?
At about how far of a distance do you want to be able to reliably kill a deer?
Do you prefer to be able to hunt/target shoot with patched round balls, bore size conical bullets or jacketed hollow point bullets that load together with plastic sabots?
Every type of muzzle loader has its limitations and usefulness which is often based on the twist rate of the barrel.
Then the next question would be how much do you want to spend for the rifle?
Understand that accessories, powder and ammo can easily cost as much as $100 extra in addition to the price of the gun.
And some gun packages may include a scope & mount while others won't, which could otherwise be another extra expense.
Virtually every gun model that's currently made today works well for what it's designed to do.
So an important question to answer for us is what are your expectations for hunting and recreational shooting with it?
And also, are you willing to learn about how the newer inline muzzle loaders work in order to benefit from the advantages that they can provide?
They do shoot much farther but the ammo and newest powder tends to be more expensive, even though some of the base model inline rifles are very affordable.

 

[plateshooter]

Retirement and black powder is a wonderful combination. There is a lot out there to choose from. If there is a black powder club near you, I would suggest stopping by and I am sure the guys will show you the choices and options available. We have very few ranges around here where a person can shoot center fire rifles, but there are muzzle loading clubs all over the area. Enjoy the new addiction.

 

[mustanger]

My first is .54 traditional. Flints can be more interesting ( fun ), but take more fussing, and care. If want or need to use a scope, go in-line. The flash from the cap or pan, can get on your optics. Look at the accessories and ball or conical, that are available in your area, first. Everything except .50 cal. seem to be getting fased out. Stuff for the flintlocks are not easy to find either. I accidently bought a .54 cal. flinlock ( a happy little accident by the way). And finding stuff for it is a hunt all over buy what you can where you can situation for me. I have even driven to Scheels, and Gander Mountain in St. Cloud, MN. ( 130 miles one way), looked online, Cabelas, Gander Mountain, Scheels. I did find all that I needed, and stocked up. Mail order here, long drive there. Worth it mind you, just forwarning. I have not found, 4F priming powder, but 3F works. Flints like real black powder, they don't really care for the substitutes. This has come from my experiences, and are not just opinion. Both my Cabelas Flintlock and my Lyman Deerstalker are made by Investarms, Italy. Both in .54, Both good guns. By the way, I would never knock the .50 cals. Nore would I turn one down. lol. The best advice I can think of is check the availability of suplies first, before you descide caliber. And think about ease of use, and how much you want to do. If you are going to scope it then inline, if not then traditional. Just my thoughts, I am deffinately no expert.

 

[SleazyRider]

Retirement and black powder is a wonderful combination.

Truer words have never been spoken neither on THR nor elsewhere! Amen!

 

[andrewstorm]

muzzleloader?

One word,omega 3 777 pellets a 250 gr hornady sabot,good cleans out to 220 yards on deer or bear or boar,the new z5 model is under 300.00 at walmarts.tack driving accuracy.but not very olde timey,

 

[alsask]

When a person says muzzleloader, in my mind I allways see a sidelock! I keep forgeting about the inlines out there even though they obviously must perform well.

I have Lyman .54's and as was noted balls are not as common for the .54 as they are for the .50, but that being said, with muzzleloaded patched round balls bigger is actually better. The .50 will kill anything on the continent and a friend of mine took 2 deer and a moose with a .45 patched round ball.

All my rifle are flintlocks but if you are carefull with keeping the touch hole clean they allways go off. I would choose the .54 unless you want to use saboted bullets.

 

[CraigC]

My Lyman .54 GPR is a fine rifle and a tackdriver. IMHO, .54cal balls are not at all hard to find, if you know where to look. No, they're not at Walmart next to the el cheapo $100 inline monstrosities but they're procured elsewhere easily enough. I get mine from Midway, Speer or Hornady, simple.

 

[mustanger]

Don't have to worry about the Super Walmart here. The guy in sporting goods, said they were told to ship everything back, and haven't been restocked since. This was a couple years ago. Nothing for muzzleloaders, no guns, very few smokeless suplies. They do have a couple BB guns, and a paint ball gun yet. I had to buy my .54 balls and conicals online from Cabelas. The Runnings store here does carry some .50 cal. stuff. The sportings goods store here carries plenty of gun stuff. But they have trimmed down to .50 cal. in the BP area. Several in-line guns, no traditional. Cabelas online catalog has sabots for the .54 , I think Gander does too.

 

[Pancho]

CraigC, you're cheatin cause living in west Tenn. you can't be too far from Dixie firearms.
Seriously, it's hard to beat the variety and availability of 50 cal. stuff. I live near Cincinnati and except for a Bass Pro Shop there is not much for the muzzleloader for a 100 mile radius.

 

[CraigC]

I live within driving distance and go there at least once a year but it's cheaper to pay shipping than gas for the 200mile round trip. Plus almost 10% sales tax.

 

[frontiergander]

.54cal Lyman great plains rifle or the Trade rifle

 

[plateshooter]

Pancho, if you ever get up around Lodi Ohio,stop in at the Log Cabin Shop. They will have everything you need. You can buy almost any size round balls, as well as the moulds to cast them yourself if you choose. I am fortunate to live close by and visit there often. The Kindigs wrote the books on traditional muzzle loaders. They also have a museum with tons of civil war stuff and rifles from as far back as rifles were out there. They do carry some inline rifles as well.


http://www.logcabinshop.com/

 

[giggitygiggity]

Thompson Center Hawken .50cal. The overwhelming majority of the guys I hunt with use them as well.

Get round balls, prelubed patches and use 80grains of FFFg in the barrel and 3 taps of FFFFg in the pan and you'll be set. We've killed tons of deer with ours.