Pre inline days......... Any flinters or PA pilgrimers here......

[sailinghudson25]

How has inline muzzleloaders increased the number of people doing late season muzzleloading? Or were roughly the same number of people hunting before them. I know they've been around for about 20 years now...

Also, any old school shooters here. I am in the middle of building my 1st flintlock. An 45 cal flintlock Early Virginia kit dressed in iron. I jumped the gun a bit and bought my next gun at a big muzzleloading fair in PA. A maple stock blank, a 41" 54 cal swamped barrel, a big D profile, all the trimmings in rough cast brass, and a left hand large siler lock.

Hopefully, the 45 cal will be done by December. Sure would be nice to pop a deer in PA this January with it. Besides early bear, all my big game will be flintlock only. I got a 54 cal lyman great plains flinter. Sure have a ton of fun with it on those woodswalk shoots.

[wildcat junkie]

For several years when I lived in Indiana all I hunted with was muzzleloaders. .36 cal flint for squirrel, 12ga dbl barrel for pheasants & rabbits, 54 cal flint for deer with a 54 cal cap gun for back-up if it was raining HARD. Also killed a few squirrel & rabbits W/my 45 cal Rugar Old Army percussion revolver.

[Lawdwaz]

Yes, I've hunted with a flintlock before but it has been (I could probably check and give an accurate year if I grabbed my journal) quite a few years.  I'd guess about 2001 or 2002 since I hunted with it.  I killed a doe in a blinding snowstorm in the late season on a hunt in Clarence, point blank shot-head on.  Sweet..........

 

I started out using a flintlock in about 1985.  My late friend Wally talked me into buying one from his buddy, a T/C Hawken .50 cal with all the accoutrements for $200

 

We had lots of fun shooting them in his backyard in those days.  The smoke really hung in the air some days, Lets see; 4F for the pan and 3F in the barrel?  Once again, I'd have to get into my notes for all the pertinent numbers.

 

We hunted PA almost exclusively in those days.  I killed a handful of doe with it during the late season, mostly in McKean County.  In NYS I think I only killed one or two.......

 

We used (by law in PA) patched round balls and they shot OK, considering it was open sights too.  I have some Maxi Bullets but never used them in NYS, just the round balls.  Cleaning those guns is quite a chore with that sooty black powder. 

 

I'd surely love to see a late season flintlock only hunt for doe here in NYS but highly doubt that'll ever happen!

[G-Man]

Not a flint er but still use my side locks, Esp my 50cal home built kentucky, long and heavy it is a tack driver

[wildcat junkie]

 

 

I started out using a flintlock in about 1985.  My late friend Wally talked me into buying one from his buddy, a T/C Hawken .50 cal with all the accoutrements for $200

 

We had lots of fun shooting them in his backyard in those days.  The smoke really hung in the air some days, Lets see; 4F for the pan and 3F in the barrel?  Once again, I'd have to get into my notes for all the pertinent numbers.

 

 

We used (by law in PA) patched round balls and they shot OK, considering it was open sights too.  I have some Maxi Bullets but never used them in NYS, just the round balls.  Cleaning those guns is quite a chore with that sooty black powder. 

 

I'd surely love to see a late season flintlock only hunt for doe here in NYS but highly doubt that'll ever happen!

It's kind of unfortunate that the TC Hawken was the most popular traditional muzzleloader in the '70s & '80s. The rifling was 1 in 48" & was very shallow @ .004" similar to what a CF rifle shooting jacketed bullets . This was a "compromise" twist designed to work with either patched round balls or the Maxi-ball & other conicals. Unfortunately, although it did a passable job with either, it did not do a really good job with either and it tended to foul very quickly.

 

The CVA Mountain Rifle & the .54/.58 version the "Big Bore" Mountain Rifle had a much more appropriate round ball twist of around 1 in 66" with rifling that was over .010" deep. Unfortunately, these rifles never had the popularity of the TC Hawken.

 

In the mid '80 I started building rifles from the slab with slow twist deep rifled barrels. I could shoot 20-30 rounds in competition using a water based patch lube or plain old spit. Only when the breech face started to build up carbon would it be necessary to use a breech scraper, usually between relays.

 

When used with open sights, as is appropriate IMO for "muzzleloaders", the modern inline has no real advantage over a properly designed traditional piece including accuracy as well as ease & speed of loading when traditional speed loading techniques are employed. 

[Buckstopshere]

I built a .54 cal. flintlock from the CVA kit around 1978. And hunted with it many years in Pa. and NY in preference to shotguns. It did cost me a monster buck in a snowstorm once...but I always loved shooting it. (Clump of snow fell on the pan and frizzen.) Killed a 6 point at 165 yards with a 436 grain maxiball during shotgun season in NY. But had to use the patched ball in Pa. Shot a bear up in Northern Ontario with it back when we used to always go up there and bait bears in the spring, during the 1980s.  After shooting the bear, I remember trying to reload and in my excitement poured so much black FFF powder on myself, I was almost afraid to touch off another shot. I'd catch on fire...lol.

[sbuff]

I have a 1984 kit built TC renegade, but now I just use in lines.I use an in line during the regular season too

[Lawdwaz]

Shot a bear up in Northern Ontario with it back when we used to always go up there and bait bears in the spring, during the 1980s.  After shooting the bear, I remember trying to reload and in my excitement poured so much black FFF powder on myself, I was almost afraid to touch off another shot. I'd catch on fire...lol.

 

HA! That reminds me of a good story............(very true also!)

 

One time in PA I had a misfire after my pan powder got a dump of snow from an overhanging pine bough.  It was hopeless so I headed back to the truck to get it sorted out.  I used my little touch hole pin to clean out the wet stuff as best I could.  I dumped a half of pan of 4F in, pulled the hammer back and then yerked on the set trigger.  Well..............at the time I was using an old cigar tube to house my pan powder and the stopper was in my mouth, the open tube in my right hand.  

 

Yup, you guessed it, a spark jumped INTO the tube and fizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz wuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and KBam the tube shot out of my hand and went sailing down the hardpacked, icy forest service road!!  It burned my fingerless wool gloves and scared the B Jesus out of me.

 

I don't recall if the pan powder fired up or not............

 

Just another "you had to be there story"!

[sailinghudson25]

HA! That reminds me of a good story............(very true also!)

 

One time in PA I had a misfire after my pan powder got a dump of snow from an overhanging pine bough.  It was hopeless so I headed back to the truck to get it sorted out.  I used my little touch hole pin to clean out the wet stuff as best I could.  I dumped a half of pan of 4F in, pulled the hammer back and then yerked on the set trigger.  Well..............at the time I was using an old cigar tube to house my pan powder and the stopper was in my mouth, the open tube in my right hand.  

 

Yup, you guessed it, a spark jumped INTO the tube and fizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz wuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and KBam the tube shot out of my hand and went sailing down the hardpacked, icy forest service road!!  It burned my fingerless wool gloves and scared the B Jesus out of me.

 

I don't recall if the pan powder fired up or not............

 

Just another "you had to be there story"!

 

IT wouldn't be hunting without a few dumb ass moments.........

 

I was opening the action on my inline last year on a table, and the gun went off.  About one inch my my knee.  That kind of stuff makes you think good and hard about gun safety.........

[Jaeger]

I started with a CVA mountain rifle in .50 cal. percussion on eastern LI.  On my last hunt, it rained hard.  At the end of the day I Poured! out the powder mud and ball.  Up on the Hither Hills area, had a blast!

 

I now use a .45 cal. Hatfield long rifle here in the catskills, percussion also.  Both guns have 1-66" twist or better for round ball shooting (the 45 might be a little faster twist).

 

Last year I went to Pa. to Cabin Creek Muzzleloader's gun making clinic and started a 24 ga. flintlock fowler kit, can use .58 cal round balls as well as shot.  Haven't finished it yet.

 

Like hunting with a longbow or recurve, there is just something more primal and relaxing when hunting with a primitive weapon.  Guess that's what the special seasons, bow and muzzleloader, were originally called the primitive weapon seasons.