my favorite muzzleloader ever.

[johnson1942]

i want to post a question to get some interesting feed back for all to read that will follow this post. what is the most non fussy reliably accurate muzzle loader you have ever owned and if you would tell us why. go into as much detail as you want, we are interested. johnson1942

[docone31]

My favourite rifle is the
CVA Mountain rifle in .54 cal. Once I cleaned out the drum and channel, it was dead accurate, and reliable. If I was a righty, it would be all I needed.

[longranger]

A custom half stock Hawken,Chambers barrel .45 cal,in the money every shoot I take it to.

[fouronesix]

Easy and not easy question.

Least favorite- Knight M85 50 cal inline. No comment

Lots of favorite traditionals, hmmmm. I guess it would have to be an original US Whitney M1841 (Mississippi rifle) 54 cal rifle made in 1850. 7 groove, as-issued sights. Shoots great with patched roundball and to point-of-aim at 50 yards. No wonder they were so well liked through 2 wars.

target-
bottom group of 3 shots 50 yards, point of aim (POA) bottom of large ring

top group of 3 shots 50 yards, point of aim (POA) bottom of 10 ring

[Marvin S]

Santa Fe Hawkin 53cal. It dont really care about powder charge. But all of my 45 cal and up rifles shoot really well.

[**oneshot**]

I love my Lyman Deerstalker. Shoots both roundball and maxiballs without much fuss. I have taken several deer and one rabbit(note to self not to shoot a rabbit again with it). It carries well, balances to the shoulder, and points like a shotgun for me.

[rmark]

Pedersoli .50 Tryon rifle, at 50 yards the shots touching repeatedly. Foolishly sold it, just bought another one.

[wgr]

custom mule ear .50 cal round ball shooter

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

TVM Early Lancaster in .40 caliber. 13/16ths 42" barrel, and all silver mountings that Matt Avance made me a while back.
A trip up the woods with it, in proper dress, is a great way to roll the clock back 240 years for a day and night or two...

Rich
Sua Sponte

[LUCKYDAWG13]

that would be the TC Hawken in 50cal that my Dad bought me in 1976
i was 11 then still have it :-)

[DIRT Farmer]

It would be a hard choice between the 11 ga W Richards, made by the less noted Belgum cousions but much more prolific in production and the James and son 10 ga English built. Both will break every target if opperator error does not rear it's ugle head. The go to gun though is still the 28 bore flint trade gun for ball or shot.

[idahoron]

That would be my Hot Rod Renegade. Ron

[johnson1942]

good fun responses. now i will tell you mine. i built a .448 carbine, 26 inch barrel side lock for my young son. it shoots a 400 pure lead cast bullet started by a starter. 5 thousands deep grooves, 1-28 twist. uses 80 grains of 2f behind the bullet. it has a dead mule in the butt stock and recoil isnt noticed. it cleans easy and at 100 yards out can keep the bullets in a 50 cent piece.it has taken 5 deer out to 150 yard. it is so darn reliable i judge all the rifles i build against it. it is a very simple gun with out any falts. johnson1942

[gnoahhh]

Best: An Ithaca .50 percussion half-stock. One of the early ones built with leftover Cherry Corners parts. With .495 balls/.010" patch and 50 gr. 3f it'll cut tight cloverleafs at 50 yds, and only somewhat bigger ones at 100. That one gun has killed more whitetails than any other rifle I have owned (with that charge, too).

Worst: a custom .36 flintlock full stock. No matter what I tried the best it would do was 1½-1 3/4" at 50 yards which doesn't cut much mustard as a squirrel rifle, so down the road it went. It was pretty though!

[Maven]

Best: (1) My Lyman caplock .50cal. Great Plains (slow twist) is accurate and has never failed to fire in the 5 years I've owned it. (2) My Waksupi-built Chambers Isaac Haines .54cal. is fast becoming a favorite as I grow more used to it. It is very accurate with no perceptible lag with the Chambers deluxe lock.

Worst: A FL Dixie Tenn. Mtn. Rifle, which was accurate enough, but the lock wasn't reliable. With a caplock and drum, it was 100% reliable, but it was still much too heavy for me.

Indifferent: My .50cal. Knight Bighorn, which has never failed to fire and has never had a hangfire. It likes T/C Maxi-Balls and either Lyman's #429421 or RCBS' 245-Kin an appropriate sabot. In spite of this, it's just plain homely and not the best for offhand work.

Just my $0.02

[Omnivore]

Note the wide variety of responses. Each piece has been tried, the loads tweeked and so on, and it becomes a favorite. Some are fairly cheap, production guns and others are pretty fine hand-made treasures.

Mine is the only ML rifle I currently own that's in shooting condition, and the first ML I ever owned - A Lyman Deerstalker caplock. I've fussed with it for years, taken at least five deer with it, reshaped the stock a little, installed a "pineapple" patchbox, replaced the barrel key euscheons with hand-fitted ones I made from flat bar, reshaped the barrel keys, removed the finish from the nose cap to make it look more like pewter, re-worked the tumbler for a very light trigger, and installed a tang peep sight. With the new sight and lots of experimenting with loads, it shoots cloverleafs at 50 yards, but I haven't got it out to 100 yet with that new sight setup. It is far from "done" in any case.

It is not remotely worth all the work I put into it, but I figured, for that very reason, it makes a great platform on which to practice various operations like inletting and shaping, etc.

Every gun, I've come to realize, is an on-going program, whether yo do any real custom work on it or not. As we get farther along with that program and find out what works, they grow on us.

So go to it and Godspeed.

[bob208]

i have many
lyman gpr in .50 later it got a .40 hoyt barrel both barrels have brought home a lot of meat.

repro 1841 mississippi with a hoyt liner in .54

a h&a underhammer in .45

[mooman76]

I can't really chose one. I have about a dz MLs 32-58 cal. and none have really given me any problems and they all shoot good. My least favorite is my CVA inline. I got it cheap and just wanted to see for myself how it would do.

[StrawHat]

I have built about a dozen or so muzzle loaders and my favorite rifle, the one I grab when going for deer is an old Navy Arms copy of the 1803 Harpers Ferry Rifle. Mine is one of the early ones cut for the 58 caliber. With a PRB and 80 grains of powder, it has always been a fine producer for me. Lots of folks tell me I do not need so much powder but any less and the groups open up. Any more and recoil increases. 80 is "just right".

[gnoahhh]

"Just right" is all that matters!

[Hiwall55]

It's a tossup from one end of the size to another- my .32 squirrel rifle or my custom peter allen action .69 Rifle both bring home the meat and are one hole shooters

[johnson1942]

lyman keeps comming up, i also have a fast twist great plains hunter and so does my friend. i saw him do a dead on head shot at 98 yards on a nice antelope . i got my nice 4 pointer at 125 yards. mine will cut perfect center at 160 yards for which the sights are set for. the 4 pointer was a deer. i really enjoy reading about everyones favorite gun, and again i can see lyman is reliable accurate meat getter. johnson 1942

[Beagle333]

I like my .56 Renegade. It's very versatile (and I have a .50 barrel for it too) :mrgreen:

[izzyjoe]

i have several hawkens, but my favorite is a T/C New Englander. i love it cause it's short and light, great for deep wood huntin'. i shoot the Lee 310gr sized to .430 in a sabot with 70gr. of Goex 2F. i may try to HP this boolit now that i have a lathe.

[725]

T/C New Englander with a drop-in .54 barrel from Green Mt. Longer barrel & unbelieveably accurate. My T/C Seneca is growing on me. Hasn't been near as accurate as the the other T/C until I switched to .45 maxi-balls. Wasted .45 round balls on it when all it wanted was the maxi. Now it's a little joy.

[quilbilly]

My T/C 45 Seneca. It has been a tack driver with either PRB or sabots plus 9mm boolits.
It wasn't my favorite until I realized that it only like round balls cast from one particular mold. A couple years back the stock got broken in a fall over a stump so I duct taped it together and it shoots better than ever.

[johnson1942]

to quilbilly: does your t/c 45 seneca have a 1-48 twist? also where do you get your sabots from? want to try them in my thompson 45. thanks johnson1942

[KCSO]

The next one I finish. Right up until it's sold and I start on another one.

[quilbilly]

To Johnson1942: I believe my Seneca does have that 1-48. Those sabots come from MMP and are the blue ones. You may have to go direct to MMP to get them. Strangely enough, my Seneca likes the 9mm 125 gr boolit but won't shoot the 357- 125 gr boolit worth a darn. I had great accuracy with the sabots out to 200+ yards for coyotes but prefer the patched round ball for deer (they seem to go down a lot faster with round ball). I haven't used the sabot in the Seneca in several years.

[dualsport]

Very early TC Hawken .50 when they had a drum. It came with a percussion and flint lock. Changes out in a minute. Shoots PRB better than I can hold it. Also a early CVA Mountain Rifle, .50 also. It's light and well balanced, good accuracy.

[1Shirt]

Guess it would have to be my old TC 50 Renegade. If I still had it however would probably have been my first front stuffer, a 58 CVA. l Took my best ML deer with it, and someplace along the line I foolishly sold it.
1Shirt!

[Boerrancher]

I am really not sure. I will say my least favorite is my CVA in-line. I can't stand that gun. I won't sell it because Dad gave it to me. It shoots as good as just about any bolt action hunting rifle, but it is ugly, clunky, and I just don't feel right shooting it.

I would have to say my favorite is my North West trade gun. There is just something nice about having one gun that serves as both a shotgun and a round ball shooter, and you don't have to do anything to it but change your load. I found it to be very reliable as long as I use a bit of spit on my fingers to wipe the pan, frizzen, and flint every 4 or 5 shots. I can load it with a shot load that will knock all the hair off of a squirrel at 30 steps, or load it down to where I can actually eat it. Lastly, that old gun will toss out 3 shot groups that you can cover with a half dollar at 50 yards all day long, and eat the center out of a 9in paper plate at 100 yards. It is not picky about flints, I think it would spark with a marble in the cock.

My next favorite is my 32 cal Crockett rifle. I have never owned a ML that shoots the way that little gun does. Out to 40 yards it will just rag out a hole in the paper no larger than a dime as long as you do your part. I have taken a pickup truck load of squirrels with it this year so far, with many of them being head shots if the squirrel was sitting still. Running shots are through the ribs. The only thing I don't like about it is that it is a cap lock. It is easy on powder, 25 grains per shot, pin point accurate, and about the most perfectly balanced gun for off hand shooting I have ever held. It shoots well enough that the local club won't let me shoot it in their squirrel rifle match, which is off had at 25 yards, on shot closest to the center of the x. It was originally called the squirrel rifle match, then when I showed up and warmed up with the Crockett 32, it quickly became the "Rim fire only match."

I have owned a couple dozen Muzzleloaders over the years, and most of them were decent shooters once you figured out what they wanted to shoot, but none have given me more enjoyment than the trade gun and the 32 Crockett. I am in the process of gathering the pieces to build a 32cal flinter. I hope it turns out to be half the gun my Crockett is.

Best wishes,

Joe

[missionary5155]

Greetings
Had to ponder on this one for some time.
But for the absolute uniqueness of the system I will say the Hall Flinter. You have not seen anything till you have touched off a good dose of 3F and seen the eruption that occurs coming straight up out of the flashpan on top of the receiver. Once you get over that they are a hoot to shoot and very accurate with that 16 groove rifling.
Mike in ILL.

[johnson1942]

to boerrancher: what a gun that nothwest of yours is . your smooth bore shoots better than a lot of rifled gun i have seen at shoots. if you want to see a pile of real ones visit the chadron ne. fur traders mus. they must have a hundred or more their. johnson1942

[Boerrancher]

to boerrancher: what a gun that nothwest of yours is . your smooth bore shoots better than a lot of rifled gun i have seen at shoots. if you want to see a pile of real ones visit the chadron ne. fur traders mus. they must have a hundred or more their. johnson1942

Johnson,

Thank you, but I must say it wasn't like that when I got it. If it hadn't been for the many folks that posted in my trade gun thread that is now a sticky, It would be like most of the black powder guns out there today. I reworked just about everything on that gun to make it shoot well. Waksupi really helped me out with turning it from a play thing to pack around at the rendezvous to a real contender when it comes shooting match time. I am confident enough in that gun that I would not hesitate to hunt any animal on the continent with it. I would have to keep my shots inside of 100 yards, but I would not hesitate to punch a 60 cal round ball through the ribs of a 1200 lbs moose. I doubt he would run far. Only having it for a couple of months now at most, I think I would be lost with out that gun. When I need to grab a gun for a walk about it seems to be the one I grab as I head out the door.

Best wishes,

Joe

[Ajax]

Mine would be my .45 underhammer with 1:70 roundball barrel. Way more accurate that i can shoot. Built it from a kit i got from Bruce at Blue Grouse Muzzleloading. It has great balance and just feels right in my hands.


Andy

[Hanshi]

Very difficult decision. I love my super accurate US M1841 .54 Mississippi rifle. It's a repro special ordered by me years ago. Fit and finish are impeccable and the ball settles disputes permanently and with haste.

I must, however, pick my TVM late Lancaster. It's .45 x 36" x 13/16" straight barreled with nice wood but otherwise very plain and unadorned. It has been my go-to rifle for years though it may now get upstaged by a .50 EL I got this summer.

[Coffeecup]

For me it would be a cut-down Brown Bess I shot for years. I wore out locks and shot out barrels, but even at the most-worn it was still a reliable shooter. It was my go-to gun anytime I had serious shooting to do, won a fair amount of prizes, and nothing ever walked away after being shot with it.

Favorite rifle--for now--is my old .54 flintlock. Just for the memories of an old friend now gone who helped me build it, and the matches and hunting done with it.

[smokeywolf]

40 years since I've fired it but... I'd have to say my 1840 69 caliber Springfield Flintlock. But, only because it's the only muzzle loader I've ever shot.
I can have just as much fun shooting 20 or 30 rounds out of that as I can 100 rounds out of a cartridge gun.
Flintlocks are genuine black powder fun. Love the smoke, love the smell.

smokeywolf

[OverMax]

My T/C Hawken 54 after I changed out its barrel to a factory round ball'er only. Then I replaced its #11 nipple to a Hot Shot musket cap one. The rifle is so accurate out to 100 yards that I sometimes leave my 270 home on purpose during deer season. I have that much confidence in its ability and reliability. Kicks like Hell with Holy Black at 100 even. But to be on the receiving end of its 230-gr. ball >is much worse.

[Alan]

Steve Zihn 16-bore Christian Springs w/ 38" Ed Rayle swamped barrel.

http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd439/alan_atwood1/th_cs09.jpg (http://s1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd439/alan_atwood1/?action=view&current=cs09.jpg)

http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd439/alan_atwood1/th_cs07.jpg (http://s1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd439/alan_atwood1/?action=view&current=cs07.jpg)


And yes, it shoots as good as it looks.

[2571]

TC New Englander. Bought it from a guy for $41 (alll I I had in my pocket). His dad had forgotten to clean it at the end of deer season & It looked awful. He & his dad assumed it was ruined with the rust in the bore.

I told the guy it could be cleaned up but he was afraid of BP.

Cleaned up with about 10 hours of work & is a pleasure to shoot.

[10 ga]

Favorite ever is my custom Encore smokeless .45 ML. It shoots moa right out to 250, farthest I've tried so far. It's light, short, handy, accurate, very modest recoil compared to other MLs of even near power, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg. Even cheap to shoot with cast but I use Barnes for hunting. I already have 11, too many MLs, (I'm such a liar, can't never have too many) and am currently building 2 more.

Worst ML I ever had was a White in .45, kicked like a mule and I couldn't ever get it to shoot consistent.
10 ga


lead paint dust = poison

[johnson1942]

to 10 gage: what is the weight of the cast bullet you shoot and get that kind of accracy. you got a shooter.

[chief3]

Since I built most of my guns asking me to choose a favorite from among them is like asking me choose a favorite from among my grandchildren, can't do it.
My least favorite rifle is a Navy Arms Buffalo Rifle I bought in the mid 1960's. A good gun , I just don't like it.

[catboat]

.50 caliber Yorktowne flinter made by Brad Emig. 15/16 xflat x 36" long Green Mountain round ball barrel, Chamber's-tuned large Siler lock, Davis double set triggers. Brass mounted.

Target / line shooting: 70 grains fffg + .495 cast ball is a one holer to 50 yards.

[skullmount]

My go to gun is my White .410 Bison, 60 grains swiss 3f and most any bullet sized at .410 around 400 grains


was an easy pic to post here ;-)



http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/phonepics_031.jpg

[gunseller]

It is a hard choice but I think I will go with my Green River Rifle Works Leman Trade Rifle. Reason I am going with over my custom long rifle is that a few years ago I made my longest shot with a ML on deer. The shot was 217 steps, a little over 200 yards.
Steve

[Saint]

Best I have ever owned is my Traditions Hawkens Woodsman percussion in .54. I picked it up on clearance and I have been in love with it since. It's a great traditional style muzzleloader but it still has some nice adjustable modern iron sights. Built in patch box is nice but what I really love about it is the wonderful set trigger.

[kenyerian]

my favorite is my 45 caliber TC Hawken that I bought back in the early 70's ( don't remember the exact year but it was around 71) so I could hunt in the special primitive weapons deer hunt at Wildcat holler in SouthEastern Ohio. It still shoots a round ball very well. I've had several others over the years but this is still my favorite.

[shdwlkr]

My favorite is any TC that I can get my hands on just like those old side locks and have a few of them now and still looking for more.

[Saint]

As much as I love my previously mentioned Hawken Woodsman I just didn't feel right not mentioning my Austin & Halleck inline. .45 caliber it shoots great but it's an incredible chore to clean since the barrel isn't easily removed from the stock and water has to be kept out of the trigger group. Beautiful satin nickel finish and semi hexaganol barrel this one was a steal for 90 bucks brand new at the gun show.

[marshall623]

I have 3 and I guess my favorite is old reliable with was my first , got for Christmas when I was 12 A T/C Renagade in 50 cal. shoots any thing you can get in the barrel LOL but I feed it FF BP and hand cast maxi balls a tack driver. Next would be the 32 Cherrokee it likes PRB 's with 20gr FFF or maxi ball with 30 FFF. Then I have a T/C I almost throwed in the trash, I was talked by a dealer into buying a System 1 That thing wouldn't hit a barn from the inside, the barrel was moving while the scope is attached to the receiver, that was their attemp at a inline with interchanable barrels. I tried it open sights found a load ( I forgot to mention that I tried every possible load and powder while it was scoped ) it was a real shooter . I went home cleaned it up drove the breech plug home and Tig welded the barrel and receiver together. I know that sounds insane but I did that 10 years ago and dialed in the scope and have not touched it since with 295 power belts or 370 maxi balls it will easyly touch holes at a 100 yrds. As a matter of the deer in my avatar pic was taken with it, in a open corn field at a about a 110 yrds

[45-70 Chevroner]

I have four ML rifles, and have owned several others. I have a .32 Triditions a great little squirl rifle, a .36 CVA Kentucky rifle that was originally a .45 cal. I let my son use it for a couple of years and he let the bore rust out. The .36 shoots Ok but not as well as I would like it too, I'm 71 and just don't get out as much as I used to. I have a Thompson Center Hawken rifle .50 cal. slug barrel 1 in 48"and an extra Green River .54 cal ball shooter for it, it belonged to my brother he died in 2005, I got it from his estate along with 15 other guns. Then my favorite a Custom made .50 cal. I did all the stock work, and a very good friend of mine, Charles Maggard a Custom Muzzle loading Rifle Maker did the rest. The stock is a very pretty curley maple left in the natural color light blond, (I like Blonds, Married to one 50 years now). The barrel is a Green River 36" 1" in 72" twist barrel. I bought all the hard ware from Dixie Gun Works accept for the barrel, I got it from Charles. It has an adjustable double set trigger, a nice slightly raised cheek piece and a pewter front cap. It has a full buck horn rear sight and a silver front blade and the barrel is browned. I think I put about $500.00 in parts into the project. This was all done back in the 1980's. This smoke pole will shoot inside 3" at a hundred yards all day long. I call this rifle my Hawkins Plains rifle. It is similar to a Hawkins but with a very long 36" barrel, hence (Plains Rifle). A normal load is 75 grs. FF black powder with a .495 ball and a .015 pillow tick patch, it is a very tight fit but I use a short starter about 1" and a 8" to get the ball down far enough to finish it off with the ram rod. I never slam the rod down on the ball, all I do is use a wood ball with a hole drilled in it to fit the ram rod then pull down until I feel the powder crunch from the pressure.

[splashout101]

My favorite is a custom J & S Hawken .58 cal planes rifle made by G B Nelson, But I really like my .58 cal parker Hale enfields and I would have a hard time parting with my .50 and .54 cal brownings. The Brownings have the best trigger system I have used on a BP rifle.

[Hang Fire]

20 balls to the pound Fusil de chasse stocked some years back. Most natural shouldering long gun ever for me, it comes onto target like it has eyes of it's own. Ball or shot, it will get'er done.

http://hstrial-rchambers.homestead.com/P1010034.JPG

My prior favorite for many years, a Bill (Swift water) Fuller built museum quality .56 caliber S. Hawken. Was heavy at 11.5 pounds, but the horses didn't complain.

http://hstrial-rchambers.homestead.com/6slb2_op_483x600.jpg

[Fly]

Man? Great question.As far as a shooter & dependable I have two.The first muzzle loader
I ever bought over 30 something years back & still have is a CVA mountain rifle with
a Dougless barrel.

But just as good a shooter is my Lyman GPR in 54.cal.

Fly