How many here stick with traditional styles?

[DwarvenChef]

Howdy all, just looking to see how many stick with traditional muzzle loader styles? Hawken, Plains, Pensilvainia, ect. ? I have never liked in-lines and will not own one, so I'm always looking for others like myself.

[SharpsShooter]

Never cared much for the in-line types. I have a good friend that builds traditional types from scratch and they are absolutely fine shooters and pleasing to the eye as well. My remaining M/L is a 13ga double with european walnut in the english configuration. I haven't had a M/L rifle in house for several years.

[MT Gianni]

TC Hawken made from a kit about 78. 50 cal that has never seen plastic down the bore. It has had an adaptor put on it to shoot small rifle primers rather than caps more for cost and availabilty than ignition problems. Also a 50 cal Lyman plains pistol that unfortunetly has never been blooded but has punched some paper. Gianni.

[KCSO]

I won't even let one in the shop. My partner turned down a hunting show for Cabella's as they wanted him to shoot a White. He said he would rather eat horse dung on live TV.

Nuff' Said

[versifier]

I shoot an older traditional TC .54 Renegade from the first or second year of production. I guess that makes it an antique... More than a few years back, I installed a receiver (peep) sight, put a recoil pad on the stock, chopped about six inches off the barrel, and milled a new front sight out of brass to make a really nice handling carbine for hunting in the thick of things. (A coulple of years later, they started making the "White Mtn. Carbine".) It shoots my home cast 430gr Maxi-Balls, 3" 5shots at 100yds. Last year, I got a new drop-in for it in the same caliber from Green Mtn. This one shoots my home cast Lee 228gr .45 HP's with TC sabots, 1" 5shots at 100yds. In the woods or at the range it's one of my favorite rifles and however much they chuckle when I bring it out, their eyes go wide when they see how it shoots.
As I have mentioned before, here and elsewhere, I really enjoy watching the range rats show up a week before m/l season opens, stuff three pellets into their brandy new in-lines and fire no more than three shots, the last two flinching noticably, then put the rifles back into their cars and tear up the targets before heading home with bruised shoulders. I just keep on shooting until the fouling builds up enough to make loading a little harder, 20-30 shots. I think the hard plastic of the sabots cleans a lot of the fouling as they're rammed home.
To those who would bemoan my use of the plastic sabot as "untraditional", I have this to say: Yes, plastic is relatively new, but sabots themselves have been in use for hundreds of years, originally made of wood (hence the name, French for "wooden shoe") and used in cannon, but they were also used in small arms. When you really stop to think about it, what is a round ball's patch for and how does it work? Paper patches on BPCR bullets? Don't they serve the same function as a sabot? Traditional? Do you wear waterproof boots, Gore-Tex jackets and hats when the rain/sleet/snow is blowing horizontally and you're crossing streams and tramping through swamps? How about blaze orange Ten-Mile cloth, plastic lenses in your plastic-framed glasses, two-way radios, GPS units, MRE's and plastic-wrapped chocolate bars? Is your tree stand made from aluminum or a fancy alloy and what about the camo paint? Or do you still cook in cast iron pots over an open fire, ride a horse to the range or to your favorite deer stand? Was your rifle made on a water-powered lathe and rifled by pounding over a mandrel by hand? The furniture made by a real live blacksmith in a coal forge? How traditional do you want to/ have to be?
For me, it is enough that I can use a traditional caplock rifle that is still basically Civil War era technology and out-shoot most of the modern in-lines by a significant margin. The point is to have fun, isn't it?

[DwarvenChef]

Well I can't afford all the above mentioned toys, and still use cast iron cookware (griswalds). I hear what your saying about where do you draw the line on traditions. For me it depends on how I'm feeling at the time I guess. I've made my own horn messures, cut my patches with a forged blade and use hornit nest as a buffer to the pillow ticking. I tried sabots years ago when I worked for a gunsmith in Santa Barbara due to customers asking how they worked... so I tested em out, didn't like em personaly.

I guess I got into Black Powder shooting becuse I liked going back to the early basics. I don't begrudge those who want to try to modernize it, I would not myself, but more power to ya. My guns are modern replicas but I try to get as much hand finishing and custom touches as I can. Reminds me I need to get that .40 flinty started, found a couple molds for it... so why not

[Buckshot]

............My ML'ers aren't really hunting rifles (they could be) but are repros of military, ie: P58 Naval pattern Enfield, or target rifles, ie: Rigby and Whitworth. Had one of the drivers the other day walk up and haul a well flattened slug out of his pocket, and announced he'd gotten himself a buck first day of the season in Oklahoma.

He's a pure meat hunter. I asked him what the rifle was. He said it was just a $89 inline from Wal-Mart. I asked about the slug and he didn't have a clue. It was just some he'd bought at Wal-Mart. Powder charge was, "2 a them 50gr pellets they sell."

I will suppose inlines have their place and are certainly useable. A frequenter of the range has or had some tie with White Systems. He's used one in Africa every year for the past 10-12 or so. Uses an NEI mould for a 520gr slug that was designed to be paper patched in cartridge rifles. White systems has a special sabot to utilize it.

...............Buckshot

[waksupi]

I have three traditionals, and wouldn't allow one of the new plastic guns in the house. I have a twenty bore NW tradegun, an Alexander Henry English sporter, a Beckwith style Pennsylvania, and a couple pistols around, one Pedersoli, and one I built.

[Jumptrap]

I dunno.....what difference does it make? If you like pretending to be Daniel Boone, use a traditional. If you like the looks of an in-line use that. Makes no big difference to me. I have both.......not a big fan of BP in any form. It's filthy, a PITA to clean up after and just doesn't do anything for me.

But yes, I have played with it. I have a .36 squirrel rifle built from a 60's era Dixie kit.....shoots quite well. I have had one TC flinter....yuck! I have had one TC Hawken, 2 of the el cheapo Caeblla's Hawkens and a TC .54 in-line...SS with all the bells and whistles. I quit using it and went back to the $69 Cabellas because it is so light and cleans quickly with it's hooked breech.

They are just a hunting tool for me. I've killed critters with all of them and the 36 is the most fun and you'd be surprised at what a 65 grain ball will do. I have no qualms with shooting a deer with it....kills them dead as hell. Cut the head right off a squirrel.

[RugerFan]

I also have both. A Lyman .50 cal Plains Rifle and a CVA .50 cal Optima Pro inline. Each has it's place for my own personal needs/desires. I have taken big game with both and enjoy shooting both very much. I admit taking game with the Plains Rifle is more satisfying, but sometimes I want a little more reach.

[9.3X62AL]

I'm not a totally hidebound traditionalist, but my frontloaders are all Hawken or Civil War patterns. I also use only The Holy Black in these rifles--one in 32 (Traditions Crockett), one in 54 (T/C Hawken) and an Italian Zouave replica in 58. Roundballs are also a strong preference. I also have four cap-and-ball replica revolvers--one in 31 (1849 Pocket), two in 36 (an 1851 and an 1861), and one in 44 (1860). Again, it's RB's and THB in these rollers.

[shooter575]

I have allways liked military weapons of the Civil war era so that is what I shoot.My first BP rifle was a Italian pipe bomb :] [cheep zouave] Think I gave 68 bucks for it with a tin of musket caps,lb of bp and a bunch of badly cast minnes. That was pushing 35 years ago.
Anyway now I still shoot muskets.Like to build my own from orgional parts guns. Just cant get into the plastic versions.Lot of meat hunters do though.

[versifier]

Shooter575,
I just saw a bumper sticker the other day that read "Don't worry about what people think, they do it so seldom." There are many paths to happiness.
There's a guy a know not far from here that has the care of the rifle his g'g'grandfather carried in the Civil War. Every so often I go and visit. Holding history, real solid wood-and-metal history in my hands always brings my ego back to a healthy size. I don't need to shoot that one, though it has been well cared for and he might even let me if I asked. To me it is like a holy relic. My old Renegade keeps me enough in touch with what it was like for them and puts the food on the table. The crack of the cap and the foom of the charge going off hasn't changed over time, but the Pyrodex smells a little better and no one shoots back.

[Abert Rim]

It's the history of it for me, so I "don't have no truck " with in-lines, sabots or pellets. Fortunately, the state of Oregon is in line (sorry) with my thinking and has banned most such devices during muzzlelader seasons. The boys are welcome to use their scoped in-lines during the regular seasons, though. I am currently down to a two-band Enfield I hope to sell in order to help pay for a couple of Pecatonica kits. My wish list includes the Rigby kit, such as Buckshot's; the Schuetzen kit for offhand work with conicals and fast-twist barrels; and the Tulle -- the purtiest firearm ever designed, to my eye. I have had a lot of fun with Lyman Great Plains rifles, though. I also like a Colt 1860 or a Remington 1858 in a cross-draw holster. Have also been lucky enough to own and shoot original Merrill and Maynard Civil War carbines.

[Tom W.]

I have a T/C Hawken in .45 cal that I bought in 1975. I shoot pyrodex "P" with patched roundballs or maxiballs, and I have used Butler Creek poly patches when I could get them. I liked the old style poly patch with the double concave wnds better, as I could put some lube in the bottom, and just a dab under the ball. I don't even know if they are still made anymore....

[JCW]

100% Traditional style ML's. Have a .54 Cabelas hawkin Hunter and a .54 TC Renegade. Both perc.

[swheeler]

Have both and enjoy both , life is like a buffet, sometimes you got to sample everything!

[PatMarlin]

I've got a nice TC Hawken 50cal.

A lyman Deerstalker bored to 20ga. Nice performer!

And I don't care for inlines but I fell in love with, and got a steal of a deal on a new Knight 12ga turkey gun all camo, witih the gold medallion in the stock and it is one fine quality shotgun.

Couldn't bare to use plastic inserts, so I installed a #11 cap nipple.

Didn't have time to get my first turkey this year, but will soon.

Oh yea... Got 3 screw in chokes to.. 8)

[DwarvenChef]

Going to be piecing together a 58 hawken soon if my buddy doesn't give up his old monster. I'm going to be looking to buy .570 and .575 steel RB single cavity moulds in a few (after I get the Bbl) any makers I should be looking at?

[fiberoptik]

I picked up a .32 CVA squirrel gun at a pawn shot, and was hooked. I then got a cheap CVA .50 inline for my first deer rifle. I've now got another CVA .50 in trade, and traded a .36 TC for a .32 Dixie poorboy. I would like a White, and I would like to trade a Colt 1903 for a pair of sidelock .45's at this weekends GunShow in Birch Run from someone I met there the last time. I'm hoping he shows with the charcoal burners & we're up on trade. I'm leaning more & more to the traditional rifles, but I'm not about to talk trash to anyone that thinks different, as we need more shooters, not less. Still, I made meat with mine using a patched RB, and both chubby does dropped dead in their tracks. The biggest thing the inlines have going for them is easier to scope.