The Muzzle Loading Shotgun
It's Care and Use
By
V. M. Starr
The Muzzle Gunsmith
Eden, S. Dak.
FORWARD
This book is written in the hopes that it will be the means by which many good fellows may be lead into the clan of the front feeders and to the joys thereof and by making the knowledge that I have been able to gather in the past 50 years experience with muzzle loading shotguns available to as many as possible to help get them started off on the right path without having to learn the hard way with little or no outside help.
I have tried to set forth in the foollowing pages all the things that the beginner needs to know to successfully use and care for a Muzzle loading shotgun...how well I have succeeded I will leave up to those of you who take the time to read and digest their contents.
I hereby dedicate this book to those hardy souls who have given so much of their time, effort and substance to the cause of the charcoal burners and to my many friends and customers who have made serving you such a pleasure these many years. May you all live long and prosper.
More power to your powder and may your tribe increase.
Yours sincerely,
V. M. STARR
THE MUZZLE LOADING SHOTGUN
During the past years since the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association has been doing such a good job of reviving the use of the old front feeders there has been a great flood of information on the care and use of muzzle loading rifles and pistols but not much on old Meat in the pot that old stand by of both fur and feathers the Muzzle Loading shot gun.
Much of the meat that went to tighten the belts of the old boys and their families from about 1840 through 1880 and even much later got there with the help of that old cap lock front feed scatter gun.
Now through the efforts of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association and the high cost of ready made fodder and just for the great thrill that we get from their use a whole lot of us are turning back to the guns that served our forebearers so well, and are finding that Grandpappy really had more than most present day shooters gave him credit for. Especially after someone with the know how and a heart for the old guns has put them back in good shooting order and has choked the barrels to shoot the proper patterns for the work at hand.
No matter if you want to bust a bunny or a quail in the brush or reach up into the top of that tall hickory in the bottom after a bushy tail or reach out after a high duck or a smart old crow the old gun can be choked to do the job and do it well at a cost far below the cost of modern fodder, and besides it is a lot more fun that way.
I was infected with black powder virus at a tender age and it must have been a heavy dose because I have never shown the slightest sign of recovery and me with more than three score years behind me.
I well remember the first muzzle loading shot gun that was really mine. I must have been about 12 years old when I talked one of my cousins into parting with a 14 ga. Belgian double M-L shot gun for the princely sum of $1.25. It was no beauty from any angle and was completely innocent of finish on either wood or metal but she was sound and solid and everything worked, and of course it was without a sign of choke and like most likely shot lousy patterns, but who cared? It shot, didn't it, and it made a delicious report and a fine cloud of smoke and things died that I shot at with great regularity and if it kicked I never knew it. What more could a boy want or need?