Posted on 09/23/2015 7:16:54 AM PDT by w1n1
Believe it or not, there are some real advantages to hunting with muzzleloading rifles and smoothbores. Those advantages are not found in the ballistics or the rapidity of follow-up shots; the real advantages are found in making a good shot from the beginning and knowing that the hunter will be reticent to take a shot until a good hit can be expected. Those can be real advantages.
There are more areas open to hunting this way as well. I’m making this statement in a very general sense, but many areas, sometime entire states, are closed to hunting with high-powered rifles. Areas like that are usually open to shotguns, loaded with either buckshot or slugs, and often those same areas are open to muzzleloading rifles. Let’s face it: We can’t have a good and successful hunt without a place to do so.
More than a few years ago I enjoyed hunting in Iowa, and at that time the farms, if not the entire state, were closed to shooting with high-powered rifles. That was fine with me: I was a dedicated muzzleloader shooter and hunter at the time. I hunted with John Hambleton from Iowa Trophy Hunting; Hambleton has since passed away, but his son Todd is still running the show, if you ever want to go.
The Hambletons cater to archers and hunters with muzzleloaders for deer, and when I was their guest I carried my .50-caliber flintlock Hawken made many years ago by Ozark Mountain Arms. That particular gun builder left the market in the early 1980s, but anyone who has a rifle by them would agree that those were very fine rifles. I loaded a powder charge with 80 grains of FFFg powder by GOEX underneath a patched .490-inch round ball. With that charge and that ball load my rifle was more than ready to make some venison.
It was pretty chilly, well below freezing and often below zero. What I thought about more than the cold was that in such weather there is hardly any moisture in the air. This made my flintlock more than ready to go. Getting good ignition with a flintlock on that hunt was never a problem. Read the rest of the story here.
Just make sure you have at least two opposing teeth.
And a good set of ear plugs.
High powered rifles were banned from hunting. “That was fine with me: I was a dedicated muzzleloader shooter and hunter at the time.”
Pretty short sighted point of view by this guy. Bummer.
You should have hearing protection with any firearm.
Absolutely.
And Eye protection too. :-)
But the sound of some of those old muzzle loaders is particularly “impressive”.
And another front opens on gun control “except for those used in hunting.”
Do you guys hunt with ear plugs?
I hunted with a Pennsylvania flintlock rifle of the Lancaster school, over 30 years ago. It was a .450 caliber, and the suggested load at that time, for that rifle, was 60 grains of XXX powder, and of course, XXXX powder for the flash pan.
The truism in ‘ya gots one shot, don’ waste it’ is very true for hunting with this style of firearm, whether it is a flintlock or percussion cap ignition.
The idea that ‘high-powered rifles are refused’, flies in the face of the historical account of one American rifleman using such a design, putting down a British officer at 300 yards. So, yes, they can reach ... if you m..m..m..miss!
It is easy to say that this gentleman does not have any desire to grasp an AR-15, or a Winchester 70, or Remington 700. He is a muzzleloader guy, a hunter, and that’s that.
Well, being from Iowa, I can tell you that it is full of small farm houses and acreages all over the place! No it’s not a great idea to have rifles shooting everywhere when a farm house is close by. Shotguns, bows, muzzle loaders, all ok.
Here in the Puget Sound area, deer hunting on any of the many islands is restricted to muzzle loader, handgun or shotgun.
High-powered? Add more powder if you want high-powered!
...the caffeine will kick in soon I hope.
What did you say?
Actually the new loud-noise canceling headphones are the thing. You can hear everything, even magnified, except the gunshots.
vocabulary carp: the OP says “reticent” when he means
“reluctant”
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