Advice on in-line Muzzleloader/Blackpowder Rifle Sought??

self ^ | August 26th, 2002 | wardaddy

[wardaddy]

I am now a full member of a Tennessee deer camp and courtesy member of another camp in Mississippi. Both are archery and blackpowder only with stringent buck management and only allow large bucks and mature does to be harvested. I have historically relied on sidehammers but have decided to purchase an inline for optics capabilities and reliability. I have simply missed out on some decent shots at big bucks at dusk last season due to the blurring of iron sights at low light. Therefore, I'm going to take the plunge on a decent in-line. I've looked at the Remington 700ML and the 700ML Magnum. I've reviewed the Ruger, Winchester ,TC, and Knight models as well. I've likewise heard good stuff on the Gonic model.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[mad_as_he$$]

Well I love TC's (I think - might of been a Savage. Go to American Shooter.com. Isn't alcohol a terrible thing?) new center fire that uses a shotgun primer. If you go glass Leopold is the only way to go. (Sober on that one I assure you)I have used a Leupold 4-12 VARI-X IIc for the last five deer hunts and many coyote funerals. There is no better bang for the buck than a Leupold. Two years ago I shot a buck a 325 yards at sunset and nailed it dead center on a face on shot. The scope made the difference - I could SEE

For blackpowder I might suggest an advanced tatical sight. It should work good at the ranges you need and might be legal if there are rules about glass.

[Freedom4US]

I have a T/C Hawken kit model meself. They always provide a nice walnut blank versus the two-by-four style stockage that a lot of companies provide. And a precision barrel. That thing shoots really accurate -- I embarrassed the hell out of a guy with a scoped cartridge rifle at a range one day. He didn't say much, heh. But then I'm a crack shot.

I cheated a bit, I started a few strokes on the flats of the barrel with a flat file and decided the heck with that, and took the whole mess to a bumper and plating shop, they polished the barrell to a mirror shine, it took the browning nice. I polished the brass furniture myself. Looks good and shoots straight.

The new inline stuff meets the letter of the law, but not the spirit in my mind. Hell, they oughtta make it flint-lock only if they really want a muzzleloader season.

[TexasRepublic]

The new inline stuff meets the letter of the law, but not the spirit in my mind. Hell, they oughtta make it flint-lock only if they really want a muzzleloader season.

Agreed. The inlines with shotgun primers, plastic sabots, hollowpoint slugs, blackpowder substitutes and scopes are high-tech single shots which are blurring the distinction between quaint muzzleloaders and modern rifles. Some states such as Pennsylvania allow only flintlocks for blackpowder season hunting. Stalking, not sniping, is real hunting.

[Honest-Keith]

I have shot about eight rounds with 777 in my Omega 50cal. I was shooting 90grains with a 348gr. Black Belt bullet. The results were fine although I experienced two things that I am concerned about. Second shot loading is very difficult with this combination (fouling or plastic build-up?). I recovered several of the bullet plastic bases and they appear to be in one piece although they are split at the lip and look slightly powder burned. I also noticed a build-up of very solid residue at the face of the breechplug almost closing off the primer hole. I noticed a sharp report and significant recoil which makes me think this is a HOT synthetic substitute for Black Powder. I would definately not load any heavier without a lot more time shooting this powder.

[Squantos]

Story about a friend of ours son........

Panhandle teen shoots buck of lifetime

Most Texas deer hunters have a dream buck that fires their determination to face the best or worst Mother Nature can dish out, from icy winds, to torrential rains, to truck stop burritos on the way home. For most of us, it's a big 10-point or maybe just a bigger buck than we've ever harvested. But seldom even in our wildest dreams do we imagine a buck big enough to make the lofty Boone & Crockett Record Book. After all, it takes a non-typical whitetail buck with 195 inches - more than 16 feet of antler - to make the book. Each year no more than a half dozen whitetail bucks, of the 200,000 or so taken in Texas, will exceed the lofty 200-inch benchmark. "I've seen three grossing over 200 this year," said Texas Big Game Awards Program director David Brimager.

One of those belongs to 16-year-old Tom Isaacs of Canadian, in the far northeast corner of the Texas Panhandle. The Canadian High School sophomore has done something few American hunters will ever dream of, much less accomplish. Shooting a 200-class whitetail buck, on open range, is akin to shooting a hole-in-one in golf - 18 times in a row. Isaacs was hunting with his father on his family's 20,000-acre ranch, near the Red River, when fate smiled upon him. This is no high-fenced deer farm, but a working ranch of rolling hills and brushy draws. "We've not really managed it for deer, but it has not been hunted much," Tom said. "It's a pretty good chunk of land. We maybe take one deer a year off this. "We had seen this deer for four years. My dad missed him four years ago with a bow. And then we found his sheds the next year." Tom has been deer hunting for almost half his life, as does the rest of his family. But this season his heart was set on the big buck.

"I had been hunting him for two weeks - nearly every day since the beginning of the season, but hadn't found him anywhere," Tom said. "So I went out one morning, to the back of our ranch. We didn't know where he lived, but there was one area where we'd always see him during the rut. "My dad ... called me about 8 or 9 in the morning, saying he'd spotted the buck with a doe, bedding down with a doe on the side of a hill. I was probably 10 miles away, so it took awhile to get there. "We figured out how to hunt him best. It was really hard to get to him, because he could see two miles all around him, and the wind was coming from the back of the hill. "We came at him from behind and he took off." Tom took a shot at the fleeing buck, but missed. Tom and his dad followed the buck for most of a mile up a canyon, and then split up. Tom went farther up the canyon, while his dad went back down to look for the buck. The buck spooked from the senior Isaacs and ran within 100 yards of Tom, still trailing the doe that had been his undoing.

He dropped the giant buck with a single shot from his .243.

The buck is a gigantic mainframe 12-point, with four substantial additional points, including a forked G2 on one side, and an 8-inch kicker off the back of the other G2. The massive rack is 216Ú8 inches wide with huge beams sweeping out 29 and 27 inches. The buck's rack grosses 2232Ú8 B&C and nets 2161Ú8. A 185 net is typical. It will certainly be among the largest whitetail bucks harvested in Texas, if not the nation, this fall. The huge buck, which weighed about 170 pounds, has been aged at 6-plus years, prime time for a buck to reach its maximum potential. Tom's family is confident this is the same buck they've watched for several seasons. "He always had that fork on the same side and lived in the same area," Tom said. Last year he looked like a really good deer, at least 180. And he's had nothing to eat except what's on the range."

Statewide, biologists and hunters agree 2003 is shaping up as a far-better-than-average deer season, especially for quality of bucks harvested. Entries in the Texas Big Game Awards are up only slightly so far, Brimager said, probably because the whitetail rut in South Texas is just beginning. "I'd have thought we'd have had more bigger deer by now. East Texas and the Post Oaks usually always have a big deer or two in by now, but I haven't heard anything," Brimager said. Deadline for entry to the 2003 contest is Feb. 15, and TBGA is offering monthly prizes for early entries, plus a lifetime hunting license to one entry in before January.

For more information on the TBGA, call (210) 826-2904, ext. 114 or online at www.TexasBigGameAwards.com.

Lee Leschper is an Amarillo outdoor writer, outdoor editor of the Amarillo Globe-News and executive director of the Texas Outdoor Writers Association. His e-mail address is lleschper@amarillonet.com.

© The Amarillo Globe-News Online

[humblegunner]

Now that is one heck of a nice deer!
I'm going back out on Christmas day and now I'm inspired.

I'd been grousing about the drive and the impact to my schedule
but seeing that monster buck.. HOO YAH! Thanks for posting that.

[Squantos]

Yep..........this young man did well for where he was at. Canadian is in the north east corner of the Panhandle. Pretty Country !

Good luck on getting some meat for the freezer.

Stay Safe !

[TEXASPROUD]

Sweet Mother Mary, that is one outstanding buck. Offer him my congrats. Hope all is well.

[Travis McGee]

Wow! Nice rack! Once again the .243 does the job.