Muzzleloaders for Hunters: How to Select a Muzzleloader that Fits Your Hunting Style and Pocketbook

By Wm. Hovey Smith

Hunting was always Wm. Hovey Smith's passion, and if there was anything he was more passionate about was hunting with a variety of muzzleloading guns. This passion took him to Africa where he took big game with a muzzleloading pistol, double-barreled slug-shotgun, and a bolt-action muzzleloading rifle. His interests grew to include hunting both big and small game with muzzleloading revolvers and even a blunderbuss. Many of these hunts were published in national magazines, and also featured in some of the author's more than 800 videos which are linked to the text in this expanded, interactive Second Edition.

This review of muzzleloading guns discusses rifles, pistols, and smoothbore guns and includes specific recommendation along with references to the other seven books in this series. It also discusses the possibilities of restoring old guns to shooting condition and building your own muzzleloader from a kit and lists the equipment and supplies that are needed. Some of the guns that he used were considerably gunsmithed to make them much more effective hunting tools along with the use of modern powders and bullets.

This book is ideal for a person who is thinking about buying a muzzleloader or hunting with one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9780916565190

Wm. Hovey Smith

Now returned to Central Georgia, Wm. Hovey Smith is a Geologist/outdoorsman who has written 13 books and is the Producer/Host of Hoveys Outdoor Adventures on WebTalkRadio.net. He is a Corresponding Editor for Gun Digest where he writes about muzzleloading guns and hunting in the U.S., Europe and Africa.

Book preview

© Wm. Hovey Smith, 2020. Any reproduction of all or parts of this work are prohibited and punishable under U.S. and international copyright laws, except that brief sections may be quoted in reviews. This copyright includes all original images and derivative works.

ISBN: 978-0-916565-19-0

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1. Why Hunt with Muzzleloading Guns?

Reasons for Hunting with Muzzleloading Firearms

Chapter 2. Selecting Your First Muzzleloader

Purpose

Legal Restrictions

Style

Size

Price

Chapter 3. Drop Barrel Muzzleloaders

Huntsman

Millennium Design Muzzleloaders

Rossi

CVA

Thompson/Center Arms

Traditions

Woodman Arms

What These Guns Offer

Chapter 4. Bolt and Striker-Fired In-Lines

Striker-Fired

Bolt-Action

Chapter 5. Falling, Rolling, and Pivoting Block Muzzleloaders

Falling Blocks

Rolling Blocks

Pivoting Block

Chapter 6. Single and Double-Barreled Muzzleloading Pistols

Howdah Hunter

Modern Hunting Handguns

Chapter 7. Muzzleloading Revolvers

Colt Walker

Remington 1858

Ruger Old Army

Smaller-Caliber Revolvers

Chapter 8. Shotguns and Smoothbore Muskets

Side-by-Side Doubles

Single-Barreled Fowlers

Military Muskets

Blunderbuss

Chapter 9. Muzzleloading Guns for Young People, Ladies, and Seniors

Chapter 10. Building Muzzleloading Guns From Kits

Basic Tools and Materials

The Order of Work

Chapter 11. What About a Custom Muzzleloader?

The Vision

A Willing Maker

Time

Money

Building Your Own

Supplier's Addresses

Introduction

Books in the Muzzleloading Short Shots series were developed to give black-powder gun enthusiasts information in tightly-focused packages. Each book contains candid comments about guns, powders, bullets, ignition systems, and shooting techniques.

These brief treatments are based on 50 years of shooting and hunting with muzzleloading guns. I started writing for the outdoor press in the 1970s in The American Rifleman and have sold articles to many other publications. For 10 years I was the Corresponding Editor for the Gun Digest Annual covering black-powder guns, products, and hunting.

Besides these, I have written four outdoor-related books (now also E-books) including Practical Bowfishing (Stoeger), Crossbow Hunting (Stackpole) and Backyard Deer Hunting: Converting Deer to Dinner for Pennies per Pound (Author House).

My most recent softcover outdoor title is X-Treme Muzzleloading: Fur, Fowl, and Dangerous Game with Muzzleloading Rifles, Smoothbores and Pistols (Author House). These books are between 200-300 pages, and Backyard Deer and X-treme Muzzleloading have detailed information about individual hunts.

While the prices given in the Short Shot books were valid in 2020, gun prices have been generally increasing every year and vary with international exchange rates. These prices should be used as general guidelines.

    Constraints on economical E-book publishing prevent me from using as many photos as I would like. For these go to the soft-cover edition of X-Treme Muzzleloading, my other soft-cover books and videos.

    In the rear of the book, links are provided to the web pages of many manufacturers, and these should be consulted for up-to-date prices. 

Loads listed in this book were safe and effective in my guns, but I cannot take responsibility for those assembled by others. Any loads should only be used in newly manufactured guns in good condition – be prudent, be safe and good hunting. 

Chapter 1.

Why Hunt with Muzzleloading Guns?

A zebra taken in South Africa with a .45-caliber Knight bolt-action in-line rifle.

Reasons for hunting with muzzleloading guns are probably as numerous as the number of hunters who use them and might even change over time. As a teen, I was first interested in How do these things shoot? This evolved into, How well can I shoot them? As an adult I became a competitive shooter which ultimately progressed to What game can I kill with these guns? After taking a number of deer with side-lock and in-line guns, I wanted to hunt with the entire gambit of muzzleloading guns from single-shot matchlocks muskets to flintlock pistols to blunderbusses, ect. The ideal opportunity to use a variety of guns came when I became the Corresponding Editor for The Gun Digest Annual. Then I could not only shot each new crop of guns at the Shot Show, but could borrow and hunt with the most interesting of them.

If you want a somewhat objective way of judging your amount of interest in muzzleloading guns, you can assign a numerical score to the 11 reasons listed below and based on your results decide on your likelihood of taking up muzzleloading hunting. Rate your responses from 0 to 3. Zero means not applicable, 1 is mildly applicable, 2 is somewhat applicable, and 3 is strongly applicable. Add the totals and check the results to see if your interest is strong enough to try hunting with a muzzleloader.

Reasons for Hunting with Muzzleloading Firearms

1. I inherited a muzzleloader, and I want to hunt with the family gun. This is happening on an increasing basis, not only with original guns, but also with replica black-powder firearms. If property cleaned and stored, guns hundreds of years old can still shoot well. If you think that you might have a gun that might be restored to action, it should be inspected by a knowledgeable gunsmith, shot, cleaned, and used with modest loads. Then it may return to the woods. Still, one needs to use caution. For example, the Alonzo Selden rifle shown on the cover was made in Whitehall, New York, during the 1860s or so. I purchased it when I lived in Tucson from Arizona Al, who ran a pawn shop in town. He was a member of the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association and had shot the gun for years after he had purchased it from an airman stationed at a nearby base. The airman was from New York and this was an old family gun that he wanted to trade in on a more modern firearm. Al said that he won a number of matches with the rifle which had a Remington barrel, set triggers which looked as if they had been taken from an even older gun, and had once been drilled for adjustable