dalberg

Its just plain fun, and I think it makes me a better hunter. Reminds me a lot of bow hunting, you have to be patient and wait for a good shot, after all you only get one (usually).
Doug

nchawkeye

I was born in 1955 and the TV series Daniel Boone came out in 1964...I was 9, my younger brother 18 months behind me and we never missed a show...During that time when all we had were 3 channels we always watched The Wonderful World of Disney with the whole family...The Davy Crockett movie was also shown on that as well...

I read every biography in the elementary school that I went to...My folks took me to Williamsburg when I was a kid, we lived about an hour and a half from there...We also went to Jamestown and Yorktown and we had a cottage on the Outer Banks so I also visited The Lost Colony and the Wright Memorial down there...

During college I had a buddy that bought a CVA Kentucky that he couldn't get to shoot...He brought it to me and I worked up a load and ended up killing squirrels and a couple of deer with it...I then bought a CVA Kentucky pistol kit in a flintlock...I put the kit together and when finished the frizzen spring was too strong and the frizzen wouldn't fully flip over...I put it on the eye of the stove and heated to a cherry red, took it off and let it cool and the lock worked perfectly...I gave that pistol to our fraternity advisor as he was a history buff and author of several books on the Old South...

I moved to Atlanta in 1977 and went to work for John Deere...One Saturday afternoon I went to Stone Mountain and while walking down the street I saw a gunshop...Well, Bob Watts owned this shop, he is written up in Foxfire 5...I was in heaven when I started looking at some of the rifles...I had spent enough time in Williamsburg that I knew a factory built percussion wasn't for me...Bob had a few flintlocks for sale, he handed me one and that's all it took...That first was a .45 caliber flintlock with a Siler lock on her...The first range trip was all I needed, I was shooting inch and a half groups right off the bat...The only real learning curve was learning how to take knap and adjust the flint...

From 1977-1985 or so that's the only rifle I used...In 1987 I had an encounter with a bear and quickly decided a .54 was in my future...I built a .54 Lancaster flintlock which took 2 years and 200 hours...I've rebarreled the .45 to a .40 and now use it for small game...

btw...When I was building the .54 my older daughters were in grade school...We had craft days and I brought my work bench and rifle parts along with the .45 and showed the kids what I was doing and gave demonstrations with the .45 with blank loads...I now give talks on the Revolutionary War in period garb to schools and Boy Scout Troops in the area...The kids and teachers eat it up...

Oh yea...I now have 4 seasons of Daniel Boone on cd that the wife and kids have given me and of course the Davy Crockett movie from 1955 with Fess Parker...

It's become a tradition that when one of my nephews turns 5-6 I give them the Davy Crockett movie for Christmas along with a coonskin cap and one of those Kentucky caplock rifles...

At 54, I still remember the first time I shot a muzzleloader back in 1975...I still love telling stories to kids about how Daniel Boone went across the mountains into Kentucky in 1769, about how he rescued Jemima and the Callaway girls from the Shawanee in 1777, about how he was captured at the salt licks in 1778, about how Boonesboro was attacked by the Shawanee and British later that year and was saved by a thunderstorm after an 11 day siege...

So for me, it's the history, it's getting dressed into period garb, it's that feeling in the woods when hunting that the gun in my hand was the most advanced and reliable firearm at the time...It's what we won the American Revolution with, it's what was used to bring down deer, turkeys and other game...It's the type gun Lewis and Clark took from St Louis to the Pacific...It's what was used at the Battle of New Orelans, the gun Davy Crockett was using at the battle of the Alamo and the gun that eventually won Texas it's independence...

oldsmellhound

For a long time bow hunting was my favorite, but the muzzleloading bug has bit me bad, and it's hard to say which is my favorite anymore. I originally got into it because I was plain fed up with my shotgun. I've always hunted in a shotgun only state, and I never could afford a rifled shotgun. My always loved my Winchester cornshucker, that is, right up until the point deer gun season started.

With the old shotty, my 50 yard "groups" were in the 8" range on a good day. I did harvest deer with it, but had lots of bad shots and misses too. So I basically took the ML plunge to increase my accuracy and range. But it has grown on me more and more, to the point where I doubt I would use any other type of gun for deer hunting, regardless of what was legal.

rafsob

At first I did it only to extend my hunting season. I started with and inline NEF Sidekick. I did that for a few years and met a guy who got me into traditional sidelocks.

I became intrigued with them and fell in live with them. I have gone from a .32 cal Crockett to .50, .54. and my latest buy a .58 Big Boar and a T.C New Englander 12 ga. I still hunt centerfire, but am thinking of going to ML the whole season next year!

They are not slow or complicated, they are just a bunch of fun to shoot.

ayunk04

I started flintlock hunting this year, only reason being that my uncles told me its the best hunting outside of archery. Needless to say it took me one drive in the morning to get hooked, wearing snow camo and having heards of deer damn near run ya over. Outside of my archery hunting i definitly say it is the best hunting. Never had a misfire yet (knock on wood lol). Shot alot, missed alot, but finally got one been hooked ever since!

MO-KS_hunter

Well I just recieved my first muzzleloader this year and originally I asked for one to extend my season. After shooting it at the range a few times, I find myself liking it more and more and I find myself looking at more traditional muzzleloaders now (the T/C hawken .54 cal is particularly interesting to me). I've been hunting deer for about 10 years now and killing deer with a .270 or .30-06 is a pretty easy process and I'm starting to find it less and less enjoyable. I bowhunt as well and, while very satisfying when I score, it is extremely frustrating to have deer get about 50 yards from me and stop (which has happened on more than one occasion). Muzzleloading seems to be a good blend of being challenging but not to the point of wanting to pull my hair out and quit. I haven't hunted with a muzzleloader yet so I don't know but I bet I'll have a good time.....

Breechplug

I am a Bowhunter first and will always be a Bowhunter. I like you found the ****Gun and Mostly the Rifle to be Unsatisfying. The Mler is just as deadly as the Shotgun and Rifle and in a-lot of cases will shoot just as far. But the biggest thing with the Mler is you have (just one shot) that is the difference between the Shotgun and Rifle. Your not gonna shoot Deer closer with the ML than with the others but knowing you only have that one shot will make you a better Hunter and you will only take your best shot, that's the satisfying part of Hunting with a MLer.
Getting Deer close with t your Bow or Gun is a whole nother ball game, that part should be mastered first in My Opinion, pnce you master this part you can take Deer with anything.
(BP)

alleyyooper

It was my little brothers fault. He got tired of ML hunting alone so for Christmas of 1976 he bought me a T/C Hawkins 50cal kit. I worked on that kit nearly non stop for a couple of months. when It was finished I took it out in the back 40 loaded as recommended in the manual placed it in a tire with a string tied to the trigger. Got about a 100 yards away and pulled that string. It went boom and smoked up the place for a bit, but was still in one piece. Loaded it again after setting a can on a fence post and paced off 50 yards our adverage longest shot deer hunting and shot. Well right off I liked that set trigger thing., second I liked seeing that tin can all ripped apart when the smoke cleared.
My brother belonged to a group at work of low lifes who didn't want to do any thing except shoot ML and he got me doing the same thing. We worked the night shift so shot all morning and went to work smelling like sulfer. In 1983 I redid all the metal work and browned the barrel. That has about all been worn off now.
I hunted with and shot that old hawkins till 1992 when I decded my eyes were so bad trying to use open sights just wasn't working. No way I'm gonna put a scope on it so I bought a T/C plains rifle 50 cal. and put a T/C removable scope mount on it with a Weaver K4 I had bought at a yard sale for $5.00.
I've got a safe full of Remington 700 center fires I just love em. So when they came out with the ML I had to have one I got it in 1998. It's a 54 cal. latter I got another one in 50 cal. But for the last 4 years all I deer hunt with other than the bow is that 54cal Remington.

On January 8th My buddy and I were hunting youtes. I took the remmy 54 that I had loaded on November 14. It was negtive 8F that morning, when the yote came boiling out of the brush along the creek the fireing pin on the remmy moved in slow motion the first time but on the second trigger pull it went off rolling the youte about 5 yards and gutting him at the same time. those 300gr. Speer 50cal Gold Dot HP's do and awsome job.
I'll keep hunting the youtes with it as long as fur prices are down and my buddy doesn't want the hides.

I'm still shooting my center fires although not hunting with them as much. I am also wanting a rifled slug shot gun really bad.

Al

Mr.Flintlock

I enjoyed reading the great stories all of you posted. One other thing that I enjoy is that after almost 40 years of shooting muzzleloaders, I am still learning new things about shooting them.

gman57

Newbie here to MLs ,longtime bow hunter and centerfire rifle hunter.After I was iniated into bowhunting that was it for me I wanted to hunt each season with the bow,it is so much more personal then rifle shooting and takes much more commitment. For several years I used shotgun in our late shotgun/muzzle season here on the Island in NY and it was great in that it extended my deer season but being limited to a smooth bore shotgun most sightings were misses due to range. A couple of guys in my club muzzle hunted in the late archery muzzle / bow season at our cabin upstate and were always after me to try the ML but guns were losing their intrest to me. End of last summer Cabelas had a sale on the Traditions Pursuit LT scoped and camoed I thought the price was to good to pass up and on whim bought one. After hefting it and shooting same I had a new addiction, I started hitting several BP forums and before I even got my first deer with my ML I had to have a CVA Accura. My buddies thought I was nuts like with my bows I get a something in my mind and it eats on me till I figure a way I can get it. Last month got my first doe with the Traditions it was almost like bow hunting for me and I looked foward to shooting this smokepole more. Within a few days I gave in to the crave and ordered the Accura,havent shot it yet but cant wait will be soon. I think I like this smokepole business