Have carried an original Smith deer hunting a number of times, but have never had the opportunity to take anything with it. Have debated using it with an original paper wrapped rubber cartridge, but have just saved the original cartridges so far. The thought of using a cartridge that was loaded over 150 years ago to take an animal is intriguing, but once it’s been shot......
Interestingly, the Smith Carbine did cause me some grief a few years back. Got invited to ‘blackpowder’ hunting club (blackpowder, no modern guns, Civil War or earlier guns) and decided to bring the Smith. While putting the Smith in it’s case at the end of the first day, the Grand Poobah of the group noticed the break open action and had a meltdown. I was breaking one of the club’s cardinal rules with my breech loading ‘modern’ gun on my very first hunt there. The gentleman who had brought me as his guest made the comment that I had the only original pre 1865 gun in camp, as everyone else had TCs, Lymans or CVAs. Didn’t matter, because everyone knew it was a ‘muzzleloader’ only club..... Buddy and I packed up our stuff and left. Got invited back a couple of times after the ‘misunderstanding’, but didn’t go. Group lost their lease a year two later when they could not attract enough like minded high drama members to keep things affordable.