Your favorite muzzleloader?

[Skychief]

What is your favorite muzzleloader, past or present?

Try to pick one and only one. :nono:

Please mention why you favor(ed) it so and how you use(d) it.

Best regards, Skychief.

 

[Cowboy]

Dang! This is such a very, very, hard question to answer because I have such a special relationship with each and every one of them! They are all sentimental to me one way or another.

But if I had to choose only one and I do! It would have to be " Kearney ". It is a Cabela's Hawken in .50 made by Investarm.

I named this muzzleloader " Kearney " because the wife and I picked it up at a Cabela's in Kearney Nebraska. We were visiting my folks and relatives in Wyoming and was heading back to Illinois where I live now.

Kearney is my first muzzleloader. I cut my teeth on that rifle. Shot the manure out of it and got myself hooked with the BP Bug. That muzzleloader is not the nicest one I have by a long shot but it's my first love!!!

Respectfully, Cowboy

 

[BrownBear]

Only way I can sort through them that way is to decide which one would be the last to leave, if I decided to thin them down to one.

That one clearly would be my 58 caliber Hawken from the old Green River Rifle Works built by Ron Paull. It's as true to Hawken details and configuration as I've seen, right down to the tapered barrel. It's 1 1/8" at the breech and 1" at the muzzle, 36" long. It's certainly built for horseback carry (as I suspect were the originals) at a little over 12 pounds. The single most accurate muzzleloader I've personally shot or seen shot, some claim due to the "choked" bore that's a little tighter at the muzzle. Not easy to lug over hill and dale, but worth the effort for sure.

 

[bubba.50]

regrettably it's long gone but my favorite would be the 54cal Renegade kit gun that started me down this dark path in 1974, the year they came out. absolutely loved that gun & don't guess I've ever shot another one that was as accurate.

punched a lot of paper, cans and split a lot of blocks of wood with it & used it my first few years of muzzler huntin'.

sadly, it bravely volunteered to go to a new home to help fund truck repairs.

 

[azmntman]

Used to be my ROA. Then I got a lil 1849 pocket thats a HOOT to shoot.

 

[ohio ramrod]

My favorite is the first rifle I made entirely from parts rather than from a "kit". Ugly yes, straight shooter with Douglas barrel Yea! :idunno:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Mine is my Cabin Creek .54 Pennsylvania Mountain Rifle, flintlock. I've had a lot of adventures with Trudy, and she's my favorite.

LD

 

[wattlebuster]

It has supplied me with venison since I have had it(2013) Its plain with no carving an the only engraving is the makers initials in the barrel flat an the rifles name in the sideplate. Its all business with one intended purpose. My favorite is "Samson" my Don Bruton built southern iron mounted Boone pattern 1760 style rifle. Its a .62 cal 38inch Charles Burton barrel with a Caywood wilson english lock set in a slab sawn plain piece of maple from Dunlap. Don hand forged the rest. Its a straight shooter an hits like a sledge hammer.

 

[Eric Krewson]

My favorite seems to be whichever gun is my latest build.

 

[nhmoose]

My first build from scratch. I call here homey. She has a fir-de-lis that looks like 3 beef tongue's. German silver fittings[now yuk!], small Siler flintlock, 42 inch GM 13/16 barrel, a sweet curly maple stock from a local blank of wood. All hand inlet.

I have over 50 medals, and 3 deer on the gun. Never mind the small game and informal shoots won.

I have made 30+ New England flintlocks since with way better workmanship but she is MINE. With my arthritis I see no new builds in my future.

I cannot shoot rifle to well any more with my macular degeneration to diabetes but do and will enjoy my smoothbore flinters.

 

[ron wehmeyer]

My M-1803/41/51 Kongsberg Jaeger rifle .72 Cal. The old Jaeger rifle has not been mine very long , but is fast becoming my favorite. The more I shoot it the mo re I like it ! ,,,DT

 

[nkbj]

TC Hawken flinter with the 32" long .62 caliber rifled barrel.
With that much metal removed from the 1" across the flats it holds and points nicely for me.

Favorite TC status may change soon, when these start in the .52 Renegade. They're patched up and ready to test. I just have to find the time.

 

[mooman76]

I can't really name a favorite. I have several and each is a favorite for a different reason. Probably the closest I come to a favorite though is an old original 32 cal. It's a plain Jane kind of gun. Some have referred to it as a hardware store gun. It has seen allot of ware over the years and shows signs of being reworked and parts replaced and it came without the bolt that holds the cap lock in place. I put the best bolt I could find to hold it in place to make it shootable. It's out of place until I find something more suitable for it.

Like I said it's seen allot of ware over the years but the barrel, 1 1/8 is still in great shape and weighs a ton. The front sight is so tiny I have to wear my glasses to see it down that long ways. First time shooting it, it clover leafed at 25yards. I would probably be the last gun I would give up if I had to get rid of some.

 

[rf50cal]

I believe it was in 2010 that my son and I, traveled with Allen Martin, his son Ted, John Getz and another friend to the Historical Society in Reading Pa., to see the exhibit of Berks County rifles on display there.

An original rifle built by Michael Aldenderfer in 1810 caught my interest. The rifle has a blend of Lancaster, Bucks, and Berks Co. characteristics. I brought it to Allen's attention and he agreed to build me a copy of the rifle. It has become my favorite. A .50 cal with a 44 inch octagon to round barrel, very slender and weighs just under 7 pounds. I have taken 5 deer with it in the past 4 years.

 

[Stumpkiller]

My favorite is my 7 lb Mike Brooks swamped barrel 16 bore fowler flintlock.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

My E. TN rifle in .40 that I built was the last gun project I was able to share with one of my best friends. He really enjoyed seeing my progress on gun projects. He passed away a couple months after I finished it. He will be missed, and this gun reminds me of him and the good times. It is irreplaceable, and a great shooter, to boot.

 

[AZbpBurner]

My favorite is whatever I happen to be holding at the moment - rifles: usually .54 cal and flint, although there are some cappers in the mix, too. Revolvers: too many to narrow it down, but lately the .36's are getting more range time.

Favorite Rifle: the .40 cal capper Dad built in 1970. I did the brass work on it, and some of the finishing. It doesn't see as much range time as it should, but it's more of my winter gun.

Favorite Revolver: Dad brought home a Colt 1861 from an Ohio Gun Collector's Show in about 1968. I have it now & split the time between it and a new 1851 Pietta.

As time and weather change, favorites, change, too. It's silly to try to narrow something down to only one, whether vehicles, guns, dogs, food or the wimmens :wink:

 

[Coot]

I can't tell you which is my favorite. If I did, the others would find out and would be so bent that they would never shoot straight again. :wink:

 

[Billnpatti]

Dang! Ask me an easier question such as which is my favorite child or which is my favorite grandchild. When my triplet grandkids were born, folks at work asked me which one was my favorite and I told them "My favorite is the one I am holding at the time." That's much like which is my favorite muzzleloader. I have several and each one is different and I love each one for what it is. I have a .32, a .36, a .40, a .45, a couple of .50s and a .54. Of course, they don't have different genders but some are caplocks and some are flintlocks. They are each so special because I built everyone of them. Each has a different style, a different caliber and different wants in their favorite load. They are like children in that way. No, they won't grow up and marry and give me grandpistols :grin: but they are like my children and I love each one of them. Since I love each one just as much as the other, my favorite at any one time would depend on what I am asking it to do....squirrel hunting? Deer hunting? Punching paper? :idunno: It all depends...... :hatsoff:

 

[Rifleman1776]

Without question, a transitional Rev. period rifle built by Ray Miller of Kingsville, MO. I carried, used and shot that rifle from 1976 until a few years ago when my shoulders went bad. Until then it was my 'go to' rifle and shot many-many thousands of time and took several deer for me. Sadly, now it is a safe queen.