Amusing/Ridiculous Muzzleloading Misconceptions...

[The Crisco Kid]

"Where do you put the bullets in?"

 

[WRussell]

Thanks guys lots of laughs there. About accuracy, just read a report from an English cavalry officer viewing the US forces prior to an attack. He was standing just outside a treeline with a fellow officer and a bugler All holding their horses. The round fired from the enemy marksmans Pennsylvania rifle passed between the two officers and killed the buglers horse. They thought it best to get back in the trees. Paced out afterwards the range was 400 paces. The year was 1760

The book is "English Guns and Rifles" by John Nigel George, 1947. A lot has been learned since 1947, and there are some errors in the book, but the spirit of the book is totally honest, and J.N. George put in lots of fascinating anecdotes which make it a great read and well worth having in your library - just don't use it as a primary source in a research project. It can be found online for less than $40.

- Bill

 

[GREENSWLDE]

Finally found this photo taken of a chap shooting a M/L match rifle on Bisley's Stickledown range at the Centenial meeting in 2000 at 900 yds. There were quite a number of visitors present,a lot of non shooting public. I can't remember all of the comment as I was wearing ear plugs but you can imagine the general gist, particularly about the Victorian Supine position he was using. "OW can 'eh see the target all that way away" was one that sticks in my mind. OLD DOG..

 

[hanshi]

I've grown soft and squishy about taking lives.
A deer here, a rabbit there. . . . but each one weighs a little more on me. . . so I'm lots of hunt and little harvest nowadays.

It happens to all of us sooner or later. I haven't killed a deer in several years and would not even consider shooting at a bear. I stopped eating meat (farm animals) many years ago but fair chase game might be a possibility. I just can't accept the idea of eating a critter raised on a farm with no chance whatsoever of living a full life. I'm still as mean as a snake, just soft hearted.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

It happens to all of us sooner or later. I haven't killed a deer in several years and would not even consider shooting at a bear. I stopped eating meat (farm animals) many years ago but fair chase game might be a possibility. I just can't accept the idea of eating a critter raised on a farm with no chance whatsoever of living a full life. I'm still as mean as a snake, just soft hearted.

It's vary odd isn't it. I think just as taking an animals life is deeply personal, and we each feel it in our own way. . . . moving away from it, or even adjusting the priority of it seems to also be vary personal. I feel Zero animosity for those who still want to fill their limit, nor those who whoop and holler when they kill a big game animal. . . . it's just not me anymore.
I still really enjoy hunting, even the strange aspects, like enjoying the grind of a hunt that's miserable, cold& wet or hot dusty. . . . and the little boy in me still likes walking in the house with a bloody elbow or scraped up knee, but with the tell tale "blood on my boots" that says I was successful.

Yet like you I adjusted. We got Chickens in part because My wife wanted them, but also in part because for years now I won't eat eggs from a hen who lives her short life in a cages smaller than a foot locker. I'm just fine eating the eggs from "Our" hens, when I know they are running about the yard chasing grasshoppers and raiding the garden for Tomatoes when we forget to shut a gate. We started to butcher our own game because we felt the butchers could not do all that we could ourselves do, to respect the game by using just as much as posable.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

If you eat meat, you just had someone else do the killing for you.

Period.

 

[TreeMan]

Hawken vs Hawkins!

 

[Robby]

I'v experienced most of what I'v read here, and more but it never bothers me. I figure they are just ignorant on the subject and without a doubt know things about subjects that I do not. I did receive an off hand compliment one day though. I was shooting with another fellow that I didn't really know but we seemed to be at the range at the same time quite often, both Vet's so we had common things to jaw bone about. A young, well to me, guy and his wife show up and almost immediately he starts giving me the business about shooting such a gun and how it would be better to donate it to a museum where it could be enjoyed by many people, all to which I stood patiently and expressionless, he finally asked how old the rifle was, to which I said, oh about three weeks. He seemed properly mortified and my shooting buddy was doubled over with laughter. I don't think the guy knew a flintlock from a fetlock, but I took it as high praise all the same.
Robby

 

[Whitworth]

If you eat meat, you just had someone else do the killing for you.

Period.

Yep, don't deny it. I've hunted in the past, helped butcher and still kill varmints when needed. I just choose not to hunt anymore. I get my out in the woods experience hunting with my metal detector these days. I guess just knowing I can shoot squirrel, deer, dove, turkey, and bear from out the window is sufficient these days. I let a couple of friends deer hunt on my place so it's not like I'm running a Bambi preserve or something. The meat I do eat is local sourced, I don't buy shrink wrapped supermarket meat.

 

[B P Arn]

I have nothing morally against hunting wild animals, it's just that I do not like the taste. I grew up in a poor family and we killed and ate wild game year around, in season or not, and I got my fill of it a long time ago. I am so thankful to God that I can now eat safe, inspected food that tastes so good. I always smile when someone says they have this great venison/squirrel/polecat recipe that is so great that you can't tell it from beef! Guess what; I can!!!

I have yet to have anyone tell me they have a recipe for beef that makes it taste just like venison!

 

[Bob McBride]

...... I can now eat safe, inspected food that tastes so good.

I hear you on growing up eating game. I grew up in Alaska on bear backstrap, Halibut, Salmon, Blacktail deer, Caribou, and Moose. Moose tacos and Chili baby. I didn’t know what beef was all about until I left home. I still don’t eat much inspected food however. I just picked up four hogs from the processor that I raised, petted, laughter at and with, trained to sit, etc. ....just to be slaughtered. My freezer is full of Venison, 170lbs of my own Pork (the other went to family), a few Squirrels, and about 10 lbs of elk a buddy shot last year. I still buy ground beef for tacos and chili and Ribeyes for the grill though. I draw the line somewhere...

 

[hanshi]

Yep, don't deny it. I've hunted in the past, helped butcher and still kill varmints when needed. I just choose not to hunt anymore. I get my out in the woods experience hunting with my metal detector these days. I guess just knowing I can shoot squirrel, deer, dove, turkey, and bear from out the window is sufficient these days. I let a couple of friends deer hunt on my place so it's not like I'm running a Bambi preserve or something. The meat I do eat is local sourced, I don't buy shrink wrapped supermarket meat.

Any meat I might happen to eat will be from game I've killed and I haven't killed any game in many years. I use to always have plenty of venison in the freezer and that's what we ate. I've also fed quite a few people venison and they were quite sure they were eating pork chops, beef roast, etc. As a kid I brought squirrels home for my mama to cook; and there was sometimes possum, turtle, dove and quail on occasion. Taking any game animal is definitely a very personal experience. I've never whooped and hollered but always approached downed game slowly, quietly and respectfully. Mostly I did my own butchering.

I've hunted exclusively with muzzleloaders for a very long time, which my friends found very amusing. They were pretty ignorant of the flintlocks. In fact one day I was hunting and met up with a friend - former student & actually I'd virtually helped raise him (according to his dad) and who is now a surgeon. In the distance a rifle shot was heard followed by the echo; sort of a "pow"....."whoom". He immediately said, "that's a flintlock". I said "no it's not" and handed him my rifle to fire. He touched the trigger and it fired instantly, of course, and told him all he needed to know about how fast a flintlock is.

 

[tenngun]

I want my deer to taste like deer. Rabbit is good but wild rabbit so much better. Wild Turkey taste similar to tame, but again I think better. You can’t get squirrel, woodchuck,beaver, at all in the store.
I like beef but tree rats my favorite meat.
Mean to call it treerat, woods rat and gopher are pretty good but not as good as squirrel.

 

[B P Arn]

Yuh taint never ett till use had sum o mama's smoked skunk sphincters, tell you wut.

 

[toot]

Hawken vs Hawkins!

now I rely like that! I never knew that there was a difference??

 

[toot]

Yuh taint never ett till use had sum o mama's smoked skunk sphincters, tell you wut.

View attachment 62107

GABBY HAYSE, IS RIGHT!! REMEMBER THAT!.

 

[Grenadier1758]

This a picture of a Kit Carson Hawken by Don Stith:

This is a picture of an Investarms 120B "Hawkins":

Lots of difference to my point of view.

 

[griffiga]

I made believers out of my two brother in laws when they invited me to join them in a pistol shoot off. One had a Sig, the other a Glock and I had my Pedersoli LePage. About the time I exploded two Coke cans at a full 40 yards in the fork of a tree, they "Un-invited me to shoot with them." Still thinking it was luck, I loaded a third time and let the biggest doubter of the two try it. After hitting it, he looked it up and down, handed it back to me and said, " I need one of those."

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

"Back then they would march towards each other and when they got to about 40 yards apart they would fire."

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

If you eat meat, you just had someone else do the killing for you.

Period.

Yes, whether you pulled the trigger or not, you are, at least, partly responsible for the death of an animal. I, personally, have no problem with that. I wish I had the time and money to be able to kill ALL my own meat, but alas.........