Best traditional ML for a small lady?

[bigdog2]

My wife was recently bitten by the muzzleloader bug. I have a swell FL Kentucky style rifle I built from a Track of the Wolf kit, but she needs something small and light. She's barely over 5 foot tall, and has a lenght of pull around 12 inches.
I am basically looking for suggestions for either a youth model, or short, percussion, ML, preferrably new.

TIA!

 

[rabjr]

Found two that might fit the bill here.[url] http://www.sittingfoxmuzzleloaders.com/finishedguns.htm[/url]

 

[BrownBear]

A bud has the Pedersoli Frontier Carbine in 50 cal. My wife took one look at it, picked it up, and decided she had to have one. They handle great and are as accurate as can be. I'd be tempted to stay with 50 rather than go to 45 simply to hold down the barrel weight. You can always drop the charges a bit to cut recoil in the 50.

 

[Walks with fire]

I don't know if you can find one but a TC PA Hunter carbine with a 21" barrel is plenty nice. The length of pull could be shortened to 12" easy. They come in .50 caliber with .010 deep grooves, mine is flint but they may have made a capper as well. If you find one use the .495 ball and around .018-.020 patch. Mine cuts one big hole about 1 3/4" - 2" across at 75 yards. Nice well balanced little carbines. Google around a bit and you may find some. I did see a place on the internet that had some brand new ones for sale a while back and they were priced right. I didn't save the site so I'm not sure where it was.

 

[Old Salt]

Tip Curtis makes a few small models. I picked up a small Lancaster .40 cal 36" straight octagon Green Mountain barrel 3/4" across the flats. LOP is 12 1/4", in the white with iron furniture.

Cabin Creek Muzzleloading makes a nice youth model too.

Old Salt

 

[bucktales]

Lyman Deerstalker or a T/C WMC ,if you can find one, both in .50.
Won't break the bank either.

 

[Jarikeen]

The Pedersoli Frontier, Scout or Dixie Cub could be good choices - just check the catalogue, but I think you will find that the .45 is lighter than the .50 cal, as the barrel on the .45 is 13/16" across the flats where as the .50 cal is 7/8" (at least on the scout). A CVA Frontier is about[url] 3.35Kgs[/url] in weight. The T/C Senica might be good choice too, if you can get one. Personally I'd stick to a .45 Cal for reduced recoil. 25 grains of 3F in a .45 makes a great accurate target load with very little recoil and you will still ring the gong at 100 yards no worries (I do!). I'm over 6' tall and I still prefer these lighter shorter (28-32") rifles. Some people get put off purchasing these rifles for themselves, if it is listed as a ladies or youths rifle - don't be. For unsupported stand up shooting, most people would do better to use a rifle with a shorter pull too, that is one around 12 - 12.5". Most common seems to be 13.5". Shorter pull moves the centre of gravity closer to the shooter, making it easier to hold.

 

[Walks with fire]

Are you looking for a hunting gun for deer or a target gun?

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Boys,

What you have listed are huge compared to the Traditions Deer Hunter, it only wieghs 6 lbs and is 40 inches total. COmes in left and right handed, and flint to perc.

I had one over the weekend for the wife to try. It was 32 cal. We gave it back, and Im going to build a shortened 45 cal for her.

 

[BrownBear]

That Pedersoli Frontier Carbine is 44" overall and in 50 cal weighs only 6 pounds, while the barrel is 28". You could cut the weight to around 5.5 pounds you could go to 54 cal, but recoil goes up correspondingly when you get into deer hunting loads. Not cheap, but a very good looking rifle that shoots better than many full sized rifles. Though you would pay more, your wife will be really proud when others oh and ah over such a pretty little thing. If she's like my wife, that will mean a lot.

 

[longcruise]

I got my wife one of those Deerhunters in .50 cal. It's light and easy to handle. Barrel is, I think, 24 inches.

This one was a kit gun and was a pretty simple build. Mostly just wood and metal finish. The fit of the parts was as good as any other kit I've built and this one was under $150 at that time, which was several years ago.

LOP will be over 12 inches but it could be modified a bit.