Black Powder Shooting Books

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Dutch,
It would be a great loss to the muzzleloading community if you were to withdraw your book or yourself. I can honestly say that buying that book many years ago was some of the best money that I have ever spent. Some folks just like to argue, It's what fuels them.
Thank you
 
THANK YOU, OLD RUST. I AGREE WITH YOU.

WHEN YOU COACH SOMEONE TO WHERE THEY are quite happy with their rifle and then a while later you find that same person raving about how much slicker this patch lube is than some other goo. You wonder how damn dumb some people can be.
I was faced with the the problem of raising my price to about $27 or $28 and felt that would keep people away from becoming subscribers so iI spent about $600 to get everything digitized so to keep the price at $19.95. and now people are raving about a $29. 95 book.
I investigated the cost of going Hard Cover and got a price in the Upper thirties to $45.
I still get posts like yours which is my best reward but these never show up on the Forum
I started a thread on Accuracy and to date have had just one response that was more sympathetic than joining in.
I believe all or most of my orders came from non Forum folk

I feel that when people state that such and such procedure "Really worked well" that they should be required to also present a picture of the tighter group that resulted from that procedure.
Happy Easter, by the way.
It'sgoing to hit the 80's today.
I have coached quite a few people over the internet all with great success but so what.
I will continue to have my web site with it's opportunity to get the eBook but will no longer review all the posts most of which promote practices that to me are stupid as the frustration is way too much.

Thank you for you nice post. Old Rust rings no bell in my mind but if you would like the current edition of the book send me an email at

[email protected]
And I\ll zip a copy to you immediately. No charge of course.

Dutch Schoultz

are
Dutch,
It would be a great loss to the muzzleloading community if you were to withdraw your book or yourself. I can honestly say that buying that book many years ago was some of the best money that I have ever spent. Some folks just like to argue, It's what fuels them.
Thank you
 
I was a fortunate lad 60 years ago. My grandfather brought me up. My Pepere taught me firearms, both BP and modern. Over the years I looked at many books, articles, etc. and only a couple taught me anything new. The best was Dutch's round ball accuracy method, bought it back when MLML was active. When I started shooting long range, using a PH Volunteer .451 Rigby rifling, I found web articles by David Minshall useful.
 
"I found web articles by David Minshall useful."

He is a wealth of information, shame he does not post here any more.
 
Two books I find useful are "Flintlocks - A Practical Guide for their Use and Appreciation" by Eric A. Bye and "Percussion Pistols And Revolvers: History, Performance and Practical Use" by Mike Cumpston.

Amazon has the Eric Bye book for 24 bucks as an ebook and used copies starting at $145 which is insane. I want books like this in paper. Crazy Crow has new copies for 29.95 and shipping. I think it is worth the price.

Another vote for Sam Fadala's "The Complete Black Powder Handbook". I used it to get started back before there was an internet.

Jeff
As a complete novice, I picked up a copy of Bye's book and really like it.
 
For me, Ned Roberts and his book “The Muzzle Loading Cap Lock Rifle” turned a passing interest into this:
7CCDABCE-60B7-428C-BC4C-D7DF8814EFA3.jpeg

Much of the information in that book applies to the earlier flint guns, too. Can be found on Amazon and Track of the Wolf and is an awesome read if you’re interested in traditional muzzleloaders.
 
Walter Cline's book The Muzzleloading Rifle Then And Now is a good one, and a couple I am reading right now that I am finding fascinating are Hints to Riflemen by H.W.S. Cleveland (written about sporting rifles, but during the Civil War) and Firearms of the Confederacy by Claude Fuller.

The latter has a ton of actual C.S.A. ordnance department/military correspondence and inventory numbers as well as many detailed descriptions. I also find fascinating how it details how many arms were transferred properly, through channels, from northern armories and depots to those in southern states right up until the war actually started, with authorizations from the head of the Union War Department.
 
Chaco24, you made good choices! However, I think a lot of us have "libraries" of our own shooting books, so, as your interest gets deeper, you'll probably find yourself wanting more books.

I have two other suggestions. First, consider subscribing to one of the black powder shooting magazines. You'll get Muzzle Blasts every month if you join the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association (NMLRA). Muzzleloader is privately published and comes six times a year. In my opinion, the editorial quality is better in Muzzleloader, and Mike Nesbitt writes a column about some aspect of shooting every month. Also, they usually have a hunting article and a feature about one of the many custom builders or craftsmen. However, probably the largest portion of the magazine is given over to material of more interest to reenactors than those who just enjoy shooting, and they usually have at least one lengthy, serialized historical article going that spills over into multiple issues. I find most of these too tedious to read, although they appear to have gotten Ted Belue back on board recently, and I always enjoy his work. A great many back issues are available. Tables of contents for back issues are shown on the Muzzleloader website, so you can get the ones that have the information you want.

The second suggestion is that if you buy a new gun, it's a good idea to read the manual that comes with it. These usually have a lot of warnings and safety precautions, but if you can wade through all of that, the manual will also have usable and practical information pertaining to that particular model of firearm, with recommended powder granulation and charge, ball size and patch thickness, and instructions for taking the gun apart, cleaning it, and reassembling it.

Good luck to you,

Notchy Bob
 
I fell for Falada’s 120 grn loads for a 54 rifle for a while. Found the load af 70 grains much better with less kick. However I never had to shoot at big game at 100-150 yards as in NH and New England 50-60 is far.

Bull moose I shot in Maine at 25-30 yards had complete penetration, video shown steam from entry and exit just before he fell over.
 
Interesting that you mention your local library.

When I moved I had a lot of books and I went to the local library to donate them. They told me if the books were over 5 years old they did not want them. I asked they lady if I had a Gutenberg Bible would they take it, and her response was if it was over 5 years old they would not take it. Sigh.

When I was learning to shoot black powder I went to the library on base and in town and checked out books to learn, that was before the days of the internet and instant learning.

I still value books and read a lot.

She sounds like a drone. I wonder why she works in a library. How could she answer that about a Gutenberg Bible?
 
The first book on black powder I got was the Lyman black powder manual. Reading excerpts from Ned Roberts led me to buy his book. I don't care for Sam Fadala's work, period. Nonte is a well respected writer, anything he puts on paper is worth reading. I found a used copy of Black powder Gun Digest for $1 at a junk shop, I wouldn't take $25 for it now. I searched Abebooks.com and found a copy of Walter Kline's book written in the 30's. Its also a great book.
 
I enjoyed reading Sam Fadala's work when I was younger and less experienced and I learned a lot from it and still refer to it on occasion. Some of his stuff is the only place you'll find certain info.

That said I am more discriminating these days and get more enjoyment and learning out of authors like Roberts, Kline, Cleveland and Mann that are more period contemporary.
 
Back
Top