buying muzzleloaders, if you had to do it all over what would you have bought and not bought

[Jaegermeister]

Wish I hadn’t sold my .54 Harpers Ferry.

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

My first was a TC LH cap lock Renegade in .54. I knew nothing, so I loaded Maxis and lots of Pyrodex. Sold it before I took out all my teeth. It did not fit me at all. Then I got an early Pedersoli RH flint Kentucky; shot well, but the lock was a "maybe." Then I moved to Lyman Great Plains LH flintlock in .50. Ate flints for Breakfast and chewed patches for lunch. Sold it too.

Shot a Parker Hale 2-band Enfield for fifteen years and wish I still had it. Stout, reliable, accurate, and easy to care of. One I wished I could get back. Also shot a Navy Arms .44 1858 Remington during the same time frame, but I was smart enough to keep that one.

Moved on to "real" flintlocks by purchasing a .50 Early Virginia LH Flint from TVM. I have shot more rounds, and won more matches, with that gun than any I own. It's never going anywhere. Now I own six TVM lefty flints and they, too, are permanent family members. Along the way had two other makers' lefty flintlocks, but hey were not as good. They are gone. Good locks rule.

I spent enough on my first three "mistakes" to have bought a "real" flintlock the first time, if I had only known.

ADK Bigfoot

 

[Norman Brooks]

I have sold, collected and built and I still have 21 long gun muzzleloaders. The one I wished I still had is the Navy Arms .58 Buffalo Hunter, the one that looks like a cut down Zouave.

 

[user 48679]

Looking back over the past 50 years, the muzzleloaders I wished I never bought were a P.O.S. Frank Wesson clone, a CVA Apollo unmentionable, an Austin & Halleck unmentionable, and T/C Thunder Hawk & Omega unmentionables.

After buying/trying all those over a few decades, I came to my senses & went back to the traditional sidelock flint & percussion guns I started out with in the 1960's.

 

[EC121]

The one I wished I still had is the Navy Arms .58 Buffalo Hunter, the one that looks like a cut down Zouave.

I bought one of them a while back. No idea why. If it ever cools off, I'll shoot it.

 

[mushka]

I've never bought a black powder gun that I have disliked. I just like some of them more than others. One I've not been able to bond with and if someone made an offer I'd probably sell it. For sure I'll always keep the TC 54 cal Hawkin my wife bought as a kit, and her 36 cal Seneca.

 

[sheriff john]

Lessons leanred the hard way - one man's junk is another man's treasure unless I bought it, in which case - it's still junk. Just like spouses, a fine-looking muzzle-loading rifle on the outside don't mean the inside's any good - both can deplete your wallet, but the rifle only once. 50 years later, still have my first M/L and wife, too. One still shoots, the other will probably shoot me.

 

[Bad Karma]

Warden and I bought JMR's the minute they came out, both killed deer with them year after year, shot many weekly matches, etc. Then, as cocked the hammer back on a nice, fat doe ...the mainspring snapped. Browning had ceased handling replacements but I found the place that had purchased remaining stock and ordered a replacement mainspring. First time I cocked it ...snap..broken. Called same place and was told there were only two left ..period...no more. Bought both, intalled new one. life was good ..until a few weeks later that one broke as well. Mainspring #4- I pray is still working for whom ever bought my old "Johnny". It was a good shooter, for sure.

I’d contact someone like,track of the wolf and ask for a competent smith to make a replacement. For the right person I bet it’s easily done.

 

[Sidney Smith]

If I had things to do over, I'd probably have started out right with a flintlock. My first muzzleloader was/is a TC Renegade left handed in .50 caliber. Shot and hunted with it for a few years, but it just didn't sit right. I had wanted to try flintlocks, so I bought my GPR some time later. I don't think I've shot the Renegade since.

 

[Dave Fox]

I more-or-less regret the money spent on the very few replica/reproductions over my 77 years. Shoot exclusively originals, but for a Cimarron .38 Special M.1871 Colt open top.

 

[TexiKan]

I started with an inexpensive Dixie .40 rifle and my desire to move into a custom made left-handed Hawken resulted in the money being sent and no product delivered. Thus I settled for my Sharon Hawken kit in .50. (made only in fight hand, of course) I had a .45 cal. Navy Arms rifle that was stolen and preferred that caliber but I continue to use my Sharon. Lord knows what I would have done had that left-handed Hawken with a Large barrel would have arrived.

 

[Stony Broke]

I hunt with my muzzleloaders a lot, just like Howie does....just in a little different part of Texas. I have owned a lot of custom rifles over the years and still have a few of them. Most of my shooting though is at club matches and it may be a little strange, but the last rifle I have been using will shoot a better group than any of the rest....although they shot just fine. My last play toy is just a common TC Hawken that I put a GM barrel on. It's a .45 and I added target peep sights.....it comes closer to shooting one hole groups than any rifle I've ever owned. The last match I shot ended with me shooting four rifle targets....and I shot four possibles !!

 

[tom_in_vt]

I would have started with a flintlock instead of a percussion rifle. No real regrets, I like them all!

 

[dkasprzak]

Still have my TC Hawken .50 built from a kit in 1984, love it and have hunted and taken a lot of deer with it. To do over, the only change would be to have purchased a .54 instead of the .50.

 

[Howie1968]

I totally

Saddens me to see what' happened to "primitive weapon" deer season. Originally limited to single-shot muzzle loaders in the 60's, it's morphed into AR's with "braces", scopes, even silencers. Not trying to change thread, but darn few reasonably-priced, authentic repo rifles/shotguns available. Bettter keep what we have.

agree with you sir

 

[JamesA]

LOL!! I wish I hadn't given my son my .45 cal. CVA Kentucky rifle but ultimately, about 20 years later, I ended up with my Hawken. I wouldn't change anything at this point.

 

[TFoley]

I would have liked to have been able to try my hand at taking a deer, but unfortunately that is prohibited here in UK. So all my muzzleloading has been paper-hunting. I should have kept my first Whitworth rifle, though, but I've ended up with a lovely older one after a gap of ten years.

Having a wall-hanger has never been my thing, so a few more 'real' antiques to shoot would have been good. I have just three, two of them conversions of the P53/8, and a genuine Robert T. Pritchett Volunteer. However, the laws here are not amicable for those wanting to shoot their antiques. Smoothbores have so far not been my thing, either, but there is time.

 

[desi23]

Well some I liked more than others but I can't really say there were any I regret. Other than I regret selling a couple of them. When I was younger there were times when something else caught my eye or I needed quick cash and let a gun go I wished later I hadn't.

I do wish my first rifle kit build (a CVA Kentucky) was a little more authentic but it still shoots very well. Killed my first muzzle loading deer with it many years ago and have managed to hang onto it all this time. I think I regret the ones I didn't buy more than anything else. Passed on a number of the second generation Colts I should have bought (you know it bugs ya' when you can remember it 40 years later). Hemmed and hawed over a couple Parker Hale muskets and missed out on them. At least when I went to working full time in the gun business I learned that if something really spoke to me I better find a way to pay for it before it got away too

 

[nhmoose]

Do it over, Original shootable Brown Besse's at 7-800 bucks in the 70's.

Hershel House rifle early 70's 2K or so.

Many NFA at cheapo costs.

 

[Big Bear Joe]

It doesn't sound like many of us are willing to sell any front stuffer we've manage to get our hands on!