Death of muzzleloading

[TC Tommy]

You're right about that N.Y. Yankee. Here in Michigan when crossbows started coming into the hunting scene they were regulated to handy capped
people. Then they opened it up to anybody. Now there are folks trying to get those Air Bows allowed. Those that don't know, they are high pressure
air guns that shoot a crossbow bolt. I'm waiting for them to come up with one where you put a blank in it and load a bolt.
What, what's wrong, what are you talking about, that's an arrow and this is archery. Yeah and this is my middle finger.

With these darn inline guns, it will only be a matter of time before someone designs it to stuff a PB down the muzzle till it seats down on a ring, then
shove a blank in the breach. What, what's wrong, what are you...............

Inline suck's, side lock's rule. Period!

 

[Rock Home Isle]

So at the advent of the cartridge gun did the use of muzzleloaders die out only to be re-invented in the 1970's or did some continue to hunt and shoot these relics. Many here are on the assumption that folk just ceased to use them.

The flintlock was in use for around 220+/- years, then came the caplock, which was in use for about 60+/- years before the metallic cartridge arrived…and the metallic cartridge has been in use ever since.

The thing to realize is that the use of muzzleloaders never really stopped. There was a significant revival in the late 60’s and 70’s…but the sport/hobby of muzzleloading never really stopped and restarted.

 

[MrMackc]

So at the advent of the cartridge gun did the use of muzzleloaders die out only to be re-invented in the 1970's or did some continue to hunt and shoot these relics. Many here are on the assumption that folk just ceased to use them.

As I remember it, Muzzleloading became a hobby for some, and a fad for others because the hobby became an alternate to bows and arrows and cartridge firearms for hunting wild game when as muzzleloading fans, and their lobbying partners ramped up asking states for a special muzzleloading game hunting season. That was the case in Texas.

 

[MrMackc]

You're right about that N.Y. Yankee. Here in Michigan when crossbows started coming into the hunting scene they were regulated to handy capped
people. Then they opened it up to anybody. Now there are folks trying to get those Air Bows allowed. Those that don't know, they are high pressure
air guns that shoot a crossbow bolt. I'm waiting for them to come up with one where you put a blank in it and load a bolt.
What, what's wrong, what are you talking about, that's an arrow and this is archery. Yeah and this is my middle finger.

With these darn inline guns, it will only be a matter of time before someone designs it to stuff a PB down the muzzle till it seats down on a ring, then
shove a blank in the breach. What, what's wrong, what are you...............

Inline suck's, side lock's rule. Period!

I doubt it because that would be a form of BREACH Loading rather than muzzleloading.

 

[COTNTOP]

I know of no old ML rifle in my AO. Never saw one shot until in the 70's and it was a TC Hawken. Still there is minimal interest in this sport here except the $5000 long range smokeless powder modern projectile bolt action deer hunting ML rifle. I helped a guy set his up last year and he was shooting sub MOA at 500yd. One statement he said was that it took no cleaning.

 

[Old Hawkeye]

Back in my day...I hunted before School....shot the Buck. gutted him left him there. Went to School came back got the buck. Five miles each way with no shoes on my feet.

I did much the same, except I wore tennis shoes when it snowed & always took a back strap to my teacher!

 

[Flintlock]

It ain't about the gun as CF or ML,, your missing a point and generalizing a function of mechanics.
It's about "Sport".
What skill does it take?
What is the Challenge made or accomplished with either CF or ML? And how does an individual measure his own accomplishments to his satisfaction?
I load and shoot both,,
You "presume" muzzleloaders died out,, but by what measurement? Your lack of knowledge of them as a youth?

But the "surge" was the Bi-centenial of the country,, you shoulda been there as an adult.

Not I, couple others on the forum insist that the use died then was reinvented in the 60's. I'm just proving them wrong.

 

[Crooked Creek]

Back in my day...I hunted before School....shot the Buck. gutted him left him there. Went to School came back got the buck. Five miles each way with no shoes on my feet.

Uphill...both ways...in the snow.

 

[Hawk54]

Back in my day...I hunted before School....shot the Buck. gutted him left him there. Went to School came back got the buck. Five miles each way with no shoes on my feet.

Now the coyotes would get it before you got back to it.

 

[leadhoarder]

We are using them today. So no they did not die out.

I am also pretty certain that folks continued to use them in the late 1800s and into the 1900s. Not everyone could afford a new rifle and the muzzleloaders were undoubtedly available and most were probably cheaper than a modern rifle back then. Granted most probably went to a single shot cartridge shotgun but the muzzleloaders were still a viable choice.

 

[ronaldrothb49]

Don't think it ever totally died out. The NMLRA started in 1933 so interest especially in the central part of the country grew from there. There were still a few old time gun makers like Hacker Martin, Cornell Kemper and Wallace Gusler who helped keep it going. The 70's and the Bi-centennial saw a huge increase in interest.

 

[andy52]

Not sure anyone could put an exact date on the question, even if it happened. The movie Sargent York shows muzzleloader often in the film and that would have been right before WWI.

 

[mushka]

I am of the belief that no kind of weapon completely disappears from the planet because of improvements of weaponry. Bows, arrows, spears, atlatls, BP guns were always around, never went completely away. Maybe used by only a few but they were there. Old style weapons of all kinds will always be around.

 

[SOLANCO]

I'll throw some fuel on the fire, did the introduction of inline rifles, pellets, sabots, etc. take away the use of traditional muzzleloaders or help bring more shooter to the traditional side of muzzleloading ?

IMHO those devices were marketed for deer hunters who used unmentionables but wanted to take advantage of special ML seasons.
How many of them it brought into traditional ML is unknowable.

 

[GREENSWLDE]

Don't think M/l has ever died.In the early 1940's there was an old 10b M/l shot gun in the corner of the out house. It was OLD HARRY's gun.He,a retired lengths man used it regularly to shoot Black Birds (Crows & rooks0 feeding on the corn.. Muzzle loading punt guns have always been used on the tideway and still are..O.D.

 

[CaptainKirk]

I was a teen when "Jeremiah Johnson" came to the big screen. Saw it no less than three times the first year it came out at the theater, and have watched it several hundred times (no hyperbole) since (own the VHS and DVD versions).
I've been obsessed with ML since I was a kid but that movie really pushed me over the cliff. ML is not dead as long as the past is kept alive.

 

[Texas Gil]

In 1957 I visited Old Williamsburg Va, and was exposed to flintlocks up close and personal. I purchased a Japan made Tower flint pistol at a shop there. I was hooked from that point on with muzzleloading. Then came my Belgium made 1860. Then the Hawken.
Back then a lot of guys my age were pre conditioned by history books about Daniel Boone, Dave Crockett to love the frontiersman lore. It was a natural to jump on available muzzleloader guns when they cam available. Turner Kirkland really did start all this for us. Thanks to DGW!

 

[cynthialee]

In my family we never shot muzzle loaders until Jerimiah Johnson. When my dad saw that movie, that next hunting season he had a .50 caliber Hawken and took the family hunting.
My grandfather thought it was a crazy and quaint idea my father had to go hunting with just 1 bullet.
I am the only one in the family who got the bug from dad. Rest of the family thinks my rifles are a silly idea. But I know for a fact ain't a one of them capable of my simple marksmanship. They seem to be from the hurl as much lead down range as fast as possible and hope for the best crowd. Where I just take a few moments to properly shoot.

 

[RIDE-RED350R]

Well, not everyone nowadays exclusively owns/shoots AR pattern and other modern rifles. I still prefer my Winchester lever rifles over almost anything. Stands to reason that muzzleloaders remained in fairly continuous use to some level after the advent of the useable self contained cartridge.

I won't refer to a Winchester as "unmentionable". Sorry, not sorry.

 

[Flintlock]

Well, not everyone nowadays exclusively owns/shoots AR pattern and other modern rifles. I still prefer my Winchester lever rifles over almost anything. Stands to reason that muzzleloaders remained in fairly continuous use to some level after the advent of the useable self contained cartridge.

I won't refer to a Winchester as "unmentionable". Sorry, not sorry.

Yep, newest style long gung in the house is my Ruger #1 I've had for 35 years and a Rossi 92 carbine is the family, home-farm protection gun and has been for 30years, Not a AR here but would kinda like a M1A.