Greetings all,
I am returning to muzzle loading after a hiatus of a couple decades. My Fish & Game club has a new blackpowder chairman who has managed to wake up the old interests.
My first muzzle loader was a Numrich Arms Hopkins & Allan .36 cal under hammer, purchased in West Hurley, NY, in 1964. My wife & I were camping and that evening I melted lead in a tin can over campfire coals, cast bullets in the cheap mold that came with the gun, snipping off the sprues with the wire cutter on a pair of electrician pliers.
The H&A was followed a couple of years later with an 1861 Springfield, with a re-barrel by W M Large, bought for $75.
Still have the same wife & both guns, though the H&A has undergone a lot of changes.
Other guns followed, flint & percussion, but I pretty much stuck with either .45 or .58, because early in the morning, I can usually tell the difference between .45 &.58 round balls.
Just a few months ago I traded a TC Big Boar .58 for a Traditions Crockett .32. My theory is that at my age, while I might not be able drag out a deer, I can likely drag out a squirrel. And I can tell .32’s from .45 & .58.
I am returning to muzzle loading after a hiatus of a couple decades. My Fish & Game club has a new blackpowder chairman who has managed to wake up the old interests.
My first muzzle loader was a Numrich Arms Hopkins & Allan .36 cal under hammer, purchased in West Hurley, NY, in 1964. My wife & I were camping and that evening I melted lead in a tin can over campfire coals, cast bullets in the cheap mold that came with the gun, snipping off the sprues with the wire cutter on a pair of electrician pliers.
The H&A was followed a couple of years later with an 1861 Springfield, with a re-barrel by W M Large, bought for $75.
Still have the same wife & both guns, though the H&A has undergone a lot of changes.
Other guns followed, flint & percussion, but I pretty much stuck with either .45 or .58, because early in the morning, I can usually tell the difference between .45 &.58 round balls.
Just a few months ago I traded a TC Big Boar .58 for a Traditions Crockett .32. My theory is that at my age, while I might not be able drag out a deer, I can likely drag out a squirrel. And I can tell .32’s from .45 & .58.
