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I would hazard a guess that the largest selling modern ML is the Thompson Center Hawken, complete with adjustable sights, bright brass furniture and coil spring driven lock work, popular because of built quality, price and backing of a reputable company, not historical accuracy. They are a tribute, not a copy.
 
Have you ever bought a traditional muzzleloader simply because you liked how it looked without regard to it’s historical correctness?
Yup. I bought a Dixie Gun Works Tennessee Mountain Rifle because of it's slim lines, and because it was one of the few left handed flintlocks in existence at the time. It was .50 caliber.
 
Bought and wore out a Jonathan Browning Mountain Rifle. Accurate. Fit me perfectly. Not HC nor a copy of anything old-timey. Killed deer every season until it started eating mainsprings and there were none to be found. Shot weekly M/L matches. Can't estimate how many shots. So..yes.

Tingle pistols. Ruger Old Army. Hopkins & Allen under hammers. T/C rifles. NONE were/are historically correct, but they all shot way better than I could hope for. Never wanted to be a re-enactor. rather hit what I aim at without hassles. Still have originals and copies of originals. It's all to have FUN. Shoot/collect whatever turns your crank. I do.
 
Yes
I have 4 TC sidelocks and one Investarms sidelock. All of them are percussion cap. They all shoot great and look pretty good..... to me anyway.
And that's all that matters.
yep im the same way. all i have is replicas. enjoy the smoke even my cap and ball revolvers aint much to get excited about lol. just enjoy the smoke.
 
My CVA Mountain Rifle was the first kit I ever bought, think I was 16 or 17 when I put it together. It looked pretty correct to me at the time but I was young and didn’t really know what historically correct actually looked like. It was more about what I could afford and I wasn’t aware of any local availability of parts for scratch built guns. Popularity of muzzleloaders was just beginning to take off back then.
 
That describes all of mine that I owned or ever owned. I got started in this in about '82 specifically to hunt (.50 cal. CVA Hawken). Took the NMLRA instructor course to help me get started. I soon found I enjoyed match shooting and just getting together shooting with others. Spent 20 years running a BSA camps shooting sports program with a mountain man area in the camp. Lately I'm into non production guns.
 
Yes sir, to my knowledge, everyone of my ML's. The GPR is perhaps the closest to being HC. My Crockett and New Englander are most likely the worse examples. It really matters not with me. I'm a hunter first and foremost.
 
When I was a very young man, I was as poor as I could be. I had a .54 renegade and was able to shoot in the local weekend muzzle load shoots here in East Texas. It turned out I was pretty good at it and if I didn't win I would be in the top 2 or 3 and the older guys would always leave a can of powder on the prize table for me because they knew I really needed it to keep shooting.

I got an invite to go off to a big shoot and saved every penny I could get to make the trip, mowing lawns building fence, about anything to make some money.

The time came to for the shoot and I was crushed when I made the trip only to be turned away because I didn't have a Halloween costume to wear.

It left a bad taste in my mouth that I still have 50 years later. I love building and hunting with black powder rifles but can not care in the least if they have a period or not.
 
What makes a gun HC? Very few are 100%, hand forged barrel and the rest of what goes into building a gun like it was done 200+ years ago. So I think almost all our sidelock are somewhat HC. Some maybe 10% others 90%, but very few 100%. I like historic looking firearms, 100% even 90% isn't important to me and being CNC produced is ok.
 
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Yes, my first was an investarms bridger hawken. I now know it’s nothing like the real bridger hawken but I still like it.
Yes, my first was probably very similar - an Investarm 'Hawken Rifle' .45 cal. I still love it and it shoots great. Since then however I have gone down the authenticity road - at least as far as my funds will allow. My latest is a CVA 'Zouave' rifle .58 which looks pretty realistic, and appears to have the graduated rifling.
 

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