Today I realized how far in the world of muzzleloading I've gotten.
I started out with an old, poorly made Kasnar kit rifle that had been taken care of poorly when I was 14. I had no idea about muzzleloading except that you pour powder down the barrel then a bullet and percussion cap. I thought my uncle knew quite a bit since he had a couple of muzzleloaders but now I've figured out that the stuff he shot in those guns and how little he cleaned them was wrong. So... I bought the bare necessities for shooting and a pound of pyrodex and went out the farm to shoot. Set up a board at about 25 yards, loaded 90 grains of pyrodex in this .45(my uncle told me to but got confused with .50) and the gun went POP...BOOM! I can still remember the smell of that smoke. That gun hung fire all the time because It was rarely cleaned. I used thin rimfire cleaning patches and rem oil as shooting patches and pushed the ball down with the dowel rod I made for under the gun. Needless to say it was a very "thumb startable" load. Then I would kinda clean it with a regular center fire rifle cleaning kit and hoppes smokeless powder solvent. My groups were attrocious but I thought they were ok enough to deer hunt with(glad I never took it hunting). Had to pull balls all the time because the gun simply wouldn't fire... imagine that :rotf:. I eventually started thinking it was all the gun's fault and I needed a new gun, which was mostly true since it made a CVA look like a custom built gun.
So I bought a traditions kentucky from here, and did have better accuracy. I still used poopodex and sort of cleaned it better but never cleaned the bolster drum with anything besides a pipe cleaner. I started using real shooting patches(pre cut) and had better accuracy even though I didn't like using tight loads so I only used a .010 patch. At this point I could pretty much consistently hit a paper plate at 50 yards. I cleaned the bore on this gun a lot better, but still bad compared to my standards now. I bought a fiber glass cleaning rod and an actual jag!!! My dad tried telling me not to buy a jag like that because he said there was no way it could take the cleaning patch back out of the bore :haha:. I improved my methods some and took my first muzzleloader deer with it that winter, so I was pretty happy. After all this I had done to the gun, it had no adverse effects on the conditions luckily.
I finally tried getting on the right path by cleaning it with WATER!!! I had been brain washed by my dad that if I cleaned with water that it would instantly rust the gun so I was very leery. (BTW, my dad had absolutely no experience w/ muzzleloading yet he always had a strong opinion for some reason) I started cleaning the gun with one of those tube things through the nipple and that worked well, only problem was it took me about an hour and a half to clean. Oh, and I put up quite a fight around the forum when they tried to get me to clean with water and use a steel range rod(Dave you know what I'm talking about :grin
Next step, I acquired a pound of goex black powder. And like my dad and hogdon told me, this stuff would rust my gun, too. It didn't and shot more accurate and reliable. I started cutting and lubing my own patching and my rifle started shooting about 1.5" groups at 50 yards benched with this tighter patching. I got tired of cleaning this full-stock gun which brought me to my favorite gun, my TC .50 renegade which is still my go to deer rifle.
Everything in this started getting a lot better when I started to trust the general consensus of opinions around here. Then on MOST things I proved my dad wrong with the results. I bought a flinter which I still fight a lot of the time but hopefully I'll keep getting better. Started shooting muzzleloading shotguns which made it so I pretty much only hunt with black powder the only exception being predators and sometimes turkeys. And now I'm even goin to my 1st rendezvous tomorrow. I'd just like to thank all of you around here that have given me advice and guided me through my muzzleloader journey, and would like to thank the guys at my club Indian Creek Muzzleloaders for giving me advice as well. I hope to keep putting my hunt pictures in the hunting section. Hopefully I'll be showin' you some squirrels and doves in August and September. I think taking up traditional muzzleloading has made me a much more ethical hunter, and conscious outdoorsman. I don't know where I would be right now if I didn't take up muzzleloading :thumbsup:.
I started out with an old, poorly made Kasnar kit rifle that had been taken care of poorly when I was 14. I had no idea about muzzleloading except that you pour powder down the barrel then a bullet and percussion cap. I thought my uncle knew quite a bit since he had a couple of muzzleloaders but now I've figured out that the stuff he shot in those guns and how little he cleaned them was wrong. So... I bought the bare necessities for shooting and a pound of pyrodex and went out the farm to shoot. Set up a board at about 25 yards, loaded 90 grains of pyrodex in this .45(my uncle told me to but got confused with .50) and the gun went POP...BOOM! I can still remember the smell of that smoke. That gun hung fire all the time because It was rarely cleaned. I used thin rimfire cleaning patches and rem oil as shooting patches and pushed the ball down with the dowel rod I made for under the gun. Needless to say it was a very "thumb startable" load. Then I would kinda clean it with a regular center fire rifle cleaning kit and hoppes smokeless powder solvent. My groups were attrocious but I thought they were ok enough to deer hunt with(glad I never took it hunting). Had to pull balls all the time because the gun simply wouldn't fire... imagine that :rotf:. I eventually started thinking it was all the gun's fault and I needed a new gun, which was mostly true since it made a CVA look like a custom built gun.
So I bought a traditions kentucky from here, and did have better accuracy. I still used poopodex and sort of cleaned it better but never cleaned the bolster drum with anything besides a pipe cleaner. I started using real shooting patches(pre cut) and had better accuracy even though I didn't like using tight loads so I only used a .010 patch. At this point I could pretty much consistently hit a paper plate at 50 yards. I cleaned the bore on this gun a lot better, but still bad compared to my standards now. I bought a fiber glass cleaning rod and an actual jag!!! My dad tried telling me not to buy a jag like that because he said there was no way it could take the cleaning patch back out of the bore :haha:. I improved my methods some and took my first muzzleloader deer with it that winter, so I was pretty happy. After all this I had done to the gun, it had no adverse effects on the conditions luckily.
I finally tried getting on the right path by cleaning it with WATER!!! I had been brain washed by my dad that if I cleaned with water that it would instantly rust the gun so I was very leery. (BTW, my dad had absolutely no experience w/ muzzleloading yet he always had a strong opinion for some reason) I started cleaning the gun with one of those tube things through the nipple and that worked well, only problem was it took me about an hour and a half to clean. Oh, and I put up quite a fight around the forum when they tried to get me to clean with water and use a steel range rod(Dave you know what I'm talking about :grin
Next step, I acquired a pound of goex black powder. And like my dad and hogdon told me, this stuff would rust my gun, too. It didn't and shot more accurate and reliable. I started cutting and lubing my own patching and my rifle started shooting about 1.5" groups at 50 yards benched with this tighter patching. I got tired of cleaning this full-stock gun which brought me to my favorite gun, my TC .50 renegade which is still my go to deer rifle.
Everything in this started getting a lot better when I started to trust the general consensus of opinions around here. Then on MOST things I proved my dad wrong with the results. I bought a flinter which I still fight a lot of the time but hopefully I'll keep getting better. Started shooting muzzleloading shotguns which made it so I pretty much only hunt with black powder the only exception being predators and sometimes turkeys. And now I'm even goin to my 1st rendezvous tomorrow. I'd just like to thank all of you around here that have given me advice and guided me through my muzzleloader journey, and would like to thank the guys at my club Indian Creek Muzzleloaders for giving me advice as well. I hope to keep putting my hunt pictures in the hunting section. Hopefully I'll be showin' you some squirrels and doves in August and September. I think taking up traditional muzzleloading has made me a much more ethical hunter, and conscious outdoorsman. I don't know where I would be right now if I didn't take up muzzleloading :thumbsup:.
