opinion needed, best all around muzzleloader!

[nkbj]

Years ago I was pondering the best all around muzzleloader and came up with my own answer, a side by side flinter of about 20 gauge bore with one smoothbore barrel and the other with the slowest twist I could get by with for round ball and heavy charges. The smoothbore barrel would need to be slightly larger bored than the rifled side so that they would both take the same patch and ball. The rifling on the one side would need to be with narrow lands.

My thinking on it was that a very slow twist will allow you to have a close range bird shot pattern and long range round ball accuracy. The smoothbore side would allow you to reach out with bird shot as well as close range round ball accuracy. And, to top it all off, narrow lands in the rifled barrel would help in loading a hollow base bullet sized to greater than bore diameter. Flip up express sights would of course be regulated to the rifled barrel but adequate for short range round ball shooting with the smoothbore side.

But I never got one built.

 

[Walkabout]

I thought about this today as I was digging through my ml supplies trying to find the right accessories for a particular gun. Wouldn't it be easier to have just one gun, with one sized jag, one sized wads, balls, etc. I settled on the Pedersoli Howdah 20/20 at first, then I thought maybe a Pedersoli 20 gauge double long gun AND a Howdah.