I hunt with both rifles and smoothbores and thoroughly enjoy both. I have taken plenty of game with both. Sure, I do get a bit more range with a rifle, but for me one of the most challenging, and thrilling aspects of big game hunting is getting as close to the game as possible. I have never taken a shot at big game with a muzzleloader beyond about 60 - 70 yards, usually much closer. Even with a modern rifle my longest shot was 192 paces at a pronghorn on the wide open Wyoming plains. (I had crawled on my belly though the sage and cactus to get that close.) I don't believe long range "sniping" at game animals is fair chase.
My .62 (20 gauge) flintlock fowler is a close replica of a chief's grade trade gun from the 1740's - 1750's era. It has a 42 inch barrel, octagon to round. It has no rear sight, yet I find it accurate enough with a .60 patched round ball to take deer out to about 50 yards. That 320 grain round ball smacks deer like a 20 gauge rifled slug. Of course, loaded with small shot it is also good for small game and turkeys.
A smoothbore is, without doubt, the most versatile firearm ever made.
This particular gun of mine was made by Caywood of Arkansas. I bought it "in the white" and finished it myself, but that was over 30 years ago.
My main hunting rifle for over 20 years has been a .50 percussion longrifle in the Lancaster style that I built myself back in 1998. It has a 42 inch straight barrel. More than just a few deer have fallen before it.
However, last spring I purchased a used .50 flintlock late Lancaster style rifle. It was made sometime around the year 2000 by a J. Fahling of either Kentucky or Ohio. I haven't been able to find much information about him. It is a beautiful rifle gun! I worked up a good load for it on my 60 yard backyard range and have been hunting deer and wild boar with it this season. So far, I missed one buck when a tree jumped into my line of fire. So, this gun hasn't taken any game yet, at least not with me at the trigger. But it is just a matter of time.
Ancestry; I had ancestors arrive on the Mayflower. They had matchlocks, and maybe a wheellock or snaphaunce or two, but they were all smoothbores. Yes, there are people still using those early types of firearms today.
From the very beginnings of European settlement in North American up to just after the French and Indian War (1600-1760's) smoothbores were by far the most common firearms in North America. Sure, there were a few rifles, mostly European jaegers and other types. The transition from those shorter, larger caliber types to what today we call "longrifles" or "Kentucky rifles", or "Pennsylvania rifles", began shortly before our American War for Independence.
So, in general, before the Revolution smoothbores were prevalent. After the Revolution rifles became the dominate gun in the North American forests. The regional differences, the various "schools" of longrifles, developed after the Revolution.
So, if you are trying to find something your ancestors could have carried, then choose your time period and then choose a firearm by what was commonly available at that time. If you just want to hunt and have fun with muzzleloaders, get whatever you want.
Geez. This is fun!
