What is your main use for your muzzle loaders?

[Olde Goat]

Entertainment....be it hunting, target shooting, on just working one one of them.
Yesterday morning:

Lord Mister! No wonder you shot him. He was armed!

 

[PJ.H.]

I have long touted my time honored Water Soluble oil or Ballistol and water mix formula for very lightly lubricating shooting patches. Well a fellow experimenter sent me a post relating how using Caster Oil and alcohol in a 5 shots of alcohol and one shot of Castor oil was giving him consistent one-hole groups at 50 yards.

I had long thought of using alcohol as the evaporative agent but Castor oil never crossed my mind..
It pleases me when some one takes my procedure and then goes one step further.
I am thinking of adding his adjustment to my System in my adjustable eBook.

Dutch Schoultz

Is he putting them out to dry like your formula?

 

[wcandres]

What do you mainly use your muzzle loaders for? Be it target shooting, hunting, shooting matches, simply for display, etc?

For me, my main use is for hunting, and target shooting.

Same for me, strictly paper punching and occasional steel targets.

 

[Juice Jaws]

I've been of the opinion that ALL gun owners should be NRA members for a number of years now. A shame more aren't. Afterall it was muzzleloaders that the Founding Fathers were referring to when the Second Amendment was written wasn't it?

Its a free country, I don't need some group telling me I have to belong to something. Its like saying to belong here all should be supporting members. NRA member for over 50 years.

 

[Eutycus]

Sorry I don't see the comparison you're making. In this ''free country" of ours SHOULD and HAVE TO don't guite mean the same thing.

Its a free country, I don't need some group telling me I have to belong to something. Its like saying to belong here all should be supporting members. NRA member for over 50 years.

 

[Logcutter]

Hunting. Like to shoot my flintlocks,and I like to make some of my own gear like powder measures, ball starters, ram rods and stuff, but hunting is the main reason. That's why I shoot the postal match every month, keeps me ready for deer hunting. Applied for my first elk tag this year. If I get the elk tag my flintlock will be on that hunt.

 

[Boomerang]

Mostly small game hunting and target shooting for me.

 

[smo]

I mainly use mine for..... shooting!

It doesn’t matter much too me if the targets breathing or not.

 

[terrydull]

I enjoy competitive target shooting very much. Like many have already said, I also enjoy the history surrounding black powder weapons. I’ve actually never been hunting, would like to go sometime if I could find somebody to show me the ropes

 

[Desperate Lee]

The pleasure i get is in the build now days. I locate old worn out weapons and rework them till they function correctly. I own only 2 BP rifles. A TC Hawken 50 cal from a kit back in the early '80's and a Traditions 50 cal inline. Now i hunt with my handguns for a more pleasurable time in the field. It is not about the kill but about the experience in the wild.

 

[Mad Irish Jack]

It helps improve your shooting and hunting skills in the use of all weapons and any game being pursued. The use of flintlocks and most PRIMITIVE weaponry (firearm or archery) require better skill levels to obtain a high rate of success. I enjoyed the rendezvous competitions, weekend shoots and just range time working on my shooting. My hunting success is 100+%. If I go out, don't get shot, enjoy my time out; I was successful. Taking game is the + bonus reward for being skillful.

 

[GomezMunoz1951]

I was in the Air Force and stationed in Great Falls Montana (Malmstrom AFB). Back in the early 1970's and not exactly sure what year, I entered a contest and won a CVA Kentucky Rifle Kit. Got it together and shot it quite a few times. I heard about a bunch of guys that wanted to start a Buckskinning club. I helped get things started and during this time I got a Kentucky Pistol to match the rifle as a Christmas present from in-laws. I ended up going PCS to Turkey and then back to Great Falls. I bought a Navy Arms Buffalo Hunter rifle and a 1858 Remington revolver (metric Uberti). It was previously owned and the then owner put bone grips on it and raised the front site and made it a hair trigger. I shot those guns just for plinking and target shooting. Years passed, I retired from Air Force and then wife and ended up in Las Vegas. Bought 3 more 1858's (Pietta) and 16 spare cylinders for them. Since the Uberti was metric only a few things from the modern Uberti's worked on it. Unfortunately about this time the hair trigger stopped working so I turned it into a wall hanger. I joined a SASS group and bought a Henry 1860 rifle and a mule eared 12 ga and shot Blackpowder class. Later I became a Life Member of NCOWS. Shot until I started having health problems. So plinking and competition shooting...

 

[S.Kenton]

Hunting, shooting, woodswalks.. sometimes I just shoot my flintlock in full rifleman regaila to feel what it MAY have felt like back then. I think we all aspire, sometime or another to get closer to the whole HP/PC aspect...

 

[Captjoel]

I have never had any interest in all of the "dress up" aspects of buckskinning or reenacting aside from a nice warm fur hat or two. I do respect and enjoy seeing those that do get into that stuff however, just not my cup of tea.

I have been interested in the guns and rifles along with the horns, pouches, and accoutrements to use them ever since I was a tadpole watching Davy and Georgy Russel on TV.

These days I enjoy a bit of backyard plinking on my 33 yard range. I even built a very comfortable permanent deer blind where I sit during our short Michigan hunting season and only hunt with one of my flintlocks.

I have also stocked several of my own rifles over the years and own enough long guns to have warranted the purchase of a nice tall and heavy gun safe. I do have this one little quirk (what my wife calls it) where I keep one of my fine longrifle's hanging up over my desk in the man cave....er... study. I change rifles hanging there when it suites me. Wife would prefer a painting or a portrait there but to me gazing at the fine lines and details of a nice Kentucky rifle are priceless moments of leisure!

 

[Carbon 6]

What do you mainly use your muzzle loaders for?

Time travel.

Every time I pick up a muzzleloader I am transported back in time. All else is trivial.

 

[Bledfor Days]

I sit on the couch and fondle them, smell them, and view them from different angles. Sometimes I load them.

 

[Black Jack]

I sit on the couch and fondle them, smell them, and view them from different angles. Sometimes I load them.

I am much like you. I am glad to see that I am not the only one. I thought I had issues.

 

[Heelerau]

Small game hunting, pest eradication (crows) and competition. I too like to sit in front of the open fire and hand rub linseed into the stocks.

 

[FishDFly]

I sit on the couch and fondle them, smell them, and view them from different angles. Sometimes I load them.

Actually one of the recommendations to become a better shot is to do what you mention, a person needs to become familiar with their M/L.

 

[Sun City]

I sit on the couch and fondle them, smell them, and view them from different angles. Sometimes I load them.

When it's 105F temp with 90% humidity I do the same thing!!