Lived in the south all of my life so I am pretty partial to the CSA. With that said what would you guys opt to be my first muzzle loader?
Well you have some good suggestions above.
So
what's your budget is a good question for you to figure out. You're going to spend more for a factory made "historic repro" than for a very viable and less expensive civilian caplock from a factory. Of course a semi-custom or completely custom rifle will usually cost the most.
The Military repros are durable, tend to be very accurate, and will hammer deer.
They are expensive, and use a very large ball or even heavier conical bullet, so they will kick a lot, compared to repro civilian rifles.
The civilian repros also tend to be very accurate, will hammer deer, and especially when using round ball, they will have less recoil. They also cost less while giving good quality.
Lyman Great Plains Rifle : Percussion is a good choice for a budget. It's a "plains rifle" style, so sorta from the era between the beginning of caplocks to the Civil War.
So is the
Pedersoli Frontier Percussion, walnut stock, Rifle. This is a full stock longrifle, which would've been used in the states East of the Mississippi from the dawn of the caplocks prior to the Civil War up to even the 20th century and The Great Depression.
You should also note that both of the above rifles will shoot a heavier conical bullet if you are concerned with taking a boar, or get a chance to go out west for Elk. For deer or targets, round ball works fine in them.
ANY of the above choices will give you, the end user, a very good muzzleloading rifle.
LD