Muzzle loaders

[tx river rat]

I have several Hopkins Allen under hammer muzzle loaders ,36 cal 45 cal and a couple 50s. They are all sort of in the collectors class. I have been looking at the inlines.
How many on here shoot the smoke poles ,what kind ?
Any thoughts on the in line muzzle loaders?
Ron

 

[Wannabe]

Ron,
I have an inline .32 rifle. The only reason I have it is because Nathan bought it for me. It was too cheap not to buy. You can shoot that little thing all day for not much money. I do not like inline muzzle loaders. Kinda like cheating. If it is not traditional I just dont care for it. Would much rather have a .32 in flint.
Bob

 

[BEARS BUDDY]

Bought a Knight inline while recovering from back surgery in 2000 and have never shot it. I use my Traditions Deerhunter .50 and a CVA Kentucky pistol in .50 for hunting. Both are simple percussion cap mechanisms. Pyrodex RS and P powders with 250 grain home cast lead bullets. Now if the deer would only cooperate.

 

[mosportsmen]

I bought a Lyman Mustang last year. Break action, no external hammer, pretty easy to clean, pretty as a picture. My eyesight has gone the way of my age and I never have liked shooting sights on a gun anyway. The inlines accommodate a scope a lot better. I have a Hawken I just got back together after it being breech plugless for a couple years. I have shot a few deer with it over the years.

I like the new CVA inlines with a truly toolless breechplug removal. I like Traditions also. You can't go wrong with a Thompson either, but I think they are a little pricey compared to CVA and Traditions.

I had a bad experience with a new powder this year. Blackhorn powder this year. Would not go boom. Do not know why exactly, it went boom with the same primer last year. Still working on that one. It is great stuff as far as power, cleaning, and accuracy. But can't trust it right now.

In line muzzle loaders are not traditional front stuffers, but they fill a spot just right for hunting for me.

Tom

 

[tx river rat]

My underhammers were built by the hopkins allen company not the later Numeric arms importer..
So I sort of baby them.From what I have read this was the only action that was true american design
My interest in the inlines is for a elk or bear hunt in Colo in the next couple years, and like Mo my eyes dont pick up the sights like they use too so depending on whats legal it will be scoped or a good peep sight in the scopes arnt legal.
How is the accuracy of your inline MO
Ron

 

[mosportsmen]

I think the accuracy is great, of course a muzzleloader is about as good as you load it. My favorite bullets are from Precision Muzzelloading. Ballistic tips, very leathal and shoot tight groups with less drop than same weight in different design bullet.

The main accuracy problem with the Mustang I have is it has a funky trigger. My gun is not the only one with this problem( I have read reports from others). The trigger creeps quite a ways, put some pressure on it and it travels, and stops just before it releases. But if you stop with it and start again it is clean and light pressure to make it go boom. This has not been a problem hunting that I can remember, I probably pull the trigger all the way in a (make the shot) situation. But it is real noticeable on the bench. Actually I started this paragraph with saying this is an accuracy problem. It hasn't been for me, but it is definitely a potential problem for a lot of shooters.

I mostly got the Mustang because it is the prettiest inline muzzle loader on the market. I like wood. The newer ones are using real Walnut, the gun is made in Italy for Lyman.

I just saw a CVA Wolf. at the local Walmart on clearance for 124.00 from 169.00 I would prefer a longer barrel than the wolf has but I am sure it would be a fine gun for hunting deer around here.

I think my next is going to be a 50 cal pistol just to carry with me deer hunting. If I can get one within 30 yards or so Im gona take it with the pistol. BP has a Kentuky style kit on sale for 159.00.

I used to have a 45 cal kentuky my dad and I made from a kit, but it had a bad hammer spring that would fail to pop a cap quite frequently. i got rid of it several years back and I would like to get a replacement one of these days.

Tom

 

[catfish]

tx rat cant help you on this one , have never had one. didn,t they have a recall or problem with CVA or one of them a year or so ago? i probally will get one soon though.

 

[mommicked]

Last count I had about 6 smoke poles in the house. .45 long hunters, .50 hawkens, 12 gauge dubbil burril, and my favorite: an inline. It's the T/C Scout. I think it was T/C's first inline. It looks and handles like a big .30-30 (okay, maybe Marlin 1895 .45-70). She's reasonably accurate, and has a cheapie 4x scope on board. I absolutely love her.

I had one of them CVA Optima's in .45, won it in an auction. I never loaded it, I sold it. I'd heard bad rumors about their steel quality.

I had a T/C Encore with several barrels, including 209x50. In a moment of stupidity, I sold her to buy a 'flavor of the month' gun. It was a disappointment as a rifle, but it was a pretty good muzzle loader, maybe the best I've ever owned.

I've never had my hands on an underhammer, but they are way traditional for sure. Neat stuff!

 

[dawallace45]

I shot a Parker Hale 3 Band Enfield , .577 cal , 500 gn minie Bullet with 70 gns of No.2 Swiss for years , hammered pigs but was heavy as hell to carry in the field and the butt plate was more designed to hammer skulls to pulp than lessen recoil

Always wanted to get some thing a little lighter and shorter in maybe .50 cal , have been thinking about it more and more lately but I really don't need one and in reality I'd probably be better off getting a rifle in .357mag seeing as how I have a few thousand loaded 357 and 38's

David