I am one of the shooting instructors for our 4-H Field & Stream Club, instructing mostly in shotgun (5-stand & sporting clays) and muzzleloading. Our kids all shoot muzzleloading rifles for competition (in the NRA Youth Hunter Education Challenge), and many use them for hunting during both the muzzleloading and youth seasons. And some go so far as hunting dove with our double barrelled Petersoli ML shotguns.
I personally started ML with an old civil war .58 cal ML by Springfield (I think) many years ago just for fun. It caught on to the point that I seemed to always have at least one muzzleloading rifle or shotgun in my inventory. I used to take one of my shotguns to the skeet range for fun and everyone wanted to try their hand using a FL waterfowler on # 3 or #4 stations.
Now, with our 4-H kids we use mostly T/C caplock rifles for hunting and YHEC competition; however, Texas State 4-H championships are now including muzzleloading trap. We have just ordered shotgun barrels for our caplock rifles. The kids would much rather practice shooting with the ML than with the modern firearms. Jim Haynes
