doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Who to send a muzzleloader to for evaluation.

There was a great article about Ken Owen killing that buffalo, and about that big rifle, in a G & A Annual, or something like that, many years ago.

Any good lube is okay for the wads. I've even used spit many times when quail hunting.

The most important habit anyone should develop, IMO, is that of either firing both barrels before reloading, or pulling the cap off the nipple on the still loaded barrel before reloading the other....................if you value your eyes and digits. Firing both barrels is by far the safest of the two.

Jon, I'll try to remember to take a pic or two of my loading setup for doves. I came up with the ideas after my first dove shoot with a m/l some 30 years ago. You'd particularly like the loading rod holder, I think.

SRH

VM Starr had this to say about 20 ga. loads..............

"For the 20 ga. a 2 1/4 drs. either Fg or FFg and 7/8 oz. is the thing, but if your gun is stout and heavy 2 3/4 drs. and 1 oz. is not too much but any more than that is just a waste of good ammunition and won't get you a thing except a bump on the snoot if you are not careful."

SRH

I have a supply of these coming. Not that much cost and should keep things simple when starting out. It is a bit of a problem finding Black Powder around here but I have two sources within a reasonable drive. Cards and wadding have to wait until I get the gun and measure the bores to see if 20, 19 or some other size is needed.

Avoid plastic shot cups in a black powder gun like the plague. The super hot gasses escaping around the wad will melt plastic in the bore and it is the devil to remove. I learned this the hard way and after several hours it finally made a permanent imprint on my feeble brain.

I have no interest in using plastic wads with Black Powder. Kind of defeats the entire back to basics theme. Like putting a aircraft engine on a tractor frame for a tractor pull. None of our tractors on the farm had them.

I don't Jon, I had a TR-3 for a while when I was in college and it was powered from the factory by a Ferguson tractor engine. It did well too, I could blow the doors off any MG I'd come up against and I even drove it from Carbondale IL to Oakland CA and back with no problems. Not too shabby for a car I paid $75 for .

Steve

Here's the loading rod for doves, skeet, trap, etc. that I devised many years go. Necessity is the mother of invention, they say. I needed a good, strong, handy loading rod that was easy on the palm, so I scrounged up an old solid brass doorknob, chose one of my 1/2" hickory ramrod blanks, and put them together, with a threaded brass insert on the other end that will accept a 16 ga. jag for cleaning. Then, I cut a piece of 3/4" EMT and flared one end of it, and flattened the other end and beat it into sort of an arrowhead shape, so that it can be pushed several inches into the ground when I get on my stand. The EMT is just long enough so that the bottom end of the rod doesn't get stuck in the part of the EMT that narrows where it is flattened. A little flat spray paint on the EMT to kill the shine, and you're ready to rock.

The little camo "box" was given to me by someone at sometime as a gift. It was originally intended as a dry weather 20 ga. shell holder, evidently. I scrounged a bunch of little plastic bottles with snap-on lids that fit snugly. I can keep 25 loads of powder on one side and 25 loads of shot on the other, all in the same handy little carry-on.

All this doesn't work for walking hunting, but for stationary shooting it is the ticket.







SRH

This is my one and only m/l shotgun, right now. A 16 ga. Manton, which is of course, a copy of a Jos. Manton, and nowhere near the quality. It is however, in extremely high condition for an original of it's age. There is zero pitting on the breeches around the nipples, which I have never seen before on an original. It was just never used, or either was meticulously maintained. A previous owner polished the brass furniture then coated it and the wood with a good quality finish which has protected the wood and kept the brass from reacquiring it's patina. I actually wish the brass was dull and patinated, but it was a gift and I was very appreciative of it. Shiny bores and strong mainsprings.

I may end up shooting it more than it was shot for the previous 125 or so years before it came to live with me.











SRH

Stan, I see a .410 sneaking into your picture. They do seem to give a lot of guns a run for their money. That is a beautiful gun. I think a lot of the later made muzzle loaders got little or no use. If taken care of they are just like new.

I like your rod and box. I ordered a Derlin rod which will get a fairly similar treatment. No need to risk damage to the rod in the gun, when a suitable substitute can be found which will be stronger and cheaper to replace. I have a MTM box which will hold all my stuff once I get it together. At first it seems like it takes a lot of stuff to load a muzzle loader but truth is it does not compared to shotgun shells. I have 15 different types of wads and 12 different powders on hand for shells while I need one powder, three types of wad/cards, one basic percussion cap. Gadgets and accessories will follow just because I like gadgets, junk and clutter.

I have not fooled with black powder since before they had special season for black powder hunting. A long time ago. But to me it was all about attention to detail, common sense and learning tricks long forgotten. Once I had a system in place it was a lot of fun. I am sure that I will have too many curious people wanting to see what all the smoke is about the first few hunts.

The smoke looks Kool but a cartridge gun loaded with black looks and sounds just as Kool and is a lot more practical on a dove field.

I think you're going to find delrin rod is too giving for a ram rod. A good straight grained oak dowel rod of the proper sise with a door knob shaped handle on top will work as good as anything you'll find.