12/21 A history of muzzle loaders

  • by Rick Hill
  • December 21, 2010
  • 307
                        
If you are reading this to discover the history of the muzzle loader rifle from the 15th century forward, I can sum it up in one sentence. They only used them because they didn't have anything better to shoot. If this sounds to you like the biased opinion of a cynical curmudgeon then you are exactly right. I hate muzzle loader rifles. I have only hated a few things in my life. Mosquitoes, TV commercials for feminine protection products, and rap music. I dislike a lot of things, but those are four things, that if they didn't exist the world would be a better place. While the latter three items speak for themselves. I will explain my disdain for muzzle loading rifles. In 1973 I bought my first muzzle loading rifle. I was 15 years old, and had killed deer the previous two years during the regular gun season. We were only allowed one buck per season back then and no does. That year I hadn't killed my buck during gun season, so I decided to hunt the muzzle loading season. This started out harmless enough. The local gun shop had a well used 45 caliber Kentucky rifle. It looked like it had been used in the revolutionary war, but they only wanted fifty dollars for it. Negotiations almost fell apart when the owner discovered I only had fifty dollars to spend on the gun. It seems I needed powder, primers, bullets, and sales tax to complete the purchase. Luckily I happened to be in the early stages of a relationship of my soon to be former girlfriend. All at once that twenty dollar ID bracelet I was going to get her for Christmas seemed completely unnecessary. I was on Christmas break from school, and even though the weather was nice I didn't get my gun tested, and sighted in. Instead I spent all my free time with that girlfriend until Christmas day. When she gave me a twenty dollar ID bracelet, and I gave her a card, my schedule really freed up after that. Now at last I was ready to go muzzle loader hunting. The day before season it was raining, and cold. This was when I decided to sight in my gun. It didn't go well, but after twenty misfires I got two bullets in a 5 gallon bucket at fifty yards, and called it good enough. It didn't matter, over the next three seasons I shot at 5 deer, and that miserable piece of junk misfired every time. This was bad enough in itself, but add to that being in the woods on the coldest days of the year. This was the days before Gortex, and Thinsulate clothing, and boots. If you wore gum boots your feet were cold, and they pulled off in the mud. If you wore leather boots your feet were wet. Clothes were cotton, and wool so you either froze early, or got all sweated up, and then froze. Consequently very few people hunted the muzzle loading season. Between the deer herd being one tenth the size it is now, and no one moving them around the success ratios were terrible back then. Even though the guns, and the success ratio have improved dramatically over the years, I still hate muzzle loader season. Besides only being for us losers that haven't filled our tags yet, it still happens on the coldest days of the year. And yes, I will be out there next week. Catch you later Rick


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