OK.... here's another opinion piece... just an opinion...
I have hunted for a lot of years... with all sorts of weapons... pistols, rifles, shotguns, bows and crossbows of all makes, brands, types.... and even so, I do not profess to be an expert on any one... I am always learning and the greatest problem I have always had... is that I do not take advice easily... I try to listen but eventually I generally make up my own mind and often it is not what the rank and file go along with.... anyway...
I have hunted with black powder guns for a fairly long time... I was in the NSSA back in the 80's and shot with the then... "Richmond Rifles"... a Confederate group out of Richmond that went to shoots across the country and shot live rounds at targets... not to be confused with reenactment... although we did dress in the period, we actually fired live ammunition in the weapons at the meets we attended. We made our own bullets usually by melting wheel weights into molds, packed our powder and developed our loads usually from scratch... which made it lot more involved and exciting... my weapon at that time was a Springfield 58cal. 3 banded musket... which shot fairly good and was fun to work with... BTW, it was not an original... the lock and the bayonet were original but the barrel and stock were repo... I would not recommend shooting originals with modern black powder... again, my opinion ...
Also, that big knife on the right is referred to as an "Arkansas toothpick"... Karma probably has several of them in her kitchen drawer....
... anyway... this one is hanging over my office computer... I actually hunted with this one and it did fine but it was heavy, cumbersome and difficult to get as accurate as I wanted...
From there I graduated to several different styles of black powder rifles including a few pistols... but this post is about hunting black powder rifles so....
I found a really nice Johnathan Browning .50 Cal.... percussion, and it shot like a modern firearm... in fact I won a little shoot with it in the early 90's... it really shot great but it is actually a very limited edition and I stopped using it except on limited hunts... it is in my gun case and probalby will not come out except to admire....
I then tried my hand at a nice flintlock rifle... that excursion lasted one hunting trip... I never could get used to pulling the trigger and waiting for the pan to fire which usually was a second or two after you pulled the trigger... very difficult to master, a least for me...
This nice Dixie Tennessee 50 Cal... is hanging over my TV in my office and that is where it will remain until my kids decide to remove it after I have been removed....
This brings me to the meat of this post.... actually, I just like talking and discussing guns so if your not intersted in all this crap, just go to another thread... I won't be upset...
I have finally discovered what I believe to be one great little, inexpensive, very accurate and very durable black powder rifle that can do anything you want....
Several years ago I invested very little... I think less than $300... in what has turned out to be one great little gun...
A CVA, 50 Cal. black powder, muzzle-loader.... this one is called the "Wolf", they make more expensive versions with stainless barrels and all but this one has been great and not at all expensive...
I have fired it 4 times while hunting... I have never missed what I was aiming at and I attribute that success to the gun... I only aimed it and frankly... I have always used a forked stick or a rest and never tried to make a stupid running shot or at something unless I was damn sure I could take what I was aiming at....
3 deer and most recently a 350lb. black bear...
That's my son and grandson with me... took all of us plus several others and a couple of big ATV's to get this one out of the woods... I was hunting pretty deep and was very thankful I had these two great hunters close by... I might still be in the woods trying to figure how to get this one out.... it was a great hunting experience... great memories with my boys...
That bear was about 60 yds. from me and I was presented what I would define as a quartering shot... I made a decent shot on him and he dropped immediately... I have always done my utmost to humanly kill whatever I was hunting.. I don't mind legally hunting and killing a game animal but I absolutely do not want them to run off and suffer a lingering death... without getting into all those discussions... we kill to eat but I try to do it humanly and quickly.... anyway.
I just wanted to commend CVA for producing a very well constructed firearm, it shoots every time, it is quite accurate... in fact I can put 3 out of 3 in a pack of cigarettes at about 100 yds. which is about as good as it gets... again, in my opinion...
I shoot 240 grain bullets with the plastic skirt on 100 grains of pyrodex or whatever quality powder happens to be available... I have found that the artificial powder burn a bit cleaner than regular black powder although not quite as volatile...
At around $300 complete with a decent scope... I don't think you can beat it...
I'll make one more related statement on these guns.... if and when (I say when) the sht hits the fan and we may find ourselves fending for ourselves, having a good black powder weapon... be it a pistol or rifle... could be a bit easier to maintain because of the ease of loading and not having to have a cartridge and all the components of a modern firearm... and ammunition for the modern weapons could get a bit difficult to obtain...as we have already seen... I would advise stocking up on a few pounds of powder and maybe a few hundred bullets,,, can be found cheap and available...
Well, that about does it on this thought.... comments welcome.
