by Marty Thomas
I was slipping along a well-used game trail that paralleled the creek bottom when I spotted a group of about eight hogs. I was trying to stay on the bare trail because the dry leaves were like walking on Post Toasties. I had a good wind, but I knew as soon as I stepped into the leaves, they would hear me. I was just out of my comfort range as the hogs were about seventy-five yards away. Good things happen to good people, and I lucked out, it started to rain. The rain hitting those dry leaves sounded like a popcorn popper, and I made a quick move to get a hundred yards ahead of them and dropped down into the creek bottom. The rain was starting to get steady when I finally saw the first one. It was about fifty yards out, headed straight up the creek. I slipped the Cows Knee off the flintlock and quickly dumped the powder out of the pan. After slowly recharging, I looked up and several of the hogs had fed up into range, somewhere between forty and fifty yards. A dark sow with a white sock caught my eye and I started tracking her through my sights. She was down the hill, quartering away when my subconscious put pressure on the trigger, and I heard the familiar EEEEEK when the .45 caliber round ball smacked her. When the smoke cleared, I could make her out lying right where she was hit. The ball had traveled through the ribs and the offside shoulder, and we found it just under the skin almost as big as a quarter. I know a lot of folks hate hogs. I would too, if I had a hay field they were tearing up. But for me, they give me something to hunt until it gets too hot to be in the woods.
Hunting with a traditional muzzleloader can become addictive. Whether you chose a rough and tumble Hawkin percussion, or a sleek long-barreled flintlock, there is something special about hunting with real black powder. Is it a lot of trouble? Well, yes it is when compared to a modern inline with 209 powders. You have to put a lot more effort into having everything just right to be sure it goes off when you need it to. Is that extra time worth it? Absolutely! Taking an animal with a patched round ball the way it was done two hundred years ago is especially rewarding.
I started out hunting with them back in the nineteen hundreds when there were very few deer here in East Texas. I always told my friend that if I was going to sit in a tree all day long and not see anything I had about as well do it with a pretty rifle.
Texas has a special muzzleloader season every year, as many states do. There are many options to get started in the sport. Whether you choose to go with a modern inline or a flintlock, or something in between is a personal matter, but I find taking a deer with real black powder and a patched round ball to be a very rewarding experience.
If you decide to go with a traditional rifle, you still have many options to sort through. I would guess the T/C Hawkens were about as popular as any black powder rifle that has been made here in the USA. They are no longer manufactured but there are still lots of them floating around used on the market. Another fine choice is the Lyman Great Plains rifle in either .50 or .54 caliber. They are very well-made guns that can be bought with a slow-twist barrel to shoot a patched round ball.
You will find most of the modern reproduction guns are offered in several different twist rates. A 1 in 24 is best for shooting conical bullets while a slower 1 in 66 is what you need for a patched round ball. There are a lot of rifles offered in a 1 in 48 as a compromise they claim will handle either. I have found for the most part it is a poor trade-off that really doesn’t shoot either type of bullet very well.
For my money, the best option is a kit gun. They are offered by several different companies such as Kibler, Chambers, or Track of the Wolf. They give you the option to build exactly what you want and finish it the way you want to. Talk about diving off into a rabbit hole … Do you want a swamped barrel, curly maple stock, walnut, or cherry? Do you want a hand rubbed oil finish or glossy Tru-Oil? The options and choices are endless but when you get it all sorted out and spend the time filing, polishing, and staining, you end up with a weapon you can be proud of that will no doubt become a family heirloom.
Take your time deciding what you really want. If you can, get with someone that has a few and go shoot some of them to help decide what trips your trigger. I can assure you it is a very rewarding experience.
