I am looking to buy a muzzle loader. What are favorites?

the most sold are

tc encore (my second fav inline)
tc omega (my particular fav inline)
savge m10 (smokeless can be used in this one)
wight muzzel loaders excellent with cast conicals
any muzzel loader by knight. in particular the dick extream hunter thumb hole stock version.

these are the best out there anything else is second best.

austin&halleck, shoots everything I tried into 1.5moa or less,

Depends on your interests. If you are inclined to do it the hard way then buy a flintlock. My personal favorite is a Tulle Fusil de Chasse .62 caliber smoothbore built from Track of the Wolf's parts like so http://www.trackofthewolf.com/categories/partList.aspx?...subID=77&styleID=289 A store bought sidelock offers traditional styling and the advantages of modern materials. Look at a .50 caliber Lyman Trade Rifle or Deerstalker http://www.lymanproducts.com/lymanproducts/rifles.htm (or a TC Renegade). I chose the Great Plains Rifle in a flint .54 but the curved buttplates is needlessly authentic when shooting full loads. But if you are merely interested in a modern inline to extend your season then the simplest solution is a 209x50 barrel and foreend for your TC Encore http://www.tcarms.com/TC_HTML/TC_Muzzle01.htm Good hunting!

im sorry about that i forgot to include the traditional muzzel loaders my apologies.

jim gefroh of fort collins co makes some of the best percussion and flinters in the usa in everything up to 8 bore and also builds 4 bores on a custom ask for basis

lyman makes a real good trad gun to.

Savage due to the Smokless advantage.

MY knight w/ disc extreme ain't to shabby either and it's much more handy in the field than the Savage.

Reloader

Why is it handier in the field???

My Savage is a Great MLer, my favorite of the 4 I've hunted w/. The only down side is it has a 24" Bull Bbl which, if I'm not mistaken, it comes from the same blanks they make their CF heavy bbls w/. In other words it's heavy and bulky.

My Knight is an older version that I bought the new Disc Extreme Conversion Kit for. It is slim, lighter, and only has a 22" bbl which, makes it alittle more friendly in the field especially when tree stand hunting or taking long walks/stalks.

It does'nt have the range as the Savage and I don't take it as much but, it is a very dependable, accurate little MLer. The Newer Knights have alittle longer bbls and are probably a little heavier but, not as much as the Savage. They still make the American Knight and I believe they still make the Wolverine which both can be had w/ the Extreme Kit installed.

W/ that Knight I've been shooting two 777 pellets under a 250 SST. I'm also shooting the SSTs out of the Savage but, loaded w/ 44 Grns of IMR SR 4759 Smokeless.

Have a Good One

Ronny

My two White stainless Whitetails in 50 caliber. One is scoped full time, and the other is open sights with QRW rings. Both wear Leupolds. I just gave away my Rem 700ML.

If you want a serious hunting weapon, look at the Pacific Rifle 12 and 20 Bore.http://www.pacificrifle.com/intro.htm

quote:

My two White stainless Whitetails in 50 caliber. One is scoped full time, and the other is open sights with QRW rings. Both wear Leupolds. I just gave away my Rem 700ML.

What he said, except one of mine is a Super 91...

SS:

If you check back, I will bring both to Choke Canyon at Thanksgiving. Probably hunt Uvalde and fish, and let you buy Green Stripe!

Sounds like a plan! I will be in touch.

CVA Kodiak. It just works for me. I know it is not a traditional style, but it shoots very well and I don't have to worry about where the silly disc is. It also cleans up very easily.

Traditional or Inline?
I can't say anything good about inlines except you can shoot farther. The problem is you are getting modern firearm performance using something that is supposed to be traditional. If you want to buy an inline, be real and just buy a cartidge gun you are only cheating yourself out of the experience in using traditional, opensights, and REAL blackpowder. That is the only way to fly in my books.

MThuntr, well said.

Mthunter...

I somewhat agree, but the seasons and laws in some states dont allow you to use a modern rifle. Many areas are shotgun only, but you can use an inline.

Just purchased a TC Omega last night. Hope to shoot it this weekend.

quote:

Originally posted by hikerbum:
Mthunter...

I somewhat agree, but the seasons and laws in some states dont allow you to use a modern rifle. Many areas are shotgun only, but you can use an inline.

I agree, except with the somewhat agree, there I disagree and will leave it at that ... I got into ML's because of the shotgun only seasons in IL and once I had the ML that gave me an extra 3 days to hunt. I know have 3 ml's all inline and love them!

I started my on again, off again use of MLs about 30yrs ago with my first BP rifle, a T/C Hawken in 50cal. It didn't take long for me to figure out this wasn't something I enjoyed or found interesting so I sold it and stayed happy with my shotgun and slugs or centerfire rifles.
Several years ago I became interested again, for various reasons. An extra 3 day season here at home, early elk seasons out west. Now, I own three MLs, all inline. For areas that insist on more "traditional" type setups, I use my White with a peep sight and percusion caps, along with either real BP or loose Pyrodex. I shoot heavy conicals through it and out to 80yds or so it is a real hammer on deer. It's a nice and light rifle to pack around in the western mtns, and short enough to be very handy in a tree stand. I also have a T/C Omega that is scoped and just an excellent rifle. It's set up more for sabots and 250gr to 300gr bullets, and out to 125yds is very accurate. BUT, for me the best one by a mile is the Savage 10ML-II that uses smokeless powder. If the state reg's allow it's use I don't even think twice about which one I'm taking to the woods. No messy cleanups, higher velocites and longer range capability. It's not even close to traditional but I'm not a traditional BP shooter. I use the MLs because they offer me more hunting time, just like archery.

More hunting was a side benefit that the better accuracy of a ML gave me over a slug gun...

My TC Omega shoots great and recoil is very manageable. Well made gun

If you are looking for a serious hunting weapon, look at the Zephyr!
http://www.pacificrifle.com/intro.htm