I( want to take advantage of the extra deer season in NY and CT so will look to pick up a muzzle loader. If money wasn't a consideration what would you guys suggest I look at?

Savage 10MLII, if inlines are allowed. Otherwise, I would get a Lyman Great Plains Hunter (or Great Plains Rifle, if you're limited to round ball).

I've done busines a few times with these guys,check out the pics of their guns for sale 1st rate.
www.trackofthewolf.com

Personally not a fan of in-lines though I do understand why people like them. The Lyman Great Plains (or Hunter) is a fine choice and the price is reasonable. For versatility you can buy the Great Plains rifle for when you need to use round balls and get the Hunter barrel when you want to shoot conicals...very easy to swap barrels.

quote:

Originally posted by lhotaal:
I( want to take advantage of the extra deer season in NY and CT so will look to pick up a muzzle loader. If money wasn't a consideration what would you guys suggest I look at?

In addition, since price is no object, take a look at the Santa Fe hawkens. In addition, get some muzzleloader magazines, and check out the web sites of some of the custom makers. If you want QUALITY, THAT is the way to go! Get a .50 or .54 at least, in case you like it so well you decide to try elk or moose...... Some of the very finest of current custom rifles are flintlocks!

If price were not an issue I'd look into a rifle that has real value and which will continue to appreciate...

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(w105k1ep2v1e0s45zaoezt...=280&partNum=AAE-668

quote:

Originally posted by nordrseta:
If price were not an issue I'd look into a rifle that has real value and which will continue to appreciate...

That English Gentleman's Rifle is cool!

Yeah, I've got half a mind to build something like it, but plainer, for a consignment sale. Say a rifled .58 on Track's English fowler pattern, but with sights front and rear of course. Wouldn't be as pretty as Doc's though...

I'm not into the buckskins and mocassins. I don't go to the Rendez-Vous . . . But I did learn to start a fire with a flint & steel, made my own powder horn, and built my 54 cal plains rifle from a kit.

That said, you should decide if you want to hunt black powder merely as a means to extend your season -- in which case you'd opt for an inline and all the "cheater" pre-loading tubes, pellets, etc. that go to make it nearly like hunting with smokeless, a scope, GPS, cell-phone, walkie/talkie . . . air support.



Or you could get serious about "old school."

Get a 54 cal. rifle -- percussion cap are way less expensive and more functional than flinters, but flinters put you into a whole other world of hunting.

If you're going to do black powder, and "old school" you'll figure out all the gear it takes to hunt with a muzzle stuffer. You'll come to appreciate a "possibles bag" -- which covers your butt for most "possibles" exigencies in the field.

There's a certain aesthetic romance to building your own gun from a kit, finding your sheath knife and patch knife, putting your possibles bag together, heading to the fabric store with a caliper to find cotton twill patch material.

And when you do take a deer or an elk with a muzzle gun, you'll have been initiated into a whole different coterie of hunters. It's not easy to hunt with authentic black powder, and that's what makes it interesting.