Starvin Larry

During an extended grid down or collapse of society event,or any other long-term disaster situation that may occur,at some point,you will run low on ammo,or run out of ammo,or have something break in your main battle rifle,or your main hunting rifle.

Those who have a felony record can legally own muzzleloaders in most states,just not the kind like the Thompson center that can be converted to a regular rifle,as the BATFE does not consider a muzzleloader to be a firearm,and no NICS check is required to purchase a muzzleloader.

 

Having a muzzleloader, and a good supply of Pyrodex or Triple7 will provide you with a weapon when that occurs. Then,there’s the fact that you can hunt with a muzzleloader,and the sound is not going to carry as far as that of a regular rifle.

If you are low on ammo,and hunting for food,the muzzleloader will allow you to conserve ammo.

They can also be used for self and home defense,or in battle-as a last resort,due to the fact that the cloud of smoke is going to give away your position.

There are ways that can be used to your advantage though,but that’s another topic.

Personally, I have several muzzleloaders,and old flintlock,a sidelock,and a newer inline.

The flintlock only requires some powder as the primer for the main charge,the sidelock requires percussion caps,and the inline requires 209 shotshell primers.

The flintlock will work as long as you have powder,you have to use FFFG as the priming charge,as it’s a finer powder than the FFG usually used in muzzleloaders. You can use the FFFG in muzzleloading rifles up to .50 caliber,so you don’t really have to keep both the FFG and the FFFG.

The percussion caps for sidelocks are very small,and come 100 to a package-usually a small tin,they are real light,so not much added weight to carry if your’e on foot.

The 209 shotshell primers are also very light,and come in packages of 100,usually a small cardboard box that has a plastic insert in which the primers are kept in rows.

Pyrodex and Triple7 are sold in 1# plastic bottles. One pound is 7,000 grains,depending on your rifle,and what you are hunting,your powder for each shot will vary from 50-100 grains. You get 70 100 grain charges out of one pound,or 140 50 grain charges.

I use a 90 grain charge for deer hunting in my sidelock,a 100 grains in my inline,and 95 grains in my flintlock-5 in the pan,90 as the main charge,all three have taken deer at 100 yards.

You can also use regular black powder,but I would try to avoid that if at all possible,as it’s very difficult to clean your rifle after use.

For the bullet there is the option of round lead ball and cloth patch,-the least costly,also the least accurate,bullet and plastic sabot-the most accurate,or modern version of the minie ball-which is a conical bullet,some require a felt wad between the bullet and powder charge,some don’t.

The round lead balls are most accurate in flintlocks and sidelocks-the modern inlines have a different twist rate to the rifling.

My sidelock, and flintlock will put 3 round lead balls in about a 5-6 inch circle at 100 yards-more than accurate enough to kill a deer.

Using bullet and sabot-I get the group size down to about 3″

Using my inline,with bullet and sabot-I get 1″ to 1 1/2″ groups at 100 yards.

Rather than paying for 15-20 bullets and sabots,I order boxes of 100 or 200 along with the applicable sabot from Midway USA,examples:

200 lead round nosed bullets,plus sabots, cost me about $50.00, including postage.

100 jacketed hollow points plus sabots costs about the same.

You can find boxes of 100 round lead balls for $15-20.00. (plus postage if you order online)

I will add a box of round lead balls to my order,so I always have several boxes on hand.

 

MUzzleloaders are not cleaned like your rifles that use cartridges and smokeless powder,they are cleaned using either any of the muzzleloading solvents on the market-or soap and water. I have found that the original Dawn dish soap works the best.The blue stuff,none of the others work as well.