The best part about owning and operating a black powder muzzle loader is that you may hunt in extended seasons. One of which usually precedes the open season.
 
Less people do it and this can be advantageous as there is a lot less chance of having some other hunter shoot you.
 
 
best regards,
mike
 

Ive always wanted a good replica of a circa 1860 Whitworth. IT was a British weapon used by the Confederacy as a sniper weapon. From what I understand they were very accurate. It was a .45cal

 
Actually James Whitworth that designed the weapon for the British Army after the Crimean War was a pretty cool engineer, he invented the standard for screw threads 'BSW' which was in use before metric systems.  I've often had to get nuts and bolts tapped to 'Whitworth' specs to repair some old items that you can't get off the shelf anymore.  I had an old Premier snare drum that I eventually had to ditch because it had 'Whitworth' lugs and I could no longer get spares for it easily.
 
The gun he designed was rejected by the British Army for being too expensive to mass produce and suffered some durability issues due to the rifling design which was the thing that made it so accurate, but the French army picked it up and that is probably the biggest source of the rifles used by the Confederates.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitworth_rifle so you know it's for real:
 
"Queen Victoria fired the first shot from a Whitworth rifle on a machine rest at 400 yards, and struck the bull's-eye 1-1/4 inch from its center."
 
Now that's some shooting. ;-)

If you're going to bring a gun to the party, then bring a big one!
 

mike_mccue
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitworth_rifle so you know it's for real:
 
"Queen Victoria fired the first shot from a Whitworth rifle on a machine rest at 400 yards, and struck the bull's-eye 1-1/4 inch from its center."
 
Now that's some shooting. ;-)

Pictures or it never happened...
 
They never mentioned the bit about the footman armed with a pistol that was strategically placed 10 feet in front of the target offset to one side got deported to Australia for being an inch away from his instructed margin?

LMAO.
 
:-)

"range master and firearms instructor"
 
I remember when learining to fire the M-16 in basic training, the range safety officer made it very plain that if anyone turned around while holding their rifle, they would be shot. It seems that they didn't trust us newbies.
All the RSOs had .38s on their hips.

Me use crossbow when deer hunting. 

57Gregy
"range master and firearms instructor"
 
I remember when learining to fire the M-16 in basic training, the range safety officer made it very plain that if anyone turned around while holding their rifle, they would be shot. It seems that they didn't trust us newbies.
All the RSOs had .38s on their hips.

 
That's what my Dad said to me when I was learning.
 
Mind you, I was only 6 years old, but I knew he meant it.
 
:-)

I am not too bad... I only have 9 guns (only one has a bayonette) two swords, and numerous knives. I love my Buck "Folding Hunter" and my Kabar. I was at a store today (bought some Asics Gel Kayanos, black with red) and asked about a war hawk but they didn't have one. There is a guy less than an hour from here who handmakes them. I want a good throwing tomahawk... maybe two, one for each hand. Of course I don't want to bring a tomahawk to a gunfight, lol. I spent a lot of hours throwing my dad's WW II era Army knife when I was a kid, maybe I am getting young again?
 
J