What should I know about muzzleloader hunting
 

Turns out my wife can probably draw a whitetail tag over in Saskatchewan every year, and she can hunt on the family farm. We want to get our daughter into it and let her see the whole process, to make the connection from deer standing in a field to deer steak on the plate. They both like eating deer more than looking at them, so we won’t be worried about antlers.

Wife has hunted birds and shoots well, but would be new to big game. Archery is too much time commitment with the little one and one on the way, late November rifle is too cold and close to due date this year. So that leaves us with October muzzleloader (or string gun, but she’s more familiar and confident with firearms). Probably hunting from a blind or stand but spot and stalk is a possibility. It may end up waiting till next year depending on how things go, but it seems like a good idea to pursue.

I know exactly zero about muzzleloaders because it’s not a thing here. I want a simple, reliable, low recoil, point and shoot deer inside 100 (150?) yards gun. How does one go about setting that up? What problems do I need to watch for? Where do I start with loads? Scope or no scope?

I have a TC encore pro hunter and I started with a TC impact both shoot really well but the hood on the break action on the impact made cleaning a bit of a pain

The TC encore pro hunter I really like and is really comfortable and I would not hesitate to recommend

My buddy has a TC omega which has also treated him well

It is much easier to go with powder pellets and sabots. You can also pre load speed loaders which make reloading faster

Hornady sst (if my memory is right I am not home so can’t check) sabots are nice and smooth to load and shoot well. I found tradition’s sabots a little tight making loading tougher

Accuracy to 150 yards is not an issue if the shooter does their job. I can touch bullets at 150 yards with my encore if I am doing my part. I have a 2x7 scope on my encore

Kick will depend on the load you are shooting but I find a 100grs of powder very reasonable. I bumped up to 150gr powder and 300gr sabot for grizzly/moose this load has scoped a few people to used to a muzzleloader. I my opinion they kick more up than straight back like most rifles

Keep it clean the powder is corrosive. I carry a bore snake a at the min run it through dry after a shot out hunting or after target shooting and then clean properly at home

Think of the modern inline muzzle loaders as mid range single shot rifles that take a little longer to load. Honestly with speed loader I am fairly quick considering

Hope that helps

Look at a CVA Wolf. Great little gun and dirt cheap. I have one with a cheap Nikon scope on it, no problems shooting shooting an MOA group at 150yds with 2 pellets of 777 and Barnes Spitfire TMZ's. Loses accuracy with 3 pellets, but nothing i have shot has cared if it was 2 or 3, although i havent shot at an animal further than 105yds. If you can get some Blackhorn 209 (good luck and PM me where so I can buy the rest of it lol) jump all over it, best powder going and will make cleaning astronomically easier. You'll need to get a special breech plug if you want to shoot 209.

As previously mentioned, clean it lots.....i typically clean after every couple shots unless using BH 209, then ill go a few without cleaning. But dont think precision rifle cleaning, honestly can soak your breech in warm soapy water, swab the bore a few times and dry it out. Just make sure everything is completely dry after cleaning and that you spend a bit of time making sure the flash channel is good and clean.

What zone and what are the stats for being drawn? I hunt Sask too and one year I did not get drawn so not always a sure fire bet.
As for muzzle loader I have never used one so I cannot help there.
WDF

I shoot a .50 cal Hawken.

Round ball, open sights, percussion cap.

It has a 1/66 twist barrel. I can group 3 shots into 3 inches at 100 yds. After 3 shots the accuracy goes all to heck.....

Simple and straightforward. 75g of triple F or Yukon Gold.

You can go as simple or as complicated as you like with black powder guns.

I hunted with a muzzle loader for going on 20 years in Mb. I had a Knight USAK .50 caliber. No idea if there still available. I used 2 - 50 gr pyrodex pellets with green sabot & 240 gr HP(hollow point) bullets.I shot several bucks out to 90 yds, could have shot them out to 125 yds for sure but that's the further kill shot I did. Recoil I figured was like shooting a 30-30. I always used a scope as my eyes weren't that young anymore. Buddies used Traditions, Encore.

They hit like a brick ****house. Better get her to practice and whatever she does DON’T PULL takes time for that powder to ignite. You got one shot. Be steady! Good luck in Sask although the results aren’t out yet and even tho she’s in the sponsored pool there’s no guarantee. My zone had 130 sponsored applicants for 60 tags.

I always teach new shooters to be consistent in loading oressure with the rod, and to be particularly aware if their follow through .

If one is going to hunt with patched round ball, I always recommend a .54 or larger although I started with a .50.
I was never interested in inlines and have neverxshot one , and can count the number of bullet type projectiles I have shot on one hand.
However, I have shot many bears, moose and deer with a .58 round ball in plains style rifles and enjoy them .
I would not recommend a Penn/Kentucky style rifle for a first time hunting rifle either, as their design is hard for many shooters to learn how to shoot .
Cat

I’ve been shooting a TC encore .50 since around 2008, I’ve taken more game with it than my rifle the last 10 years.
I shoot a 250 grain TC Shockwave? behind 150 grains of 777. It reaches out in the fields but might be a bit much for your wife for recoil. Recoil is similar to my 7mm REM Mag IMO. I’d suggest trying 100 grains to start.
I’ve taken deer from 30 to 245 yards with it. I have a Bushnell Elite 3-9x40 on it. I enjoy packing it into the woods. As mentioned, follow through and pick your shot….

Traditions also makes great and affordable ML's.
Used them in Ontario for WT hunting and they are amazing. Did not spent much time reading OP but IMO break actions were way more user friendly than bolts.

Nowadays you can get some Gunwerks and hunt better than with most single shot rifles.

Way back when, I started out with a Hawken replica .54 and became very proficient with it. With that said the only way to proficiency is through practice.

The rub with practicing nowadays is component availability and component pricing. Percussion caps are about as easy to find as hens teeth, and the cost is 3-4 times, maybe more than we saw a handful of years ago.

I’d defiantly stay clear of a percussion lock option right now.

A shotgun primer (209) ignition rifle is a far better starting point IMO, and since it’s for hunting and not really about traditional nuances, I’d think inline 209 primer ignition would be a far better starting point.

With that said you’ll still need a crap load of practice.

Right now I own a CVA Wolf break action muzzleloader, it’s scoped with a Leupold 2-7 VXII, I run Hodgdon 777, 30 grain pellets for propellant, for projectiles I’m running Hornady 300 grain saboted SST’s. 3 pellets of 777, (90 grain) has ample getty up for deer, and won’t loosen your dental work. Think of it like a 38/55 lever gun sort of performance.


https://www.sail.ca/en/cva-wolf-blac...514-3520670001

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/14831...om-riflescopes

https://www.londerosports.com/firear...loading-powder

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/9197/...llets-w-sabots

For 13 years I had a 50 cal Hawkins.
Took advantage of the October season in Saskatchewan which was a blast.
So many critters were taken with this beauty of a rifle with a mixture of 90 gr of pyrodex powder and a 385 gr hornady Great Plains bullet.

That was then but if I was to get back into it I would probably look at a set up like Dick284 has or similar.

Good luck.

Should mention that firing a primer after cleaning isnt a bad idea to dry out the flash channel after cleaning......just thought of that as checking the thread and realized i forgot to mention it.

My tips for muzzle loading
On long shots is to try to shoot when the animal is looking away from you, a deer can react to the smoke and flash before the bullet gets there spoiling your shot.
If leaving your gun loaded for a long period of time use an over powder wad to avoid the lube from a patched ball contaminating the powder.
As cat said pressure on the loading rod is important for accuracy, a heavy bullet is much better for hunting than a round ball.
Thoroughly clean your gun after each shooting session rust is your enemy, no exceptions!

I think if you want to hunt with a muzzleloader you owe it to yourself to use a round ball and do it close. It’s very rewarding.

Practice lots too.
It is fun time at the range etc but also makes you go through the motions so that when it’s go time everything should fall into place like a proper reload.
Once I got a load that works well I would mark my ram rod where the bullet was seated properly on the powder.
This I verified each and every time both a unloaded and loaded rifle.
Another step to prevent double loading, proper seating of bullet etc


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