just gotta ask cause this seems to be the slowest room here, doesnt anyone muzzleload.

Yep, I got me one of them thar Cabeller's Hawken .54 caliber traditional type smoke poles.

It sure do have one sweet trigger and purdy durn ackrate too!

I haven't been hunting much with it but I do get in the mood to shoot holes in paper with it every now and then. I really like to shoot it and this season I'm going to get a chance to use it more since I'll be hunting on some property where only shotguns and muzzleloaders are allowed.

I bought some of the triple 7 powder that isn't supposed to be as corrosive as the Piradex type I used before. You have to lighten the load by 15% but it shoots really good and I get a real tight group with it shooting patched round balls at 50 yards which is good enough for me.

The stuff cleans up with water and isn't dirty at all, which doesn't foul the barrel as quick also.

I give Triple 7 a big thumbs up!

I used to build muzzle loaders and have hunted dove with them and I have killed one deer with my T/C Hawken in 45 caliber. Thinking about putting new sights on it and trying it out up on the LBJ Grasslands this season. May take it on the Javelina hunts this time.

right on well at least theres a few.

The thing about the deer I killed, it was not quite 50 yards out and I did it with a patched round ball. Not a maxi-ball or a sabot bullet.

I kind of wish we still had a designated muzzleloader season like we had several years ago. That was when I bought my Hawken rifle, and then after a couple of years, TPWD wanted to change the season from January to run in conjunction with the archery season, and the archers got up in arms about that so TPWD scrapped that idea, and went mainly with the extended doe and spike seasons which you can hunt with regualar firearms.

That right there I would guess is what killed interest in the muzzleloaders for a lot of folks.

It just wasn't the same when given a choice of what firearm to use, since a lot of people don't like the hassle of having to clean a smoke pole after shooting it to unload I guess.

Hunting with my muzzleloader is more of a bonus, and isn't the only reason I like to shoot mine, and I'm kind of weird because I actually like to clean my rifle.

It's kind of the nostalgia thing with me. Being from San Antonio, and the home of the Alamo, there is a connection with those old sidelocks, and doing it like the frontiersmen did it.

My kinfolk settled east of San Antonio back in 1850 after making their way up from Galveston, and I'm sure there were a few muzzleloaders toted around back then.

I agree with assesment of why there is not the interest in Muzzle Loader hunting in Texas, as there is in other states.

In most or all of the states that have a Muzzle Loader season, it is held between archery and regular gun season.

Archery hunters are not going to give up any part of their season, and regular gun hunters aren't going to turn loose of any of theirs either. Also, having a "Special Muzzle Loader Season", where all that can be killed is does and spikes, is not going to attract much interest.

I wished it was different, but it will never change.

I started to muzzleload hunt last year and bought an Encore. I have taken a doe and a hog with it and it is definitely fun to shoot. It is a tack driver and will probably be my weapon of choice this deer season.

I have a brand new CVA. I just haven't put it through the test. Hopefully this year i will see how it does on a deer.

still good fun and plenty of good stuff to shoot at around here.

I have a cva 50 cal I hope to try out on some hair this year.

Yep, won a CVA 50 cal magnum at a bass tournament and took my first deer with it during the early season Muzzle loader in Kansas. Took a doe and knocked her on her butt. I also switched to the triple 7 and like it better, plan on hunting more with it this year and the new 3X9X50 scope I put on it.

outstanding

I have a TC 50cal Omega. It is a really sweet shooter. I mainly only use mine during the OK muzzleloader season. I was disappointed when I moved to TX that there wasn't a ML season, but gun season in OK was only 9 days long back then (now it is 16 days) and ML season is also only 9 days so we doubled our season by having a smoke pole.

I shoot a 50.cal on my encore.i plan on using it during the second gun season in Iowa this year.
anybody tried the new Powerbelt Platinum bullets?I've been shooting Hornady Sabots, but the powerbelts will give you a full 50. Cal without the sabot.

Got a T/C Omega in 50 caliber to use in Arkansas. the deer didn't cooperate (only got to hunt the opening weekend) but it has been fun shooting. Also thinking about checking out those Platinum Powerbelts.

Wish Texas had a real ML season.

Might get to hunt with my nephew in Tennessee next year.

Jimbo, I'm not trying to pick a fight but JMO. Patched round balls can be used in the inline rifes of today. Kansas and Pa are two states that don't allow scopes, there could be others as that's the only two I have ran across hunting. I wouldn't say I'm handicapped with my muzzleloader at all, This is the same fight the archry hunters have had for years recurve vs compound vs crossbow. We really don't need the fight amoung ourself but each has there own ideals. I for one would like to see a muzzleloading season that includes bucks, as the late season doe and spike hunting is a joke. Just have to keep using it in the Gen Season for now.

Just giving my opinion as why I don't see Texas ever opening a M/L only season again. Never say never right!

It's just that we have a long general season and I don't see people giving up their long guns for muzzleloading.

If they want to hunt with a M/L they can already, so no need for a season. Right?

The bow hunters already won that struggle where they wanted to incorporate M/L with the archery season and the bowhunters won that fight.

Just arent enough days to extend the season anymore than it is, and if you tag it onto the end of the regular gun season, you are putting yourself at even more of a disadvantage, since the deer have grown wise due to the hunting pressure, and tack on not being able to shoot anything but does and spikes is another strike against that idea!

No argument here, just some facts mixed with maybe a lot of speculation on my part, but it's just my opinion that M/L season in Texas won't ever happen again, unless our population outgrows the land area like a lot of places up north in Yankee land, where for safety reasons they only allow shotguns and muzzleloaders.

It's like you said, if you want to hunt with a M/L go ahead and do it during the general season. I will and it won't bother me a bit, and I'll still get the same satisfaction as if it had been during a M/L season.

Yep But wouldn't it be great to have an weekend before bow season, and/or 3 or 4 days between bow season and the opener of gen rifle season, This wouldn't have to be a weekend. Kansas did a good job of it being before bow season, M/L is just a 4 day weekend, for most of them.

How about we look at it from another standpoint. Comparing muzzle loading firearm advancements to the advancements in Archery equipment, is almost ludicrous.

Even the best, top of the line modern bows, only extend the range that game may be taken by a few yards, if any, as to what can be done with a normal recurve or a longbow.

Nearly all of the advancements in archery have been along the lines of opening the sport up to more people, with out having to do the extended periods of practice required in shooting with no sights, and slower moving projectiles.

Black Powder arms have went, in a few years from arms that were pushing the limits, and I ain't talking about military muskets, I am talking about normal muzzle loading hunting rifles, from being a 100 yard or less, rainbow trajectory, tempermental to weather, firearm, to minute of angle, 200 yard+, rapid reload, rapid lock time, scope sighted, all weather, firearms.

I am not kicking technology here. I am kicking the idea that there is a night and day difference between what was intended with muzzle loader seasons and the guns that were in use at the time, and the equipment that is available today.

To try and compare a patched ball 50 cal. T/C Hawken, to any of the modern in-lines, is comparable to comparing original Hawkens to Sharps breech loaders. The technology in each case is so far ahead of the older system that it makes up for the lack of some basic skills and knowledge of the operator.

Is that a good thing for the sport, not the people participating, but the sport as a whole. Just an observation.

I agree with what CHC said.

Now with that said, I just sighted the 54 hawkenin this weekend, she was still on, and ready to smoke some meat.

matt

CHC " How about we look at it from another standpoint. Comparing muzzle loading firearm advancements to the advancements in Archery equipment, is almost ludicrous."

This is not what we where talking about, I'm not comparing the advancement in eguipment, but the fight in ranks amoung archery hunters.

As for advancememts most recurve bows (back in the day) where 20 yard shots. Now days the compound shooters are pushing 60-70 yards 3 times the distance. M/L with from a flint/pan to cap locks,to inline with shotshell primers to now smokless powder. 200 yards in the newer gun is the norm. 2 times the distance.


Some states how change the season to patched ball only,M/L without scopes, todays inline can still be used but just with a patched round lead ball.

Sorry, Did not mean to offend you on this, but the "Fights among traditional and modern archers", has nothing in common with what has taken place concerning the advancements in black powder firearms in the past 30 years.

Back in the 1970's, I worked at a place that built muzzle loading firearms, Mowery Gun Works in Olney Texas. We built both Flint and Percussion muzzle loaders, our main line guns were based on the Allen & Thurber firearms. When T/C brought out their line of Hawken replicas, it hammered the company I was working for pretty hard.

At that popint in time, in-line muzzle loaders were just experiments by some of the target shooting, bench gun crowd.

The people that wanted to hunt with muzzle loaders were limited to flint or percussion. In either traditional side hammer, or more rarely, "Mule-Ear", or under-hammer, all, except the flint locks of course, using either percussion or musket caps.

Also T/C, brought out the Maxi-Ball, a conical bullet, to try and achieve the same level of performance, or as close as possible, out of a "normal" muzzle loading rifle, as was capable out of any of the rifled military musket replicas.

Traditional archers and modern archers, are fighting over equipment modifactions, that on the whole are extrenmely minor in comparison to advancements in muzzle loading firearms.

I understood what was being talked about, I was just trying to get the point across that because some states didn't enact the stricter measures that places like Pennsylvania and Kansas and Colorado did, the modern in-lines were able to proliferate to the point that they are as accurate and proficent as a modern bolt action rifle.

As far as your statement about what is being done with modern archery tackle, try looking up the feats that Howard Hill pulled off with a traditional long bow, back in the 30's and 40's.

Also, you will find, if you check with most archers, that while their equipment might be capable of the ranges you are talking about, they try their best to keep their shots in the 20 to 40 yard range.

I understood what people were talking about, but as I said, "Looking at it from another standpoint." The advancements in the overall efficency of archery equipment, does not compare to the advancements in muzzle loading firearms.

Because of those advancements, the original premise for a muzzle loading season has been lost.

As far as Texas is concerned, there will never be an actual legitimate muzzle loader season, that limits the firearnms used, such as there is in Colorado or Pennsylvania.

Sorry if you feel that my opinion is off subject on this, but, it is my opinion, I feel that it is relevant to the subject as a whole.

Don't quite understand why anyone would compare archery equipment to muzzleloaders?

Even the fastest compound or crossbow in the hands of an expert can't outshoot a patched round ball, at the muzzleloaders lethal killing distance with effeciency anyway!

Also comparing a scoped in-line that shoots accurately out to 200 yards, to a traditional muzzleloader shooting a patched round ball out to a max and really pushing it distance of 75 yards isn't realistic either, and as far as I can tell the only thing that they have in common is they both load from the muzzle. Oh yeah I forgot that you can load a patched round ball, and shoot it in an in-line, which in my opinion would be just plain silly! Kind of like putting the engine from a Yugo into an Indy race car wouldn't you say?

Also why would you want a one week-end muzzleloader season when you can hunt with your muzzleloader for the entire general gun season? It's not going to be that great of an advantage to get first dibs on the deer for one weekend. Or the first weekend before archery season for that matter. I've archery hunted for years, on a ranch that only allowed archery and bordering a ranch that allowed gun hunting, and the best month I've had for success was during the middle of Nov. Yep, right during the second week of the gun season.

I personally don't believe that a muzzleloader season that ran say in conjunction with the archery season for like the last two weeks of Oct. would be hurt anyones chances for arrowing a buck, but that would not go very well with the majority, which is what I've been saying all along. That is something thats already been proposed and shot down in years past and I doubt if it would fly today if brought back from the dead.

I personally prefer it the way it is. I like to shoot and hunt with my muzzleloader and I don't think a special season would make the experience any more rewarding than it is already. JMHO!

BTW: I think Texas has the best length seasons and fairness in opportunity, to all hunters be they archers and muzzleloader hunters and conventioanl gun hunters.

We have enough hunting to cover all the bases which I do, and we don't have the problems a lot of other states have, trying to cater to so many special groups. It's simple and the less rules the better.