Muzzleloader 101
Introduction

The main reasons for shooting muzzle loaders can be summed up as opportunity and fun.

Expanded opportunity is mostly for the hunter. There are early season hunts with fewer competitors. These shooters tend to use inlines, scopes, Pyrodex and sabots. This equipment has a familiar modern appearance that gives a certain level of familiarity and confidence. Inlines typically use a fast twist to stabilize sabots and the lighter projectile gives a slightly higher muzzle velocity. Most are designed for the contemporary hunter with scope rings and camo stock finish.

Muzzleloading just for fun offers the experience and challenge of doing it like our ancestors did, including hunting. These shooters will tend to use traditional sidelocks, lead bullets or balls and prefer real black powder. Control of the process is one of the enjoyments. In cartridges, only the hand loader enjoys this accomplishment. Even then, only the muzzleloader can adjust all the variables at the range, shot by shot. Living history participants need traditional muzzleloaders and re-enactors usually require a very specific one.

Target competitions for muzzleloaders are almost always patched round ball and iron sights. The slower twist has some advantage here. Most modern sidelocks have a compromise twist of about one in forty, best for lead bullets and ok for round ball. Some have twists of around one in sixty for round ball, good for a spherical ball but might not stabilize a cylindrical bullet. Occasionally you will find a sidelock with a twist less than one in twenty for sabots like most inlines. Sight rules vary, some requiring open sights and others allowing peep sights but almost never allowing anything with a lens. One big difference! Scoring is by center of hole, not cut the line.

Reenactors (usually military) use the exact equipment as specified for the reenacted. Living history or rendezvous is for you (or your fantasy persona) to live, as if in the time. Participants frequently learn other period skills such as leatherwork, carpentry or sewing as well as everyday camp skills like fire starting and campfire cooking. Making a muzzleloader from a kit is a common project. Novelty shoots are a common form of rendezvous target events.