inline or muzzle load

[rebs]

are the inline black powder rifles a passing fad ?

[rodwhaincamo]

Not likely unless they were do either do away with a primitive season or remove inlines as an option during primitive season. The former isn't likely but the latter is a possibility I suppose.

[Pahoo]

rebs,
Staying on point and not adding to the opening of a can of worms. No, MM/L's are here to stay and going through there own evolution. .......

Be Safe !!!

[FrontierGander]

they are running out of ideas for inlines. Not much happening these days. Longer barrels, different camo finishes. Very little changes going on.

[Pathfinder45]

The laws of hunting with muzzle-loading rifles vary quite a bit from state to state. The last time I looked, here in Oregon, those modern muzzle-loaders can't be used in our regular muzzle-loader season. You can use them in several other hunting opportunities, but the muzzle-loader season here is restricted to more primitive weapons with no scopes, no sabots, etc. But whatever you knew the law was last year could be different this year or the next. I haven't taken up the muzzle-loading hunting thing yet, but I am interested. For me, I would only go traditional/primitive or not at all. I can hunt with a scoped 270 Winchester; why the dickens would I hunt with a scoped, in-line, muzzle-loading, plastic-stocked, abomination? I would choose something that hearkens back to the 1830's, something that might have not looked out of place at the Pierre's Hole rendezvous, and use real black powder while I'm at it.

[Model12Win]

No. They help people get out there and hunt who really would rather not deal with the hassle or "old timey" black powder guns. They get a lot of hate from the old timers, but there's nothing wrong with them and they serve a purpose.

[dr1445]

i find the removable breech plug to be useful in correcting loading errors and simplifying barrel cleaning.

[Hawg]

The only thing an inline is good for is tomato stakes.

[rebs]

Thank you for all the replies.

[Old Stony]

Gotta agree with Hawg....but they would make a fair jack handle also.

[4V50 Gary]

They're not going anywhere. While I don't own one, won't buy one and don't want one, they have been around and is probably a good way to get people introduced into muzzle loading.

[roashooter]

hunting during "primitive season"....nothing gives ya a warm fuzzy feeling like a Stainless steel, plastic stocked, pellet loaded, sabot jacketed spire point bullet, shotgun primered, high power scoped, inline modern muzzle loader,harvesting game from a hidden stand with a feeder, at the extreme range of ten to 25 yards....just don't get those feelings with a more traditional black powder rifle.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Nope inlines are here to stay.

[rodwhaincamo]

Inlines aren't my thing either, and I don't feel they fit the idea of primitive hunting season, but I could care less if others are interested in them.

[Blindstitch]

Inlines are the way to go for a few reasons. I use mine in shotgun/pistol/muzzleloader zones for deer hunting. It's way better than any shotgun I've used for longer ranges. So much that I bought the matching pistol for when i'm bird hunting and want to lug something smaller around during the deer seasons.

The CVA quick release breech plug makes cleaning easy and popping out a charge you're not going to shoot.

My dad used a Knight inline for years and it worked great except when he would leave it loaded to long because he didn't shoot it. The breech plug on those was a real pain to remove and push out the load.

So I replaced it with a CVA Wolf and he loves it. But he also has a Thompson and a kit gun. The only thing I would change about them is a wood stock would be great. Might have to carve one myself.

[Hawg]

My dad used a Knight inline for years and it worked great except when he would leave it loaded to long because he didn't shoot it. The breech plug on those was a real pain to remove and push out the load.

It makes no difference how long it's been loaded unless it was improperly loaded to begin with and the powder got contaminated. I've shot sidelocks that had been loaded with Pyrodex for years that fired without a hitch and with full power.

[bedbugbilly]

Geeze Hawg . . . where I come from, we don't insult our tomatoes that way! :-)

I'm one of the "old $%^#$" and personally, I don't have any use for an inline . . . BUT . . they do sere their purpose. They get folks (men and women) out there during the BP season that normally wouldn't do it if they had to use a "traditional" sidle lock.

As far as being easier . . . I'd challenge that. You're still loading form the front, you're still using BP or substitute and you're still using a cap (or primer). Yea, you might be able to pull your breech plug easier but you still have to clean it. I have no issues with removing my traditional barrel, sticking the breech in a bucket of hot soapy water and cleaning it - and I'm guessing I can do it just as quickly.

"To each their own" and I say "go for it". I don't think the inlines are going anywhere and will be around form now on. The price of some of them are very reasonable which allows those on a tight budget to still afford to hunt the BP seasons -if you have one. They are also a good way to teach a young person the basics of gun safety, the importance of making each shot count (instead of firing a semi auto as fast as they can "cause it's fun) and the proper care and cleaning of a firearm that can carry the over to those cartridge guns some folks use.

As far as leaving a gun loaded - yep folks do but I'll rant on once again against it. YOU may know it's loaded and if YOU are like many folks, over time you forget things. simple enough to put a rod down the barrel but some folks just don't seem to remember that either. A good example is the young guy on the line that was next to me at Friendship one year. He had a tC Hawken. When the RO gave the order to snap caps, he pointed it to the ground and snapped a cap to make sure the nipple was clear. KABOOM! The RO went nuts, and it put a halt to everything. The kid looked sheepish and muttered, "I guess I forgot to unload it after I was don't deer hunting". Oh, really?

By the time the RO got down the line to us I had already chew the kid a second you know what and then the range officer repeated it. The RO looked at me when he finished and before he could say anything, I told him I was "sitting the relay out" as I would shoot next to anyone that was that careless. More people are injured and killed from "unloaded" guns than loaded ones. Years ago, I restored and fixed a lot of original muzzleloaders - for myself and for others. More than once, a quick check with the rod show that they were still loaded. I often wondered about the history of the gun and what might have happened if some kid had put a paper cap on it and pulled the trigger to hear the cap go off in "play".

All my opinion but if you feel the need to leave it loaded, then be "responsible" about it. A ball screw is pretty cheap and if in-lines are so easy to un-breech, it should take long to do it and dump the load. IMHO

Now you can send me off to "Assisted Living". :-)

[Hawg]

Geeze Hawg . . . where I come from, we don't insult our tomatoes that way! :-)

Mine don't care. And as for the original question, here in Ms inlines are a passed fad. Walmart doesn't even stock them during deer season anymore.

[Blindstitch]

It makes no difference how long it's been loaded unless it was improperly loaded to begin with and the powder got contaminated. I've shot sidelocks that had been loaded with Pyrodex for years that fired without a hitch and with full power.

It does. If you load it in the woods and then go home to an area where you can't fire it off your back porch then how do you unload it. Yeah get out the puller and remove the contents. Or in this case call the son two months down the road.

Now with the CVA it takes 20 seconds to slowly turn out the breech plug, push the ramrod the rest of the way through, pellets and bullet fall out and then screw the plug back in. And now you don't even have to clean it.

[T. O'Heir]

"...who really would rather not deal with..." Exactly. You still have to read your local hunting regs though. And there's very little that's as friggin' daft as hunting regs anywhere.
"...The laws of hunting with muzzle-loading rifles vary..." So do the laws about owning 'em. Up here, a flinter doesn't require our stupid firearms ownership permit, but a percussion lock or in-line does. And that applies to real antique percussion locks as well.
Why are you guys hunting tomatoes?

[FrontierGander]

only rookies let their charge become contaminated! Along with using pellets.

[4V50 Gary]

The thing that bugs me about inlines is that the Civil War minie rifle is much more capable and shoot a bigger bullet to boot. I read about one common Union infantryman who after some practice, could hit a sandbag at 500 yards every time. That minute of elk/deer to me.

[noelf2]

Only rookies come home with powder and ball in the bore, and no game.

I have in lines and sidelocks. I hunt with what I feel like at the time. If I'm really after meat, I'll take the TC Impact and let the Hawken have a rest.

[Hawg]

The thing that bugs me about inlines is that the Civil War minie rifle is much more capable and shoot a bigger bullet to boot

Not to mention they're easier to load.

If you load it in the woods and then go home to an area where you can't fire it off your back porch then how do you unload it.

Why would you feel the need to, especially if you're going hunting again that season?

[mehavey]

If you load it in the woods and then go home to an area where you can't fire it off your back porch then how do you unload it?

You pull the cap off and let the hammer down. You now have the
powder/ball in the safest place it could ever be -- a steel vault.

(I would put a piece of masking tape
on the hammer entitled "ready to go")