If your state has a muzzleloader or primitive weapons hunting season, you might be interested in picking up a muzzleloading rifle so you can participate. What are your options, and how do these guns work?
A muzzleloading rifle is any rifle that has to be, like it sounds, loaded from the muzzle. The common characteristic of all muzzleloaders is that you have to drop the powder charge—loose gunpowder or pelletized powder—down the barrel, then drop the projectile on top of it and tap it firmly in place using a ramrod. The projectile can be anything from an old-school round ball to a modern saboted or belted bullet. There are some other steps in the loading and shooting process depending on what kind of gun you’re working with.
By their nature, muzzleloaders are single-shot guns (unless they have more than one barrel) with a considerable loading time in between each shot. Interestingly, many muzzleloaders are not considered “firearms” by the ATF, including antiques (manufactured in or before 1898) and replicas of antiques. This doesn’t apply to all muzzleloaders, though, so look up the difference if you need to for buying, selling or transporting.
There are three main types of muzzleloaders in use today: flintlocks, percussion guns and inlines. They’re all loaded from the muzzle, but the difference lies in how the powder is ignited.
Flintlock Muzzleloaders
The long guns carried by Revolutionary War soldiers and American frontiersmen of Daniel Boone’s era (and earlier) were flintlocks. These guns were developed in the early 1600s and initially did not have rifled barrels, although those did come later. Flintlocks typically shot round musket balls, but more modern versions will also accommodate conical-shaped bullets.
The thing that makes a gun a flintlock is actual flint: There is literally a chunk of flint (a rock) on an external hammer. The hammer strikes a steel plate and creates a spark, which, if you’re lucky, ignites a charge of powder in a flash pan, which then ignites the main powder charge that you’ve loaded down the barrel.
Because there are actually two powder charges that have to ignite, flintlocks famously have a big of hang time between the trigger pull and when the gun actually goes off. On top of that, they’re very susceptible to moisture getting into the flash pan and ruining the powder charge, which makes them less reliable in the rain and snow. This is where we get the saying “keep your powder dry.”
You can, as far as I know, hunt with a flintlock during any rifle season and most primitive weapons seasons (check your state regs), but interestingly, Pennsylvania is the only state that still has a flintlock-only season, which typically takes place in late December to early January. Having grown up there, I have vivid memories of my father cleaning his flintlock with a bucket of water in the kitchen every night of muzzleloader season—I’m sure I’ll never forget the foul smell of the powder. Flintlocks use old-school black powder, which is explosive and more corrosive than modern smokeless powder, so they should be unloaded, cleaned and dried after every day’s hunt to keep them in good condition.
Percussion Muzzleloaders
Percussion muzzleloaders, sometimes called cap locks or side locks, were invented in the 1820s and were in widespread use by the Civil War. They work similarly to muzzleloaders, but the ignition system is different. They require a copper or brass musket cap or #11 percussion cap that sits on what’s called the nipple—basically a little metal tube on the gun. The hammer (with no flint on it) strikes the cap, which creates a spark that travels through a hole in the nipple and into the powder charge. Nowadays, you’ll buy percussion caps in a little tin of 100 or more, because they can only be used once.
With a single powder charge to ignite, percussion muzzleloaders are less susceptible to moisture and do not have the lock time delay that flintlocks do. They had a shorter historical run than flintlocks, as the repeating rifle became widely available in the 1860s and muzzleloaders eventually faded from common use. Several companies make modern percussion-cap guns if you are in the market.
Inline Muzzleloaders
Though the military and hunters moved on to repeating rifles, percussion cap guns were the most modern muzzleloaders available to front-stuffer enthusiasts all the way up to 1985, when Tony Knight invented the inline muzzleloader. They are by far the most common muzzleloaders in the woods and on the market today.
In an inline, the igniter is directly behind (in line with, get it?) the powder charge, and the ignition system is completely protected from the elements. This makes ignition reliable and efficient and results in consistent energy and more accurate shots. Inlines can be bolt-action, break-action, lever-action or something else, but they must all still be loaded from the muzzle. The action opens so that you can insert a primer. The hammer or firing pin strikes the primer in much the same way it does in any modern firearm, and the primer sparks and ignites the powder charge.
Modern inlines are so accurate and reliable that they can shoot effectively out to 150 yards or more. They are most commonly made in .50 caliber and often sport upgraded triggers, scopes, synthetic stocks and premium barrels. And since 1985, they’ve gotten more and more advanced, most having removable breech plugs that make cleaning and unloading simpler than ever.
If you’re a hunter shopping for a muzzleloader that will get you into the woods an extra week or two each season, an inline is almost certainly what you want unless you’re in a state that restricts them or you’re just super into history and want to pretend you’re Davy Crockett (which is cool, too). Check your state regulations, because inlines are allowed in most muzzleloader seasons outside of PA’s flintlock-only season—although that state also has two other muzzleloader seasons in which they are permitted—but several states have restrictions on the action type, optics, bullet types, powder types, calibers and more. Some states do not allow inlines at all.
As a final note, arguably the most modern inlines are CVA’s Crossfire and Tradition’s Nitrofire and Nitrobolt, all of which are made to work with Federal’s innovative FireStick. The FireStick is basically a plastic tube that completely encapsulates the powder charge; it looks a little bit like a skinny shotgun shell. It is loaded from the breech, then a primer is added. Because the bullet is the only thing still loaded from the muzzle, there’s some discussion as to whether or not we’ve gotten too far away from what a muzzleloader is supposed to be, and the FireStick is not legal in every state’s muzzleloader season. It’s an incredibly effective and simple-to-use design, but check your local regulations before you head to the woods with one.
