Black Powder Shooter

In the picture on top of the page is a custom self-made muzzleloader rifle in 36 caliber. The two pictures next here is a home made shooting bag and home made powder horn. These are just two of the accessories that I have made myself. The horn was bought in the rough and had to be trimmed and shaped. The foot on the shooting bag which I made also, is a Pheasant foot shot with a black powder shotgun.

All the black powder guns I own at this time are percussion cap type guns. I have never really gotten into flintlocks or an inline muzzleloader type rifles. When I was first learning to build and shoot black powder guns, I started out with percussion and just have stayed with that type of ignition system with all of my black powder guns.

An interesting note, I have read back in the day of the mountain man, that some were very reluctant to change over to percussion. They could always find a piece of flint for their rifle or rifles in a river bed, but lose their caps or get them wet; they would not be able to fire their black powder guns. This could easily be a matter of life and death to these men. They would not be able to eat or could possibly get eaten, or protect themselves.

But when the black powder revolver can about, cap lock type guns really took off. But for the single shot black powder pistols, they were flint lock type to start out just like the black powder rifles were.

I have found percussion to be very reliable shooters when loaded correctly. I have carried one loaded all day long in the rain, and it still fired like a cartridge gun at the end of the day. I always made sure that I had a good seal with the cap on the nipple when doing this.

I also like to shoot a patched round ball. I have not really got into the sabots and bullets type shooting. My barrel twists are a little slow for them. I have shot lubed maxi balls, but still prefer the patched round ball.

I will say the only time I have had any miss fires was when carrying a black powder revolver on my hunting trips. I pulled the caps off and left the gun loaded for 2 or 3 days. When I went to shoot it, only 1 cylinder would fire. Even after firing 3 or 4 caps per nipple, the black powder revolver would not fire. Needless to say I never left another black powder gun loaded for more than the time out in the field. Looking back, that is really a very unsafe practice to do anyway.

The accuracy of any black powder rifle or black powder pistol can be as good as any other gun, given you stay within its range. You just cannot pour black powder down a barrel and ram home a ball and expect to hold any kind of accuracy. You have to take the time and care to do it right. You will also find some shooting tips here to help you if needed.

The most serious black powder shooter will make a lot of their accessories. They will make anything from casting their own round balls to the bags to carry their supplies in. Most things can be made very easily. You will only really need hand tools for the most part. Though simple home shop tools will make the job a lot easier.

A black powder hunter will make and use all of his or her shooting supplies. You can get a good rifle kit or pistol kit to get started for less money than buying a finished gun. Traditions is just one of the quality black powder gun kites out there to buy. here is a book on Black Powder Hobby Gunsmithing

All of the kits that I have put together have been Thompson Center. I do not think that they offer these any more. But you stile can find Traditions, Pedersoli and Lyman black powder rifle and pistol kits.

You can easily find the raw supplies, or even already made items on the Internet. There are several sites out there that sell about anything you would be looking for. One of the first is Dixie Gun Works. They also have a very extensive inventory. If it has to do with black powder guns, they will have it.

Dixie Gun Works carry a very large inventory of guns and gun kits. You can get double barreled shots guns and black powder revolver kits too. Along with gun parts, gunsmithing tools, stock wood blanks from curly maple to walnut, barrels and leather goods, they carry clothing and accessories from the old frontier period style also.

If you are interested in black powder cannon, Dixie Gun Works carries a lot of products there also. If you want to spend a lot of money, you can even find full sized cannon barrel, or even buy a whole complete black powder cannon. But a scaled down cannon will always make a lot of nose for you too!

Dixie Gun Works is the first place to look for your black powder accessories, but there are several other goods one out there too. However, I have found if you are looking for an old gun part, muzzleloader or early black powder shell gun, more than likely they will have it.

If you have any suggestions of what you would like to see here, just drop me a line at email .. blackpowdershooter1@gmail