Muzzleloader for long term survival?

Not really.... Well I do have an old singe shot cap and ball 45 cal. I have a bunch of powder/caps and a few 100 mini balls for it. (450gr) It would sure hit someone or something hard if they ever got shot by it...

 

They are great for streching your fixed ammo supply. Great for foraging.

They are also easy to build with less than perfect tooling.

There is a company called Corbin Machine Tool that makes a device called a Tap-o-Cap so you can make your own #11 caps.

You can also chuck a percussion nipple in an electric drill and spin it down with a file until those plactic ring caps will fit.

You can also flattern wheel weights and chop them into square shot.

There are a lot of alternate powder choices for BP guns too. The traditional sulphur/charcoal/salt peter mix is not actually a necessity.

Improvised gun, improvised powder, improvised shot.

EDITED BY Z71: We do not Condone Murder at HPFF

 

survival muzzle loaader

yep gonna need the old smoke poles fer foraging and hunting .
as long as b.p is kept dry and cool it will last a long time there was an article
in muzzle blasts magazine a few years back about powder from the 20's and 30's that was still as good as new .cartridge guns is fer fighting in the p . a. w

 

Woah now... I did not know we were talking about killing random people for stuff... Remind me not to go where you are.

Would homemade black powder really work to fire a gun? I would be worried about making a pipe bomb and then raising it up to my face...
:shock:

 

He talks like that all the time on the urban warrior forum.

 

yea i got a muzzle loader and supplys for it just in case, along with my lother guns. hey you never know what will be needed to get you by.

 

I have 2 .50 Cal muzzleloaders and I would also like to get into some muzzleloading shotguns as well. I have a friend in Alamogordo that does mountain man reinactments and he uses several ML shotties. His turkey gun is a side by side double barrel 10 guage. That gun is a hoss! Another thing about ML's is that they are usually heavy as hell, which reduces recoil, but is not as good for carrying it around. All in all, ML weapons do have a place in SHTF situations. The only downside about a ML is the fact that the big plume of smoke will give away your position during the day if you are using it as a SD/HD weapon. They don't call them smoke poles for no reason.

 

There's another option that would work just as effectively as a muzzleloader in a survival situation, be more ammo conservative, and quieter too:





Best part is you could get all 3 for the price of a good muzzle loader.

 

a word on crossbow pistols, most are made with a plastic frame, but some are made with a metal frame. when I was in high school, i had bought one of each to play around with, as my grandparents didn't have any guns and wouldn't let me have one ( my pappaw was a convicted felon). what I did was to take the bow section off of the plastic one and double it up with the bow section of the metal one. it took a little work, and a little time to get everything to fit, but once everything was put together, I took that little thing outside and found out that it was quite the little hoss. it buried one bolt (the little arrows that come with them) halfway into a tree, and buried another quite a little ways into the ground. I guarantee that it could stop a small to medium game animal in its tracks. and if you got the metal framed bolts, you could easily reuse them.

 

I have actually had the pleasure of touring Thompson Center Arms in Rochester NH. They make an excellent weapon and they show great care and workmanship in production. I always wanted to get one maybe someday when I have the funds I will. If you go with TC you go with confidence

 

I've never thought of this before, but it makes a lot of sense, particularly the reliance on flint rather than primers.

As a tangentially related matter, I remember reading (I think in Stephen Ambrose's book) that the Lewis and Clark expedition took specially prepared powder packages sealed in lead: the lead protected the powder from moisture, and when opened, the amount of powder in the packet matched the number of balls that could be cast from the lead in the container. Ingenious!

A second point was that, while they ran out of whiskey about two months into a two-year expedition, they returned with over half the ammo that they had originally packed. They could have turned around and made the trip again without reloading.

SHTF suppliers need to start building these lead/powder packages!

 

One of the first guns I ever owned is a 44 cal Kentucky Long Rifle with no. 11 primer. Very accurate. I now have an inline with both no. 11 and 209 ignition systems. I also have an 1851 44 cal revolver.

I have always felt that a muzzle loader is a great tool to have. I am also an avid bowhunter and have both a compound and recurve bow. The recurve is my back up because I can make all the accessories I need for it without a bunch of special tools. I make my own strings, arrows, etc. I just started using the Compound last year and frankly I don't enjoy it as much as the more traditional archery.

 

This is the one I want to try
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also do not forget that several of the modern calibers could be loaded with BP in a pinch....possibly even all.... but would be messy to clean....imagine that in ur favorite ar 15...lol

 

There is one at my local gun shop. But then maybe I will get a one of these and shoot BP out of it. These USfirearms are really really nice!