When I thought of hunting with a muzzleloader, my mind created a picture of a one-shot round ball gun that couldn’t cut paper at fifty yards. It wasn’t until I talked to a friend who had a front stuffer that I was awakened to the accuracy they possessed.
Choosing the Right Equipment
I purchased a fifty-four caliber Night Wolverine inline muzzleloader. I took it to the range with some powder and an assortment of bullets to figure out what charge would be the most accurate. After getting the powder charge right, I selected Power Belt bullets and started practicing. I put a nice little four-power scope on it, and my groups were smaller than I’ve ever had shooting my slug gun. I was impressed with the accuracy but still had to test it in the deer woods.
Proving the Accuracy in the Field
On the weekend before the opening day of the shotgun deer season, I dropped into my friend's hunting camp. All of the guys there were sighting in their guns—Remington 870s, Ithaca deer slayers, etc. They were all on display. The target was about seventy yards out, and it had holes spread all around from the large deer slugs.
The Test Shot
My friend thought it would be a joke on me to have me shoot my "smoke pole," as he put it. So I grabbed it out of my truck and put a cap on the nipple. I took aim at the small circle with an X on it at the center of the target and squeezed off a shot. “Boom!” Smoke filled the air, and everyone laughed and made jokes about not knowing if I hit anything. My friend said, "I don’t see any small holes; you must have missed the target."
The Result
I asked him if the target once had a small X in the center. He walked straight to the target and retrieved it for everyone to view. The center X had a fifty-four caliber hole dead center, and no one was laughing now. That gun has harvested a lot of deer, including my first ten-point. I learned a valuable lesson because I had an open mind about something new.
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