Does Anyone Know Where There's A Santa Fe Hawken For Sale?

Rod Would Like To Know......"Does anyone have one of the late 1970's/early 1980's Western Arms/Uberti Sante Fe Hawken rifles for sale?" 

New Double Features Pages To Become A Regular Feature On NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING Website!

To bring you even more great muzzleloader hunting and muzzleloader performance articles, we are going to include at least one "Double Feature" page every quarter - and on those pages you will find two feature articles or reports.  This link will take you to the first of those pages -

                            http://www.namlhunt.com/doublefeature.html

On this page you will find an article on hunting whitetails with the .50 caliber Traditions VORTEK Pistol (and Hi-Lux Optics Max TAC-DOT red-dot sight) shown above...plus another article that takes a look at why the Scorpion PT Gold bullets produced by Harvester Muzzleloading are the favorite hunting bullets of NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING.

Looking For A Knight .50 Hawkeye Pistol

Paul Wants To Know... "Does anyone know where I can buy one of the Knight .50 caliber Hawkeye muzzleloading pistols at a reasonable price?" 

"Why Can't I Duplicate The Load Ballistics Published On The NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING Website?"

World events are so much easier captured for the public to see due to the fact that such a large percentage of people now have a camera with them at most times - whether that camera is an actual digital still or video camera...or simply a cellphone with photography or video capability.  Snapping photos, either still or moving, has never been easier.

Somewhat in the same light, inexpensive yet reliable chronographs have made it so much easier for the typical shooter to clock the bullet speeds of his loads.  On a somewhat regular basis, NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING hears from muzzleloading shooters who have acquired a new chronograph - and a few have been shocked to find that, shooting the same rifle...powder...charge...sabot...and bullet...ignited by the same No. 209 primer or percussion cap...they are getting velocities that are often 50...75...or even 100 f.p.s. different than the loads and data we've compiled on all of the pages found at the following link -

http://namlhunt.com/loaddatalinks.html

That does not surprise me.  The fact is, on any given day, I experience the very same thing.  It simply boils down to the fact that you are not going to get the same velocities on a -10 degree (F) morning that you achieve on a +80 degree (F) or warmer afternoon.  Likewise, a variety of other factors also come into play that will affect the day to day velocities any shooter achieves, including the percentage of relative humidity in the air and the elevation of the range where you are shooting.

I've been on hunts where mornings were below zero and afternoons well into the 50's.  Yes, it will affect point of impact...but normally not enough to be of any real consequence.  A 50 or 60 degree temperature change will very commonly move point of impact up or down an inch or two - but with a properly sighted modern in-line rifle and a good center hold on the chest cavity of the game being hunted (at 50 to 150 yards), shooting a 250- to 300-grain saboted spire point bullet at 1,900 to 2,000 f.p.s., should put the shot squarely through the kill zone, perhaps an inch higher or lower than where the crosshairs were at the shot.

Here at NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING, we try to hit our range two or three times a week in April, May and June, then again in late September, October and early November - basing when we shoot on temperature.  Our range (shown above) is located in a shallow valley about 15 miles northwest of Missoula, MT.  For us, the ideal shooting temperatures are 45- to 55-degrees - often meaning that during early Spring and late Fall, we shoot more in the afternoons - while in late Spring and early Fall we hit the range in the mornings.

The ballistics data on the website was compiled from the shooting we've mostly done within that temperature range.  Still, we do a great deal of shooting when it's much hotter...or much colder.  This ongoing testing is conducted to see how those weather changes affect velocities, accuracy and point of impact.  Our published loads and data are simply a base, shooting during the most ideal weather and temperature range, in order to allow a comparison of rifle, powder and projectile performance.

During 2013, between our coldest and hottest shooting sessions there was an extreme spread of almost 110-degrees (-10 the coldest and +99 for the hottest).  Shooting our 30-inch barreled Traditions .50 VORTEK Ultra Light LDR test rifle, loading with 110-grains of Blackhorn 209 and the 300-grain Scorpion PT Gold, we experienced right at a 90 f.p.s. variation in velocity (fastest during cold weather and slowest during extremely hot weather).  Still, every shot would have taken a whitetail at 100 yards.

Before heading out on a 2013 Missouri Breaks hunt the week before Thanksgiving, the sighting of the rifle was tweaked to bring the point of impact up about an inch - and 5 days later a single shot dropped a nice 10-point buck at 140 yards.  As the weather changes, tweaking the sighting of any modern in-line rifle should be an ongoing thing...especially when a major weather and temperature change rolls in.  -  Toby Bridges, NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING


Here's A 2011 Article/Report That Takes A Look At "Variables In Muzzleloader Ballistics & Performance" -

http://www.namlhunt.com/mlvariables.html 



    

January Question Of The Month

Dave wants to know..."Where can I find parts for the Austin & Halleck Model 420 rifle?"

NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING Newsletter...Summer-Fall 2013

It's been busy here at NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING since we published our Winter-Spring issue of this newsletter back in March. We've had a lot of shooting to do this year, which got a little tough here in Western Montana as we had one of the hottest summers on record, with a record number of days into the mid to high 90's.  Still, we managed to get it done, doing all of our shooting early in the morning, when temperatures were right at 50 degrees.  Generally, we would get in about two hours of shooting before the temperature topped 65 - and that's when we would load up and head back to the office.

We had two new rifles to wring out, the .50 Traditions VORTEK StrikerFire and the .50 Redemption from LHR Sporting Arms - and through summer and early fall we managed to put about 500 rounds through each. Our early report on the Redemption can be found at http://www.namlhunt.com/mlrifle8.html .  And our first report on the VORTEK StrikerFire can be found at http://www.namlhunt.com/mlrifle9.html .  That's the VORTEK StrikerFire in the photo above right.

Deer and elk hunting seasons have been underway here in Montana for about three weeks, and I've gotten in 9 days of hunting - passing on three whitetail bucks.  Two were small 4x4's, and one was an equally small 5x5.  All had, at most, 14 inch spreads.  So far, I've seen just one bull elk...headed up a ridge almost two miles away in the last 15 minutes of daylight.  I put in two more days on that ridge and never saw him again. Early next week, a hunting partner and I are headed over to the Missouri Breaks to spend 7 or 8 days hunting big mule deer and river-bottom whitetails.  Hopefully I'll be able to share the details of a successful hunt on the NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING website before the end of the year. In addition to hunting deer, I also plan to do some fall turkey hunting...and busting a few pheasants with a muzzleloading shotgun.

The website has grown...a lot...since last year.  In fact, as this is written, this year we've added 61 new pages...and intend to add 4 more to the 2013 Article-Report menu before the end of the year.  Between now and the first of the year, we're also working to upscale the look of the site a bit as well.  To help the nearly 150 or so pages currently found at www.namlhunt.com to download quicker, we're also making the navigation of the site less cluttered by publishing a series of navigation pages, eliminating the huge drop down link menu that often took 20 or 30 seconds to download. Here's a look at how we've simplified the 2013 Article-Report page -


                                               http://www.namlhunt.com/2013-articles-reports.html 

The 2012 Article-Report menu has already been re-constructed in the same manner, and before January 1, 2014 the 2011 article and report menu will receive the same treatment.

If you've spent much time on the website over the past couple of months, then you've surely noticed that we are providing more coverage for the older style traditional muzzleloaders.  Our goal is to ALWAYS keep on providing the same great coverage of modern muzzleloading as we have in the past, and to expand our coverage of the traditional side of our sport.  Muzzleloading at all levels has gotten way too fragmented. There is still way to much bickering between modern minded muzzleloading hunters and purist traditional muzzleloading hunters.  Here at NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING...muzzleloading is muzzleloading - and we will represent both sides of the sport.

Our industry also needs to do some serious organizing.  As a rule, most muzzleloader oriented companies are now doing little to nothing to promote and build muzzleloader hunting opportunities.  Here's a look at that problem...and how the muzzleloading industry needs to model itself after the archery industry...or we just might begin losing way too many muzzleloader hunting opportunities -

                                                  http://www.namlhunt.com/mlindustry.html 

If you are successful in your hunts this fall and winter, send us a few photos and details of your hunts so we can share them with others.  Traffic on the NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING website has gone through the roof.  For the 12 month period from November 1, 2012 to October 31, 2013, the website was called upon 3,057,315 times by the muzzleloading hunters of North America - 419,766 times in October alone.

Thank you for helping make the site Today's No. 1 Source For Muzzleloader Hunting Information.  - Toby Bridges, NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING


                                                LEGISLATIVE ALERT!

A Petition has been filed to legalize Blackhorn 209 in Nevada.  The State of Nevada is the ONLY state to ban the use of this modern top-performing muzzleloader hunting propellant by name. Take a few minutes to send the Nevada Wildlife Commission a message - that muzzleloading hunters need to make those decisions...not a board made up of affluent residents appointed by the Governor who do not hunt with a muzzleloader...or who, very likely, have never even shot a muzzleloader. 

Legalization of the powder will be a topic of discussion at the December 6th commission meeting.  If you have not already, send an e-mail in support of this black powder substitute.  For more details and a link and an e-mail address where you can comment - Click Here.



    

Legislative Alert! Petition Filed With Nevada Board Of Wildlife Commissioners To Repeal Or Amend A Ban On Blackhorn 209!

The State of Nevada is the ONLY state to ban the use of this modern top-performing muzzleloader hunting propellant by name. Take a few minutes to send the Nevada Wildlife Commission a message - that muzzleloading hunters need to make those decisions...not a board made up of affluent residents who do not hunt with a muzzleloader...or who, very likely, have never even shot a muzzleloader. For more details and where to send your e-mail, go to the following link...

                         http://www.namlhunt.com/blackhorn209-10.html


                                        Get Involved...Send An E-Mail!