Gunmaker: Muzzleloading Isn't What It Used To Be
Mackinaw City Man Says Hunters Lost Touch With Traditional Art
By Ryan Schlehuber

Larry Young of Mackinaw City, a traditional muzzleloading enthusiast, holds a replica 1730-40s .62-caliber Christian Springs muzzleloader he built from scratch three years ago. The state's muzzleloading season was implemented in the 1960s, owing in part to successful lobbying from Mr. Young's now disbanded muzzleloading club, the Three Fires, which promoted hunting with traditional firearms.

Most of the hunters who plan to hunt deer during Michigan's muzzleloading season, from December 7 to December 16, are going about it all wrong. At least they are in Fred Young's opinion.

"Traditional muzzleloading hunters like me are a dying breed," said Mr. Young, who is a pure traditionalist when it comes to muzzleloading hunting, relying on 1800s technology instead of modern equipment to increase the odds of getting a buck.

He believes the modernization of muzzleloaders has steered hunters away from the intention of Michigan's muzzleloading season, which is to seek an authentic hunting experience with a gun that is linked to America's heritage.

Mark Eby of St. Ignace with his inline muzzleloader, a .50-caliber Black Diamond model made by Thompson Center. Like many hunters today, Mr. Eby enjoys the 10 extra days of hunting in December that the state's muzzleloading season provides, and prefers to use the more modern muzzleloader, which has evolved over the years into a lighter, sleeker, and easier-to-use hunting weapon.

"If you give Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett today's type of muzzleloader, they wouldn't know what to do with it," he argued. "You might as well give them a computer."

Mr. Young, 66, of Mackinaw City, built and restored frontier firearms and interpreted local history for Mackinac State Historic Parks for 26 years. Although he has been retired for six years, he still builds firearms, as well as powder horns, as a hobby.

He was a member of a muzzleloading and historical reenactors club, called the Three Fires, which lobbied the state to implement a muzzleloading-only hunting season. The season has been offered since the 1960s. The group has been disbanded for years, but Mr. Young still honors its values of traditional muzzleloading.

Ammunition of inline muzzleloaders today has a different look from components used during colonial times. Pictured are (clockwise, from bottom) are a lead ball with a paper patch next to the more modern bullet in a plastic cap, called a sabot; a brass powder measuring scale; a popular blackpowder substitute that is not as flammable, making it safer for users, and a cartridge of primers. One primer, no bigger than an earring, is used as a starter spark for igniting the powder in the chamber, to fire the lead ball or bullet.

"Our intentions were to allow hunters to show their skills with the traditional blackpowder gun," said Mr. Young. "There were certain stipulations added to it to keep it traditional, but politics got involved and laws were changed."

Mr. Young wishes Michigan law on muzzleloading season would be as direct as Pennsylvania's, which stipulates only flintlock muzzleloaders can be used.

These "frontier firearms," also called muskets or blackpowder guns, use ammunition loaded into the barrel of the gun, allowing for only one shot before reloading.

A flintlock muzzleloader has many components to its firing system. Its most characteristic feature, a flint wedge, strikes against a steel plate called the frizzen, creating a spark that ignites blackpowder in the pan. The powder, in turn, flashes into the gun's vent, igniting blackpowder in the chamber, firing the lead ball or bullet from the barrel.

The traditional style muzzleloader has a flintlock or caplock firing system, which means black powder is "seated" into the barrel of the gun and ignited by sparks from a piece of flint striking steel or, in a caplock, by the gun's hammer striking a tiny cap filled with nitroglycerine.

When pulled, a flintlock's trigger releases a spring-loaded hammer that holds a wedge-shaped flint, which strikes against a steel frizzen to create a spark. At the same instant, the frizzen opens, exposing a pan filled with powder. The ignited powder flashes through a small touch hole called the vent, on the side of the barrel next to the pan. The hot gases pass through the vent, setting off a charge of powder in the chamber. The resulting explosion hurls the projectile down the barrel and out the muzzle.

At right: Larry Young with a finished blackpowder horn he created for a longtime friend from Holland, Michigan. Mr. Young, who has been building firearms since he was a youth, builds firearms from scratch in his small workshop at home. He also restores firearms, which he will be doing for the Fort de Buade Museum collection in St. Ignace.

Over the years, the muzzleloader has evolved into an efficient hunting weapon. Today's muzzleloaders are still loaded from the barrel, but beyond that, similarities end, said Mr. Young.

"Today's guns are bolt-action, center fire rifles," he said. "They have pellets with plastic caps instead of lead balls with patches, and they come with scopes, that have replaced the iron sights. They're not shooting a muzzleloader anymore."

Modern muzzleloaders are much lighter and shorter, as well. A barrel on a typical traditional muzzleloader is 42 to 44 inches long, whereas barrels on modern muzzleloaders are around 27 inches long, about the same length as a regular shotgun.

Mark Eby of St. Ignace uses a blackpowder substitute called Pryodex for his .50-caliber muzzleloader to give it more of a kick. His gun is equipped with a scope. He also uses a modern bullet, instead of a lead ball, that he packs into the barrel with a sabot, a plastic cover that replaces the traditional paper patch, which acts as a buffer between the bullet or lead ball and the black powder.

Small primers no bigger than an earring, filled with black powder, are placed in the heart of the muzzleloader and serve as the starting spark for the firing mechanism, replacing the traditional frizzen.

The muzzleloader is Mr. Young's favorite style of gun. Whenever he hunts, it is either with the old-style flintlock muzzleloader or his "modern" gun, a 4570 Springfield Trap Door, built in 1870, which belonged to his great-grandfather and was used in the Dakota Sioux wars in the late 1800s.

For many modern hunters, the muzzleloading season merely provides an excuse to take to the woods for an 10 extra days to bag a four-legged prize. Convenience and speed have replaced tradition and patience.

"I admit I'm a modern hunter, but I do sit in natural blinds, though," chuckled Ted Orm of St. Ignace. Mr. Orm said participating in muzzleloading season gives hunters more of a chance to bag a buck, since there are fewer hunters out and it extends hunting into the winter, which means deer will be on the move.

Today's muzzleloaders still provide a challenge for hunters, even with all the available modern gadgets, said Mr. Orm.

"You still have only one shot, that's it," he said. "It still takes time to load, too."

What most modern hunters do not appreciate, said Mr. Young, is that traditional muzzleloading is an art form.

"I could just go to the store, buy a gun, and be fine with that," said Mr. Young, "but when I can take metal, raw wood, a barrel, and create a gun, then shoot it, and get something, it's much more of an individual accomplishment.

"There's more gratification in not having the gun do everything for you," he added. "It's the skill and the challenge in using a flintlock muzzleloader that is the beauty of muzzleloading season. I think people are forgetting that."