Shooting and Maintaining Your Muzzleloader

Written from a hunter's point of view, Shooting and Maintainaing Your Muzzloader is filled with detailed information on muzzleloader disassembly, maintainence, loads and tips on how to keep the gun working under almost any conditions. Included in its 17 chapters are sections on matchlock, flintlock, traditional muzzleloaders as well as modern in-line rifles, pistols and shotguns. Not only is this a technical work, many practical hints are provided based on nearly 50-years of hunting experiences with these guns. Unusual in typical coverage of these guns, the cleaning and limited use of original antique guns is considered along with his candid thoughts on the replica and original guns that work best for hunting. Hunting loads are provided for guns as varied as Japanese-style matchlocks, in-lines and modern percussion revolvers.

Relying on 50 years of muzzleloading hunting experiences in all parts of the U.S. with occasional trips to Europe and Africa, Wm. Hovey Smith delivers candid and practical advice on muzzleloading guns ranging from Japanese matchlocks to the most modern in-line rifles and pistols. Never restricted to a given type or hunting or make of gun, he presents information on guns from many makers of replica muzzleloaders as well as on a number of originals that are now available on the U.S. market. As may be seen in the list of chapters that follows, the book is comprehensive in its coverage, unusual in its approach and full or useful information for the hunter, shooter and owners of muzzleloading guns of all sorts. The 17 chapters in the book are: 1. Choosing between today's muzzleloading powders, 2. Managing percussion and electric ignition systems, 3. Twenty-one steps to flintlock success, 4. Tyrrany of the match: Shooting matchlock guns, 5. Shooting the percussion revolver, 6. Muzzleloaders and round balls: How effective are they?, 7. Muzzleloading bullets and shot placement: Big and slow vs. light and fast, 8. Home casting bullets, 9. Shooting sabots and such, 10. Are 150 grain charges useful in today's in-line muzzleloaders?, 11. Weatherproofing your muzzleloader, 12. The fumble factor in muzzleloader hunting, 13. The four levels of muzzleloading accuracy: What they are and how to achieve them, 14. Cleaning your muzzleloader, 15. Storing muzzleloading guns, 16. Muzzleloading accessories and 17. Getting your new muzzleloader ready to hunt in one day. The book contains 20 illustrations and links to YouTube videos.

Wm. Hovey Smith is a Professional Geologist and an outdoor writer who has been selling articles to national magazines since the 1970s. He has published 18 books with perhaps his best known title is the prize winning "Backyard Deer Hunting: Converting deer to dinner for pennies per pound." His work as a geologist took him all over North America and he spent significant amounts of time in the Southeastern States, Alaska, Arizona and Minnesota . Each new place presented new hunting opportunities, and he very often hunted with a variety of muzzleloading guns which provided the practical experiences on which the present "Muzzleloading Short Shots" E-book series is based. Since his return to Georgia in the 1980s he has taken the opportunity to expand his hunting experiences to Europe and Africa. Besides writing, Smith also produced a radio shows "The Backyard Sportsman" and "Hovey's Outdoor Adventures." In addition he has embraced new technology and is an active blogger and videographer with some 220 videos up by 2013. In addition he does stand-up comedy describing some of his adventures with some of the more outrageous guns that he has hunted with including a variety of muzzleloading pistols, rifles, smoothbores and, most recently, a blunderbuss.