Hunting Big and Small Game with Muzzleloading Pistols

Black-powder handguns provide an interesting challenge for the muzzleloading hunter, but when pistols and loads are properly matched to the animal, they can do effective work on deer, hogs, alligators and plains game in addition to being excellent small game guns.

In modern times muzzleloading pistols are often thought of as big-boy toys that go bang and make lots of smoke, but both historic and modern-pattern guns are effective for small and big game if the guns and loads are properly matched with the game. For decades, Wm. Hovey Smith has hunted a variety of animals with traditional and modern muzzleloading handguns in the U.S. and Africa. With proper loads many original guns may be used to take smallish deer and hogs and the long-barreled modern single shots can be used with confidence on any but the very largest species of big game. This book goes in details about the guns, loads and the game that the author has taken with them. In addition other pieces of practical information are given about powders, bullets and even how to make improvised holsters for these frequently odd-sized guns so that they may be more practically carried in the field. Some of this information has previously been shared in magazine articles, but other more specialized segments have never appeared in print. Although taking big game with muzzleloading handguns draws most attention, small game hunting is fun, provides useful practice and in some states allows you to take wild hogs with effective muzzleloading pistols that are legally classified as small-game guns in many states.

Starting as a BB-gun hunter at a very early age, Wm. Hovey Smith progressed through cartridge-gun hunting with pistol, rifle and shotgun and became almost exclusively a muzzleloading gun hunter in the 1980s. Since that time he has hunted big and small game with traditional and modern muzzleloaders in all parts of the U.S. along with trips to Europe and Africa. Never restricted with any one makers guns, he has used muzzleloading pistols, muzzleloading rifles with all types of ignition and taken both big and small same with a variety of muzzleloading smoothbores, ex-military muskets and shotguns. His writing began with short pieces to NRA publications in the 1970s and now includes some 15 books, hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, blogs and he is now the Corresponding Editor for black powder guns and hunting for the Gun Digest Annual. Most recently he has completed 1.5 years of outdoor radio and more than 250 You Tube videos on outdoor subjects.