Can anyone tell me a good starter Muzzleloader?

Finaly a post I can actualy submit some valuable experience and knowledge to. I've been into muzzleloading for years.

First off, you need to know why you want to hunt with a muzzeloader. Is it for nostalgic reasons? Do you want to feel closer to your ancestors, maybe see what its like to face the same challenege that they faced? Or rather, do you want to be able to hunt during the black powder season, or are you looking for something different?

I can tell you from experience, no matter WHAT kind of muzzle loading gun you get - modern or traditional - it will fire EVERY SINGLE time and NEVER when you don't want to, as long as you take good care of it. If you let it rust, don't clean it, and are a general lethargic sloth about it, no, it probably won't fire. And no wonder.

And they're not realy that heavy. Maybe I'm just young and dumb, but I've trucked through the woods for three days with a flint lock musket ( the most "un-reliable") in the RAIN. It fired every time and I didn't get worn out. Whats ten pounds? My lunch weighs more than that.

I can't tell you much about modern muzzleloaders. In all honesty, I can't realy see the point. They're not that different from a modern gun, realy, except you put yourself at a slight disadvantage. When I want to go modern hunting, I go modern hunting, and when I want to go black powder, I take my flintlock musket - the equivalent of a 12 gauge shot gun - or my caplock eight gauge.

But do what you think is right for you. My best reccomendation would be a conneticut valley or maybe armi spot kentucky rifle, in a caplock variety. If you want to go modern, I've heard good things about the Remginton Model 700 Muzzleloader.

All I can say to this thread is WOW. I hope I am not bringing up a really old topic but I have a few things to say here. For those knocking the new style muzzleloaders and telling this guy to go with an old percusion and even a (GASP) flintlock you guys need your heads examined. Sure theose old things can kill a deer. I killed a couple deer with my old cheap heavy cva percussion cap gun that I paid $98 for brand new. They were very accurate out to 70 yards and had tremendous knockdown power. Would I call them reliable? HECK NO. I am very tedious about my guns and keep them spotless. They tend to not want to go off when its damp outside no matter how good you are about cleaning them. I retired that gun when knight came out with the MK-85 which is now known as the American knight.

For a starter gun the american knight can not be beat by anything out there period. It has the 209 plastic jacket ignition (absolutely water proof) and it uses the Green mountain barrel (best muzzleloading barrel on the market bar none) and a black synthetic stock (impervious to the elements) and it is drilled and tapped for a scope. All this for about $200. IMO Knight rifles are the best muzzleloading rifles ever built. 2" groups at 100 yards says it all.

Now if this guy wants to go old style then more power to him but I can not tell you how many times we have had missfires with our old percusion cap guns. When they shot, they shot great out to 70 yards. I for one will never use those old guns again other than to just toy around with when I want to "feel" nostalgic.