[jsteel508]

I am new to firearms in general and this site has been great helping me get into shooting sporting clays so I thought I would ask. I have a 12 year old nephew that wants a black powder riffle for X-mas. Do they make youth models and how bad is the recoil on a 45 or 50 cal? He has shot a youth model 12 and 20 ***** for a while now and the black powder will only be used to basicly extend his hunting season. Any help would be great.

Thanks

 

[simsc]

As a dedicated shotgun and black powder shooter I feel comfortable in saying that most "black powder" rifles will not have the recoil of a 12 or 20 ga. shotgun. That said, it certainly depends on the load you use. I have no idea about youth models. Black powder shooting is a lot of fun, but I am afraid that with the flood of inline rifles out there today it is a sport quickly being relegated to traditionalists. As you will note I am a bit of a traditionalist. If you want a true black powder muzzleloader I would recommend looking around gun shops for a deal on a used T/C Hawken, Cherokee, Seneca or similar (the latter two would be smaller frame guns). It would be a good gun and would teach a young shooter a little history as a bonus.

 

[Tal/IL]

First off, I will encourage you to start him with a traditional style rifle. The traditional rifle adds a whole dimension of history and accomplishment that you just don't get with in-lines. There are some youth guns out there. But, most BP rifles have a fairly short length of pull, so unless he is small stature, I don't think you'll have trouble finding a rifle he can handle.

Anyway, the beauty of BP rifles is that you determine the power/recoil by your load. You can load as light a load as you want for practice and target shooting, then go to a heavy load when you get ready for hunting. If he plans to hunt deer with it, get the 50 cal. 45's have certainly killed a lot of deer, but anything a 45 will do, a 50 will do better. My kids hunt deer with 50's. I hunt with a 54.

This pic is my 13 year old boy (if he had any more clothes on we would have had to roll him around) with the doe he killed last week. He used his 50 cal under-hammer. We built it from a kit when he was 9 and he killed his 1st deer with it that year. His load was a .495 roundball over 80 grains of FFFg Swiss powder. The range was 23 paces and she never took a step after the shot.

 

[jsteel508]

Thanks for the input guys. I will do some looking around. I will be giving it to him on X-mas and he lives in Michigan. So I won't be able to let him handle it before buying. Should I just look for one with a short length LOP and get a wood stock so we can have it fitted if needed?

 

[Maser]

u know what he might like is if u bought him one of those hawken kits that u put the gun together and then stain the stock and blue or brown the barrel and u can either get it in caplock or flintlock (flintlock is fun cuz all ur need is powder) and also it comes in .50 or .54 caliber

also too recoil wise blackpowder guns got bigger kicks cuz of the increased powder charge over a smokeless cartidge charge but it is a very managable recoil but its not a recoil u wanna endure all day

 

[Tal/IL]

This is my daughter with her rifle. She is very short - she'll never see 5 ft. I did as you mentioned, bought a standard rifle and shortened it a little for her several years ago.