I FINALLY discovered a load that reliably ignited and shot accurately out of that muzzleloader. My confidence skyrocketed and I ended up shooting a hog that weekend using my newly discovered pet load.
Remember: my friend and I had NO experience with muzzleloaders at all at the time and we didn’t even know anybody who did. We couldn’t find anybody at any of the local gun stores who really knew what they were talking about and we had a really hard time finding any useful information online.
As a result, I had to learn a lot of lessons the hard way.
Doing so WAS very satisfying though and that whole process did help me develop a good foundation of knowledge and learn the fundamentals of hunting with a muzzleloader.
That whole experience made the situation crystal clear to me:
Hunters trying to learn how to hunt with a muzzleloader suffer from a serious lack of reliable, trustworthy, and easy to understand sources of information.
Once I realized this (and once I got a taste of success), I doubled down and I spent the next few years researching, experimenting, shooting, and hunting with various muzzleloaders.
But I didn’t stop there.
I began documenting my journey in a series of articles in a small online hunting blog. It took a tremendous amount of work, but I eventually created a massive online resource on muzzleloader hunting that started getting a lot of attention from other hunters who were in the same boat I was in.
Over the years, I've helped thousands of other hunters learn how to hunt with a muzzleloader and select the ideal muzzleloader, bullets, powder, and primer for the hunts they’ve always dreamed of.
Along the way, I also applied those lessons I learned and I've experienced a tremendous amount of success over the course of my muzzleloader hunting career.
I’ve shot deer, feral hogs, and black bear with my muzzleloader in pouring down rain, in snow, in really hot and humid conditions, and in absolutely frigid weather with single digit temperatures.