Matt Buckley, it is a 16 ga.

I have enjoyed this thread and appreciate the compliments on the gun. I heard metallic cartridges are just a passing fad!

All it had made me want to do is go shooting again. Craig, I am glad I made that mistake about the muzzleloading event at the Southern. I am definitely going to do that on Thursday. There is a black powder cartridge event on Friday that I will use a Parker in :)

Daryl that case that came with mine is original. You did a great job making yours. It is hard to find a case that will fit a muzzleloading shotgun.

I need to try that sky chief load. I might do some patterning over the weekend. Then some sporting clays during the week for more practice then a preserve hunt soon after.

These are a lot of fun and it is nice to see so much interest.

Bring your mountain howitzer as well I think CL is working on another 8 event for Friday morning !

Craig, I was hoping there was going to be an 8 gauge shoot too!

what an incredible survivor

You black powder guys are awful. It took almost a year to finally convince myself I need to sell all my black powder stuff (it accumulates) and now after reading this darn thread I'm thinking no and instead I'll take one on a quick quail hunt before the end of the season. Also used to enjoy turkey hunting with blackpowder...except when there's a drought and after you shoot you have to scramble to stomp out the burning leaves between you and the flopping Tom! And another thing- once you get used to the smell of burnt black powder you just don't appreciate the rancid smell of burnt smokeless powder- kind of like enjoying the smell of the exhaust of an old internal combustion engine using real gasoline compared to modern unleaded.... (:

Jay, the case was difficult to find as the Manton barrels require a 32" inside dimension. Finally found one in England.

Chris, I',too, enjoy black powder guns from that era of craftsmen using hammers, chisels, files, drills , and maybe gas lighting if they were lucky. Over the past few years I have enjoyed pinfires for hunting and fun shooting. That period seems to include the best examples of gunmaking art after the flinters.

Would someone tell me about the Skychief load in detail? I’ve shot ML’ers since the late 50’s but this is a new one to me.

Hi Joe, I enjoyed looking at pictures of you sxs flinlock. We need to get a handful of us together for a shoot.

This is from member Skychief on the Muzzleloader forum:

I have not tried it yet, but might play around with it this weekend. It is supposed to exponentially improve the pattern