Muzzle Loading Magnums

The Muzzleloading Magnums

By Hank Strong

During the last few years the term Magnum has become common when discussing muzzleloading rifles. Some companies in the industry have touted their guns as having the raw knockdown power equal to some of the heavy caliber center-fire rifles. The idea behind this type of advertisement campaign was to attract the first time buyer and those looking to upgrade to a better rifle. Ever since Roy Weatherby reintroduced the term in the late forties, magnum has grown to mean a rifle that has extraordinary knockdown power at extreme ranges, well above that of the normal hunting rifle.

Most hunters do not associate the term magnum with muzzleloaders. But in fact it was created by muzzleloading hunters in the last century for a special breed of rifle. The term magnum rifle was coined by British hunters in East Africa. The term was picked up from the large bottles of French Champagne they drank around a campfire at night after a hard day of hunting.

Hunters applied the term to their rifles because the area around the breech was somewhat larger then most muzzleloading rifles manufactured at that time. The rifles could be loaded with a heavy bullet and a high powder charge for taking large dangerous big game with one shot. Two terms developed in the middle eighteen hundreds for these rifles: "Magnum and Express".

At some point the terms became interchangeable, but in the beginning they had two separate and distinct loads. A Magnum rifle fired a slightly heavier bullet that weighted between 350 to 500 grains, depending on the big game one was hunting, pushed by 120 to 150 grains of powder. The Express load fired a bullet weighing between 300 to 350 grains pushed by the same powder charge. The term Express was adopted because these ‘light’ bullets traveled extremely fast, like the London mail trains of the era.

The Magnum and Express rifles were generally .45 caliber rifles some were .50 caliber, but none fired a larger caliber bullet. They knew then what we know now: .54 caliber rifles aren’t any more effective at taking big game than a .45 or .50 caliber rifle. The killing power of a muzzleloader is determined by the amount of energy the bullet impacts with, and the weight of the pure lead bullet.

The early rifles were sidelocks, some double barreled, and designed for hunting dangerous big game in Africa and India. Many a tale was told about the rifles around a campfire at night. They made legends out of the hunters who carried them and established themselves as the preeminent hunting rifle of the time.

The magnum muzzleloader of the last century was more than a rifle designed to shoot heavy bullets at high muzzle velocities. These rifles were the epitome of excellence in firearm design. They were beautifully handcrafted pieces that handled superbly in the field and were capable of stopping a charging Cape buffalo or terminating a marauding cat's reign of terror.

So, what’s the point of this history lesson? To enable you to understand the true difference between today’s muzzleloaders that are advertised as Magnums and the true Magnum Muzzleloader.

Several companies are offering magnum rifles today and include Modern Muzzleloading, Thompson-Center Arms, Gonic Arms, Peifer Rifle Co. and Markesbery Muzzleloaders. Today's rifles are as tough as their ancestors, but with maybe a little less elegance. Gonic and Peifer offer you the most options with Gonic offering a ported barrel and a 1" magnum Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad. Most offer the hunter a choice of either .45 or .50 caliber, in-line rifle. Like their predecessors all of these rifles are capable of dropping the biggest buck in the woods at 150 yards.

Not all new magnums are the same and maybe there should be two groups of rifles today like there was in the beginning; those that are really Express rifles and the true Magnum muzzleloading rifles. The modern express rifle would shoot a lighter bullet weighting, say 240 to 340 grains with between 120 to 150 grains of powder. The true Magnums would shoot bullets weighting up to 450 grains with the same powder charge. Both Knight and Marksbery offer very strong rifles with pre-stressed barrels. But these two companies emphasize shooting sabot bullets weighing between 180 to 300 grains with 150 grains of powder. While Gonic and Peifer advertise that their rifles routinely handle 150 grain powder charges with conicals weighing 430 grains.

A magnum offers the whitetail hunter several advantages over a normal muzzleloader. It is capable of developing muzzle velocities of around 2,000 f.p.s. with light bullets that will deliver over 1,200 f.p.e. at 150 yards; with the bullet rising or dropping 2 inches above or below line of sight. A 385 grain .45 caliber bullet and the same 150 grain powder charge will deliver an unbelievable 1,500 f.p.e. at 200 yards! That doesn't begin to describe the tissue destruction a .45 or .50 caliber lead bullet creates when it hits an animal.

The new magnums are capable of taking anything in North American and most game in Africa. They are a go anywhere and hunt anything rifle. A hunter will never have to purchase another rifle for hunting big game. One advantage the magnum muzzleloader offers over its center fire counterpart is the load can be down sized for smaller game greatly reducing recoil.

The modern magnum muzzleloader, like its predecessor, is expensive and can be custom built to your specifications. The magnum is not for everybody, and rightfully so. It is for those few who desire the best and will settle for only the finest.

Till next time remember to wear ear and eye protection while at the range and introduce someone to the wonderful world of shooting a muzzleloader.