need advice on a muzzleloader

I have a Knight muzzleloader 50 cal. I am wanting to get my son one also for late season deer. Im thinking a 45 cal. He is gonna be 9 in a few months. I cant find any youth models so Im gonna cut a few inches off the stock and put a SIMS recoil pad on it. What are your thoughts? Looking for a youth gun if you know of any. 45 or 50 cal.

If you can find one CVA makes a youth rifle with 24 or 26 inch barrel in 45 and 50 cal. They weigh between 4 and 6 lbs.

Use your head for something other than holding your hat up.
9 years old is too young to handling a gun when hunting even
under strick surveillance some is going to go bad wrong. Also
he's too small to shoot a 45 cal black powder gun. Get yourself
a 22 rifle and take him out a range to shoot.
Walt
PS if you get him this gun please let us know when and where
you will be hunting so that we stay home that day.

I'd have a bit of trouble with a kid and a black powder rifle at nine. A .22 would be a lot better for a few years yet until he learns about recoil and grows into a heavier caliber after he has had time to learn to shoot well and do it safely. I'll start letting my youngest gson shoot this fall, but he's no where near ready for a heavier gun than a .22, nor is he mature enough to understand the dangers of hunting.

I'm not sure a .22 is the right choice either considering the distance that bullet can travel.
BB Gun/Pellet gun to start, 410 with birdshot, then move to a 410 with slugs maybe?
I have an uncle who still hunts deer with a 410 gauge shotgun.
It's light for him to carry at 86 years young and easy to find with a short stock.

Walt, I couldn't agree more with you...
The lad is way too young for anything relating to high caliber firearms.My advice would be to take him to safety courses,and controlled gun ranges, so he can observe safe shooting habits.My son started with a BB gun, shooting at a spool of thread hanging and swinging from a slight wind on a tree branch.He became proficient in hitting a moving target.He and I enrolled in a hunters Safety course together and hunted in pairs for several years,now neither one of us hunt anymore.My son owns all the guns and reloads for all of them except for the 12 gauge shotgun.We both have CCW permits,and adhere to all safety precautions. I sure hope the man doesn't allow his son,at age 9, to handle any firearms, until he receives alot of instruction,from those who know, about gun safety instructions.He(father) would be better advised to give it a second thought.To many idiots in the woods,who shoot at anything in the woods.JMHO.
LOU

My youngest is 9 and he gets to be a dog until he passes firearms safety.
Different strokes for different folks, but he doesn't get a .22 until then either. He gets to use mine under my supervision right now.

(quoted from post at 19:59:11 10/08/12) Use your head for something other than holding your hat up.
9 years old is too young to handling a gun when hunting even
under strick surveillance some is going to go bad wrong. Also
he's too small to shoot a 45 cal black powder gun. Get yourself
a 22 rifle and take him out a range to shoot.
Walt
PS if you get him this gun please let us know when and where
you will be hunting so that we stay home that day.

Click to expand...

Walt while I think most kids are too young at 9 too, but the states that allow it have strict rules. It's not under "surveillance" it's under supervision where and adult can immediately take control of the firearm. In those states it's up to the parent to decide if a kid is mature enough to hunt.

Rick

It depends on the kid but 9 years old is not to young if taught right. I started shooting at 8 years old and was hunting with my dad at 9. I started out on a 410 and still will grab it before the larger gauges. And as far as kick the 410 and 45 handle almost identical. The most important thing is to teach them the proper way to use it and keep drilling that into them. My daughter started shooting at 8 years old.

maine allows hunting at 10 with adult supervision.Ive seen some kids that passed a hunter saftey course that were dangerous.Depends on the individual.Back in the 50s I saw boys come out of a one room school house with Winchesters during deer season in Maine.Hunting is in a decline here.

I think hes too young for a muzzle loader.Talked with gunsmith who hunted at a young age with a muzzle loader.His dad would load the gun but he had to go back home to get it reloaded.My grand sons first gun was an NEF 20 gauge Youth model.It has a rubber butt pad.I bought one a year later, its my favorite hunting gun.

Just load down your gun. A patched .490" round ball and 60 grains of black powder will still kill a deer. Recoil should be tolerable for a kid.

For some reason 4H doesn't think so. They start at age 7.

My grandson ,,6 just shot and helped gut his first deer last week . Of course he pretty much just pulled the trigger while his dad lined everything up . He was so proud . Told all about how he helped cut it open and pull out the guts. I"d just use a lower load in your .50 will be fine .

I've seen 50 year olds that passed the hunters safety course that were dangerous. What was worse - they got mad when you pointed it out - even more so when they knew you were right. You can still tell a 9 year old something and he'll listen.

I bought both my boy and girl a youth model Knight 50 cal. muzzle loader a couple of years ago. We use the Pyrodex pellets instead of loose powder. I had them start with 60 grains but the accuracy wasn't very good, moved them up to 80 grains and was able to tighten up the pattern considerably. Now as far as going out hunting we have an earily youth season were they can hunt under strict supervision of an adult(meaning the licensed adult must stand with the youth). It is the weekend prior to our gun season so the deer aren't out running very which way and it gives the youngster a nice opportunity to experience a safe hunt.

what i did for my kids/grandkids. took one of the cheap $99 walmart specials with a plastic stock,removed the buttplate and poured it full of lead shot,making it actually heavier to reduce recoil.left the stock length ALONE for one simple reason..ml is not like a regular rifle ,even one of the inlines,theres a very real possibility of eye damage with a muzzle loader thats greatly reduced with a more modern rifle and how shall we say "choking up" on a ml greatly increases this risk. be a shame for a 9 year old boy to lose the sight of his shooting eye and have to deal with it the rest of his life in my opinion.MY thoughts were to reduce recoil,put child in a position to where the shots they would take would not require offhand shooting ( which cutting the stock is supposed to help and that ONLY,it does absolutly nothing else,it increases recoil, it moves the drop in stock, increasing felt recoil most times,INCOURAGES instead discourages bad shooting habits such as bad head placement etc ) IN MY OPINION after helping dozens of children learn to shoot,shooting a rife is not in anyway like shooting a shotgun .put that child in a position to where he can adapt hisself to the stock and youll have a better shooter.IF he needs shooting aids,lace on a cheekpiece to raise the line of sight,recoil pads and things should be shorter not thicker,( which very often will gain a inch by it self on stock length) loads should be reduced(50 grains of pyrodex will drive a 250 grain 50 cal bullet through any deer walking) rifle should be heavier not lighter,and let them shoot out of a fixed stand,at standing still targets, off shooting sticks if neccesary.Thats my thinking anyway,shooting a rifle(except at dangerouse game of course) is not like shooting a shotgun,anyone can pretty make a good shot with any rifle given enough time to set up. again my opinion.one time only I'll shorten a stock, when im building a specific rifle for a speciefic child when the've stopped growing.