My 10 year old recently took a surge in his interest in deer hunting.  This caught me off guard in the sense that I hadn’t really prepared for him to hunt very much this year, and more specifically, I hadn’t considered him being old enough to take advantage of Kentucky’s late, 9 day long, muzzleloader season.  Many years this can be a lucrative time for hunting whitetail in the Bluegrass State, as the dwindling food sources in December usually bring some predictability back to the hunt.  

Bottom line up front:  I had a short period of time to figure out a way to manage recoil in a muzzleloader enough that my son could shoot it.  First, I made sure that the length of pull was going to be manageable on this rifle for him.  He’s a growing boy, but I always want to ensure that he is shooting something that not only has manageable felt recoil, but also that he can have a good cheek weld on the stock and shoot accurately.  

Seeing that he could handle the size of the Traditions .50 cal that I had on hand, the next quest was to simply find a charge that he could shoot comfortably.  I’ve been shooting sabot bullets that push 300 grains with 100 grains (at times 150 grains)  of pyrodex powder.  That’s not incredibly comfortable for even me to shoot, so I knew it wasn’t going to work for him.  Time was running short in the season, and he’s growing fast, so I didn’t want to run out and buy a .45 caliber rifle for what might only amount to a couple of weeks worth of hunting, so I decided to see what I could do to lessen the felt recoil in the rifle I did own. 

The majority of felt recoil comes from bullet weight, but the powder charge does play a significant part in this.  The lightest bullets I could find readily available were 170 grain Smackdown Bleed bullets, so I ordered a couple of packs and waited. 

On the range the plan was simple.  Using the 170 grain bullets, I would start with 100 grains of powder and shoot, backing down the powder charge 10 grains at a time until I got the recoil to what I believed would be manageable for my son. This significant change in bullet weight would also change the zero of my rifle some, so I would start at 25 yards to ensure I was on the paper, then back up to 50 and adjust until I was a few inches high there. Then I would back up to 100 yards and monitor the hole the bullet was making in the target as I finalized my zero. If the bullet was too underpowered, It would be tumbling, or not punching a clean hole in the paper.  I would also be monitoring bullet drop, another tell-tale sign of velocity loss.  Not exactly the most scientific way to measure ballistics, but it works, and I wasn’t purchasing a chronograph to zero a muzzleloader.  

Easy Success!  Much to my surprise, the first combination I shot, the 170 grain bullet with 100 grains of powder, felt fine and held very little felt recoil.  In fact, it was such a pleasant setup to shoot, that it’s doubtful that I will go back to heavier bullets anytime soon!  As I backed up to 100 yards I noticed very little bullet drop and that the bullets were punching neat, clean holes in paper.  I put a tad over 10 rounds through the rifle in an afternoon, and although I was doing very little to combat much of the fouling between shots, I was pleasantly surprised at the shot groups, light felt recoil, and the lack of drop the rounds were displaying.  

If you’re looking for a manageable muzzleloading setup for a child to shoot, I would encourage you to try a similar setup as I did.  I’ve got a secondary muzzleloader that I shoot open sights on, so I will likely just devote the remainder of my heavier sabots to that particular rifle.  I’m excited to see how this round stands up in our next hunt, as head for the Appalachian foothills where we will truly be hunting some big hills!