Hunting with a muzzleloader - What I carry while Hunting!

A very common question and one I wish I had taken seriously when I first started muzzleloading! A 10lb shooting bag filled with 3/4 lb of black powder, 50 round balls, spare parts, cleaner, just is over kill!

I hunt at an elevation ranging from 7,000 to 11,000 feet, depending on the game I am hunting.

This is just a simple showcase of what I personally carry into the mountains while hunting mule deer or elk.

Weight is everything! I've ditched modern, clunky hunting boots and wear my buckskins pants to feel more attached to the theme of hunting with a muzzleloader.

This deals strictly to my shooting bag!

A quality shooting bag with a wide should strap greatly reduces fatigue on your neck and shoulder. The wider strap will evenly displace the weight, vs a thin strap, that often feels like its slowly sinking into your muscles, after a few hours of hiking.

Your shooting bag should be equipped with a secure closure! It's not fun having to back track, looking for equipment that may have fallen out at your last break area.

Often over looked is how weather proof your shooting bag is. We're shooting black powder and moisture is killer to our sport!

Moving on from the Shooting Bag.... What do I carry my tools in?

Often times, I will use a 4oz tin to carry my powder measure, turn screw, nipple pick, ball screw and extra caps. Do we really need to carry 100 caps into the woods? No. At times I will bring a small, simple, leather capper that I made that holds 9 spare #11 caps. The larger brass capper is heavy and carries close to 100 caps. Overkill for a hunt!


WEIGHT... That's what I am keeping in mind, before I hike up the mountain side....

When I ditch the heavier, clunky sounding tin, I will use a simple leather case that helps reduce weight and more importantly, keeps the metal tools from rattling around while hiking through rough terrain.


All spare shooting patches are carried in my rifles patch box.

As to how many projectiles I carry... 6... 6 balls is all I will ever need in a hunting situation. These are often carried inside of my shooting bag, that has an internal pocket.



Nipple Pick, Ball Screw, Nipple Wrench, Turn Screw ( Screw driver ) and my Powder Measure. Often times I leave the ball screw at home as its nearly impossible to pull a load out of my rifle with a wooden ramrod and nothing to grip onto! I always hunt with a  fresh nipple installed, after verifying on the range, that the fresh nipple still has my rifle shooting center.


If you are carrying a powder horn, Don't over do it with large amounts of powder! Just enough for a dozen shots or so. Leave your bulk powder, caps, balls, patches, cleaning supplies, back at base camp! It never hurts to carry half a dozen dry cleaning patches in your shooting bag while hunting. Handy if you shoot at game and want to run a cleaning patch ( spit moistened ) down the bore to swab out the fouling, before you reload.

I tried to always hunt with just what was needed for the day including food and water. The lighter the load the further ground you'll cover and be comfortable in the process.

I'm like Jonathan with staying as light as possible with the rifle and the items needed to make it work.


Five round balls in the loading block and one in the rifle. Either percussion caps or flint depending on rifle. A few tools to have on hand with a small powder horn carried in button down shirt pockets (everything fits and makes them easy to get too).

I use a small haversack with a small leather canteen, a few apples and a handful of jerky. I use a light GRRW Hawken (Kit Carson perc. style) built by Carl Walker or a GRRW NW Trade gun (flint) also built by Carl. Always make sure when moving around anything being carried does not make any noise.

Good post Jonathan ...

As for me, I carry what Jonathan tells me to carry

Good post. I leave the shooting bag at home, generally have patched balls in a ball board, a small sack with flints and extra leathers tucked in a belt pouch with a (dare I say it?) Leatherman. I generally have some patching in the rifle's patch box. If I am using the cap lock rifle, extra patching is in an Altoids tin in the belt pouch while the percussion caps are in the rifle's cap box. Knife is on my belt if it's a fixed blade, but lately I just have an Opinel folder in my pocket which does well as patch knife and for cleaning what is shot.

I also generally carry a back pack to carry the game (if I am so lucky) home in, and lunch fixings with a canteen are in that.

The caveat to all that is that I seldom get out to hunt anymore....

~Kees~

Winter Hawk wrote:Good post.  I leave the shooting bag at home, generally have patched balls in a ball board, a small sack with flints and extra leathers tucked in a belt pouch with a (dare I say it?) Leatherman.  I generally have some patching in the rifle's patch box.  If I am using the cap lock rifle, extra patching is in an Altoids tin in the belt pouch while the percussion caps are in the rifle's cap box.  Knife is on my belt if it's a fixed blade, but lately I just have an Opinel folder in my pocket which does well as patch knife and for cleaning what is shot.

I also generally carry a back pack to carry the game (if I am so lucky) home in, and lunch fixings with a canteen are in that.

The caveat to all that is that I seldom get out to hunt anymore....

~Kees~

I do the same if hunting for meat and not doing living history ...

I no longer hunt.  But when I did what I carried depended on what kind of hunting I would be doing.  Deer: Premeasured charges went into the pockets along with 5 or 6 balls/patches, a small primer, extra flint or two, belt knife (folder) and that's about it.  Anything else was in the backpack left in the truck.  About 40% of the time I carried a shoulder bag & horn with the above mentioned stuff and very little else and always a Snickers bar & powder measure.  Always had a short starter and small camera if I don't forget.

Squirrels (small game): Bag and powder horn as above but with a call, double the number of balls and patches, addition of a powder measure and that's about it.

Guns. Deer: A .45 flintlock rifle or sometimes a .50 flintlock.
        Small game: A .32 or .36 rifle.

All my bags and horns are small (day bags).