Lordy the .40 mountian rifle

[svt40]

After shooting and hunting this rifle for 2.5 decades its still amazing. It has fullstock curly maple and 40" greenmountian barrel large Siler caplock,browned finish. This rifle has harvested dozens of deer and 5 times that in SQ,s. 60grs. of fffg and ball. Super accurate . In Ohio 38cal is the limit for deer on the small side. Back in the day 200years ago or so East of the Muddy it was very popular for hunting and offhand matchs. One market hunter in PA. used the forty to harvest near 1000 a year for the market in the big citys. I shoot broadside lung shots inside 100yds. They don,t run far,(25-40 yds) and a couple times hit the spine or head and they went right down. Same as my 12ga.slug shotgun. Back in the early 1800,s 38-45 cal.were the popular deer cals. east. But west of the muddy where bear and elk,buffaloe it was .50-62 cal. My son uses a 38 cal flintlock Lancaster.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Can't dispute your experience.
A little .40 round ball runs out of energy very quickly.
I would not be confident using one for hunting anything bigger than tree rats and rabbits.
Still your post is interesting.
BTW, I have 40+ years experience hunting with and shooting traditional muzzle loaders.

 

[Jim Watson]

My next door neighbor found no fault with the .40 for deer hunting. For a little more oomph, he found that it would shoot a lubricated unpatched 180 grain .38-40 bullet pretty well.

At one time, the minimum deer muzzleloader caliber here was .40 because the old Dixie .40 rifles were so common. That neighbor's rifle was built around a Dixie barrel and lock but he made the stock himself based on a picture I showed him of a plains rifle.