Muzzleloading Industry Braces for Hunting Season Rush | Muzzleloading News August 2022

Hi, I’m Ethan and I love muzzleloading and this is your muzzleloading news for August 2022.

Blackhorn 209 sees another price increase

First up I want to start off with kind of a hot topic with Blackhorn 209. I reported last month that Blackhorn 209 was arriving at retailer stores as well as being available online from Hodgdon early on in that reporting I was able to find blackboard 209 at the original price or the old price of 36.86 and some of you were as well here in the eastern united states at least I want to say now it seems that Walmart has jacked up the price to match with Hodgdon's online price and now we're seeing Blackhorn 209 8 ounce bottles like we reported on selling for $52 to $57 at Walmart stores here in the United States it looks like Cabela's in some locations or bass pro shops is still marketing and selling Blackhorn 209 at $65 a bottle for that same eight ounce bottle. I’m really sorry to report that I was really hoping that we'd see it continue to stay at the $36.86 it looks like that might not be the case.
Bottles are still arriving around the states here every bottle that I've had reported to me is still under lot 42 so I know some people out there doing some testing with lot 42 to see about any velocity changes or anything so keep a look out on some of the muzzleloading forums for some of that information

Gunmakers Fair at Kempton ruled a Success

 In traditional muzzleloading news last week I got back from the gunmakers fair Kempton, in Kempton Pennsylvania the successor to the gun makers fair at Dixons and I cannot say how enthusiastic I am for traditional muzzleloading especially in Pennsylvania. You guys out there love your muzzleloaders and you love talking about your muzzleloaders it was incredible to see your passion first hand and talk with a lot of you about your enthusiasm for muzzleloading. there are a lot of other events happening this fall both in living history, contemporary accouterments, competition and just get together with your muzzleloader. We're trying to update ILoveMuzzleloading.com as much as we can with these events we'll have a few more from the east coast that I picked up at the gun makers fair at Kempton on the website here soon for you to check out.

 I was able to talk to some traditional muzzleloading manufacturers and suppliers at the go makers fair at Kempton,  a lot of the similar people I talked to at the NMLRA June shoot last June and it was nice to hear the same kind of talk of business echoed of just an increase in business people buying everything related to muzzle loading which was really nice to hear. We are still seeing some wait times for your traditional muzzleloading supplies especially kit muzzle loaders and the supplies that go with them.

Tennessee Allows Federal Fire Stick in 2022-2023 Muzzleloader Season

Last month we saw Tennessee allow the Traditions Nitro Fire and the Federal Fire Stick in the Tennessee muzzleloading season. They're doing this really kind of across the country here in many states I think now they're up to just about half of the states here in the United States allowing the Federal Fire Stick ignition system in the Traditions Nitro Fire now they're changing the definition of muzzleloader in their state rules to allow for the propellant or the charge to be loaded from the breach allowing for that Federal Fire Stick now they're not writing the Federal Fire Stick specifically into the rules or the legislation here but they are changing it so the propellant can be loaded from the breach. Tennessee is still mandating that the projectile is loaded from the muzzle so there's a lot of discussion about this online and I think it's fair. This is changing up how we look at muzzleloading and for a lot of people out there it does not feel like a muzzleloader but at least at the state game commission level we're seeing them alter their definitions of a muzzleloader to allow this to come in.

Interestingly enough we're seeing Pennsylvania now considering this for their early muzzleloader season not the late flintlock only season I want to clarify there that Pennsylvania is considering allowing the Federal Fire Stick and the Traditions Nitro Fire in their early muzzleloader season where they're now allowing or have been allowing modern muzzleloaders like an inline CVA or Traditions or a Knight rifle in there so it wouldn't be changing really much of the muzzleloader season. It would be changing that early muzzleloader season where they're already allowing modern propellants modern rifles and modern bullets so that's something to keep aware of if you're interested in how this plays out in Pennsylvania.

I’ll have some links at ILoveMuzzleloading.com where you can make your voice heard. I’m not getting involved into whether it should be or should not be I’m kind of leaving that to the folks in each of these states on how they want to go about it just providing some resources so you can reach out and get involved with your legislation and your rule making process. We feel a lot of times that these rules are made in a vacuum and without kind of the community's involvement so it's important for us to get involved regardless of how you feel about it.

Blackpowder Substitutes being restocked

As we reported last month the other black powder substitutes like Pyrodex and Triple Seven are hitting distributors and store shelves not seeing too much of a price increase with Triple Seven or pirate x at local Walmartd or outdoor shops staying true to what it was pre 2020 here which is good to see. A lot of folks are getting ready and gearing up for their muzzleloader hunting seasons it's really going to start start soon.

We're really seeing now in August that people are going out and picking up their bullets and their powder and getting out to the range and testing their loads. I do want to say with modern muzzleloading hunters it's really nice to see people getting out and experimenting a lot this year seeing a lot more involvement with that on the forums and the various communities out there of people interested in testing powders and loads and making sure they're dialed in before they head out to the woods.

CVA limits Paramount Production in 2022 due to Blackhorn Shortage

This week some discussion with CVA and the Paramount line about Blackhorn 209 a lot of shooters are having trouble finding Blackhorn 209 and wanting to know about an alternative for their Paramount series muzzleloaders and CVA has said in their facebook groups that the production of the CVA Paramounts this year was limited because of the limited access to Blackhorn 209 - which was kind of stark comment to hear. That really shows you and shows us that there is an issue with getting Blackhorn 209. We're not seeing as much of it as the market needs hopefully we see that change in the future.

So if you're looking for a CVA Paramount this year it's going to be easier to find it in 45 than it is to find it in 40 or 50. Hopefully this is just kind of a fluke year for that when we start to see the production of the Paramounts because interest in precision and long range end of muzzleloading is increasing as people want to try more and more new things.

Percussion Caps are being released in small quantities

We reported last month that the supply of Percussion caps was going to continue to be limited through the rest of the year. Since reporting, we have seen and heard of a small number of percussion caps, mainly #11 CCI Percussion caps being released by several retailers. Shoppers in the Midwest have reported finding 1,000 caps at Walmart stores in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Wisconsin as well as Pennsylvania. For those unable to find caps locally, Midway USA, Natchez Shooting Supply, and Muzzle-Loaders.com have all released a small number of caps over the last few weeks. At the time of reporting, Midway USA is the only retailer that has released more than 1 batch of caps. I hope to see more retailers continue to restock their caps as we head into hunting season, but the lack of restock at Walmart Stores has me thinking this is new old stock being distributed to meet hunting season demand.

As always, check with your local gunshop about caps and powder. In my local area, the local gunshop had caps where no other stores within 100 miles did.