Traditions Deer Hunter Flintlock 125 Shot Review

The Traditions Deer Hunter, arguably the most accessible flintlock in 2025. It’s on the affordable end, it’s in sporting good stores, but what is it really like?

I’m Ethan, I Love Muzzleloading and since I was 5 I’ve been shooting muzzleloaders with my family. Today I’m going to give you my personal review of the Traditions Deer Hunter Flintlock, based on my experience with it and the last 100+ shots I’ve taken with it.

I’m not an expert, I’m not an authority, I’m just a guy who loves muzzleloading. When Traditions offered to send this my way to review I told them if I were to review it, it would only be after real world use and I’d have to offer my thoughts honestly. They were game, and here we are.

This muzzleloader comes in at 50 caliber with a 26” barrel. This muzzleloader is built in Spain and distributed in the US by Traditions. It features a Flint lock, the same flintlock traditions uses on all their models - to my understanding.

Traditions did send me this flintlock. They could have cherry picked it for me, but I don’t think they’d do that. I mention it only to acknowledge the possibility for the comments out there.

Quick Review

What I liked

Easy Disassembly to clean

Threaded touch hole liner

Plastic stock takes a beating - not worried about it getting damaged

What I didn’t Like

My eye condition doesn’t work well with fiber optic sights - bloom/glow. Similarly, driving at night is horrible. Not Traditions Fault.

Rifle is very light, I like a little more weight. I understand the benefits of a light rifle for packing in/packing out, but for range shooting like this it’s a little light.

Along with that, it’s a little small for me. I’m 6’ tall, 180lbs. Definitely the kind of rifle my daughters will be able to get behind early.

The Lock

I have heard for years about how these flintlocks are a pain in the rear, horrible, garbage. Anything bad to say has been said about these locks, but I didn’t experience much pain with this one.

I used a total of 4 flints through my 100+ shot testing. I found that, like any flintlock, when you have a really good flint, it just runs.


There are little things though, here’s a look at the frizzen after our shooting - it’s pretty ate up, but it’s still running. During my 25 shot sabot testing, I only had one clatch. After a quick rub, the lock went off without a hitch.

The frizzen spring is a little stiff, but like many folks say in their reviews, you can adjust that if you want. I haven’t.

If this was going to be my one and only flintlock, I could see myself wanting to adjust this after a hunting season or two.

The deer hunter wants a SMALL flint, and will probably like the size of an agate. And if you are using leather to hold your flint, you want the thinnest leather you can find.

The jaw does not open enough to accept several of the flints I had. With a commercially cut agate, I think you’d have an easier time gripping the flint.

The jaw screw slot is not cut very deep. Even with a set of gunsmith screw drivers in my range box, I had issues getting things tight enough.

Don’t fill the pan

On the subject of the priming pan

General advice is to not fill the pan, which I agree with for most of my muzzleloaders. However, when it comes to production flintlocks like this one, in my experience the rule does not apply.

Simply put, on these budget lock options, if I don’t fill the pan, it does not go off.

These production locks have a shallow, narrow pan that does not use the entire “pan” space cast into the lock. I assume this is to concentrate the priming powder and allow some water shedding in the design. It could also be an affordability point where the casting molds have not been changed since the 70s so why change them now.

On these pans it is in my experience that the pan does need to be filled, not overflowing, but filled. Here is an example:

This is how that same amount of powder looks in a more expensive, better, lock.

This is made to be informative, I do not hold any ill will towards anyone telling me to not fill the pan, I present this only as context as to why it may look like I’m over filling the pan when using a production lock like these found on the traditions flintlocks.

Other Hardware

The trigger is stiff and sharp, but it can be adjusted. I took it down a few turns after my first range session. I think I’d like to take it down a little more, personally. It’s a budget model, but having adjustment is nice.

The sights are something I had trouble with. I have astigmatism in my eyes, for some reason, this makes ghosts or halos around lights and high contrast things. The fiber optic sights pull light in and direct it back to your eye - great for low light hunting but bad for me. When I look down the barrel, instead of 3 dots, I see 6.

This is a super niche case, and it’s not exclusive to this muzzleloader. ANY fiber optic sights like this are the same way, even my carry pistol.

With that, the closer the distance and the larger the target the better. Something to consider if you have astigmatism.

Oh, and while setting up for my last range video, I was carrying the Deer Hunter on my 4 wheeler from the vault to the range. When I got to the range, I noticed the orange front sight stick and come loose and almost fell out.

The Ramrod is a tough plastic and I don’t like it. I understand the use case and the need for it, but I just don’t like it. On one occasion while loading I got a little off and bent a gnarly kink in the thing. Yes it’s my fault, but it’s hard to grip and slick as all get out. I used a range rod for the majority of my testing. If I were going to carry this as a primary muzzleloader, I’d look into some of Tradition’s accessories and get a nicer ram rod.

Shooting

When it comes to getting on the range, this muzzleloader took a little bit for me to get used to. I’m used to some of the custom and semi-custom muzzleloaders out there so it was a learning experience for me, not unlike someone new to muzzleloading.

I just knew a bit more on how to problem solve.

Initially I tried my go to for a .50 caliber - a tight .495 ball and a .015 patch for an accuracy focused load. With the shallow grooves in this more modern barrel and the tighter twist, the .495 combo was uncomfortable to load, especially if I didn’t have a range rod.

I could see using a .495 load for hunting IF I accept that any follow up shot is going to be with a .490 - but what are the odds of getting a second shot? Near zero

Once I dropped to a .490 ball and the same .015 patch, things started to flow a lot better. Am I going to win a competition with it? Not likely, but I did start to get solid groups after dropping a ball size.

Seems counter-intuitive, so maybe I need more testing.

When it comes to shooting, Traditions has a nice chart with data for you to go on. I referenced this but wanted to gather my own data points.

While I think I could narrow this down with a couple more range sessions, I ended up liking a charge between 70 and 80 grains for accuracy at 50 yards.

If I were doing a woods walk style competition or plinking for fun, I could do a lot of work with 50 or 60 grains and not notice much change in accuracy.

Those kinds of targets are usually a shorter distance though.

If you are new to muzzleloading, especially with a side lock and a round ball, it’s important to understand that getting these dialed in isn’t as easy as with a modern firearm.

There are a lot of variables that can affect the outcome, and 3-5 shots aren’t usually enough to be certain about your accuracy.

This was proven, as was my meandering accuracy, with my ballistic gel test. My 6x6” block proved hard to center on between the distance, sights and accuracy of my load.


When I moved up to 25 yards, I hit dead on and the round ball shot through 1 16” block of FBI Rated gel and settled well into the second gel block. Effective, I think.

After testing the round ball, I tested some modern sabots and conical projectiles to see how we could take advantage of the 1:48 hybrid twist in the Deer Hunter Barrel.

4 of the projectiles I tested had sub 4” groups out the gate. We had tighter “sub groups” in each round I think with some tweaking we could have this dialed in with a few of the sabots tested.


I was surprised at how well the shorter conicals worked. Some were nearly twice the weight of a .490 round ball, but still shot accurately with 75 grains of 3F blackpowder. Depending on your state regulations, the hybrid twist in this barrel could get you some extra access.

You’ll want to be sure to test your sabots and projectiles though. Some loaded loose and some loaded VERY tight. Better to test at the range than take a risk in the field.

That being said, the roundball has been taking game on the American continent for a long time - as long as it’s accurately placed, it usually does its job.

I stuck to real blackpowder for my testing of this flintlock. Generally, Flintlocks don’t get hot enough to ignite substitute powders. Clean up can be intimidating with real blackpowder, but the design of the Deer hunter makes it simple.

Cleaning

Much like any modern recreation of a “Sporting rifle”, the deer hunter features a hook breech and barrel key design, allowing us to remove the barrel from the stock for easy cleaning.

Warm water is a simple way to clean blackpowder, or there are a ton of marketed solvents out there to try too. Just make sure you get the bore clean and apply a good amount of oil to prevent rust.

An important note on the barrel, the touch hole does NOT go directly into the bore. The Deer Hunter has what we call a “Patent breech” meaning it has a narrow flash channel to direct ignition to the main charge. 

It’s important to keep this channel clean. Rust in the channel can inhibit ignition in the future and be even harder to clean. Unscrew the (Nice to have) threaded and slotted touch hole liner and give it a good scrub on the regular to keep shooting pain free.

Simply unscrew the tang and push the barrel key out and you can scrub this however you like.

The lock and trigger assembly are easy to remove and clean too. Unscrew a couple bolts and bam you can clean and oil to your hearts content.

I’ve covered a variety of ways to clean on the channel, everyone has their way. As long as you are happy with the results, that’s all that matters.

Wrapping Up

The Traditions Deer Hunter is THE introductory flintlock on the market at the moment and if you look online that comes with a lot of opinion.

Along with this verbal review, I’ve uploaded several hours of video showing my experience with the Traditions Deer Hunter.

I hope this archive helps inform your decision, regardless of what the outcome is.

I encourage you to read as much as you can before you acquire anything, especially a muzzleloader.

I have had a decent experience with the Traditions Deer Hunter over the past few months.

In all honesty, it was a lot better than I expected after reading online. I expected to fight through the entire 100 shots and not see any light at the end of the tunnel.

The deer hunter isn’t a perfect muzzleloader, but I think pound for pound it has punched above its weight class in my testing.

The main thing I’d recommend if you are taking your first shots with this flintlock is patience. Understand this isn’t a custom flintlock and it’s not a centerfire rifle. You’ve got to work with it a little. It’s a give and take, but I’m confident that any issue you face with this can be solved rather simply.

Special thanks to our channel members for making long-long-long processes like this possible.

Troubleshooting

here are some tips i used to prevent clatches, hangfires and failure to fires

1. Keep the flint “bevel down - placs tebstriking edge higher on the frizzen, giving you more surface area to spark

2. Consistently wipe the frizzen and the UNDERSIDE of the flint to keep it free of oils and moisture. While hunting you wont be taking 30 shots at a time, but id still have a clean rag there to wipe the flint and frizzen while i sat

3. Pick early, pick often - In a high humidity environment i found picking the vent before every shot really helped consistency. While hunting you wont be shooting a lot, but i think you could hav eimproved success by picking every so often, depending on the weather consitions. This will keep an open flash channel for you

4. Fill the pan - this lock is not a flamethrower and jt has a very concentrated pan design. I found that i had better cussess when i filled it vs when i didnt