Wm. Hovey Smith 
Hunting with Muzzleloading Revolvers 
New powders and bullets have made these guns capable game killers.

Once considered only powerful enough to reliably take small game, today’s replica muzzleloading revolvers and their modern counterparts, such as the Ruger Old Army, can be used to take larger game animals using charges of modern black-powder substitute powders and Keith-style bullets with weights up to 255 grains. Now available in calibers ranging from .22 to .45, or even .50-caliber in custom-built guns, these arms are versatile alternatives for today’s hunters who are willing to take on the same challenges faced by our ancestors. The author’s experiences with these guns began in the 1960s and have included hunting not only the deer, wild hogs, and alligators in his native Georgia, but also small and large game in the Rocky Mountain states where he worked as a Professional Geologist. Not so much a traditionalist as a hunter, he made many modifications to these guns to make them more reliable and capable hunters and illustrated their enhanced capabilities by taking game with them. From these efforts came a Super Walker with improved mechanical performance capabilities and a Red Dot sight as well as a Ruger Old Army with a 14-inch barrel and scope sights. How these and other percussion revolvers were built, loaded, and used is described in detail in the book. These muzzleloading revolvers will never equal the power of the Remington .44 Magnum, but do equal the killing power of a .44-Special handload. With proper attention to shot placement, these revolvers using appropriate components can reliably take many species of big game.