In the give and take on the gun question it is all give by the gun people and all take by the GUNFOBICS. So the less we worry about what will make them happy the better off we will be.

When muzzle loaders were the only guns available there was the Lindsey 2 shot musket, harmonica guns and guns where the charges were stacked one of top of the other. As each shot was fired the nipple hole was sealed and the whole lock and the nipple slide back to the next charge. And of course revolving rifles if you did not value your hand on the forend.

It does not take a whole lot of imagination to see all the potentual problems with a stacked charge gun. But because self contained cartridges came along about the same time, stacked charge guns were not developed.

Now just imagine if you will, if on a harmonica gun, you took advantage of the tendency for the hammer to blow back to full cock if the hole in the nipple is to large and arranged it so when the hammer blew back to full cock, it moved the harmonca to the next chamber and had an interrupted to disconnect the trigger until it was released? You would have a semi-automatic muzzle loader. Or the gun could be recoil operated.

So with spare harmonicas to be inserted in the gun like a stripper or packet clip of cartridges, how many rounds could you put off in a minute?

To keep the barrel from fouling to fast you put a small charge of like 4759 as the base of the load. Or even build the whole thing to use smokeless powder.

In jurisdictions where the only requirement is you do not use self contained cartridges, using a harmonica gun would be the deal. I wonder just how long that would last? With enough spare harmonicas, you would never need to reload all hunting season.

Actually, no matter what gun I carried all the deer I have ever shot were one shot kills. So the need for these extra shots for me have never been necessary. But I sure like to have them.

I'm of the opinion that muzzle-loaders make you a better hunter. When you KNOW you have only one shot and that it takes about a minute to reload, you learn fire discipline and self control. There's no "spray and pray" option.

I don't have anything against in-lines (my first M/L was one) but I also think that the current trend towards faster and faster velocities from M/L rifles is silly. (The Savage 110ML is a bad idea whose days are numbered; I can't imagine how their lawyers let them put it on the market, the gun is just waiting for some nitwit to use Bullseye instead of 4198.) Lewis and Clark made it to the Pacific and back shooting .54 round balls, and there's nothing with four feet or two east of the Mississippi you can't handle with a .54 and a moderate load of powder. To read the catalogs you would think whitetails are armor-plated and nothing short of a 155mm howitzer would even dent them; but Americans are enamored of the fallacy of light bullets and high velocity, so this stuff sells, and sells well.

Stick with a quality brand. That means a "name" like T/C or Lyman, perhaps some of the Traditions rifles (though I'm not much of a fan of their products) and one or two others. T/C was recently bought by Smith & Wesson, of all people, but in the past they have always been a first-rate outfit making first-rate products.

If you find your deer are too big for a .54, take the next step up, and buy one of those beautiful Pedersoli double rifles in .72 caliber. I have one I plan to take to Africa or Alaska some day. Anything I can't kill with that I don't want to be in the same county with. The barrels look like highway tunnels and a 535-grain round ball (720 grain conicals) is nothing to sneeze at.