Larry Weishuhn with a trophy eland from his most recent hunt in Namibia.

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  It is nice when a long-time friend endorses an author’s book. It is even better when he tells you that he really enjoyed it, as Larry Weishuhn did on my Sept. 17 radio show on  WebTalkRadio.net. On this episode of Hovey’s Outdoor Adventures we talked about his recent successful hunt in Namibia and what could perhaps be best characterized as an interesting camping experience in Central Asia. 

  Weishuhn and I had our first interchanges when he was representing Thompson/Center Arms and I was covering muzzleloading guns as a Corresponding Editor for Gun Digest. As a pioneer in the field and maker of a variety of muzzleloading guns (since reduced in numbers of models and types), I enjoyed working with T/C’s guns, and particularly with the 209X.50 Encore muzzleloading pistol. This gun took a 350-pound hog on a hunt with T/C’s Ken French and Gregg Ritz on the Nail Ranch in Texas,  later the gun went to Africa where I shot warthog and impala with it. This is, and remains, one of the best muzzleloading handguns ever designed. 

  Of all the derivations of the Encore including muzzleloading and cartridge  rifles, pistols and shotguns, I liked this pistol best of all. People who use muzzleoading pistols for hunting are relatively few, and the muzzleloading version of the pistol was dropped a few years after it was introduced.  Weishuhn has always enjoyed handgun hunting and has written extensively on the topic. He, like I, grew up reading Elmer Keith. While Weishuhn progressed to the larger calibers of T/C’s long-barreled rifle-caliber single-shot handguns and hunted with them all over the U.S., I enjoyed exploring the potential of hunting muzzleloading  handguns made in a variety of styles and ignition systems. Now Weishuhn reps for Ruger and in the photo he is shows with a hunter model of  Ruger’s Super Blackhawk revolver.

  On the recent hunts the revolvers were left in the states, and he hunted with Ruger’s new American Rifle, which is a precision made, affordable rifle. The gun that he took was chambered for the .30’06 and he used a 165-gr. Horniday solid copper bullet. This caliber and bullet is generally considered too small for tough African plains game, but with precise shooting the solid copper bullets worked well and made decisive kills.

  For more details and pictures of  his hunts, visit my Hovey’s Outdoor Adventures Show Blog at www.hoveysoutdooradventures.com and listen to the hour-long all-Weishuhn show by using the live link to the WebTalkRadio.net show page.  

  Last year we did an episode of  Hovey’s Outdoor Adventures on handgun hunting.  We talked about our experiences taking  both large and small game with these short-barreled guns. This show  is still available as an archived show on WebTalkRadio.net and on Apple’s iTunes. This year I had a chance to catch up with this always-busy outdoor writer, arrange for a follow-up radio show and send him my book to read between trips. Weishuhn also writes books, and among his recent books are Under the Hunter’s Moon and, coauthored with Wayne Fears, Whitetail Deer : East and West. 

  Besides appreciating the detailed load and hunt information that I gave for a variety of muzzleloading rifles, smoothbores and pistols; he said that among the things that he most appreciated was a chapter that I did on Knight Rifles. In this chapter I explained how Tony Knight, then an out-of-work railroad machinist, came to start his own gun-making company and revolutionized muzzleloading hunting.  He and Jim Zumbro had often hunted with Tony Knight and he enjoyed not only vacariously reliving these experiences but also my explanation of the “how and why” the company evolved. (The company was sold, went bankrupt, was repurchased and is again making guns in Athens, Tennessee).  

  After that part of the radio show interview was over, he remarked, “I wasn’t messing with you about book. I love your book.  That book is well done. The information is fantastic. It is presented in a form that is entertaining and fun to read. To me you have accomplished a lot of things with your book, and I really appreciate the opportunity to have a copy of it. ”

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  X-Treme Muzzleloading: Fur, Fowl and Dangerous Game with Muzzleloading Rifles, Smoothbores and Pistols  is available from my website, www.hoveysmith.com, from Amazon.com,  all electronic booksellers or may be ordered from your local bookstore or directly from www.authorhouse.com.