Does Anyone Still Shoot a Sidelock?

I'm headed to Canada for ducks tomorrow morning. And, as I write this, Michelle is on her way to Kentucky for the two-day early muzzleloader season. She hasn't filled a tag yet this season and is hoping to get a big doe for the freezer.

When she began hunting with a muzzleloader a few years back, I set her up with a modestly priced inline (CVA Buckhorn Magnum, I believe) topped off with a fixed 4x Nikon. The combo has performed admirably well. Michelle shoots 100 grains of powder (Pyrodex pellets) behind a 295-grain Powerbelt hollowpoint. For a $100 gun, the accuracy has been outstanding.

I've kicked around the idea of buying an inline myself for years, but haven't done it yet. For one, I'd rather fill my buck tag with my bow, and am not terribly picky. I also love the early season. So, usually (hopefully), I'm tagged out in Kentucky by muzzleloader season. Secondly, my muzzleloader, a little sidelock carbine, was my first-ever firearm, and was what I used to take my first-ever deer. I shoot Powerbelts ahead of 90 grains of loose powder from it these days, but it does pretty well with patched round balls as well.

I've had some misfires with that old gun on rainy days. I've also had it come through in a pinch several times, and killed a 130-inch 11-pointer, one of my largest bucks to date, with it when I was a sophomore in college. I've always taken good care of it, and I've never had it drilled and tapped for a scope.

I've been shooting that gun since I was 9 years old, and I feel guilty every time I think of buying a new one. I know a scoped inline would be much more efficient, powerful, accurate, and perhaps most important, easy to clean. But, I keep hunting with the old sidelock, and pray it'll go off when I line the sights up on deer on those damp mornings. Maybe if it breaks, I'll change.

Any of you guys out there still shoot an old-school blackpowder rifle? What kind?

Will in Tennessee