So you knew Curly, too. Hell of a character. Never got to meet him in person but we had some animated phone conversations.

Mine is one of Curly's kits but highly modified to match those of the approx French & Indian War period. I built it and put it away in the gun cabinet after shooting a little hand trap with it. (Hit a clay pigeon with a flint - Right!) Eighteen years passed and, by then, I had a number of deer with my Stutzen, including a Buckeye Big Bucks 10-point. I decided it was time to shoot what I built. As with the Stutzen, the NW gun put it in her left side and out her right, pulverizing all in its path. A couple days later, I missed another doe with what should have been an easier shot. Ah, so much for shooting with a gun that has no rear sight!

Again, coming back to the beginning of this thread, a 20 ga round ball out of either a rifle or smooth bore will do devastating damage to about anything you will come up against in CONUS.

Tom