What is it that pulls us into muzzle loading!

Just wanted to chew the fat with you fine folk about this. While I was cleaning my Mountain rifle barrel out by my man shed. SWMBO walks out there to chat with me. She looks down at my 5 gallon bucket of hot soapy water with a barrel shoved in it and she asks, "why do you go through all that to shoot a gun? Don't you have guns that doesn't smell like egg farts?" I simply told her I enjoy these a lot more. But I got to thinking about it all when she walked off. Just WHAT is it that has me so addicted to this. I think it is all of it. How we can make just about everything there is to shoot these things. Or how you get to really spend time with the gun, pistol, or revolver. There's just something about pouring that charge down the barrel and ramming whatever you want to shoot down there. I got into muzzle loading back in about 2008 due to ammo shortages, modern ammo component shortages. And since then I shoot black powder firearms more than anything else. So what is it that draws YOU in?

It's like having HG Wells time machine in your hands.

I can think of a few reasons and I think both the OP and #2 covered some of mine as well.

• I wanted another way to connect to my ancestors.
• I like the savings. Shooting just 25 rounds today in my Richards Mason conversion (.44 special) cost almost that many dollars. Shooting 36 rounds in my 1860 Army cost maybe a couple of dollars at most.
• I like the pace. It’s good to slow down. It’s similar to the difference between photographing a landscape versus drawing or painting it. And yes, there’s artistry in muzzleloading.
• I like the people I meet. Well, most.

Nostalgia.

Doing things the old way. The additional challenge of hunting with a traditional type muzzleloader. Anyone can be even a halfway successful hunter with a modern firearm. However, it simply takes better hunter skills, better marksmanship, more discipline, and more patience to be successful with a muzzleloader. This is especially true for squirrel hunting. There’s simply something unique about using a patched round ball to shoot game. The unique smell of the cloud of smoke from black powder, the unique report of the rifle. Basically, doing things in the same basic fashion as they did over 200 yard ago. Best way I can describe it is, you just have to experience it to fully understand it.

Also, I like the old things. Steam locomotives, old cars from the 30’s, radial engine biplanes, antique furniture, coal oil lanterns, old knives, and especially old muzzle loader rifles. Yes, even the replicas.

While I tried to answer this question in my thread https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/just-why-do-i-do-this.178980/, it is as much about the shooting and slow pace that becomes almost meditative. Then there is camaraderie of shooting and competing. There is the joy of going to historical places and experiencing the sights and sounds of a historical reenactment.

This weekend, I am working at the hawk and knife throw at the Hawken Classic in St. Charles, MO. What a thrill it is to watch some of these young ones throw the tomahawk and the joy when it sticks in the stump. What fun is it to watch a boy throw and throw and throw just to see the Hawk flutter around the stump. Then a dainty little girl steps up and sinks the hawk in the center of the stump on her first throw and proceeds to make about three more perfect throws. The family is cheering as well as the other spectators. For many children and adults, it is the first time they are throwing a knife or hawk. Many keep throwing until they find the distance and throwing method to make the hawk or knife stick. Then we hear the cheers and laughter coming from the rifle station where many of the shooters are experiencing their first shot of a traditional muzzleloading rifle, for some it's their first shot of any type of firearm. And in this case, it's an original Hawken rifle. We also have several modern replicas so they can experience shooting a variety of rifles. Because it's the era of the Hawken rifle, all are percussion. Thanks to the generosity of the NMLRA and the Lewis and Clark Museum in Frontier Park, St. Charles, MO, attendees of the Hawken Classic event get entry to the museum for free and on this weekend, we have the display of Many Hawken rifles which include the Plains rifles, Squirrel rifles and Shotguns from the Hawken gun store. As a bonus there are many rifles made in St. Louis that were contemporaries of the rifles built in the Hawken Shop.

It makes me proud to be able to do even a little bit to bring the fascination of traditional muzzleloading to others.

It's not that many pastimes that we can give and also get benefit from our hobbies.

Connection to the past, lack of government paperwork, ability to get your arms shipped to your door and just plain fun

Why did I get into m/l ing???..........In my younger life , I had already shot competition trap , and won. Reloaded ctg. and thousnds of shotgun shells. Learned to cast lead bullets from scratch. Hunted everything Pa. has to offer w/ ctg. guns , including long range groundhog and hawk killing while it was legal. Was a relentless young woods runner , and hunter/trapper , which unknowingly prepped me for chasing and killing deer in the new 1972 Pa. Flintlock deer season. Many m/l museum and antique shop visits , and making many m/l friends , got me into the making of art guns. Mostly early on , I was excessively poor , and couldn't afford original m/lers , and if I wanted a gun , had to research , and scratch build my own. I did that , and more. All good and lotsa fun. Driball or two along the way. I just still love to shoot m/l guns , and if I can't go w/some friend , I go myself. All the above was possible because of hard times in the coal regions , and being taught to work as a child. You asked , and there it is. Here's hoping you weren't too bored......oldwood

A friend once asked me "why do you shoot BP? A modern gun is easier." I told him that I shoot BP because it's harder. I enjoy the challenge. I like the tinkering and research required.

Nostalgia and love of history play a part but it is the challenge that draws me.

I have shot deer at over 300 yards with a modern rifle. It's too easy. I get much more enjoyment from shooting one at 30 yards with my trade gun. Plus BP people are the nicest shooters out there.

Ironhand

For me it was a way my Dad, my brother and I could get along. It always seemed one of us was pulling left while the others were pulling right. However, when it came time to shoot (or hunt), everything just seemed to line up. Sometimes the cousins would join in for a little friendly family competition.

I still remember my 1st time at Friendship, IN, my wife and I were walking down the hill from parking up in the little town. The bagpipes were being played by some gentleman, a haze of smoke filled the air and that sulfur smell. Well it had the hairs on my arms and neck standing straight up. Like I was supposed to be there.

Whenever I shoot blackpowder, all those fond memories come back.

I have always like playing Danel Boone

Raised by old people in Texas. When sonic booms and moon shots were invented I was already set in my ways.

Frontstuffer070 said:

Just wanted to chew the fat with you fine folk about this. While I was cleaning my Mountain rifle barrel out by my man shed. SWMBO walks out there to chat with me. She looks down at my 5 gallon bucket of hot soapy water with a barrel shoved in it and she asks, "why do you go through all that to shoot a gun? Don't you have guns that doesn't smell like egg farts?" I simply told her I enjoy these a lot more. But I got to thinking about it all when she walked off. Just WHAT is it that has me so addicted to this. I think it is all of it. How we can make just about everything there is to shoot these things. Or how you get to really spend time with the gun, pistol, or revolver. There's just something about pouring that charge down the barrel and ramming whatever you want to shoot down there. I got into muzzle loading back in about 2008 due to ammo shortages, modern ammo component shortages. And since then I shoot black powder firearms more than anything else. So what is it that draws YOU in?

Click to expand...

My muzzleloading "pull" was a pair of 3 lb. mountain howitzers. I started as an artilleryman.

So the first pull was the people were good people, and I could play with stuff that made a large BANG.

The second pull for me was the fact that I had gone to college, and when I was home the ONLY deer season open was muzzleloader season. So I bought a CVA "longrifle" caplock (33" barrel... not very long & 2-piece stock). I never got a deer with it, but I was out with other guys and shared their deer meat as I was part of the hunting "team". Actually I think I was the only one really physically able to drag out a big deer from the woods in the group.

So the second pull was the hunting opportunity

Then when I returned to muzzleloading after The Service and a few years of being an LEO, it was for the people. I was very negative about regular folks after several years of negative exposure to the worst folks in a community, and it was subtle, so I didn't realize it had impacted me. Then I started frequenting some BP events, and found that there was at least one group of folks actually worth protecting.

CASE IN POINT: I saw one serious argument between two guys at an event. They were arguing WHICH guy was going to fix the third guy's car {for free}..., the guy that was the pro-mechanic OR the guy who happened to have brought a lot of car tools in his trunk, to the event. TWO men strenuously speaking over which was going to provide help to a complete stranger to them both! Finally they realized they ought to team-up, and fix the car together. I'd never seen such behavior. Sure wouldn't have seen such a display in the craptastic place that I patrolled as a cop.


So the third pull was fellowship.

LD

1) Curiosity about how things work. Gun things in particular.
2) Honoring, remembering and learning our history. Gun history in particular.
3) I prefer doing stuff when I'm tired of thinking about stuff. Gun stuff in particular.
4) I enjoy sharing gun enthusiasm with others that express interest and same enthusiasm.

I think all those points could be applied to pretty much any interest. So why guns in my case? Why not? And why muzzleloaders in my case? Is it just a phase? Outcome remains to be seen.

After many years of shooting modern rifles and pistols in competitions it all became somewhat boring and too repetitive. Found a new way to excite the gun hobby, muzzle loaders. Completely different mind set on how to do things. Shooting became fun again.

For me, the first "pull" was an extra season, here in PA they have a flintlock season after Christmas. Did that since '79 and was pretty much the only thing I did with a muzzleloader. Then about 10 yrs ago, a fella at the range was shooting a custom when I was there to shoot my production gun. We exchanged pleasantries and he offered to let me handle and shoot his flintlock. Bought my first of several customs the next year and I've been hooked ever since, buying a fowler last year and now pretty much all hunting is with flintlocks.

I found it better.. fun

I'm going to skip picking on the modern crowd. There not all city it's.

I'd maybe hunt with somone into muzzloader..

There's a big difference in the maturity of the group.

For me, it began simply with shooting the thing. I shot my first ML, a traditional one, at a shooting club event when I was 12 or 13. It was the club master's gun and he had set up all the gear on the tail of his pickup. There wasn't much for me to do except follow his instructions to load and fire. I probably got off no more than ten shots that day. Shot plenty of moderns then and thereafter, but there was just something about the way that old fashioned muzzleloader felt. I was hooked when I was 12, and years later when I got my own ML all the cleaning, care, and experimenting with loads that went with it were just more of the fun.

when I was young I was given a single shot (shotgun .22) to use when out hunting with the grownups. I developed a fondness for single shots and bolt actions, thing in my mind it made me a better hunter, shooter and so on. No easy pull and ban, bang and bang. So muzzleloaders came as a natural to me. If all that makes sense.

Right now, it's just a single gun -- a European Arms 1858 Remington New Model Army. Which I've yet to shoot. But a lot of what I find attractive about blackpowder shooting is the relatively slow pace. If I spend two hours at the range with my Garand, I have to take out a second mortgage. Two hours at the range with my SAR CM9 and I've burned 200-250 rounds, minimum, and that isn't cheap. Two hours at the range with black powder and I've maybe shot 50 rounds, made a lot of cool smoke, and felt how my predecessors felt shooting the same (or similar) weapon. I've done a tiny bit of BP with friends, on a .58 Enfield, a replica Pennsylvania rifle, and an authentic (with proof) Sharps carbine that looked brand new. It has stayed with me that, except for the Sharps, the recoil was different from the sharp recoil of modern firearms. The old coal burners feel more like being backed into by a John Deere tractor.

TLDR: Oops, babbling on here. I love the smell, the look and feel of the firearms, the slow pace, and the connection with history.

Good thread!