Here is What I Love About Muzzleloading

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cannonball1

cannonball1

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Here in our County of 25000 we have one of the best shooting ranges in the State with concrete benches and targets to 1000 yards. Just a couple of years ago you would be hard pressed to find an open bench. People out there shooting every kind of gun you could think of. Now there are very few people at the range. Couldn't figure it out until I went out with a friend of mine to sight in his gun. In a half of hour and ten shots later he was done. Hardly worth the trip I thought to myself. When I go to the range, two hours later I have only shot 10 rounds because I clean my barrel after each shot. At least that's the way it is with my long range muzzleloaders.

Are you starting to wonder where I am going with this? Do I like cleaning the gun after every shot? NO, but I got two hours of entertainment for six bucks, he got one half an hour entertainment for fifty bucks. Here is the break down: Lead (free), black powder (40 cents per shot), caps (15 cents per shot). An his was five dollars per bullet (one of those new fangled caliber, high powered guns), but the best part about the whole thing is I can now have my choice of benches. In the recent past, I am guessing, I have seen a lot of shooters spend one to two hundred dollars at the range in one sitting, and may be more.

I think I am going to pay $5.00 and have one of my grandchildren clean my gun for all of the money I am saving. :)
 
cannonball1 said:
Here in our County of 25000 we have one of the best shooting ranges in the State with concrete benches and targets to 1000 yards. Just a couple of years ago you would be hard pressed to find an open bench. People out there shooting every kind of gun you could think of. Now there are very few people at the range. Couldn't figure it out until I went out with a friend of mine to sight in his gun. In a half of hour and ten shots later he was done. Hardly worth the trip I thought to myself. When I go to the range, two hours later I have only shot 10 rounds because I clean my barrel after each shot. At least that's the way it is with my long range muzzleloaders.

Are you starting to wonder where I am going with this? Do I like cleaning the gun after every shot? NO, but I got two hours of entertainment for six bucks, he got one half an hour entertainment for fifty bucks. Here is the break down: Lead (free), black powder (40 cents per shot), caps (15 cents per shot). An his was five dollars per bullet (one of those new fangled caliber, high powered guns), but the best part about the whole thing is I can now have my choice of benches. In the recent past, I am guessing, I have seen a lot of shooters spend one to two hundred dollars at the range in one sitting, and may be more.

I think I am going to pay $5.00 and have one of my grandchildren clean my gun for all of the money I am saving. :)
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Takem with you so they can shoot and haul all the stuff to and fro the bench. Win ,win for everybody, they will probably worm you for more pay though.
 
New musket today.

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Edm said:
$5 a round? I can shoot my mortar much cheaper than that. I’m not paying $5 to shoot anything.
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I just came into possession of a 375 H&H mag pre64 m70. i have fired it one round, $3.40 down the range, one night sleep lost from recoil bruise.
my collection of unmentionables just sits there and gather dust. I fire my muzzleloaders every day if possible! and that 8 shots in 2 hours is the most blissful shooting session i can think of!
 
I just get no pleasure from modern guns any longer. Too expensive , too high recoil , you fire one shot , it becomes boring quickly. I can take any of my safe queens and shoot a group at 200 yds. , boring. Though I have little time just now to build or shoot m/l guns , old and sick , I still have a couple friends that remember the glory days of hunting , shooting , and scratch building m/l's. The m/ling sport is the most entertaining affliction out there. Run out of bullets , cast some more. Have a friend w/a m/l problem , fix it for him. My needs are easy , lead balls , black powder , flint. Have enough to last me 'til Jesus sends for me. Amen.
 
I hear you...even though I'm gearing up again after a long hiatus, the economics still makes for cheap thrills ;)

In my past muzzleloading life "out on the farm", I had a tack driver of a Lyman Plains rifle (not the same as the GP...more like the T/C or Traditions version of Hawken) in .45cal. The neighbour used to pay me a small bounty to help control his prairie dog population so his cows wouldn't break a leg in the holes. I'm pretty sure the bounty was to encourage me to come to his field as he liked my shooting ethics (I made sure there were no cows in that field that day, was always shooting in known areas/corridors that were safe...the things folks should do when out "in the wild") vs. some of the other "kids" in the area. Well, the Lyman/me combo was accurate enough that I pretty much got to shoot for free as often as I wanted to as a result (and much to the chagrin of the nearby nudist colony! 😇 ).

Every time I remember those days, I remember the other young adults my age complaining about the price of a brick of .22LR and how fast they went through them....and thinking to myself they needed to give up their semi-autos (and the young-person-with-a-semi-auto-trigger-happiness) and pick up a front-stuffer.
 

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i spent 50 years traveling all over the world hunting with a recurve bow. Age finally caught up with me and I just can’t hold up to drawing a recurve and a compound did not give me the rush that my trad bows had. I had played with my BP cap lock guns a little through the years but 90% of the time I hunted with a bow. I built a Kibler Flint lock back at the first of the year and shazam, the thrill is back. I have built 5 more since and killed a half dozen pigs with them.

They say the rush is caused by the fear of missing, what ever it is I am excited going into deer season with a flint lock
 

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I usually go to a local public range early in the week or on rainy days and rarely see other shooters. It has a 50 yard range (most used), a 100 yard range and a 150 yard range (least used and the one I like).

Last week I was there shooting a muzzleloader and heard someone come up to the 50 yard range. They started shooting what sounded like a modern handgun and in less than 15 minutes had shot a hundred rounds or more and then they were gone.

I spent almost two relaxing hours slowly shooting about 20 shots with my old beat up muzzleloader. It was wonderful.
 
oldwood said:
I just get no pleasure from modern guns any longer. Too expensive , too high recoil , you fire one shot , it becomes boring quickly. I can take any of my safe queens and shoot a group at 200 yds. , boring. Though I have little time just now to build or shoot m/l guns , old and sick , I still have a couple friends that remember the glory days of hunting , shooting , and scratch building m/l's. The m/ling sport is the most entertaining affliction out there. Run out of bullets , cast some more. Have a friend w/a m/l problem , fix it for him. My needs are easy , lead balls , black powder , flint. Have enough to last me 'til Jesus sends for me. Amen.
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I know exactly what you mean. For me, each loading, firing and swabbing out is an event in itself. As I have only been into this properly for about 3 years each week brings along something new to learn. I Started casting my own bullets this time last year, but assembling my own gun from a kit is still a long way off! I recently had a go on an AR 15 that someone else on the range brought along. I was a bit underwhelmed to be honest - I squeezed off about four shots, the recoil was not what I expected, and I did consider the cost of using the two boxes of 20 rounds he brought along. When him and his son had a go on my .58 Zouave, though, there were cries of joy and broad grins all round! Even with powder prices this side of the pond crippling, each shot costs about 80 Eurocents, and I rarely get past 20 shots in 2 hours. The only 'modern' gun I have is an 1872 Snider-Enfield I use for long range stuff.
 
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I have a pretty decent collection of modern SHTF guns. If I’m on a contract harvest (feral hog thinning) I use those. All eating size pigs are hauled to a private processing plant and distributed as food relief in the county where harvested.
Hunting on my farm? Ruger Old Army loaded with a 40gr 3F charge and a round ball. Good brush gun.
Going to use one of the plains rifles this year. Orchard is easy to figure the range, trees are 20 yards on center. Any farther than 5 trees, hard pass. I can’t eat venison, Alpha Gal, but really enjoy sitting on a nurse log watching the sun come up. IF I decide to fill a tag, watching the smoke dissipate while the shot echoes off the trees and pond…
 
Rob M. said:
Yep , me too ... I just shoot in my yard ....off the porch most of the time :)
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I belong to a gun club with an indoor range and a 800 yard range. I keep paying my yearly dues but I haven’t shot there in years. It is really easy for me shooting off my back deck. As Hickcock45 would say “Life is Good”.
 

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