Death of muzzleloading

[Flintlock]

So at the advent of the cartridge gun did the use of muzzleloaders die out only to be re-invented in the 1970's or did some continue to hunt and shoot these relics. Many here are on the assumption that folk just ceased to use them.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

So at the advent of the cartridge gun did the use of muzzleloaders die out only to be re-invented in the 1970's or did some continue to hunt and shoot these relics.

The re-invent was more like the 1960's

 

[tenngun]

So at the advent of the cartridge gun did the use of muzzleloaders die out only to be re-invented in the 1970's or did some continue to hunt and shoot these relics.

They never went away. Belgium would make ML trade guns for African trade up through the Second World War, then after the war up till the 1970s.
Sturgis gun company was a maker also of ML also for Africa
Up until the Second World War ML southern mountain rifles were popular and new made throughout Appalachia
The NMLRA started in the 1930s. And Dixie Gunworks was set up to provide old parts for repairing and making shootable old guns. Then as the centennial of the WBTS approached Kirkland turned to Italy to produce guns to celebrate the centennial. Modern living history really kicked off then

 

[Flintlock]

They never went away. Belgium would make ML trade guns for African trade up through the Second World War, then after the war up till the 1970s.
Sturgis gun company was a maker also of ML also for Africa
Up until the Second World War ML southern mountain rifles were popular and new made throughout Appalachia
The NMLRA started in the 1930s. And Dixie Gunworks was set up to provide old parts for repairing and making shootable old guns. Then as the centennial of the WBTS approached Kirkland turned to Italy to produce guns to celebrate the centennial. Modern living history really kicked off then

Wish there was some way to prove this to those like Tom A Hawk and a few others.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

There is not much to prove. Those of us who were alive then know exactly when the rebirth occurred as Tenngun states above.

 

[Erwan]

So at the advent of the cartridge gun did the use of muzzleloaders die out only to be re-invented in the 1970's or did some continue to hunt and shoot these relics.

The use of muzzleloaders has never ceased even if, in certain regions, it is becoming difficult to obtain black powder and propellants such as Pyrodex or T7 are strictly forbidden for sale...
As for me, I was educated by my grandfather (federal game warden and black powder shooter) and I started to shoot the day I was ten years old with a Remington 58/63 (French army 1870 war) in 1958, so I can consider that I have been shooting black powder rifle for almost sixty-five years now: I don't own any modern gun with metal cartridges, except an old Anschutz Match 22LR dating from 1964...
The seventies didn't change anything, except that there were maybe a few more people practicing this kind of shooting than now...
In my shooting club, there are more and more followers of this sport and there is not a month without a new practitioner, the reason is the pleasure and especially the charm: we quickly get tired of things with metal casings to return to the basics...

 

[tenngun]

Wish there was some way to prove this to those like Tom A Hawk and a few others.

After the first WBTS guns, the Remington 1863, there came the ‘Kentucky’ rifles. Soon there was the flowering. Navy Arms, Thomson Center,CVA, Japanese imports, Mowrey, Ithaca and Colt both got in to ML.
So the 1960s and early seventies was the bloom for sure. And the real hard core companies like Green River,Green Mountain, Sharron, lock makers like L&R ,Siler, Davis, and makers like the Hawken shop and North Star really got going.

 

[Flintlock]

There is not much to prove. Those of us who were alive then know exactly when the rebirth occurred as Tenngun states above.

But as he said, they never really went away, what I have been saying this whole time.

 

[Cholla]

Many of the folks I know fell in love with the 1970s movie, Jeremiah Johnson, which of course meant they had to have a Hawken. I was one of those and my young wife bought me a TC Hawken kit. It had such an impact on my brother-in-law, he named one of his sons Jeremiah Johnson (Last name). I think the movie The Last of the Mohicans (1992) brought new people to the fold, as did The Patriot. As for actual use, I have read Alvin York from WWI was still using a muzzleloader right up until he entered the army in WWI. I am sure other undocumented users existed where no other firearm was available to put food on the table.

 

[DuncNZ]

I have read books where there are photographs of people in the depression years and later ,using muzzle loaders for squirrel hunting , hog slaughtering and some competition , one thing that always struck me was the ram rods appeared to be at least 6" longer than the barrels

 

[OkieDougie]

I bet there were also many a frugal and cantankerous soul that continued to use them. Can just hear em. You kids these days and your fancy brass smokeless cartridges. Firing off shots as fast as you can blnk. Back in my day.......

 

[The Crisco Kid]

It never really died out but definitely was carried on by just a few. Read Ned Roberts book "The Caplock Muzzleloading Rifle". It was required reading for my generation. It's true that the major revival was during the '60's and 70's but there were still a few diehards shooting the old guns before that time.

 

[52Bore]

Seems those more affluent went the way of the easier cartridge.. cost is always a factor. The mountain folks, especially the south in the Appalachians had to do with what they had or could afford.
Remember our NRA started in 1872, after the Creedmoor match of 1874, cartridge users never looked back.
Ohio was big in ML shooting as they created the NMLRA in SE IN in the early 1930’s. Their main range namesake’Walter Cline’ moved from OH to TN where we see his photos of matches in the 30’s in the Sequatchie Valley in SE TN.
The NMLRA started the rebirth of Rendezvous in the 1950’s and it continues today across the creek from the Walter Cline range.
Things have progressed since..

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

I bet there were also many a frugal and cantankerous soul that continued to use them. Can just hear em. You kids these days and your fancy brass smokeless cartridges. Firing off shots as fast as you can blnk. Back in my day.......

Back in my day...I hunted before School....shot the Buck. gutted him left him there. Went to School came back got the buck. Five miles each way with no shoes on my feet.

 

[Flintlock]

I have read books where there are photographs of people in the depression years and later ,using muzzle loaders for squirrel hunting , hog slaughtering and some competition , one thing that always struck me was the ram rods appeared to be at least 6" longer than the barrels

I've noticed the extra long rods as well, must not have been a lot of brush or thick pine there.

 

[Hawk54]

Many of the folks I know fell in love with the 1970s movie, Jeremiah Johnson, which of course meant they had to have a Hawken. I was one of those and my young wife bought me a TC Hawken kit. It had such an impact on my brother-in-law, he named one of his sons Jeremiah Johnson (Last name). I think the movie The Last of the Mohicans (1992) brought new people to the fold, as did The Patriot. As for actual use, I have read Alvin York from WWI was still using a muzzleloader right up until he entered the army in WWI. I am sure other undocumented users existed where no other firearm was available to put food on the table.

My wife bought me a TC Hawken kit for Christmas the second year we were married. A friend of mine had a Hawken and I shot his and said I wanted one also. She got me one. Over forty years later I still have the wife and the rifle.

 

[tenngun]

I got my first ml at a hardware store in 1974. The store owner, who was was in his fifties couldn’t understand why people wanted a ml. He grew up shooting them, got his first cartridge rifle when he was in late teens, and was so happy not to have to hunt with a ml.
So this fellow was teens sometime in the 1940s still useing ml then.

 

[SDSmlf]

So at the advent of the cartridge gun did the use of muzzleloaders die out only to be re-invented in the 1970's or did some continue to hunt and shoot these relics. Many here are on the assumption that folk just ceased to use them.

Well, I was shooting originals beginning in the mid 1960s growing up. The first muzzleloader that I remember shooting was an original Brown Bess. When I made it to my first few hunting camps in central PA during the late 1960s and early 1970s, some hunters using original 1894s, 1873s, Trapdoors and muzzleloaders. Not everyone, but enough to leave an impression on a new hunter. These older guns and the stories told used to draw the younger crowd in like a moth to a flame. These hunters were the ones that seemed to always get their deer on opening day. Remember an uncle telling me why the ‘new’ TC muzzleloader was junk. Locks were wrong. Stock was wrong. He didn’t like the ‘modern stuff’. Thought it was a waste of money when there were plenty of proper guns to use. I was a kid and didn’t realize how much history was in front of me. From my family history memory and perspective, folks never ceased using these ‘relics’. I have a few mid 19th century guns that were in regular use by family until the mid 1970s. Maybe they missed the memo or couldn’t read. Hard working coal miners and steel workers.

 

[kyron4]

I'll throw some fuel on the fire, did the introduction of inline rifles, pellets, sabots, etc. take away the use of traditional muzzleloaders or help bring more shooter to the traditional side of muzzleloading ?

 

[Flintlock]

Well, I was shooting originals beginning in the mid 1960s growing up. The first muzzleloader that I remember shooting was an original Brown Bess. When I made it to my first few hunting camps in central PA during the late 1960s and early 1970s, some hunters using original 1894s, 1873s, Trapdoors and muzzleloaders. Not everyone, but enough to leave an impression on a new hunter. These older guns and the stories told used to draw the younger crowd in like a moth to a flame. These hunters were the ones that seemed to always get their deer on opening day. Remember an uncle telling me why the ‘new’ TC muzzleloader was junk. Locks were wrong. Stock was wrong. He didn’t like the ‘modern stuff’. Thought it was a waste of money when there were plenty of proper guns to use. I was a kid and didn’t realize how much history was in front of me. From my family history memory and perspective, folks never ceased using these ‘relics’. I have a few mid 19th century guns that were in regular use by family until the mid 1970s. Maybe they missed the memo or couldn’t read. Hard working coal miners and steel workers.

I too remember in the late 60's early 70's of Trapdoor Springfields, 86 Winchesters and a few muzzleloaders in the woods, don't think I got my own muzzleloading rifle till 76 I think. Those early years of hunting made memories that are some of the best yet.