Hello from the land of pah-kin cahs and chow-da.
I've been reading the forums for quite some time and from them have learned a lot. Thanks to everyone for sharing their knowledge and experiences.
I am still fairly new to BP shooting. I had been wanting to give it a go for a long time (years actually) but was concerned how complicated(I believed) it was. I finally took the State's BP safety course and read Sam Fadala's book cover-to-cover. I read it 10 times if I've read it once. I went to my gun club's Civil war skirmish and got to shoot some original pieces and got lots of pointers from the participants. Boy was I ever wrong about BP shooting being complicated!
First I bought a .58 cal civil war replica and started play around with that. Before I knew it I was casting my own minie-balls. Next I acquired a .32 calibre Traditions crockett, a fun (and inexpensive) gun for plinking and learning. I'm still looking to find a round ball load that will put fear into the hearts of the local squirrels. My latest purchase was a used T/C renegade in .54 cal. Why, because it was sitting on the rack at Kittery Trading post looking forelorn and needing a good home. I didn't care about the caliber since I now cast my own. I've done some playing around with that rifle looking for a good deer load, and having a blast in the meantime. It turns out that my second-hand renegade is a pretty good shooter.
You might say that I'm hooked on BP, the noise, the smell, and the ability to do it yourself. Sure I still shoot centerfire, but that isn't nearly as rewarding as tuning a gun to like bullets that you made yourself. One of these days I hope to bring home some venison with that renegade, or some small game with the crockett. But even if I don't, I've still had hours of shooting fun. Good stuff!
-hbennett
From Massachusetts..where we hate the Yankees..wait a minute..aren't we Yankees ourselves?...well, um, yes.. but we ain't THOSE Yankees...
I've been reading the forums for quite some time and from them have learned a lot. Thanks to everyone for sharing their knowledge and experiences.
I am still fairly new to BP shooting. I had been wanting to give it a go for a long time (years actually) but was concerned how complicated(I believed) it was. I finally took the State's BP safety course and read Sam Fadala's book cover-to-cover. I read it 10 times if I've read it once. I went to my gun club's Civil war skirmish and got to shoot some original pieces and got lots of pointers from the participants. Boy was I ever wrong about BP shooting being complicated!
First I bought a .58 cal civil war replica and started play around with that. Before I knew it I was casting my own minie-balls. Next I acquired a .32 calibre Traditions crockett, a fun (and inexpensive) gun for plinking and learning. I'm still looking to find a round ball load that will put fear into the hearts of the local squirrels. My latest purchase was a used T/C renegade in .54 cal. Why, because it was sitting on the rack at Kittery Trading post looking forelorn and needing a good home. I didn't care about the caliber since I now cast my own. I've done some playing around with that rifle looking for a good deer load, and having a blast in the meantime. It turns out that my second-hand renegade is a pretty good shooter.
You might say that I'm hooked on BP, the noise, the smell, and the ability to do it yourself. Sure I still shoot centerfire, but that isn't nearly as rewarding as tuning a gun to like bullets that you made yourself. One of these days I hope to bring home some venison with that renegade, or some small game with the crockett. But even if I don't, I've still had hours of shooting fun. Good stuff!
-hbennett
From Massachusetts..where we hate the Yankees..wait a minute..aren't we Yankees ourselves?...well, um, yes.. but we ain't THOSE Yankees...
