Guest
I am getting back into the shooting game after a little more than ten years away from it. The first round, which lasted for over thirty years, ended the night (actually it was early morning) I arrived home to find all of my really good guns had walked away while I was at work. The loss was devastating to the point that I sold everything I had left - both muzzle loading and modern - and pursued other interests.
In the past 13 years there have been a few half-hearted attempts to return to the sport but the interest just wasn’t there. I’m pretty sure it’s different this time. The enthusiasm is as strong as it ever was.
I got my first muzzleloader in 1968. It wasn’t a very good one but I didn’t know enough to know that. Along the way, I ruined it with a plethora of rookie mistakes. By the time I got my second muzzleloader I knew enough of the “shall nots” to take better care of it.
Back then if you said you shot a muzzleloader, the guys in the local gun shop would look at you like you were from Mars. The sport has come a long way. Now, it’s only when you say you shoot round balls and black powder in a traditional caplock or (gasp!!) flintlock that they look at you like you are from Mars.
I am mostly of the flintlock persuassion. Before the break-in the only time I busted caps was when shooting an original English double-barrel or my original over-the-log gun. The only percussion guns I currently own are a truly ugly “Hawken” with some premium parts, and the Zouave my parents gave me for high school graduation. The were not in the safe that walked out the house that night.
Anyway, I’m glad to have found this website, where muzzleloader means the guns I have loved for most of my life (starting years before I actually owned one) and not some modern bolt-action contraption that uses pellets ignited by an electric charge through a wire for a propellant and bullets that should be coming out of a Model 70.
In the past 13 years there have been a few half-hearted attempts to return to the sport but the interest just wasn’t there. I’m pretty sure it’s different this time. The enthusiasm is as strong as it ever was.
I got my first muzzleloader in 1968. It wasn’t a very good one but I didn’t know enough to know that. Along the way, I ruined it with a plethora of rookie mistakes. By the time I got my second muzzleloader I knew enough of the “shall nots” to take better care of it.
Back then if you said you shot a muzzleloader, the guys in the local gun shop would look at you like you were from Mars. The sport has come a long way. Now, it’s only when you say you shoot round balls and black powder in a traditional caplock or (gasp!!) flintlock that they look at you like you are from Mars.
I am mostly of the flintlock persuassion. Before the break-in the only time I busted caps was when shooting an original English double-barrel or my original over-the-log gun. The only percussion guns I currently own are a truly ugly “Hawken” with some premium parts, and the Zouave my parents gave me for high school graduation. The were not in the safe that walked out the house that night.
Anyway, I’m glad to have found this website, where muzzleloader means the guns I have loved for most of my life (starting years before I actually owned one) and not some modern bolt-action contraption that uses pellets ignited by an electric charge through a wire for a propellant and bullets that should be coming out of a Model 70.
