How did you get hooked?

[pheenix99]

What got you hooked on muzzleloading? I'm a bit of a history afficionado, so I think what drew me in was the connection to a bygone era. While that's still applicable, I grew to appreciate the fact that many of these weapons were simply functional art.

 

[Daryl Crawford]

Weapons were part of my job, but they were modern military weapons. Muzzleloaders required more from me as a shooter. I liked that. I also have a degree in history, so the historical aspect interested me. I am also a hunter, so the added challenge along with an extended season interested me.
If I think on it, the hunting aspect grabbed my attention first as a teen, but that wasn't a deep attachment. The challenge in shooting, hunting, and the historical aspects grew my passing interest as a teen into a larger adult interest.
It was a bit of a process and I'm still more about the shooting and hunting than I am about dressing the part or being PC/HC, but I have respect for those who trek and hunt in that manner.

 

[bore_butter]

just cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger. that was all it took

 

[Juniata]

I'm with Daryl, history was always a big part of my interest in school. I can remember being completely engrossed the American Revolution 8th grade history., That summer we went to Boston as a family and visited historical places like Bunker Hill and Paul Revere's home.
Once I was in my twenties and was a successful hunter, I subconsciously pursued a challenge in my hunting method.
I also wanted to be able to shoot a doe with my unused buck tag in the late season (our regs in PA) Once I started shooting a flintlock there was no turning back. Now I keep getting myself more and more into the details of shooting guns, building guns, black powder making and even bought some clothes here recently. Not sure that the clothing thing was a good idea, it's a bit much $.
Being that I'm the 10th generation in Pennsylvania and all previous generations residing in the southeast part of the state it goes hand in the hand with my personal family history. Swiss Mennonites on my mom's side and Amish on my dad's side.
I reckon it's a part of me.

 

[ohio ramrod]

I started with an early 28 gauge shotgun simply because back in the early 60's I could shoot it for 2 and 1/2 cents a shot,while a 12 gauge shotgun cost ten cents a shot. Therefore I could get four rabbits for the same price as one using modern.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

What got you hooked on muzzleloading? I'm a bit of a history afficionado, so I think what drew me in was the connection to a bygone era. While that's still applicable, I grew to appreciate the fact that many of these weapons were simply functional art.

WOW so that's a bit of a mixed bag for me.
I got into wilderness skills in 1973..., I was ten and in school we read My Side of The Mountain. I then read Survival with Style and then Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Bradford Angier. In 1976 I attended the National Boy Scout Jamboree, and saw the American Mountain Men display. My first real exposure to muzzleloaders. Which was the same year that I started doing ACW living history. So the foundation had been applied, but I wasn't hooked yet.

After college I went into The Marines, and ended up in 2nd Recon Battalion, and we had to rely a whole lot on ourselves alone. The wilderness skills came in handy for me. But it wasn't until I left The Service and some of my coworkers at my new profession introduced me to flintlocks, that the change was complete. OH I like modern stuff and own and use it for SD and my job, but when there is a choice, I go black powder muzzleloading.

I admit there is smug satisfaction using the old tech and old skills to produce a result every bit as good if not better than the dude who has dropped a whole lot of coin on unneeded gadgets and gimmicks that he thinks give him some sort of "edge" in the woods....


LD

 

[pheenix99]

WOW so that's a bit of a mixed bag for me.
I got into wilderness skills in 1973..., I was ten and in school we read My Side of The Mountain. I then read Survival with Style and then Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Bradford Angier. In 1976 I attended the National Boy Scout Jamboree, and saw the American Mountain Men display. My first real exposure to muzzleloaders. Which was the same year that I started doing ACW living history. So the foundation had been applied, but I wasn't hooked yet.

After college I went into The Marines, and ended up in 2nd Recon Battalion, and we had to rely a whole lot on ourselves alone. The wilderness skills came in handy for me. But it wasn't until I left The Service and some of my coworkers at my new profession introduced me to flintlocks, that the change was complete. OH I like modern stuff and own and use it for SD and my job, but when there is a choice, I go black powder muzzleloading.

I admit there is smug satisfaction using the old tech and old skills to produce a result every bit as good if not better than the dude who has dropped a whole lot of coin on unneeded gadgets and gimmicks that he thinks give him some sort of "edge" in the woods....


LD

I also like/own modern stuff, but my passion lies in more primitive arms. My trapdoor is about as "modern" as that passion gets.

There's just something I find interesting about surviving in a time where if your first shot missed, whatever you were shooting at was going to kill you or run away.

 

[ord sgt]

I bought an antique m/ler to hang over the fireplace. That got me to wonder what it would be like to shoot it. But it was an old rifle, barrel was rusty so I thought it might be unsafe. I discovered that one of my coworkers had an FFL and he had a T/C kit rifle for sale. That kit came home with me. I didn't know anyone who shot black powder, so I read and reread the T/C booklet. Found the necessary components for sale locally. Then found a safe place to load and shoot for the first time. The hook was set deep and 40 years later, the hook is still firmly in place.

 

[LME]

What got you hooked on muzzleloading? I'm a bit of a history afficionado, so I think what drew me in was the connection to a bygone era. While that's still applicable, I grew to appreciate the fact that many of these weapons were simply functional art.

I was a hunter and lived and breathe hunting. We had a rifle season, bow season and Muzzle loading rifle season. I had to buy a muzzle loader so I could hunt all season!

 

[mushka]

Wife got me a TC Hawkin kit in .54 cal in the mid 80's for Christmas. About two years later I put it together one bad winter. Shot it a couple of time the next Summer but nothing got excited. I shot it every once in a while over the years but it didn't affect me much. One day a little over three years ago I took it out and shot it and for some reason I cannot fathom, I wanted to do more with black powder guns. At this time I owned two BP rifles, my .54 cal Hawkin and my deceased wife's .36 cal Seneca. Today I belong to a MZ club and shoot every week and own 18 BP guns, rifles, smooth bores, and handguns. How and why this obsession landed on me I don't know or understand but it did, and I am extremely happy with the results. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[SciAggie]

When I was fresh out of college I ordered and built a Tennessee Mountain Rifle kit from Dixie gun Works. I added a patchbox and a bunch of other stuff. I had never built a rifle and had no advice/help. It was serviceable and I was proud of it. I also had NO CLUE how to properly care for a ML. I'd go shoot it and then have h3!! cleaning it. I finally gave up and decided ML wasn't for me.

Twenty years later I got seriously involved in BPCR silhouette shooting. Some of those guys were muzzleloading enthusiasts as well. I related my story and they happily showed me how to properly care for and feed a ML rifle. The BPC rifles amazed me with how well they performed. I soon learned that muzzleloaders could perform and shoot very well also. I dove in - bought a couple and ultimately had a couple of guns made. I mostly hunt with my ML (if it's gun season I use a ML). I don't know - I get a kick out of knowing each shot is a custom reload. I enjoy the chalenges. I'll admit I also enjoy showing some of my hunting buddies that my 1850's technology will wax a deer as well or better than their modern whizbanger. In our neck of the woods most shots are under 125 yards. I've been shooting these guns now for 20 years. There was a time when the kids were growing up that I wasn't as active. Now that the kids are gone I'm getting back into shooting much more.

 

[deerstalkert]

i have always been a hunter. for 66 years or more only once have i had to shoot more than one shot at a critter. either i missed or they were all one shot kills. a moose being the exception.
what got me started in muzzleloaders was a neighbor lady had a flintlock over the fireplace. it was from a long ago relative, from pre WOI.
her son and i snuck it out, figured out a the priming sequence and scared the dickens out of the chickens and ourselves when the thing fired.
that rifle was longer than i was tall and i immediately envisioned myself as a warrior sneaking up on some pilgrims.
and i loved and still love the smell of the burned powder!

 

[tenngun]

My brother was eleven years older then me. I hadn’t started school yet and he was building a ship model of Cutty Sark.
On the middle aft was the sky light that lighted the great cabin ward room, and captains saloon.
He told me if I looked through those windows I could see that space.
I couldn’t see anything but dark, but I’ve been looking though windows at the past ever since.
I was sixteen and all the gun magazines offered adds for CVA and Dixie. A local hard ware store had a Morey Allen and Thurber and I bought it for $90 earned bucking hay.
Two years later got to my first club. About hall the participants were buck skinners. This was 1975
I had always been a history buff, and was always looking through those windows. Here was an opportunity to walk in
I was hooked.

 

[user 31257]

I bought my first muzzleloader in the mid 80’s to extend deer season but it didn’t take long to become my favorite form of shooting. My guns are all of the simple/functional variety but eventually I’d like to get a fancy .32 flinter to hunt squirrels with.

 

[mmb617]

Hard to believe it's only a little over a year ago that I first shot a black powder gun. Since then I've sent over 3k balls downrange through the 5 flintlocks that I now own.

I was shooting my modern guns a lot and reloading all my own ammo when the great primer and ammo shortage hit. I was pretty well stocked with ammo at the time but since I didn't know how long the crisis would last I got worried about not being able to shoot. I thought a black powder gun would be a good alternative and since caps were already as scarce as primers a flintlock seemed like the way to go.

Like some others I got hooked right away. I still shoot my modern guns, but the flintlocks get most of the range time. And I get a lot of range time.

 

[R Ellis]

My company was giving awards to employees and we had a catalog to choose items me being a gun nut .I picked a Hopkins and Allen 50cal Hawken rifle and a H&A pistol kit and was hooked Now I have so many it takes a lot of time to keep them maintained but I love it all

 

[UndeadPoet]

Growing up in Kentuckiana, I had the opportunity to visit many of the historic places (homes, forts, graves) associated with some of my heroes whose biographies I devoured from a very young age; Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark, Simon Kenton, etc. I still have a powder horn and a (literal, paper cap) caplock Kentucky rifle that shot cork round balls, that I purchased on a trip to either Old Fort Harrod, Boonesborough, Squire Boone Cavern, or somewhere, when I was probably 9 or 10. The pistol and coonskin cap are both long gone (I believe). I also watched Fess Parker as Daniel Boone, as a kid.

 

[sheriff john]

About age ten, Dad bought a pieced-together original smoothbore fowler, but had been an NMLRA member long before. Then came the Tingle pistol (which I still shoot). Girlfriend's brother was my main mentor - rifled his own barrels, forged parts, created some outstanding pieces and took me to Friendship, Dixie Gunworks, many rural ML shoots. Warden at state penitentiary and I hunted deer for many years, as did local FBI agent. Our gunclub had weekly M/L shoots. It was friendships that got me hooked.

 

[frankie]

I am not a muzzleloader addict nor hooked on them. I have bought 6 in the last 4 months. 1 Gibbs, 2 Pedersoli Hawkens, 3 lyman great plains. My definition of a muzzleloader addict would be if someone bought 10 in the last 4 months. So as everyone can see I am well under the 10 in 4 months and am still in great self control. Just saying.

 

[R Ellis]

I am not a muzzleloader addict nor hooked on them. I have bought 6 in the last 4 months. 1 Gibbs, 2 Pedersoli Hawkens, 3 lyman great plains. My definition of a muzzleloader addict would be if someone bought 10 in the last 4 months. So as everyone can see I am well under the 10 in 4 months. Just saying.

Sounds like you need to step it up a little so you don't get left behind