How did you get hooked?

[Stykbow]

I needed a ML to hunt Tennessee’s ML season back in the 90’s. Just switched back to a traditional ML last spring. Needed a bit more of a challenge in my hunting.

 

[Stantheman86]

The history and I also find the loading process to be relaxing and zen-like.

 

[Ninering62]

Thank you nineringer. I wish you could tell my wife all that, I need a lot of support.. ha. I bought the Gibbs a couple of months ago. I searched and searched and found a new one. They are top quality. Inletting was flawless. I'm replacing the tang sight. There was a used one for about $1100 on gunbroker last week with only 1 bidder. I hope you run across one. Thanks

I can't help ya with the wife thing bud, I've always made it 100% clear to whatever GF or wife that I've had that they have ZERO say in my hunting/fishing/ Harley stuff or I'll be getting rid of them, not my stuff.
If you're gonna replace your rear sight, I'd suggest the Lee Shaver Soule. I have a custom .50 1:24 GM LRH that I just put his rear tang midrange Soule on it. Money well spent. I wouldn't have anything else but the Lee Shaver sights on a Gibbs or Rigby. I got the Parker & Hale front globe too. Its slightly larger dia is really nice.
Dang, a Gibbs on GB for under 1500-1600.00 nowadays is great.

 

[frankie]

I can't help ya with the wife thing bud, I've always made it 100% clear to whatever GF or wife that I've had that they have ZERO say in my hunting/fishing/ Harley stuff or I'll be getting rid of them, not my stuff.
If you're gonna replace your rear sight, I'd suggest the Lee Shaver Soule. I have a custom .50 1:24 GM LRH that I just put his rear tang midrange Soule on it. Money well spent. I wouldn't have anything else but the Lee Shaver sights on a Gibbs or Rigby. I got the Parker & Hale front globe too. Its slightly larger dia is really nice.
Dang, a Gibbs on GB for under 1500-1600.00 nowadays is great.

I agree on all you said. I am going with the Shavers sight. Yip the Gibbs on gunbroker went for $1150 and a Euroarms whitworth $1550. I would of bought one of them but I just bought the Gibbs. I would really like to have the Parker Hale.

 

[Kyle Kalasnik]

Always liked American History. Especially pre WWII.

Grew up around unmentionable firearms in the house (hunting and shooting). But never had an opportunity/interest to do any thing with black powder.

Served in the Marine Corps, with lots of opportunities to use firearms which I really enjoyed.

After my discharge and moving home, I continued to purchase, shoot and hunt with unmentionables. Still never had a opportunity or even an interest in muzzleloading.

Had a rain day in NJ 5 years ago and we couldn’t work. A few buddies and I drove to the Cabelas in Hamburg to have a look around and kill some time.

I looked around, and purchased a bunch of ammo for my unmentionables.

After checking out, we took our purchases out to the vehicle. We had a cigarette or two and then realized were still waiting on my one friend who was still in the firearms section

So back into Cabelas we go, while walking towards my friend who was looking at a pistol in the glass case, I walked by the traditional muzzleloading rack.

Out of curiosity, and having never held one I picked up a Pedersoli Brown Bess and admired it. I immediately fell in love with the look of it and the historical significance (even though it was a reproduction). It is hard to explain but something kind of instantly came over me, and I have been obsessed ever since.

It has probably been 4 years since I have fired one of my unmentionables. Except for home defense, the 2nd Amendment, and a few family heirlooms, I have no real interest in them anymore.

 

[Kyle Kalasnik]

My apologies for the double post.

 

[John May]

1972, my eldest Brother and I were in at the start of a local shooting club called, of all things, The Isis Rifle and Pistol Club, after the Oxford (UK) River not the other Isis!
I was a Truck mechanic and didn't mind getting dirty so I was 'given' the role of Black Powder Captain! Up until then my interests had been strictly reference material only but, once I had my Firearms Licence, I bought a beat up Navy Arms Remington in .44 cal. That was it, I was totally and utterly hooked and have been that way, with a small gap while I got old British Motorcycles out of my system, ever since! 68 years and counting....

 

[John May]

Meant to add, it's Flintlocks, Matchlocks and Miniature cannon that do it for me now...

 

[Dude]

The wife gave me an 1858 Remington pistol kit for Christmas about 1980. When it was about finished, the neighbor kids broke in and stole it. Had a Browning 9mm and a 10/22 since then (then sold after a few years) but that was it till a couple years ago. A motorcycle buddy who also collected firearms wondered why I never got any guns. Truth is, I was too involved in motorcycles and focused all of my energies there. My friend had a place in the country where he could shoot in the back yard when he wasn't hunting. He'd had a stroke and wasn't doing too well, so I figured we could have some fun if I got a gun or two to target shoot at his place. Next thing you know, I picked up a brass Pietta at a pawn shop, and a TC Hawken at another, just cause they were pretty, and inexpensive. One thing lead to another and here I am, many guns later, confessing to the lot of you. Oh, how I have fallen!

 

[Mulemauler]

Watched Davy Crockett, The Swamp Fox and then Daniel Boone on TV and played with toy ML rifles. When about 14 built a ML from Dixie as a Jr. High shop project (Can't see that happening in any school today!). Loved then and still do, the simplicity of the mechanics.

 

[Rifleman1776]

We moved to a small town in Indiana to start a business in 1970. Somebody suggested we visit Friendship. We went with no idea of what it was. One of the big shoots was going on. As soon as we walked in the gate I was hooked. Seeing all those people in period dress and the interesting old style guns was purely addictive. Muzzle loading and reenacting have been a big part of my life since then until recently when age and health issues have forced me to stay close to home.

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

My dad's mother was widowed long, long ago. When I was a young teen, she met a nice old man who, as it turned out, built muzzleloaders by hand. He was also into ML Benchrest competition and had 2 or 3 guns around he had built. I was fascinated by them and would fondle them whenever we would go to his house. Many of my older cousins offered to buy a gun from him and he declined. Turns out, I was the only one not to have asked for a gun from him (didn't know it was an option) but showed intense interest. When I graduated high school, he and my grandmother presented me with a .45 cal caplock longrifle and all the accoutrements. We first shot it in my backyard and I was hooked bad.

 

[waksupi]

Like many of us old timers, I grew up on Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. That may have planted the seed for me.
It was some years later though, that I got infected with the bug.
At the time, I was a biker. We had a party at our place one weekend, and a couple friends showed up with muzzleloaders. After shooting them a few times, I was hooked.
The next week, I bought one of the old two piece CVA's as my first rifle. The next weekend, I went to a rendezvous with my friends for the first time. It was held in an old rock quarry. Temperature was near 100, and we were sleeping on solid rock. I loved it, and knew it could only get better, which it did.
It definitely changed my direction in life, and probably kept me out of jail. That first rifle has probably cost me over a quarter million dollars over the years.
One of the guys who got me started ended up killing a guy, and dragging the body behind his Harley with a rope. Ended up in prison, where he died a few years ago.

 

[Walkaheap]

Like a number of people here I was interested in history as a kid. I was a young officer assigned to Ft. Lewis, WA in the mid-late '80s. I rode my motorcycle to a park in Tacoma and there was an event at the reconstructed Hudson's Bay Company Fort Nisqually. Met an older gentleman there who let me touch off a blank charge from a flintlock. I was hooked and still consider that man a great mentor and friend. Moral is that you may never know but you could be the one who "sparks" someone's interest in this hobby of ours.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

After the ole man passed in 71, he hunting buds all took me out to show me different shooting styles and arms. Old Gordy was into BP, so I was introduced to it as a teen.

 

[59sharps]

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.

My Gf. Invited me to the N-SSA nationals. Got me hooked that weekend. The team is a great bunch of guys. The Assoc. is a great friendly group. Been doing it 32 urs now.

 

[Cruzatte]

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.

My story is pretty similar. Always with an interest in the olden days as I called any era before I was born, I was lucky to have a father who was a gifted storyteller. And sometimes he never let the facts get in the way of his stories. Some however, were pretty factual, others were family folklore. Of these last, most contained guesses where the facts were missing; like for instance the story of the Prussian draft dodger.

I had the same teacher for both third and fourth grades. She was very interested in history. In fact she said that on one side of her family she was related to the Boone family. I can remember during story time after noon recess, she read through the entire Little House books, and some others about local pioneers

In the early 1970s there came a series of books called Foxfire. By the time the books ceased publication some ten years later, there were eight or so volumes. Foxfire V was the one that really sparked my interest in muzzle loaders. It contained interviews with luminaries like Bud Siler, Hershel House, and Warren "Hawk" Boughton. After reading that book (several times!) I had to have a muzzleloader. And it had to be flintlock.

It wasn't too long that a Dixie Gun Works catalog showed up on my doorstep, followed by a .50 caliber Tennessee Mountain Rifle. But for the fact that the gun was a bit awkward to handle, it shot reasonably well, and the lock never failed. That was some forty years ago. And I haven't lost my passion yet.

 

[Urban Coyote]

Blackpowder is an addictive chemical formulation, one shot was all it took and I've been hooked for 46+ years.

The sad part is, blackpowder is getting hard to find.

 

[rickystl]

Started in the mid-late 1950's with Parris, wood and metal, toy muzzle loaders that shot corks, and used greenie-stick'um-caps for ignition. With the (then) up coming Civil War Bicentennial coming, spent a few years playing in the woods with my kepi hat. At around 11, got an original 1873 Springfield, less the firing pin and mainspring to carry around. First genuine muzzle loader when I was 13 or 14. Still at it.

Rick

 

[Josephg]

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.

My dad who was a shooter collector passed it on to me when I was very young. He had a very ornate German hunting rifle with damascus barrel that I used to shoot indians with on the old Zenith. Yes, functional art, history, appreciation of fine craftsmanship, fine wood. The muzzleloader went from a simple hand cannon to very precise accurate hunting and target rifles. For me there is something relaxing about loading and firing a muzzleloading rifle.