How did you get hooked?

[Tn poor boy]

56 yrs ago my dad took me squirrel hunting. AT 5 YEARs old. Iv been hooked ever since. A LOT OF memories have been made .i rember my first time deer hunting shooting at a deer with black powder boom the smoke filled the morning air .Look like fog it was so thick .no deer but i was having fun with that old tc Hawken 50 cal rifle

 

[Snooterpup]

Growing up around Washington DC as a kid fascinated with the Civil war Centennial, books like “ Singing Wheels”, a favorite of Herschel House, and later Foxfire series of books, TV shows Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and finding an older relatives double barreled shotgun shot snake and powder horn hidden behind the attic chimney in his home that had been broken into, later, bought my first black powder gun. It was a Zoli Zouave new for $78.00 in 1971. Later the Revolutionary War bi-centennial and later movies, Jeremiah Johnson, Last of the Mohicans and many many more black powder guns have come and gone. Latest are a Kibler Colonial and a really old TC Hawken to replace the kit I built in 1978 that I foolishly had sold. It is a lifelong addiction and expect to use these as long as the Lord above allows.

 

[BP Addict]

I was working at Montgomery Ward in the mid-1980s. They sold guns in their Sporting Goods Department. They had a CVA Kentucky pistol in the glass case. I asked if I could see it. All I did was look down the barrel and I was hooked! I believe I was around 28 years old at the time. I'll be 64 this August.

Shortly afterward, I purchased a used T/C Hawken and a Euroarms 1858 Army revolver. I never bought that CVA. Don’t know why except maybe I wanted more than one shot in a handgun.

I was fortunate to have a Muzzle Loader shop within a few miles of where I lived at the time. He sold copies of the NMLRA magazine, Muzzle Blasts. In its pages, I found a local club to shoot with.

Since then, I’ve picked up Prospecting and Metal Detecting as hobbies, but this will always be my first and favorite! It’s also the least labor-intensive.

I do have some unmentionable firearms but prefer my muzzies over all of them! However, I wouldn’t use one for personal protection.

In school, I preferred World History as US History was a bit boring in comparison. Once I got involved in the hobby and realized how much the development of firearms played in the advancement of our country, that changed. The period I represent is the Western Mountain Man as I live in the west. However, I’ve always been more of a shooter than a reenactor.

I’m a rather curious fellow so the experimentation aspect keeps it interesting.

Walt

 

[Rock Home Isle]

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.

Growing up , we lived 5 to 6 miles outside of town. I hunted everyday after school…it was a fine time. One day I saw a muzzleloader in town at the local pawnshop…saved up my allowance and bought a CVA .50 calibre Mountain Rifle. I could shoot that gun for cheaper than my .22 at the time.

Once I got that smoke in my lungs…I was done for….

 

[rpatmuck]

I got a copy of The Shooters Bible at age nine. I looked at all the guns they had and those old muzzle loaders held my attention. I love history and here was a piece of history I could hold! I was hooked and still am!

 

[gunpa]

I grew up in the "sticks" in Montana with a gun in my hand. Loved Daniel Boone and all those shows but it wasn't until I moved to Idaho continuing to collect and read Gun Digest I stumbled onto Black powder Digest and Sam Fadala. I was hooked and still can't shake the habit----- Don't want to either!

 

[Eutycus]

Black Powder was another branch of the pastime I already enjoyed.It kind of "added" to a well established hobby. That and I got a CVA kit for Christmas.

 

[PatrickL01]

When I was about 10 years old I read "Daniel Boone - Wilderness Scout" by S.E. White, and then "The Lone Hunt" by some guy named Steele. Both books went into detail about muzzleloaders and particularly flintlocks. I wanted one so bad, but my Dad couldn't stand them - said they were inaccurate, unreliable, and hard to clean. Fast forward 20 years and he purchased a widow's gun collection and gave me a TC Renegade that was in it. It proved in my ignorant hands to be exactly what he said! Fast forward another 20 years (to last year) and I purchased a Kibler SMR and started watching Black Powder TV, and Black Powder Maniac Shooter. I have since learned a huge amount, joined NMLRA, went to Friendship 3 times, and joined this forum yesterday. I also just ordered Dutch Schoultz's system. I guess I am hooked! Took me until age 50, but it's a good addiction!

 

[Muley Gil]

I'm another one that grew up watching Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. I wanted a muzzle loader from that time on. Got a .22 rifle when I turned 15 and about a month later, went to a gun show at my dad's American Legion post. There were a couple of North-South Skirmish Association members in attendance and one of them was my dad's friend. Went to the N-SSA Fall national in October of that year & my dad bought me a Zoli Zouave. My grandmother gave me the money to buy a Dixie single shot 28 gauge shotgun & it arrived Christmas Eve. Dad taught me how to mold Minie balls and then we both joined his friend's N-SSA unit the next year. I've owned cap and ball revolvers, a Plains rifle, a Tennessee mountain rifle, a 1803 Harpers Ferry repo, single shot pistols and lots and lots od ACW muskets, both originals and repos. I was inactive in the N-SSA for a number of years, due to location and job, but now have over 20 years active shooting. Being burning the Holy Black for over 50 years now and don't intend to quit!

 

[TarponStalker]

For me the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of Fess Parker. When I was a young boy I couldn’t get enough of the Daniel Boone tv show. I even remember asking my parents to change my name to Daniel Boone! Silly huh?
I couldn’t wait til I was able to get a flintlock rifle.
I still watch the old reruns of DB.
It seems many of us got the bug there.

 

[stank]

At a Boy Scout jamboree there where two living history fellas casting round balls over an open fire. They let me cast a few and I was hooked. Worked my butt off on farms at 13 years old and bought a TC renegade

 

[Walkabout]

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.

Sometime in the early nineties one of my co workers brought in Mowrey rifle he had built. I remember handling it and saying, now that's a rifle! Soon after, I ordered a Lyman Trade Rifle from Dixie Gun Works. After I touched off that first shot, the dye was cast, I was hooked for life.

 

[J.Campbell63]

I was in the army. A friend from my unit . He had a Officers Fusil ( I didn’t even know what that was) He would shoot skeet in his back yard. His kid would use a plastic thrower. His kid got really good at throwing several different sizes of skeet. My friend? De foliated his back yard out to about 75 yards with buckshot. Everything out there had buckshot in it. Was a wild time. I went into it from there.

 

[11Bravo]

I blame it on the Army. Prior to that I was a deer and waterfowl hunter with modern stuff. After spending a year in combat I thought about the fact that unlike who I was hunting in Vietnam the deer couldn't shoot back. Built a Numrich .50 flintlock and used that the first season and never went back.

 

[tom mesa]

I met Turner Kirkland at Dixie Gun Works while admiring all the bp rifles on display. He showed me a rifle made by Freddie Harrison and sold it to me for $650. I have been hooked on bp ever since. I still have that rifle and two that John Bergmann made .They have been a great source of pleasure for over 40 years. I assembled two of Jim Kibler's fine rifles ,but due to an injury have not been able to shoot them yet. It am hooked at 82.

 

[ArtyGunner]

I have always had a passion for military history and one day I answered a local ad for a Hawken rifle. The Hawken was the gateway, I quickly added a flintlock and then another and then another...they continue find their way to me. I'd be surprised if I was alone in this experience

 

[Sooty Scot]

From about 10 to 16, I set my skewed view of life by basically growing up in a 19th century museum. I realized later that the curator (a wonderful, rennaissance man) was the key mentor who introduced me to fine old guns and BP. His in-laws had a historic bronze cannon (in retrospect, about a 6#er) at their cottage out in the country.

For the 4th, he took all the helpers there for a picnic, complete with hand-cranked ice cream (I've never had better). The highlight was firing the cannon.In the storeroom, I was surrounded by barrels and boxes of firelocks, in addition to those on display, free to explore and fondle.

I got an antique fusil for Christmas at about 13. Went to the back porch in pjs, blowing icicles from the roof edge with the concussions (no ball or shot in town- I had a few limits). BP (along with maple syrup) has been in my blood and tinkering with old guns or repros has been R&R.

 

[Rudyard]

I read the boys book' Bevis & Mark ' who contrived to make a matchlock . I think that and relic air guns set me on the road too now nye 70 years later and still given to knock out the occasional matchlock .

Rudyard

 

[GBG]

A true account told to me by my grandfather (born 1895) about a "chicken hawk" flying up a valley toward his father's farm. Each of the 3 to 5 farmers downrange in the valley fired a one or two shot salute at the hawk - with cartridge shotguns - and had no effect.

Grandfather saw the old Civil War veteran who lived on the farm next to him bring a super long, big gun out of his house. When he saw the old man "tamping down powder wad and shot" with a ramrod, my grandfather realized it was the farmer's original ML.

The old farmer brought the hawk down with one mighty blast and was then enveloped in a cloud of white smoke. I don't know details on the gun, but this happened about 1905, so the 10 ga. limit was not yet in effect. Today I suspect the gun was an 8, 6 or 4 gauge "loaded heavy".

I was always fascinated by the past and my elder's experiences. I wanted to know about and do all the things they had done and seen. I started reading everything I could find about MLs that night, and I'm still reading and learning over 55 years later.

 

[BadDaditood]

Shot bow and arrow since I was 6…
Eventually I got tired of looking for lost arrows and built a cap lock kit.
Dozens of builds and revolvers later I’ve filled 3 safes, not to mention all the ‘cootermints I like to make.
It’s Great fun!