How did you get into the BP Sport and why choose Flintlocks

[Loyalist Dave]

I was 13 at the Bicentennial, and was approached to participate in a CW Artillery Unit, so I did. Dropped it when I went to college (except for a few weeks as an extra in George Washington: The Mini Series) and then the Marines. I became a cop and was looking for something having nothing to do with work, and LOTM came out in theaters in 1992...at the same time I was working a second job at a gunshop, and a fellow was disposing of his gun collection including a botched flintlock kit. The store owner said I could have the botched flinter, which turned out to only need a proper stock as the hardware was good. I got Dixon's book on building The American Longrifle, put it together, and it actually worked. :grin: About that time several of my cohorts it turned out did civilian militia in living history of the AWI and F&I and since I already had an acceptable flinter, it was easy for me to join in....

LD

 

[RonRC]

I had been collecting and shooting historic military rifles for many years. Then, maybe 4 or so years ago, when I was a boy at around 64 years old, I saw an announcement of a Rendezvous not far from where I live. Just for fun, I went to see what it was about. One fellow, decked out in deerskin and moccasins, had a few front loaders for sale. I came away with two percussion rifles, both on the low priced end of the scale - an Armi San Marco and a CVA.
Great! Without black powder, patches, balls, various necessary tools and with zero knowledge, I had two wall hangers.
About a year later, hanging about a gun shop, I spotted a very nice Kentucky style flintlock on the rack. If you buy this consigned rifle, the counterman said, the man will give you all you need to start shooting. And load me up he did. Possibles bag, tomahawk, knife, brass powder measures, ball extractors, ramrod tools, and more. It took all of two shots at the range to captivate me.
I haven't purchased another military cartridge rifle since.
Ron

 

[Wes/Tex]

Like a couple others of the medicare crowd, I have to blame Fess Parker and his Davy Crockett personna. Younger shooters will never understand the effect he had on our generation in the 50's. It was so neat and cool to see him shoot olde Betsy. Then somewhere along the way the rumor started that the gun was electrically fired because no flintlock was reliable. Even as a kid I thought, "That can't be right"! When H&A came out with their Kentucky rifle we were off. Took a while to realize .36 meant .350" balls and even though American made, the springs and metal temper might not be all it could be. got it figured out by guess and by God and wasn't a bunny safe in all of the Texas coast then! :wink: :rotf:

 

[Sunkmanitu Tanka]

End of the sixties we had black and white television here in Belgium. Davy Crocket - Daniël Boone - Drums over the Mohawk all made this teenager dream of long gone Days ... The how to book on indiancraft of Ben Hunt, Karl May novels on Winnetou and Old Shatterhand - enough to trigger the imagination of any youngster... With a brother in law I discovered BP shooting in the early 70 ties... Even tried a flintlock for a while, but with no practical knowledge and no one to show the how to I quickly got back to percussion shooting.... Stopped after a few years because of work and family life. In 2006 law was changed and became frightingly strict. Had to do psychologic, theoretical and practical tests, restrictions everywhere ... So then I had to become a serious shooter or abandon my weapons... When everything was in order with the regulations, a club member kept poking me towards the flintlock guns... I finally bought myself some Pedersoli rocklocks for my Kentucky and Frontier and lo and behold ... I got the knack of it and never looked back - Now I am hooked realy bad! I only wished we had some of the possibilities you people in the USA have ... We are only alowed to shoot official targets ... balloons or other fun targets - forbidden - Pictures of Turkey, squirrels forbidden - any picture or silhouette resembling a person! You better get out of the country! Woodswalks - shooting in the open - hunting with BP ... we can only read about it on this website ... But hey - who is complaining!

 

[Maven]

"Like a couple others of the medicare crowd, I have to blame Fess Parker and his Davy Crockett persona."

Me too, but also Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans" and Edmonds' "Drums Along the Mohawk." In the mid-1960's I saw an original Sharps rifle fired [with BP loads] and I was hooked. However, I didn't purchase a BP gun (1851 Colts Navy) until 1970 and a T/C Cherokee until ~1975. The flintlocks came much later.

 

[Billnpatti]

I can't blame my interest on either teachers or TV shows. I was already very interested in shooting modern guns, both centerfire and rimfire. I shot targets and hunted with them. I've shot guns since I was about 6 years old. I loved them and was a pretty good shot. I don't know exactly when or why the fastination with muzzleloaders struck me. It was in the late 60s to early 70s and I just decided that I absolutely had to have a muzzleloading rifle. The pickings were slim back then. I lacked the skill to restore an original even though they were not hard to find back then and the prices for an original was darned reasonable. There were several cheaply and poorly made imports showing up on the market but none were of interest to me. I wanted a good gun that would shoot safely and accurately. About then, along came Thompson Center with a caplock "Hawken" kit gun that was well made and I thought that I had the skill to build it. It ended up looking very nice and it also shot quite well. I was hooked. Soon, I had to have another rifle and this time it was a .32 cal. caplock longrifle by Pedersoli. These were quickly followed by several other both finished and kit guns. Some were caplocks and some were flintlocks and I shot them all. I liked both the caplocks and the flintlocks but, somehow, the flintlocks won my heart. I can't say why, but they just did. I now, some 40 odd years later, have a safe full of muzzleloading rifles and pistols and I love to shoot them all but the flintlocks just have a mystique that is hard to explain. There is no question in my mind that they are more attractive, at least to my eye, and I find the various chalanges to getting them to shoot their most accurate to be most pleasurable. Mainly, I am just a muzzleloading fan but there is no denying that those flintlocks do hold a special place in my heart. Don't have a good explanation, it's just the way I am. :idunno:

 

[RonRC]

I should add that I also was impacted by Fess Parker and the personas of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone and did have a faux coon skin cap!
Ron

 

[Hawgeye]

My friends grand father died in 1961 and his collection of firearms went to his father. The old gentleman had been the prop-master for MGM studios for many years. Along with some very fine cartridge guns, he left several original BP muskets, rifles and pistols. They were all heavily used and stamped with MGM Studios on every surface but were complete and functional. The 1851 navy and the tower pistol drew my interest (my father didn't own handguns) and it didn't take us long to find the powder and caps and such to make them run. The tower pistol was my favorite. I found the fire at both ends to be somehow very satisfying. I've owned BP arms ever since and while I own many MLs, the flinters take me back to good times with good friends from long ago.

 

[chazz1975]

My family is big into history, especially my father. I grew up going to museums like Greenfield Village in Dearborn,Michigan. I used to love watching all the living history re-enactments there. Civil War, F&I, AWI, it didn't matter. I loved seeing the guns and cannons fire. If it went "BOOM" I wanted to be there. Dad gave up shooting for a long time due to costs. So, after I got out of college he started back up, and I wanted to try it too. One of my first guns was a cap lock 2nd hand CVA hawken. Twas love at first shot. He got deeper in muzzleloaders and had a Pedersoli Pennsylvania in flinter. He eventually bought a custom flinter and I bought the Pedersoli off him. We shot Friendship with our flinters dressed in period clothing, he as a long hunter and me as a Huron indian. Can't remember a better time that we had together. Still have the pedersoli and that CVA hawken. My black powder guns give me a different "feel" when shooting them vs my modern guns, a deeper appreciation for marksmanship and deeper connections to the past. I will never get rid of my BP rifles. I like them all for their "personalities" which my modern guns don't seem to have. Every one of my BP guns I bought used, and none fail to make me smile every time I see their smoke. Cheers and make good smoke.

 

[kopfjaeger]

My interest in flintlocks and hunting with them started with watching Daniel Boone ( Fess Parker ) and The Swamp Fox ( Leslie Nielsen ) T.V. shows. My Dad bought me my first flintlock in 1975, it was a Thompson Center. I've been shooting and hunting with them ever since. I even have the whole seasons of Daniel Boone and The Swamp Fox T.V. series on dvd.

 

[Critter Getter]

I am a bowhunter and when Iowa decided to have our own black powder season for deer I bought a used TC Renegade to give it ago. I found it to be a lot of fun and after buying more guns and trying my hand at local target competitions I was hooked. That was around 1981 I think....... Never wanted a flintlock until last year when I found a like new never fired Pedersoli Blue Ridge and decided to give it a try. I found every time I pulled the trigger on that flinter it would make me smile so I just had to have another. This time a custom 45 and I have plans for another longrifle flinter before too long! That black powder smoke gets in yer blood! Greg.

 

[Darkgael]

My first BP rifle was a Caplock CVA carbine .50. I was hand loading all of my smokeless loads. It seemed the right time to branch out. Some years passed and a friend in need of money offered me a GPR flint gun for $100. That was the turning point.
I do a lot of upland hunting and so bought a fowler from Matt Avance at TVM. It is a nice gun but heavier than I like at nine pounds. I saved up my nickles and dimes and had Mike Brooks make me a 16 gauge fowler that weighs just over six pounds. That is where we are now. Next gun will probably be a .32 or a .36,

 

[Larry Beach]

Just when I see my favorite post in a therad, someone else comes along with another one that is superb, I am so glad I started this thread, terrific stories! Thank yo all for sharing. It takes a unique personality to be a true BP shooter. I could never understand why so many of the Folks that shot regular firearms didn't like BP? For me there is no comparison, they have a charm that is unique to every piece, THEN I see the amazing work that some of you do in building custom rifles! I dunno, it must be something in the Air and Water down in the South, I have seen the most wonderful pieces from South of the Mason Dixon. My opinion is, they are more works of art than anything else! Give me a day on the Range ANYDAY over the Golf course!I'd even give up a Saturday/Sunday of Football!

My family is big into history, especially my father. I grew up going to museums like Greenfield Village in Dearborn,Michigan. I used to love watching all the living history re-enactments there. Civil War, F&I, AWI, it didn't matter. I loved seeing the guns and cannons fire. If it went "BOOM" I wanted to be there. Dad gave up shooting for a long time due to costs. So, after I got out of college he started back up, and I wanted to try it too. One of my first guns was a cap lock 2nd hand CVA hawken. Twas love at first shot. He got deeper in muzzleloaders and had a Pedersoli Pennsylvania in flinter. He eventually bought a custom flinter and I bought the Pedersoli off him. We shot Friendship with our flinters dressed in period clothing, he as a long hunter and me as a Huron indian. Can't remember a better time that we had together. Still have the pedersoli and that CVA hawken. My black powder guns give me a different "feel" when shooting them vs my modern guns, a deeper appreciation for marksmanship and deeper connections to the past. I will never get rid of my BP rifles. I like them all for their "personalities" which my modern guns don't seem to have. Every one of my BP guns I bought used, and none fail to make me smile every time I see their smoke. Cheers and make good smoke.

 

[hoochiepapa]

There are some here that twill accuse me of fibbing...
I,ve always been a hunter. I built my own cf's, handloaded my ammo, shot prairie dogs from distance, and was pretty successful in my hunts. Through the years I have killed 22 elk, and never counted the deer.
Now here's where the story gets questionable in some eyes. It got too easy to kill elk. I got tired of not having to stalk, most of my shooting was at 200-300 yards. So I went to Cabela's and bought a .54 Hawken percussion. I killed a few elk with it, but when I found this site, I yearned for a flintlock. There used to be a shop in Fort Collins that carried rifle building stuff, and one time when I was in there, the salesman let me hold a semi-inlet stock with a swamped barrel atop. I was hooked, and couldn,t wait until I could build my own rifle. The first ones were percussion, and I killed a pronghorn. Long story short, everything is flint now.

 

[hanshi]

I've always been something of a minimalist. I would shoot deer with a revolver when the modern rifle lost it's glow for me. Back in the mid 1960s I got my first muzzleloader, an H&A Heritage underhammer .45. It was American made. Not long after I got a .45 Minuteman flintlock. The flintlock was minimal enough that it satisfied my cravings. I was also a fan (well before then) of David Crockett; but my love of history was what powered me. As I became an adult My interest in reloading lead me to take my deer with the .22H, .250/3000 and revolvers along with other calibers. Flintlocks just stuck with me as they required a close relationship between man and rifle.

 

[tenngun]

I was 4 or 5 and my brother was building a model of the cutty sark. He showed me the skylight in the poop and a chance to look in to the cabin below. I was hooked on old stuff. Of corse there were all the westerns, but young was I when I wondered what life was like for the first white to move on to the frontier, before the towns and farms were built. Then I saw an add in a shooting mag for a cva pistol for about $25. That was in the early 70s as the bicentennial was coming. I bought one and was hooked. A year or so later got a mowrey rifle and a year after that found out there were clubs of people shooting them. The second or third time I went to an event I got to shoot a flinter. A bess no less. Had to have one.bought a navy arms Kentucky rifle a few months later as a flinter and loved it much. Still have some nipple buffers but flint calls to me. Over the last 15 years or so I've been dispensing with rifiling.

 

[Artificer]

I got interested in history in 3rd grade from reading Aesop's Fables. Read the books in our little school library on ancient history by 4th grade, so the Librarian suggested I read American History. I wanted a BP rifle, but Dad wasn't sure they were safe and there were no Mentors in our area. So I bought a TC Hawken while home on Boot Camp Leave at the ripe old age of less than 18 1/2. Found out three years later it was not authentic at Friendship, IN and I was more interested in an earlier era. So my next BP gun and first flinter was a Brown Bess Navy Arms Carbine I shot in Northwest Trade Gun and other matches and used to reenact as a Continental Marine Sergeant. I now mostly own flintlocks as that was the ignition system in the time period/s I am most interested in.

Gus

 

[tom deinek]

Jeremiah Johnson movie and the logical progression (regression)from caplock TC Hawkens to bp flintlocks.

 

[Larry Beach]

I have always wanted a Penn/Kentucky Long rifle
Flintlock a small cal. max 45, a bit of Brass bling would be nice..
There is a local Gun Dealer that has BP's for sale.
He also swap/Trades like most do but this guy won't beat you up. he is pretty fair and he treats his regular customers very well on trade in's.
Let me bounce this off you guys. I have a WW2 1942
High Standard Mod B-US,semmi Automatic .22 LR 6.75" Barrel, marked Property US and has the Navy's "ships Wheel" roll engraved.I knew the guy that had it until he passed, he wanted me to have it because he was a friend of the Family, he was always a great neighbor, and he took me out BP shooting early on but he was getting frail so being young I just started doing his yard needs, and leaves,also home repairs.. (I made sure and talked to his Wife Donna first to get the OK). He reacted the way I thought he would as any old stubborn old Navy Salt would. so I used a little slight of hand with him and I switched up and said I'd help him out IF he got tired or felt bad.. That did it.. He would get about 15 minutes out there then would come up with something like this "Larry I found something here can you check it out"? that was his way of handing over the tool without saying he was hurting...
Walt had a Stroke and was in bad shape, I went to see him, They didn't want to let me go in saying direct family only. I said I was his Son, the Nurse opened the door to ask him but he saw a glimpse of me and he yelled SON! I'M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!
His kids didn't make it up being out of State..
I spent a solid week with him, just BEING THERE for him. Walt Hovde passed away June 29th 2003 2 months before my Daughter.

It is an outstanding shooter and NEVER EVER hangs.
This is off topic ...KIND OF... but I am asking opions here if I should offer this for trade for the Long Rifle Flinter or a Single Shot Pistol FL.
I have his story how he got it.. they had the Navy guys go through training with them to introduce new recruits to basic handgun use. .22 ammo was a LOT cheaper.... Another guy left his at
the range, he couldn't hit anything.. He set the pistol down and walked out.. Walt grabbed it saying he knew him and didn't want to get him in trouble..
Well the guy was washing out, he told them where the gun was.. of course it wasn't there!!
Walt tried to tell them but when he started talking they asked if he knew the thief? He would get MAJOR Brigg time, get busted down.. so he shut up! he snuck it out that night when he had a pass and stashed it with his Girl Donna future wife.... The other guy had to repay the $22.00 cost of the gun lol... So I'd be looking for something with a good bore,& hardware,
A Kit or if it needs wood refinished no big deal.
If it is complete,all the better. A Flint Pistol same thing.........as long as they arent junk.
What would you guys do? PM me so I don't get farther off topic. I hope I'm not breaking rules here. I'm asking for advice, and the Pistol is valued at Cabellas up to $475.00 or so.. I'd need to trust you, if I brought a pic of something for you to rate it. I really need your knowlege...
The last week I have been going to bed with visions of Smoke polls dancing in my head...
Please again I am trying to stay in the rules. if you need to go ahead and delete this without even telling me. I'm just looking to use the Smartest
guys I know....
Larry

 

[old ugly]

I grew up in the years of cowboy, pirate and mountain man movies and was fascinated by the guns. 1985, I found out that I could actually buy one, that was so cool. I bought a tc renegade percussion because I was told it would be the most reliable to start with and it was, but it seem fake to me there was not big sparks and smoke so I moved on to flintlock, that was just about 25 years ago and I have not picked up a percussion rife since.