How old are ya?

[kwik6pistol]

I will be 69 in November. I shot my first firearm 64 years ago when I was 5. I started shooting muzzleloaders 55 years ago at the age of 14.
45 Underhammer H&A
58 Zouave
36 Kibler SMR
32 cap and ball revolver
58 H&R Huntsman

 

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

I’ll be 24 in about two months, and I’ve been muzzleloading for a little over 2 years now. I’m working on getting my brothers, friends, and girlfriend into the hobby as well. So far I’ve brought them to a few rendezvous, took them shooting, and introduced them to “Into the wild frontier” and a few books to hopefully spark in interest that eventually leads back to muzzleloading. Pictured is my girlfriend and I.

 

[Relic shooter]

At 82 I make my rattiest antique boom stick look new.

 

[scratcherky]

84 and still on the green side of sod!

 

[Pratt]

I have a locally made powder horn that out dates everyone.

 

[Nobody85]

I just turned 39 last week. I can’t remember a time that I wasn’t interested in muzzleloaders. My first was a sort of Kentucky pistol kit I found in our barn when I was 8 or so. I had lots of fun with it until the drum blew out the side while shooting it one day. My childhood heroes shot long rifles, and I wanted to emulate them. I wish more young people would take an interest in this hobby, but I just don’t see it happening. Children today think men are people who don’t know how to bend the brim on their ball cap and are afraid of loud noises. It’s pretty pathetic if you asked me.

 

[Chuck Tiller]

67 next week. First BP 50 years ago, then picked it up again 20+ ago as an Instructor for NRA/Scouts.

 

[wayne estes]

I’m a high mileage 66

 

[Rudyard]

Good on you from Rudyard who been about the same time & likes archaic & ethnological stuff & now 80.
Regards Rudyard

Dang this thread gives me mixed feelings. We need some more young blood in this hobby, its great we have such knowledgeable and experienced people. I fear with only 18% being under 50 we are going to loose so much in not a long amount of time. I worry in 10 maybe 15 years we won't have many resources left.

Interesting unit of Dogs.. With out a crystal ball its a guessing game if we survive But we might have seen the best of it like much else in modern life .
Rudyard's view

 

[Rudyard]

I'm about to turn 60, yet I walk in to the Annual General Membership meeting for our shooting club, and with 150+ people in the room, I look around and realize that I am probably one of the youngest people in the room.

I know that feeling only in my case its shared by a lot of old war horses with too few younger people into the hobby. I joined the MLAGB as a Junior member in 1961 or 2 now ime 80 but still going strong . Rudyard

 

[nkbj]

I'm so old that I feel sorry for young people about all the hard lessons they're fixing to learn and joy at the things they'll discover.

 

[Gtrubicon]

I’m 48

 

[Omahkapi'si]

I’m older now than the first time I posted on this thread.

 

[RockRash]

Three of the activities I planned to be heavily involved in when I retire (about 5 years now) have literally died out, and the last one got so expensive and heavily regulated I can't do it anymore.

I used to go to a nightclub in LA that did roaring 20's music with a real band - and bring out the few survivors of that era as guests of honor. Then the 20's music ended, the 30's music ended. They still do WW2 on Memorial day & new years but its mostly 50's be-bop now, because there are actual living relics of that music era.

There is another club that "re-enacts" Disco. I no doubt look at them the same way they look at my Cowboys stuff. I'm not going to re-enact anything I had to actually live through. I can wait until I'm in actual hell for that, provided I notice the difference between that and Los Angeles.

The USCGAUX went into some stealth mode during COVID and no longer recruits. Last district meeting I went to they seemed happy that 22 people joined when only 17 quit. Not counting the 41 who died. Or they maybe half or more of them who could not do anything but the radio at this point.

I got into muzzleloading in 2019 at age 62. There is literally nobody else around me who does it, when I go to the range everybody else stops shooting and just takes pictures. But there is nobody for ME to learn from.

I got some expensive special equipment to let me reload black powder shotgun shells as they have to be shortened and roll crimped after just one use - only to discover my range is perfectly happy to let me pick up hundreds of once fired cases as nobody wants them. So now its one reload and away they go. And I still have far more than I need.

Less than 10% of the shooting on the ranges here is anything other than 9mm or .223. I am one out of maybe a dozen who reloads anything, and I have seen ONE other person using black powder. In anything.

What range do you frequent? Sounds like you live in socal? I have actually ran into quite a few BP shooters and reloaders at lyle creek. You need to go during the week not weekends when the Yahoos are out. I'm 37 and live in riverside county and a BP shooter and reloader thanks to my grandpa.

ETA: I didn't mean Yahoos as unmentionable shooters. I have plenty of them as well. I'm just generalizing a group of people that will go out and shoot up your target instead of theirs.