Keeping Muzzleloading Alive

[user 53891]

It doesn't necessarily have to be muzzleloaders that are "beginners" or first firearms. Just the introduction to responsible shooting is usually enough to get their attention.We recently had a men's get-to-gether at our church and some skeet shooting was going on. There were some teenage boys giving it a try and having a ball. But you could tell the 12 guages were a bit too much. I broke out my 20 ga.and they really seemed to enjoy it. The look on some of their faces was priceless.

That's awesome Eutycus....introducing them to arms that will knock their shoulders off for 1st timers will be very discouraging to them. What you did was excellent, introducing them to the 20ga first. As they get older and stronger then comes that BIG ML or Unmentionable. Awesome job friend!

 

[Eutycus]

I think by replying I can put this thread back in the "what's new" department.It's an old but important topic and needs hashing over.

 

[Eutycus]

The difference in guages, the high price of shells, nomenclature of a fire arm,etc. are educational as well. The "high priced shells" were my donation to a good cause.

 

[Pierre009]

Along the vein of the thread started by BPMS, part and parcel to keeping our hobby alive is getting kids involved. Let's face it cynically speaking, if you get someone involved who's retired, over 70, questionable health, how long is your time investment going to yield any benefit to the hobby? I'm not saying ignore adults, but kids are the future. Your time is a finite resource that is nonrenewable and nothing you can do will stop is flowing through your grasp. The real question is, what are you going to do with it?

I had a very interesting conversation with someone well placed in the higher levels of Scouting. It looks like there is a "perfect storm" of things brewing in the background and without going into everything, our work in summer camp has been noticed at the highest levels of Scouting and there seems to be a desire to be able to replicate what we're doing with kids in muzzleloading and the "mountain man" experience part of summer camp. Replicating what we do isn't going to be that hard except for one glaring issue- lack of qualified instructors who know and are passionate about muzzleloading and have a desire to share that knowledge with kids in a fun way. To become an instructor isn't easy, nor is it free, but then again, most worthwhile things in life aren't. To invest your time and knowledge in a youth about muzzleloading can have a long lasting, positive effect on the kid and may well result in someone young who enjoys muzzleloading. The effects of being a positive role model in one on one interaction is as they say, priceless.

View attachment 170132

Concur, if your state has a hunter safety program they are always looking for smoke pole instructors. I've been one for years. Plus going through the hunter safety program qualifies one for concealed carry.

 

[nwpahunter415]

The difference in guages, the high price of shells, nomenclature of a fire arm,etc. are educational as well. The "high priced shells" were my donation to a good cause.

Just bought my first one yesterday and can't wait to learn everything to pass on to my two little girls. They love that dads the outdoorsman. I harvest leeks every year. I hunt whitetail and turkeys every year. I fish in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York every year. And now a new thing to teach traditional black powder hunting. Truly might be my favorite after it's all said and done. The sport isn't dying its just having a historical hiccup due to lazytitus. Soon as these generations have to struggle with real life problems instead of web MD diagnosis results on Google. They will realize they should have tried a little harder to spend time with dad in the woods. Everyone now adays will look back and wish they learned the skills to stay alive and just enjoy something other then electronics. Sorry but it has to be said about today kids getting everything with a silver spoon by another hand. Hope this sport sticks through the political bs.

 

[nwpahunter415]

also just bought these bad boys. Hope they work great!

 

[user 53891]

Just bought my first one yesterday and can't wait to learn everything to pass on to my two little girls. They love that dads the outdoorsman. I harvest leeks every year. I hunt whitetail and turkeys every year. I fish in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York every year. And now a new thing to teach traditional black powder hunting. Truly might be my favorite after it's all said and done. The sport isn't dying its just having a historical hiccup due to lazytitus. Soon as these generations have to struggle with real life problems instead of web MD diagnosis results on Google. They will realize they should have tried a little harder to spend time with dad in the woods. Everyone now adays will look back and wish they learned the skills to stay alive and just enjoy something other then electronics. Sorry but it has to be said about today kids getting everything with a silver spoon by another hand. Hope this sport sticks through the political bs.

Well said friend. Hope you and the family have many happy memories. Take good care of those precious little ones. With parents like you, they may be our only hope, since so many adults today have the spine of a Jelly Fish. Enjoy the sport and be patient and careful. It is a lot of fun.

 

[nwpahunter415]

Well said friend. Hope you and the family have many happy memories. Take good care of those precious little ones. With parents like you, they may be our only hope, since so many adults today have the spine of a Jelly Fish. Enjoy the sport and be patient and careful. It is a lot of fun.

Thank you sir!

 

[user 53891]

Well said friend. Hope you and the family have many happy memories. Take good care of those precious little ones. With parents like you, they may be our only hope, since so many adults today have the spine of a Jelly Fish. Enjoy the sport and be patient and careful. It is a lot of fun.

BTW: I originally am from a small coak mining town called Colver, near Johnstown and Ebensgurg, PA.

 

[nwpahunter415]

BTW: I originally am from a small coak mining town called Colver, near Johnstown and Ebensgurg, PA.

I'm from a Tannery Village called Ludlow, PA near a oil refinery nowadays in Warren PA

 

[LongWalker]

I have a rifle (well, parts of it) in the stack to be re-built. I've also got 30+ pages of signatures (>1,000) and scores (5 shot groups at 25 yards) of people who shot this rifle as their first flintlock (and often their first firearm). For the most part, the shooters were in their teens and twenties; probably around a hundred of them were veterans of the recent mideastern fracas.

They shot because they wanted to shoot, and no one was making value judgements about them for wanting to do it/not wanting to do it. Whining about how worthless kids are, or how things were better in the past, or how one group is better than another, accomplish nothing other than alienating the kids. (Remember listening as a kid to the grownups complaining about "kids these days" when you were a kid? Same thing.)

Those are the kids that will grow up to be shooters.

 

[Ron Wilkerson]

I have a 20 year old grandson and last week he came and spent a week at our house. He asked me if he could shoot one of my flintlocks. I said yes of coarse. I showed him how to cast a .350 round ball to shoot. He wanted to try it out. He did good on his cast.showed him how to cut the spure off the

 

[SOLANCO]

My Dad thrust a M1906 Winchester in my hands when I was 9 and said " don't do anything stupid with this", and that was the extent of my gun training. When I turned 14 my Grandpaw gave me a Mossburg bolt action shotgun in 20 bore. No instruction what so ever.
I hunted and fished all the time when I was a kid. Never needed an adult's supervision or wanted it. I was rarely found in the house, mostly just for eatin supper than I was off and going again.

Grandmother had a farm in the VA hills. We had a small house on the great bay in NJ. When I was at either place I was out the door dawn til dark thirty. Either in the woods or on the water. Got my first, a .22 Mossberg, for Christmas when I was 6. Cried like a baby when it disappeared in a burglary in the 70's. Down home in VA or on the water in NJ, most of our protein came off the land or the bay.

 

[Okie Hog]

Attempt to convince center fire rifle hunters into using muzzleloader rifles. Two friends now hunt exclusively with muzzleloaders: They love it.

 

[Flint Striker]

The difference in guages, the high price of shells, nomenclature of a fire arm,etc. are educational as well. The "high priced shells" were my donation to a good cause.

Even today - having owned a 75 caliber Bess and knowing that .715 or .735 balls for it are $1 each ($21 per 25 balls from TOTW, plus shipping), a smaller caliber makes sense if you actually plan to shoot much. The Bess wasn’t violent with the loads I was shooting at the range, but a 58 or 62 is plenty big enough for anything I need to shoot at… which is usually just targets.

 

[B P Maniac Shooter]

Well if things work out this weekend, we'll be making a video of what we do with Scouts and muzzleloading.

Don't worry BP Maniac, we ain't nowhere near as photogenic or purdy as you but we will be working with 12 kids showcasing how we run a range day for a group.

Oh...that wouldn't bother name at all...LOL
In fact, I'd love to see your BSA video.

 

[raylohr1965]

I did not read all the posts, but I found an opportunity at a scout camp that they have someone introduce kids to black powder they have a 22 shooting program it seems also .

I got to load and let the boy scouts shoot last fall here in Missouri and I really enjoyed it , But the scout leaders were great , they knew the problem kids and had someone to help them .

I am really interested in this , so much so I am going to turn out some youth sized flintlocks so it is a better experience for the kids .

 

[raylohr1965]

Mustang I am originally from Sidman Pa

 

[Stantheman86]

Watch Spaghetti Westerns with kids, maybe Young Guns type stuff then take them out to shoot cap and ballers the next day........they're hooked for life after that

Mostly because modern guns don't blow enough smoke to make people at the range think there's a brush fire, and not a pair of Walkers being lit off 12 times.

 

[Abarnes]

I grew up with an old Winchester bolt action .22 shooting ground squirrels, *****, foxes, Ferrell cats, and everything else in northern Washington, I never had more than 1 shot so I learned make it count. When I was 14 our church put on a mountain man rendezvous for us youngsters and all it took was one shot with an old .58 and I never went back, fully auto is just not as fun. I think out of 60 youth maybe 2 or 3 took to muzzleloading but I owe my obsession to a few very patient mountain men who taught a bunch of kids who most of whom didn't care. I hope I can be that patient.