It's debatable as to whether or not I actually "reenact". The pros at it would say no. I also have nothing whatsoever to do with any get-together larger than the local gun club's trailwalk, held each year in preparation for deer season, to which those of us who hunt in "period" clothing wear our gear, since that's what we'll be wearing when we go in pursuit of the mighty whitetail. I also do most of my shooting in my hunting clothes, peeling off the outer layers as the weather dictates.
I'm not anti-social, by the way -- I just don't particularly care for groups of people, even when the vast majority of them share my interests and are potential friends waiting to be made.
I write fiction (though without success in the area of publication -- yet) about the Revolutionary War period, love firearms of all sorts, and grew up idolizing Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and the mountain men. My "reenacting", such as it is, is an effort to not necessarily duplicate conditions of the 18th century down to the last thread count, but to get a "feel" for the period (i.e. carrying a flintlock rifle with a 43" barrel, and a shooting pouch and powder horn, rather than a T/C Hawken with a pocket full of speedloaders; trying to figure out how not to break my neck or freeze my toes off while wearing moccasins in the snow, instead of just putting on cozily insulated boots; coping with December cold in clothes made of original materials and fairly close to original patterns, instead of buying gore-tex and all the other stuff that Wal-mart would be happy to sell me -- that sort of thing) that will translate into my writing and also connect me to some small degree to my ancestors.
My efforts, by the way, have only served to instill in me an even greater respect for those forefathers than I began with -- not only for how they coped, but for the fact that, for all our use of the word "primitive" in describing events and equipment connected to them, what they used back in the day was, actually, pretty damned good.
And, like some of the others who've responded, on the occasions I have to come in contact with the modern age and the people who trudge blindly through it, I like answering the "Is that a real fire?" sorts of questions, and demonstrating when appropriate that, yes, a flintlock rifle shoots perfectly well, and, yes, you can reliably hit most anything you want to with one.
