Reflections

[Bunk]

Friends of mine who are all cartridge gun shooters ask me why I spend time with antique, obsolete ,black powder, smelly, dirty, slow to load, hard to clean percussion firearms.
The answer is very simple and here is why.
Modern self-loading guns, (post 1911), are boring to shoot, and have no character, no history.

Especially the square, black, plastic cookie cutter guns.
They all look alike if you throw a bunch in a pile and it would be like throwing a box of Oreo's on a table.
Stuffing a bunch of brass in a metal box and blasting away is boring.
OK yes certainly I do practice with the 1911, a real steel gun, but that is serious practice developing a skill not fun.
It is developing a skill that I hope I will never need.

But there is something soothing and calming about the ritual of carefully taking the cylinder and measuring the powder, inserting a wad, put on a ball and seating it. Then the careful capping the cones and seating the caps down tight. Very pleasing and very relaxing and I think good for a person’s mental health.

It is also a step back in history because when you load your 1851 .36 Navy Colt, you are doing the same thing Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, Robert E. Lee, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Ned Kelly,
Ben McCulloch, soldiers, sailors, law men and bad men did so many years ago.

It is holding history in your hands don't you see. Shooting history which required every shot to count. No spray and pray but the life-or-death necessity of hitting the mark every time.
That is just me I like it and I like to tell others stories about it.
I think this is what we do whether or not we realize it.
Yr’ Obt’ Svt’
Bunk

 

[deermanok]

None of my muzzleloading rifles are historically correct except in the way they load and fire.
Spending the time needed to measure the powder charge and carefully seat the patched ball, prime the gun, aim and fire. All these steps and hit the bullseye or close to it on every shot is the most gratifying thing I can think of.

 

[CyrusP]

100% spot on. If you need to explain the appeal to someone, they might not get it. As someone with a healthy collection of unmentionables, many are tools to me. Some are/were for pleasure, but those are the older ones. Now it’s Muzzleloading and cap and ball old school and I can’t see going back to unmentionables for pleasure as I continue to age.

 

[Pete453]

I like them for the reasons Bunk listed, plus the fascination with the guns themselves, especially the colts. Theyre pleasing to the eye, tuned or well broken in guns are pleasing to the hand, and theyre still just plain useful and effective guns. I also have modern guns, but there's an undescribeable attraction to the old guns, and i dont care to know why, lest it take the magic away. The people here understand.

 

[William P Sepessy]

Gee, Bunk, I wish I had written that!!

 

[Stantheman86]

I get it 1000%, for all of them

Taking something like a repro or original Rifle-Musket to the range with a cartridge box full of paper cartridges, and going through the loading process of biting the paper, pouring the charge, ramming the Minie ...... capping and firing is just a zen-like experience I can't describe, you just know or you don't

Shooting a cartridge gun or even a single shot like a Trapdoor just doesn't match the experience

Looking down range as you ram a Minie, in your head you're imagining yourself as a soldier in 1862, taking musketry practice. It's just relaxing and fun

 

[Bunk]

Gee, Bunk, I wish I had written that!!

thank you this si something I have had on my mind and finally decided to share it..

 

[user 33697]

Actually, I'm more accurate shooting all my Pietta 1860s , Uberti Remington new army and ROA than I am with my 1911. So what if all are slow to reload and dirty as a dogs hind leg to clean. As to power compared to the square, black, plastic cookie cutter guns, I can load up my ROA with 777 and a Dow & Johnston conical and darn near duplicate a .44 mag.

 

[Stantheman86]

For the money I just paid for a Parker-Hale P53, I could have bought a nice Snider . But then, I'd have to load brass instead of rolling paper cartridges, to fire the same blackpowder charge and bullet, except loaded from the breech, not the muzzle.......and a Snider just isn't the same as a P53 , without the whole process of loading , capping, aiming and firing, it's just not the same. There's no "cool factor" , zen like experience or romance