Show off your first muzzleloader!

[bpd303]

I don't have a picture of my first muzzleloader. It was a Bannerman's surplus Potsdam musket bought in 1955 or '56, don't remember the price. My brother and I would shoot it using firecracker fuses for ignition and anything we could get down the bore for projectile and newspaper wadding with homemade black powder. I really don't know how we survived those days.

 

[Snakebite]

My first. .54 Hawken built by Davey Boultinghouse. Originally a 44" barrel, Davey cut 10" off and breached it up for me. A friend of mine, "Hoot" McDaniel built the pistol using that barrel.

 

[76 shovelhead]

ive had several gun store guns . but built my first this year. a 50 flint golden age . our late season starts day

 

[Gopher0]

First m/loader rifle was built in 1974-5 A CVA 45 cal kit Cap lock around $40 I think .

 

[Ajgall]

My first was a .45 caliber percussion Jukar that was my Dad’s. Here it is with his bag and brass bicentennial tomahawk.

 

[Zonie]

I can't show my first muzzleloaders because I sold them years ago.

I think my .44 cal Kentuckian flintlock is still hanging on someone wall as a decorator. How do I know this? Because I sold it at a big gun show here in Phoenix. When I sold it, I took the time to explain about it using only real black powder and .433 diameter patched roundballs. The guy seemed really excited to shoot it.
About a year later, I saw the same guy at another gun show so I asked him if he was still shooting it and how did he like it.
He basically said, "I never got to fire a shot. When I got it home, my wife took one look and said, 'That is going right up there on the wall. It's beautiful and I'm not going to let you dirty it up by shooting it'. "

Along with the Kentuckian, I also bought a steel framed "Colt 1851, .44 caliber revolver". After a lot of very enjoyable shooting, I got into my, "It must be authentic" mode and decided that since Colt never made a .44 caliber 1851, it must go, so I sold it at another gun show. I've always regretted doing that. It's healthy "boom" with each shot was a lot more satisfying than the smaller, "Pop" of the .36 caliber, more authentic, Colt 1851 I replaced it with.

Last and least, at the same time I also bought a Spanish made 28 ga percussion shotgun. To get components to load it, I paid an arm and leg for one box of 28 guage shotgun shells. The shells were loaded with fiber wads and shot for me to use in the gun.
On my first trip to the desert to shoot it, I noticed a LOT of smoke coming out of the barrel mortise at the breech so I didn't even load another shot.
When I got home, I noticed large amounts of powder fouling on the wood all around the breech plug. That did it for that gun. I sold it at the next gun show.
Besides, IMO, it was downright ugly. Two piece beechwood stock and what looked like a seashell for a cap box.
Yes, I did tell the buyer that I didn't trust the breech plug and warned him not to shoot it.

Anyway. That's the story of my first three black powder guns, all bought at the same time.

 

[Tasbay]

T/C Hawken 50cal shooting homemade powder and round ball. Have had it since 1990, bought second hand.

 

[Peter Stines]

Way back in the 1960s I ordered this .45 rifle - followed a couple years later with a nice Minuteman flintlock - and shared many adventures taking varmints and deer. Still have it but its retired, just like me.

I've always wanted one of those under hammers. Never got to play with one. If you want to part with it let me know.

 

[Yewbender]

So i have 2 1st’s. My first many moons ago was a T/C SS FS flintlock. Brand new and only paid $219...couldn’t beat the price tag and they had no other muzzleloaders left so i bought it. Now my 1st real one is a John Bergmann .54 SMR flintlock i bought used...and wow what a huge difference it was!

 

[Hatchet-Jack]

Mine was the CVA Colonial Pistol .45 caliber. I bought the kit at Sunset Sports when I was 14 years old. Shot it the first time at a stump in my back yard.

 

[Omhra]

Yet to fire it...