Show off your first muzzleloader!

[HavanaMax]

Black powder rebirth.

 

[Blaze]

My first Muzzleloader was a Antonio Zoli Zouave .58 caliber rifled musket. What I had really asked for, as I was about 15 yrs old, was a Flintlock Kentucky long rifle. I got the second muzzleloader the next year in .44 caliber..,....both still shoot well, having taken 2 deer with Zouave, and one Wild Hog with the .44

 

[Blaze]

Nice story. You show up at school with a muzzleloader now and you'll have 16 SWAT Teams at your disposal. I remember taking a BB gun to school for show and tell. How times have changed!

That's right about weapons in school back in the '60's. I bought two different muzzleloading guns from my biology teacher. First was a kit built percussion pistol in .45 caliber, second was an 1847 Colt Walker I bought as a Christmas present for my dad. Times sure have changed!

 

[HiDesertHunter]

Well, what remains of my first muzzleloader - a CVA Kentucky .45 I built as a teen!

It had a hard life and was shot a lot. I later shortened the forestock at one point and then the buttstock cracked at the pistol grip which I fixed.

I actually wore the lock mainspring out and the years took its toll and I just sold it a couple years ago for parts.

 

[CTShooter]

My first and still primary muzzleloader. Was given an old 70's T/C 50 kit, no instructions and missing a few parts, was pretty rough compared to today's kits.
The rear sight is a custom made fixed sight so the purists will let me shoot with them.

 

[Jay Templin]

My first muzzleloader was a Cabela’s Pedersoli Blue Ridge .45 flintlock I bought secondhand in 1995. Dumb kid who worked for me had bought it with his mom’s credit card in ‘92 after Last of the Mohicans came out. He fired her once, with over 200 gr of 2F powder, and scared himself so badly that he shoved her in the back of the closet and never even cleaned her. His mom sold it to me after he joined the Navy. I hunted with that gun for years- no woodchuck or squirrel on the farm was safe! She was damaged when our house flooded in a hurricane, and in cleaning her, the end came off the rammer down the bore and nothing would get it out. Passed her to my brother the gunsmith to work on.
Fast forward 15 years (no sense rushing into these things!) and he’ll be shipping the refurbished rifle back to me tomorrow. And in two weeks, when my son turns 18, I’ll give her to him. I’ll post pictures then.
Jay

 

[Rifleman1776]

Long ago, no pics. I moved to southern Indiana to open a business. My wife stayed back for about six months selling the house. To ward off boredom I bought a DGW Remington Army C&B kit. No experience and very few tools I still got it made and shootable. Shortly after I got a CVA catalog and ordered one of their 'kentucky' flintlock rifles. Watta hunka smelly stuff. But, with help, I got it shooting........sometimes. Quickly sold or traded it off for something else.

 

[Dixieshedhunter]

CVA Big Bore Mountain Rifle in '54.

Built from a kit when I lived in a tent in Alaska in 1981. Somewhere along the way the bore got rough. I bought a NOS barrel in 2016 and re-did the rifle with more traditional sights.

Love it!

 

[Weber]

First muzzleloader was a TC Seneca, my father give it to me on my 10th birthday in 1985. Ive took alot of game with it and still shoots true to this day.

 

[Ames]

Went into the can. There. I'll admit it. Charlie could have done better.
At least the muzzleloader tree didn't get it!

 

[ZUG]

I built this Hawken in 1967 out of a walnut board that I purchased at the local lumber store. I made everything except for the trigger guard, breach plug, tang and barrel which is a Douglass .54 caliber barrel. It was my first build from a plank of wood. I will never sell it. Before that I built one so called "kit" gun.

 

[Kansas Jake]

You can be proud of that one Zug.

 

[Forester]

Zoli Zouave in 1971. Bullets not available so had to cast my own, cast iron lyman pot,single burner Colman stove. Still casting for nearly everything I shoot.

 

[Josephg]

My first muzzle loader has been long gone since 19 and 75. I traded it for a dog.

 

[Tanker]

My first muzzleloader is a T/C Pa Hunter Carbine. It's the full octagon barrel version. I bought it at a local BP shop. I was 18 home on leave and a pocket full of money. I told the owner I had never shot one and I knew nothing about them. I ask him to hook me up. So for the next 3 hours I was in a makeshift class. When I left there I had a muzzleloader and a bunch of knowledge. Since then I have gotten a few more and still go back to the shop. I learn something new every time I go.

 

[Captjoel]

My first was a 56 cal. T\C Renegade smoothbore. I got started learning how to run ball and shot right out of the gate! That was many moons ago! The addiction got a lot worse and they still haven't found a vaccine!

 

[oldwood]

First m/loader rifle was built in 1972 from a Dixie Gun Works print of a "Hawken plains rifle printed on news paper. Used a Numeric .58 barrel , Bob Kern percussion lock , Dixie GW set triggers , and a Greene Co. Pa. walnut stock. Amazingly , this gun shot well beyond expectations . My shooting/hunting buddy borrowed it and won a prominent m/l target shoot in northern Pa. at the time. The gun's next owner was a young teacher that moved to a town called St. Catherines (?????) south of Hudson Bay. First winter there he shot a caribou with the rifle for winter food. The small house he rented there had a couple of rooms , one of which was used to cold storage the caribou meat. One morning after the fellow went to work , his wife and two kids had to evacuate out the back door to a neighbor's house as a Polar bear was breaking in for the caribou meat. Wife and kids were on the next flight out . Not sure how the rifle got back to Pa. , but I heard it came back. That was the first scratch built rifle I made..........oldwood

 

[TFoley]

My very first was a Cook and Brothers artillery carbine, I think I paid under $200 for it.

x 10.

 

[Crawfish]

My first attempt, in the late 70s, I believe. A CVA pistol kit. Looking at it now, I see a lot of mistakes, but I have enjoyed shooting it.
Second build was this Navy Arms double barrel. The instructions said I could safely fire 8 gauge loads in it, so I did. It was a memorable experience! One I have not repeated! This is a nice shotgun!
Many years elapsed while life got in the way. My interest is rekindled, and I am presently finishing up a TC flintlock kit given to me by a neighbor. Hope to do more shooting now!

 

[user 49399]

My first muzzleloader (but not the first one I ever shot) was given to me from my wife over 30 years ago. She bought it in a pawn shop for $25. It’s a CVA 45 caliber percussion pistol. It’s surprisingly accurate and my favorite muzzleloader. I still shoot it often.