Smoothbore Long Range Penetrating Shooting Fun...

[NorthFork]

Well I'm glad you asked what I'm doing to promote interest in the sport. I'm currently teaching 2 to 3 one week long classes on building and decorating muzeloading guns at the NMLRA education building. I have a class coming up in April. Through the 2000s I taught muzzle loading rifle building classes at Conner Prairie. Those were week long classes as well. Just a few years ago PBS sent a crew out to film me and promote the craft of building muzzle loading guns. You can find the episode by going to PBS and looking up A CRAFTSMANS LEGACY. I think its season one, episode eight. I'm also on the NMLRAs YouTube channel building guns. I also put together a lengthy tutorial on building a gun from a plank, it's about a million pages long and can be found on the ALR forum.
Am I doing enough to promote interest or do you require I do more? With all of the above I have very little time to shoot nonsensical videos.

Ahh... so Mike Brooks then. Explains the sour attitude in your posts. Fantastic gunsmith, poor tempered.

 

[NorthFork]

Thanks for your thoughts...I enjoy reading all feed back whether I'm in agreement or not.

I read elsewhere on this thread you are in the hobby big time with gun building series....that's OUTSTANDING..!
I'm into the shooting part of the hobby because I don't have the patience to build guns.
I'd rather use them.
I also give talks about the harshness of the frontier life to youngsters at local schools and local events several times a year.
I absolutely LOVE introducing new shooters ( especially the ladies ) into the hobby and have dozens of videos from 6-8 states in the midwest showing new folks how to shoot.
Regarding "filming my life"...that's the easy part. I just carry a camera with me everywhere & use it trying to catch the fun of the hobby where ever I go.

My bride and I are going to Missouri in August to shoot with the Ozark boys again, going to the Hawken Classic and put that event on video, going to Pennsylvania twice this summer to shoot with groups and enjoy cookouts. We are going to Tennessee in 2 weeks to shoot with some fellows at a wacky fun Woods Walk shoot. Going to Bowling Green to the Victorian Shoot in April.

I'll attend Friendship a least a dozen times this year and will attend both National shoots, the New Year's Day FREE shoot and show the fun of shooting the Woods walks there too......believe it or not, 8-10 fellows from this website will be in attendance on that one. One of those videos will be showing the guns at the Gunmakers Hall and other cool looking activities I can find.

Also possibly going to South Carolina this summer to shoot with a group too....all of the locations mention above will be on video to post on the BPMS Channel showing folks how fun the hobby is this year. I believe all of this promotes the hobby more than any magazine could ever do in today's world of electronics that are glued to the hands of our younger folks.

Some promotes the hobby at rendezvous.....that's sweet....!!
Some promote the museum part of the hobby......
Some promotes the building of guns.

Guess we are both promoting the hobby in our own ways...
I LOVE that aspect of the hobby.

Keep on promoting the hobby my friend.
I plan on it.

Mark, you don't have to defend your passion for muzzleloaders, and shooting fun with most of us, the odd curmudgeon excepted. You keep being you, please!

 

[user 49399]

Thanks my friend.....

I'm going to fulfill a request from @LME ( from this website ) tomorrow morning:
Below is what I'll be demonstrating.....
Its kinda wacky....you should enjoy it.

View attachment 205127

I actually tried this using .451 round balls, double patched in a .50 caliber rifle. I was able to hit a basketball size target out to maybe 10 yards. Past that the balls went who knows where! I only tried a few of these. I’m interested in what your results will be.

 

[S.Kenton]

Thanks for your thoughts...I enjoy reading all feed back whether I'm in agreement or not.

I read elsewhere on this thread you are in the hobby big time with gun building series....that's OUTSTANDING..!
I'm into the shooting part of the hobby because I don't have the patience to build guns.
I'd rather use them.
I also give talks about the harshness of the frontier life to youngsters at local schools and local events several times a year.
I absolutely LOVE introducing new shooters ( especially the ladies ) into the hobby and have dozens of videos from 6-8 states in the midwest showing new folks how to shoot.
Regarding "filming my life"...that's the easy part. I just carry a camera with me everywhere & use it trying to catch the fun of the hobby where ever I go.

My bride and I are going to Missouri in August to shoot with the Ozark boys again, going to the Hawken Classic and put that event on video, going to Pennsylvania twice this summer to shoot with groups and enjoy cookouts. We are going to Tennessee in 2 weeks to shoot with some fellows at a wacky fun Woods Walk shoot. Going to Bowling Green to the Victorian Shoot in April.

I'll attend Friendship a least a dozen times this year and will attend both National shoots, the New Year's Day FREE shoot and show the fun of shooting the Woods walks there too......believe it or not, 8-10 fellows from this website will be in attendance on that one. One of those videos will be showing the guns at the Gunmakers Hall and other cool looking activities I can find.

Also possibly going to South Carolina this summer to shoot with a group too....all of the locations mention above will be on video to post on the BPMS Channel showing folks how fun the hobby is this year. I believe all of this promotes the hobby more than any magazine could ever do in today's world of electronics that are glued to the hands of our younger folks.

Some promotes the hobby at rendezvous.....that's sweet....!!
Some promote the museum part of the hobby......
Some promotes the building of guns.

Guess we are both promoting the hobby in our own ways...
I LOVE that aspect of the hobby.

Keep on promoting the hobby my friend.
I plan on it.

Mark id say you do MORE than enough to promote our hobby! Like I stated in an earlier post, watching your videos MAKES me want to go out and shoot! Here’s a couple suggestions for future videos; make a video using a bullet trap and make a video on how to make a flintlock reliably go off nearly 100 percent of the time. It seems as if you have mastered the latter suggestion and it would be useful for new flintlock shooters to see that. The bullet trap could be of interest as well. Keep on keeping on buddy!

 

[LME]

Thanks my friend.....

I'm going to fulfill a request from @LME ( from this website ) tomorrow morning:
Below is what I'll be demonstrating.....
Its kinda wacky....you should enjoy it.

View attachment 205127

You are the man for the job! I can;t see why it wouldn;t work? You have me on the edge of my seat waiting to see your results!!

 

[B P Maniac Shooter]

You are the man for the job! I can;t see why it wouldn;t work? You have me on the edge of my seat waiting to see your results!!

I believe you'll enjoy it...some of it is radical....LOL

 

[B P Maniac Shooter]

Mark id say you do MORE than enough to promote our hobby! Like I stated in an earlier post, watching your videos MAKES me want to go out and shoot! Here’s a couple suggestions for future videos; make a video using a bullet trap and make a video on how to make a flintlock reliably go off nearly 100 percent of the time. It seems as if you have mastered the latter suggestion and it would be useful for new flintlock shooters to see that. The bullet trap could be of interest as well. Keep on keeping on buddy!

Thanks for the suggestion....I can get to work on the trap idea....
Meanwhile...this one should help with flintlock woes:

 

[Grenadier1758]

Mark is quite generous with his flintlock tips as I think he gives us about 10 tips for about 50% more information than he advertises. Once he got rolling on the tips, more and more tips kept rolling out. Watch that video and take notes.

 

[Eterry]

Thanks my friend.....

I'm going to fulfill a request from @LME ( from this website ) tomorrow morning:
Below is what I'll be demonstrating.....
Its kinda wacky....you should enjoy it.

View attachment 205127

I once grabbed the wrong pouch and got to deer camp with my 58 cal rifle and my bag of 54 cal round balls! I used several patches, first WAY too many, ( wouldn't even start in the muzzle). Then enough it would start down and not roll out the muzzle.

I hunted the morning, saw no bucks. Came back to camp, shot it at 50 yards, barely hitting the feedsack target. Borrowed a '94, hunted the evening.

I hope you have better results than me.

 

[kyron4]

Thanks for the suggestion....I can get to work on the trap idea....
Meanwhile...this one should help with flintlock woes:

This video definitely helped me out , took my flintlock shooting experience from frustrating to enjoyable.

 

[kyron4]

Thanks my friend.....

I'm going to fulfill a request from @LME ( from this website ) tomorrow morning:
Below is what I'll be demonstrating.....
Its kinda wacky....you should enjoy it.

View attachment 205127

Can't wait ! But if you miss the target is it the patch/ball combo or your shooting ?

Sorry couldn't help myself, either way I'm eager to see the results. Keep doing what you're doing buddy, you are a gift to the bp/muzzleloading community.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Ahh... so Mike Brooks then. Explains the sour attitude in your posts. Fantastic gunsmith, poor tempered.

Since I do this stuff for a living I find it difficult to tolerate silly videos. Too bad the Maniac doesn't video how to wring the best accuracy from his rifle or how to shoot great shot patterns. I rarely ever watch any videos at all. All of them are pretty boring.
Since you don't like who I am, Why don't you give me your name so I can make sure ill never build you a gun?

 

[French Colonial]

Since I do this stuff for a living I find it difficult to tolerate silly videos. Too bad the Maniac doesn't video how to wring the best accuracy from his rifle or how to shoot great shot patterns. I rarely ever watch any videos at all. All of them are pretty boring.
Since you don't like who I am, Why don't you give me your name so I can make sure ill never build you a gun?

Or......

When you see a post from Mark (BPMS) you can just scroll on past.....

Or..... put him in the ignore box, which is what I think I will do for some guy who only posts negative stuff.

Ba Bye.

 

[B P Maniac Shooter]

Can't wait ! But if you miss the target is it the patch/ball combo or your shooting ?

Sorry couldn't help myself, either way I'm eager to see the results. Keep doing what you're doing buddy, you are a gift to the bp/muzzleloading community.

A little of both of my shooting and the VERY thick patching.......LOL

 

[Eterry]

Guys, let's not get personal. Opinions and information are what make this forum, but NO MORE PERSONAL ATTACKS..

 

[user 49399]

A little of both of my shooting and the VERY thick patching.......LOL

Another fun video! I especially enjoyed this one because I tried something similar in my gun a while back and had similar results.

I am a plinker like you and I even wear a BPMS button on my muzzleloader hat. Keep up the good work!

 

[B P Maniac Shooter]

Another fun video! I especially enjoyed this one because I tried something similar in my gun a while back and had similar results.

I am a plinker like you and I even wear a BPMS button on my muzzleloader hat. Keep up the good work!

Aaaa, thanks. Since I can hit the side of a barn most of the time, I'm just an ol' Kentucky plinker.
I absolutely LOVE pulling the trigger whether I can hit anything or not.
Thanks for watching ....and...wearing that button..!!

 

[Two dogs]

You and I are a cannon shot apart. I’m over near Kincaid lake

 

[B P Maniac Shooter]

You and I are a cannon shot apart. I’m over near Kincaid lake

Yep...you are VERY close!
Its a small world after all...