So what's your smokepoles history and name?

[omarick1948]

I'm posting this subject just for the fun of it and to start something a little different on the forum!

I know we have many new and older experienced B/P Shooters reading this post, so speak out and tell us about your favorite traditional muzzleloading gun and if you given it a name, as some of our historical forefathers did!..... Thanks!

I'll go first to break the ice!

OLD GREASY MEAT, is my custom .54 full-stock Hawken flintlock. This critter has been with me since her birth in 1975. She has a premium Douglas 1 1/8" across the flats barrel, L & R lock and P++ curly maple stock. She's been to many rendezvous and shoots nationwide and most seasons brought home the bacon and venison!

So, "How's yur stick float"?

Rick

 

[BrownBear]

Only been with me a short while, but my latest started life about the same time as yours. It's a GRRW 58 cal Hawken caplock halfstock, 36" barrel and the sweetest piece of curly maple you've ever seen. Shoots like a house afire, but it's gonna have to earn a name.

Rest assured, it's gonna have lots of chances to earn it's name. This one's a keeper.

 

[wvbuckbuster]

My .40 is styled after a Virgina class and had the builder stain it a redish brown coming out more red. When I went to pick it up his cousin asked if I was the guy getting the 'RED gripe'
This was 1988 and thankfully it has toned down into a good looking gun.

My .50 is after a Lancaster and is called Emma. Same guy built it as my .40 He said it would be ready but kept putting me off. So when I picked it up I told him the name was Emma for when ema going to get it.

Last but not least my .54 is and english sporting rifle. Bought it from a freind who had a heart tranplant. I called it two hearts.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

the first rifle I got is a CVA .50 capper - never named it or the other 3 I've got since, all .50's, 1 CVA and 2 T/C.

 

[bwhoffman]

I got a .62 trade gun I call the "humbilzer".
I shoot my .40 probably too well and this TG brings me back down to earth.

After my last trail walk with the TG, I started refering to it as the "Humiliator", after going 1 for 16 on the trail.
I only own this so my friends can prove to me that it really does shoot and the issue is me, not the gun. Go figure!

 

[renovato]

I ain't creative enough to sit down and think up a name. Sometimes a gun just sorta earns a name and it sticks though. None are very creative, they just happen.

Got one named Bess, not for the reasons one might think. A tiny lady named Bess used to shoot with us for a while. She fell in love with this rifle and it's all she wanted to shoot. When she moved away, my friends would ask if I brought "Bess" out to shoot, meaning the rifle.

Got one named Beelzebub cuz it spews fire and brimstone. It got that name when I was shooting it in one of our infamous wind storms one day. I got a big face full of smoke, and being the only muzzleloader on the face of the earth that doesn't like the smoke, I complained about it smelling like hell, hence the name.

Didn't take long for my .75 handgonne to earn the uncreative name of "Cannon on a stick".

And speaking of sticks, my old beat up T/C New Englander got the name Spike before I had even shot it the first time. I bought it used at an auction. It was ratty. Beat up, chipped wood. Rusted, scratched and dinged metal, etc. After I got it home and took a closer look at it, I realized that I had seen better wood and metal underneath railroad tracks. It looked like someone took a piece of rusty junkyard pipe and attached it to a rotten railroad tie. As opposed to now, where it looks like a nicely blued piece of junkyard pipe attached to a nicely stained and finished piece of railroad tie. Hence the name Spike, for railroad spike.

 

[dodgecity]

My favorite is an early Virginia rifle in .54 cal.
Her name is "Black Hannah"....that's short for the black rifle of Hannah's Knob. Hannah's Knob is how the old timers referred to the hill on which I live.

 

Horner 75,

I didn't ever think this would come up. I did name mine. T.C. Hawken=>Baby, CVA Plainsman=>Dammit, CVA squirrel=> Pea Shooter, 1860 Army=> Hogleg.I know the names are not original but me and my boyos know which gun I'm talking about in any conversation now.
James Taylor

 

[grizzly adam]

Well, boys ...

My Chamber's English Fowler is done up plain, without any lipstick or jewelry, and her name is Swamp Witch.

She lives with me on the edge of the Hollow Ground Swamp. Lots of folks are afraid of the 'Witch ... but I'm under her spell. :wink:

 

[tnlonghunter]

Mine is a Tennessee longrifle my dad gave me for Christmas when I was 22. It was his for a few years before that, though he never really shot it. He got it used, so I don't know anything about its life before it came to me. I've talked about it alot, but it's a .50 w/ 38" 15/16 barrel.

I call it The General. It's named after my 11th grade American History teacher. He was a huge muzzleloading and re-enacting buff. He collected stuff from many different eras, and brought in his outfits and even several of his guns for us to see (several flinters, and a Henry repeater among others; I should mention that this was a private school). He even set up a term project where everyone had to make something from the early 1800's. Many of the guys in the class got to build muzzleloaders. He was a fantastic teacher. His nick name among many students was "The General." This was because even though he was a very good and inspiring teacher, he was also a real hard-case and had zero tolerance for anything other than 100% attention and concentration in class. Most of us loved him in spite of this and put up with it because he was really great; but some pushed his buttons and paid the price. 10-15 pages of write off's and 10 page research papers were the norm for anyone who dozed off or passed notes. Paddling was still allowed for most teachers at school (don't know if it still is), but never did. Rumor was that at some time in the past, he paddled someone so hard he actually broke a paddle on the kid's butt, and was not allowed to paddle after that. Don't know if it was true, but I had no problem believing it. They guy was huge and very serious about his job and his expectations.

But, when I got the rifle several years later, and shot if for the first few times, he was the first person I thought of. And since the rifle is really great, accurate, a joy to shoot, and a completely no-nonsense, no frills rifle, I thought naming it the General was appropriate.

 

[trent/OH]

My 50 cal Dixie Mountain rifle, my deer rifle, is named Connie, because I feel Confidence when I'm hunting with her. Good enough name for me.

My Brown Bess is named Louise, because when I took my first shot with her, the balls were really close to point-of-aim, and I said out loud "Sweet Louise" (a phrase uttered by one of our Eagle scouts frequently) and I knew she had a name.

My squirrel rifle lacks a name. I'm leaning toward Caroline, as in Sciurus carolinensis, but that seems kind of cold and scientific. Maybe Trey because the first shooting contest I placed in was a third place shooting her.

 

[pulaski]

Carla , named her after my wife . She's a beauty to look at , fun to fondle ,woudn't let you play with her (no matter how much you compliment her), and when I lay my head down in the wilderness she's with me . You'd get all hot just standing next to her . I can allways depend on her cause she never left me down .
Ya , she's is just like my wife

 

[Idaho Ron]

Mine are named because they are long range guns.
1- TC renegade= Far Speaker
2- TC renegade= Flatlander
3- TC renegade= 458 Bennet Mountain Mag

Ron

 

[chance]

I have a 50cal handmade Tn. mountain rifle and I only named her after I drew firstblood. I got a deer with her this year it was the first season I hunted with her so I named her My Dixie Darling. She sure is a beauty.

 

[flaming canvas]

Seeing as how this is a family oriented forum and we are supposed to mind our manners, I can't tell you what my guns usually get called.

 

[Oldnamvet]

I only named one of my guns, a pistol we called Snidley Whiplash -- but that is another story. I may break the tradition though and give a name to the GPR I am currently assembling from a kit. I think "Ah $h--" is going to end up being its designation.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Mine is "Cherry Girl", which was applied early on in the project when I mentioned to the gunsmith I was corresponding with that I was interested in a cherry stocked long rifle. He had some cherry blanks he'd been aging from a tree harvested on his own property that weren't drawing much attention and said that if I'd opt for one of those he'd work some extra carving in. The design was to be a Lehigh, and include the girl's/Liberty/Indian head - and project thereafter was called "Cherry Girl".

When I was building my 12 ga. New Englander kit I started calling her "Ol' Blunderpotz" and that's still in use, too.

 

[wulf]

I just finished a wheel lock Yager 54cal. looks
OK.I call it "Ol Scrap Iron" because that is what
I made all the parts from..Boiler plate,anything
I could get my hands on...'cept the springs of
course. Wooden patch box lid and cherry wood..
but it shoots like a golden rod...There's a name
for somebody.........Wulf

 

[AeroncaTAL]

Rick,
When I was putting together my .54 GPR, I wanted it to look like a piece you would remember seeing on your Grandfathers gun rack. Not a 200 yr old antique, but not a brand new gun either. A gun that had given years of faithful service. Brett suggested "Old Friend", and it was just the name I was looking for.
Scott

 

[musketman]

I know we have many new and older experienced B/P Shooters reading this post, so speak out and tell us about your favorite traditional muzzleloading gun and if you given it a name, as some of our historical forefathers did!..... Thanks!
Rick

Mine is a Brown Bess and I like it very much, so I named her Bessie Mae Mucho.