The Future of Traditional Muzzleloaders?

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Some good news on the future front. I introduced a shooter, mid-20s, to muzzleloading about two years ago. He lives where muzzleloader seasons are new and modern muzzleloaders aren't allowed. He contacted me today about buying into a case of FFG he was planning to order. It turns out he's strongly taken to this muzzleloader thing. He also has recruited three other guys, also buying in on the powder, into shooting smoke poles where he lives.
 
tenngun said:
You have to be pretty nerdy to get in to ml and stay there. If you’re in to living history or you shoot traditional but have no interest in funny looking clothes and sleeping in a tent it’s still a nerdy occupation.
Model railroads or model aircraft, all the same. Home pottery or home made beer, just doesn’t get a lot of interest in the general population
And we have had over a century of newest is better. Everything about ml is primitive, even for in lines. There is nothing an ml does well.
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You're right, but around the Philly area, when they have a Train Show, it's jammed! But overall you are correct, it's just not a mass-market thing. Attended large Oaks Gun Show today, it was JAMMED, and modern ammo is all over the place at reasonable prices. Just like back in the "Hillary" scare, everyone hoarded and over-priced as the 2020 Presidential race was exacerbated by the covid panic. The heyday for Trains was the 1960's, baby boomers, then RC and speed car racing took over. Now it's gaming and staring into a screen all day.
 
I have gotten several of my peers into ML shooting. I sold a friend (he is 24) a TVM fowler and convinced him to buy a generic "hawken" as his first rifle because he comes from a family unfriendly towards guns. Anyone that I have let shoot my flintlock rifle at the range starts searching for a pedersoli or something at Cabelas... I got hooked the same way lol
 
zimmerstutzen said:
The movie Davy Crockett and the centennial of the civil war, spurred a major interest in traditional muzzle loading. Modern style muzzle loaders were limited to one of a kind models from tinkerers' garages. Before the interest died down we were into the bicentennial of the revolution and Jeremiah Johnson, and How the West Was Won, (the TV series, not the movie) There have been a few sparks of popularity for traditional guns from Last of the Mohicans and the Patriot. The big numbers of hard core muzzle loader fans are dying off and getting too old. Manufacturers have really pulled the wool over the eyes of American hunters with the notion that retrofitted bolt action rifles with $7.00 bullets and elephant loads of Super Whup Butt 2000 powder are necessary for white tail. 60 years ago, the 30-30 was the standard for big game in PA. Anything more powerful was "over gunned" Now we have hunters who think a 460 magnum is necessary for anything over 50 yds. The notion that power will negate the need for accuracy has brought insanity to the deer woods. I have to laugh when I hear folks saying 150 grains and a 350 grain bullet are needed. My Grandfather shot many a deer with a 32 Rimfire back when rim fires were still legal in PA. What is even more astounding is the number of out door "experts" who will put their name on anything they are sponsored to say, except the truth.
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I know I’m late to the game, but where can I pick up a pound of the Super Whup Butt 2000?
 
Gun regs, ammo availability and cost, prices overall, hunting opportunity and the pure fun and freedom of shooting are all influencing people to try muzzleloaders. I have a friend that had a lot of modern handguns. The ammo issue is a pain for him, and some rules on where and how to transport them. He recently shot some BP handguns I have and since has sold most of his modern guns. He is keeping a home pistol and carry pistol of modern type, but sold the remainder and got a BP pistol, revolver and fowler for "shooting" and hunting. I've about converted a second guy now too.
 
The radio controlled airplane hobby was going the exact same route. It was all us old guys that had built balsa planes in the sixties and seventies as kids, with very few new comers. It was a dying hobby. Then a group of guys called Flite Test came along. Jason Bixler and crew. They started making model planes out of dollar tree foam board. They were crude, only resembled an airplane in the most basic terms, but they flew, and kids could get in the hobby for under a hundred bucks, instead of thousands of dollars, and had a plane that was relatively easy to assemble, instead of having to be a skilled craftsman.
They then got in to the STEM programs in our schools, using thei foam airplanes to teach kids aeronautics… they created one heck of a YouTube channel, all videos of them having fun with their planes. Planes they could crash without worry, because they only cost 3 or 4 bucks to build. From the proceeds of their YouTube channel, they bought a freaking golf course in Ohio, made it into a flight park, and the RC Airplane hobby is now bigger than it has ever been. Seriously, these young guys took an almost dead hobby and completely revitalized it, and are making millions from it now! WHAT A COUNTRY!
This is doable with the flintlock community. It will take the right personality, someone that can reach the young people with their excitement. It will take someone that can show you how to get in to the sport on the ground level, and not have to spend a thousand dollars start. Someone who can have fun beating the stew out of an inexpensive rifle. Who can get interest from school STEM programs by promoting history and tradition of the firearms.
The cool thing is, Flite Test went on to start producing some incredible scale models. They hold the largest model “fly in” in the world in Ohio now.
We can do this with flintlocks, but we have to get beyond the “inexpensive is worthless crap” attitude. Embrace those guys, get them in the community, and help them build a fine rifle one day…
Just my 2 cents. I watched it in the RC Airplane hobby. We can do it here.
 
I CAN DO THAT!!
tenor-1454688318.gif
 
It's like my other even more expensive hobby, the interest is there but most of the younger people are trying to raise a family and just don't have the extra money to put into it. Having a good quantity of gun parts that have been sitting in my work shop for years I built a flintlock rifle and donated it to the club I ride with to help raise money for their Christmas for Kids fund. We raised over $6,000 and sold every ticket in record time. Even had people show up the day of the drawing wanting to buy more tickets.
 
ronaldrothb49 said:
It's like my other even more expensive hobby, the interest is there but most of the younger people are trying to raise a family and just don't have the extra money to put into it. Having a good quantity of gun parts that have been sitting in my work shop for years I built a flintlock rifle and donated it to the club I ride with to help raise money for their Christmas for Kids fund. We raised over $6,000 and sold every ticket in record time. Even had people show up the day of the drawing wanting to buy more tickets.
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You have a MORE EXPENSIVE hobby???
Has to be cars… or fancy watches.
 
ronaldrothb49 said:
Been married 3 times hell of a lot more expensive getting out of it than it was getting into
it. Actually it's my Harley Davidson.
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I’ll never have to worry about being married more than once. SHMBO’s hobby is watching all those ID channel crime shows and making remarks like, “Well, that’s what she did wrong…”. 😳
 

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