What brought you to the “dark side”?

[ebiggs1]

Jethro224”s “Bringin' 'em over to the dark side.” thread sparked a thought.
Just what started you into side lock muzzle loading?
I was into cap locks back in the ”˜70s just out of curiosity. In 2009 I was going to start Cowboy Shooting but when I saw the cost of the extra gear I decided to not pursue that venture. Now what do I do with the money that was slated for Cowboy Shooting? Why get into flintlocks of coarse. What else, a natural progression. Now Miss Elizabeth is convinced I have lost what little was left of my mind. Some on this very forum are beginning to suspect the same. Anyway what brought you to the “dark side”?

 

[sidelock]

My nickname gotme intuit. :bull:

 

[deseeb2001]

I shot a caplock muzzleloader one summer back in high school. I don't know if it was the "boom" and the smoke cloud or the connection with another era, but I've been hooked ever since.

 

[BrownBear]

It was actually caplock double shotguns. Back when I was a kid in the early 1960's I shot a lot with a family friend who was into old double rifles, both cartridge and ML, as well as ML shotguns and BP cartridge shotguns. He had an amazing collection and we shot them all. He and his wife never had any kids, so I was kind of adopted as his hunting buddy. He was soooooo good with his shotgun on hunts, I was probably in college before I ever accepted that shotguns didn't have to make white smoke to shoot well.

Finally fell out of muzzleloading shotguns when steel shot came along and before bismuth, and got into rifles when my hands were too gone for archery and my eyes too far gone for handgun hunting. I've done my share of really long range game shooting with modern guns, but my heart has always been in getting close for my shots.

 

[jethro224]

Short answer; an extra deer tag.

Long answer; I took a shot or two with a caplock Hawken back when I was a kid and thought it was pretty cool. Many moons passed and I found a CVA Frontier for cheap and bought it even tho I had no idea what to do with it. It just sat in the gun cabinet for a few years while I applied for ML deer tags that I never got. At the time it was pretty hard to get a ML tag here.

Meanwhile I had "progressed" to using a single-shot scoped shotgun for deer season and a recurve bow for archery season. A buddy said "Now all you need to do is switch to blackpowder". That got me thinking harder about that CVA in the gun cabinet.

That year they changed the rules and made it much easier to get ML Only tags ALONG WITH Firearm tags! I applied and got both! Now I had to learn how to use that rifle before deer season. I asked my buddy for some tips, bought a mess of fixin's and started shooting that CVA as much as I could that summer.

Didn't take very long at all to figger it out and fall in love with muzzleloading. In fact I had a .32 Crockett by squirrel season and a GPR by deer season. Took my deer with the MLer that year and haven't used the shotgun since. Now most of my CF guns are sold off and the gun cabinet is overflowing with BP guns. :grin:

 

[Coot]

For me, it was an interest in the Civil War - I was in high school during the centennial & bought my first bp gun - a Navy Arms replica of a Colt '51 Navy. Never been without at least one bp gun since then. You don't think that bp could be addictive do you??? :grin:

 

[rawhide]

one day I was lokking at the rules book on hunting elk in the late 90's here in washington and saw how long the season was for muzzle loaders 2 months so I looked around and found my .54 cva I still hunt with and shoot roundys with. a older guy was in the hawk shop where I bought it at and showed me all I needed to load and shoot it plus clean that was it I got bit by the bug. so fare to date that old girl got 5 elk and 5 state campionships in mens rifle. and my .45 kentucky I got a blacktail deer with. now have a safe full of smokepoles. love every bit of muzzle loading

 

[necchi]

I was getting bored of the ease of Deer hunting with CF scoped guns,,it just wasn't fun any more.
I knew I was going to get into the Bow or Trad ML's ( the unmentionables weren't popular yet) just for the sport.

Got the compound bow and made a nice harvest 1st year out,,
Then I worked on a guy's house and when it came time for payment due, he offers up a 54 Renegade as a partial payment, what da heck, been hooked ever since, that thing was a shooter! :grin:

 

[Bill Hall]

This is going to sound funny, but I think it's because I started hunting with a pump-up pellet gun when I was about 11. One shot, effective only at close ranges, long pause in between shots, sound familiar? I took alot of small game with it and learned the importance and satisfaction of making that one shot count.

When I was old enough to use a shotgun, I hunted one season with a browning auto 20 gauge but didn't like it because it did all the work and made me a sloppy shooter. I switched to an old single shot 16 gauge and my focus and hit ratio got alot better. Hunting just felt more honest and challenging with a single shot.

When I was in high school, my biology teacher was a civil war buff and gun collector. He invited me into his school sponsored gun club, which mainly dealt with muzzleloaders and firearms history. To me, those muzzleloaders were just another "single shot" that required a little extra skill and patience from the shooter to get that one important shot off. So, in 1976, I shot my first black powder firearm, an original springfield musket, and I knew it was a match made in heaven.

Looking back, I think the dark side is the only direction I could've gone. Bill

 

[nc_cooter]

In my case, it was one too many trips to the Kings Mountain National Military Park. For a number of years, the company I worked for did annual safety inspections at the park. I got to know all the rangers very well. Long story made short, I got to hold the Ferguson rifle they have on display. That's all it took to light the fire.
Fast forward 5 years, I have retired. My custom knife sales have been good and I was able to purchase, in the last 3 months, a used 54cal GPR and a new Dickert from Tip Curtis.
Now I just need to get time to shoot 'em.

 

[smo]

It extended deer season + they were just fun to shoot :thumbsup: I started in the mid 70's like allot of others did.

 

[Trench]

No one person got me in to it. I didn't know anyone who shot "real" muzzleloaders. A love for history and the Sharpe series of books got me started.

 

[pa woods roamer]

My " slide" had its beginning back in the 70`s. Then, I was in to firepower. Why would you want a Rifle you could only shoot once before loading it up again.My Uncle was a fine M`loader builder and tried to get me hooked, no way!!Simply said, something must have clicked when I finally shot one of His creations. Been hooked ever since ....

 

[nkbj]

Oh, just about the time that the IDF took Jerusalem (I remember the magazine cover) there was this Japanese made caplock in the local drug store. That's all it took. Nothing that would go with rice was safe.

 

[MikeChapin]

My Grandmother got me into it. :grin:

When I graduated college she got me a CVA Colonial Pistol kit. I put it together when I went to grad school in Laramie. I fired it a few times and really liked it. I picked up a revolver at a gun show a few months later. The next year I had a dustup with the VA and they ended up paying a good chunk of money. Some of that went to a Navy Arms Hawken Hunter. That fall my wife got me a CVA Mountain Rifle kit and never looked back.

 

[ohio ramrod]

I came to the dark side when the wind blew out my last candle! :hmm: And I had to "strike a fire" the cap gun just would not do a good job, Whitetail' s flinter did!

 

[OB OBrien]

Back in 75 a deer hunting buddy talked me into buying an Investarms 50 cal with all the stuff to hunt a special hunt at a state park in Alabama. I did that hunt, saw a nice doe out about 200 yards. Took the shot and saw the dirt fly between her legs. After that I had to concentrate on a new business venture. So put the gun in the safe. I didn't have time for anything except my business. The gun sat there for 32 years along with all the other guns. I got older, retired for the second time and became a three time cancer survivor. Realized it was time to do what I wanted before it was too late. Joined a local range that had muzzleloader competitions. So out came the 50 Cal cap lock and I got back into it. Wow is it addicting. Sold off most of the other guns and now have 3 cap lock pistols and three rifles.
Spend a lot of time at the range between doctors appointments and have entered the competitions. I'm now handicapped and shoot along with the other guys. 1st time out with a new rifle I had never shot before, I placed 5th out of 11 shooters. I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Am looking forward to doing some BP Coyote hunting before deer season. Wish me luck.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the guys here on the forums that have been so much of a help to me.
Thanks You All.
OB

 

Jethro224”s “Bringin' 'em over to the dark side.” thread sparked a thought.
Just what started you into side lock muzzle loading?

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/246194
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/244822

 

[hanshi]

Fess Parker as Disney's Davy Crockett.

 

[D Sanders]

Anyway what brought you to the “dark side”?
[/quote]


I got into side locks when I was a kid watching Daniel Boone on TV. It also connects me to a more simpler time in our nations history.

HH 60