What got you started in this hobby/sport?

[mooman76]

To tell the truth, I'm not even sure what got me started, it was so long ago. I remember my cousin showing my dad and myself a ML he was getting into. This was over 40 years ago. he was wanting it for hunting. IL doesn't have a center fire rifle season so it was something new besides archery and shotgun. Later on when I was a young Marine I bought a BP revolver because I could buy a BP revolver being under 21 but couldn't get a regular one. I sold it shortly after due to funds.

Some years later I bought one when I got into deer hunting. UT had a long primitive season and ML was acceptable. I bought a CVA Kentucky used but in good shape. I found a local ML club and it took off from there.

 

[tenngun]

loved history even as a child. In the 70s as the bicentenal was aproching I bought a cva pistol, A few mo later bought a morey allen and Thurber I was hooked.

 

[cynthialee]

When I was about 9 or 10 my daddy took me on a hunt. I completely ruined the hunt with my incessant chatter but I had a great time. Dad was using a .50 caliber rifle. While we were camped out we met another hunter and he had his young son with him. The other guy had a lever action rifle. Of course the guys had to have a shooting contest. Well my dad was a better off hand shot than the other fella. At my young age I attributed it to the rifle not yet completely understanding how good my dad was with a gun.
Well fast forward to 13 years of age and I would help him with his casting. Well he would cast and I would weigh them and inspect them. Then we would go out and shoot them. Fun stuff. When we would get home cleaning the guns was my job; Including the rifle I was not allowed to shoot. (that used to make me mad, I had to clean it but wasn't allowed to shoot it) He was shooting heavy conicals so his claim it was 'too much gun' for me was probably right at the time.
Well when I grew up and left home I soon had my own BP pistols. I have had a BP pistol most my life. I only got into rifles two years ago as I wanted to hunt the black powder special season. Then I bought a TC Hawken and started looking for information and I found this forum. Every time I typed a question into a search engine this site would pop up pointing to a thread. I figured I may as well join.
Since getting my rifle it has become a bit more of a hobby than it was in years past. Now I have a smoothbore, multiple rifles and a flintlock pistol that I think looks as spiffy as can be.
In the past I had BP pistols because of my dad taught me, and I really liked the idea that the majority of folks have no clue how to load my guns. Somehow buying that rifle turned a minor interest into a major focus of many my days.

 

[S.Kenton]

Between my Great Grandpa and my Dad I didn't have a chance...My great Grandpa ( now deceased) was and my Dad is an avid Mler shooter.Grandpa shot an older custom Kentucky style flintlock and Dad shot an older CVA Mountain rifle in the 70's, then on Fathers Day around 1989-90 I got him a T/C Hawken. Dad and I both shot the tar out of his BP rifles. I soon got my own in 1993 and have shot ever since. Then like many other people, life just get's too "busy" and interests change, so all of my BP rifles and supplies got put away for a time. Then around 1997 my buddy rekindled my M'ler interest and I've not put them down since. This forum is a constant source of information...glad I found it!

 

[Critter Getter]

In 1980 I began a serious love for bow hunting. The deer population hadn't exploded here yet in Iowa but somewhere in the early 1980's Iowa decided to have a muzzleloader season separate for deer. I found a used TC Renegade at a gun shop and made a deal on it for $130. It shot great although the stock didn't fit me all that well. I shot a doe with it and have loved the front stuffers every since. Just got my first ( Pedersoli) flintlock a couple of months ago and loving that. Now wanting to either have a custom 45 built or going to buy a kit and have that be my next winter project. I currently enjoy owning a 36,45,and two 50 caliber rifles. Have owned a Ruger Old Army and a TC Cherokee kit that I put together and hunted with as well. Sold it to a friend and now would love to get it back sometime. Good times! Greg

 

[hanshi]

Disney's Davey Crockett!

 

[Trench]

The Sharpe's Rifles series of books and movies.

 

[Shooey]

I was big into centerfire rifles when my hunting buddy took me to the range and let me shoot his TC Hawken. Shooting it wasn't that complicated, and I thought it was a good way to start my deer season two weeks earlier. So I got a Traditions Hawken.

That's when the bug bit. :redface:

Then I put together a GPR from a kit, then I got a flintlock and now there's no hope for me. I've been researching 18th century clothing too... :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[RedFeather]

Came home on leave for Christmas, saw Jeremiah Johnson and bought a Remington revolver, then ordered a Zouave from Navy Arms when I got back. Growing up watching Davey Crockett likely planted the seed. Always liked old stuff, anyhow.

 

[lhw123]

My father always took us to battlefields and forts as children. Watching the living histories and reenactments really interested me. At 15 years old I scraped some money and bought a CVA .54 cap lock rifle kit. I was the first in my family to own a muzzleloader. I read the instructions and everything else I could get my hands on because I was determined to shoot that gun on my own. So one day I went out in the field behind my parents house and figured out how to load and shoot PRB's. At that age accuracy was out of the window because I was happy it would go off. Now 15 or more years later I have moved on to flintlocks and they still amaze me to this day! I love them because it gives me a small taste of our past. My wife says I was born in the wrong time period but hell....she is right!

 

[larryp]

The revolutionary fever of the bicentennial!

Yep! Same here! Heady stuff for a teenager. :thumbsup:

 

[stinkyfeet]

My dad would take me along to all the shoots and I liked the loud,smokey guns that smelled like a great fart. Everything a growing boy likes

 

[desi23]

I think a fascination with history started it for me. I remember touring civil war battlefields when I was a kid and I was fascinated. The tales of the past got an early hold on me. Loved the history books (still do) and novels based in the past.

The first gun I bought for myself was a flintlock pistol because it reminded me of the naval sidearms in a C.S. Forester novel. The next was a Navy Arms 1851 Navy because of the association with the civil war and the old west.

There have been a lot of others, replicas and originals (and a sojourn into collecting military arms of the world wars) but I still love the old guns best. I enjoy shooting them and feeling a link with the past. They are accurate and fun and help me relieve the stress of this modern society.

 

[satx78247]

Between my grandfather's "fellows" (who took "the kid" under their wing after my GF died) who hunted with ML and shooting a Scoutmaster's KY rifle at scout camp when I was 12YO, I didn't have a chance to NOT be a BP shooter/hunter.
Added to that, the combined LONG deer season for "primitive weapons" & modern firearms, caused me to buy a plains rifle when I was in college.

Note: My archery club has two very large ranches (7,000 and >10,000 acres) leased in the Texas Hill Country & modern firearms are PROHIBITED by the ranchers but ML are acceptable to both owners for hunting feral hogs.

Note: Last weekend, members of our club collected 14 feral hogs from 60-250 pounds on the smaller of the 2 leases.

yours, satx

 

[Snakebite]

I think for me it was the history aspect. Going to the Alamo in San Antonio as a kid and learning more about the Revolution and Texas Independance over the years got me started. Also being a gun nut and military was a big part of it. I met a guy when I was in the Army who had a couple custom guns and he gave me some great advice helped too.

 

[Joe Zakas]

What really got me "started" was the Disney miniseries The Sage of Andy Burnett in the late 50"s. Later in high school, I read the book The Long Rifle by S White. It got my interest in ML. A navy shipmate showed me how to use a front stuffer. Built a CVA Mtn Rifle. Then, many, many years later with my kids, I was in Casper, Wy at a bookstore and there was that book. It just lite the fire fresh and have since gotten a Ky rifle, 2 .36, 4 .44 C&B pistols, and a 7mm pinfire pocket pistol fm about 1870. Oh, do not have any 7mm cartridges for it. So, every time I use these BP guns, it brings back all those earlier days of just wishing I could be one of those guys on the screen or in the book. Thanks for this forum to bring up the fun memories. :v

 

[ChrisHarris]

I bought a used TC Hawken .45 in 2011 and started shooting at a local ML only club. I just thought they were cool at first. I usually tend to have an appreciation for old things, like cars, pictures, old model airplanes and many different types of relics from bygone eras.

They've become my solace..... my zen. The feeling of calmness that I get when I'm at the range, punching holes in targets..... I can't explain it. They just make me feel calm, deep down in my soul. They've become my escape ..... my drug of choice.

I never expected them to have such a profound affect on me. The first time I shot one, I just thought it was REALLY COOL!! It took about a year before I finally had kind of an epiphany one day. I was at the range, alone and struggling with my emotions after a long hard week at work and feeling trapped in a not-very-good marriage. I was loading and shooting, all alone with my thoughts and my rifle. It was almost like meditation. A feeling of deep calmness and relaxation came over me. I loaded and shot. I cried and I loaded again. I shot and I cried. I loaded and I shot and I cried. I did that for 2 or 3 hours. No one came to the range. I had the whole place to myself, and I NEEDED it that day. I needed to be alone - for just that ONE day. It was one of the most "freeing" days of my life. I was 39yrs old.

My life changed that day. My whole attitude changed. I'm a better man for having discovered these old relics. They've saved me from divorce and brought me peace at times when I needed it most.

blah blah :yakyak: I love these things!!

 

[Kapow]

I lived out west as a young man when feral game was thick. Nothing to see a mob of 100 plus pigs or up to 1000 feral goats in a morning. After a while the .270 lost all challenge so a mate and I bought a dikar Kentucky kit each and put them together in record time. The first morning out I shot half a dozen billies and a couple of pigs and was hooked. I progressed onto the bow but eventually found my way back to black. The skills I learnt bowhunting help me immensely now. I think I watched too many episodes of Daniel Boone after school.

Flintlock is my new addiction and I can't wait to get back to Africa with a smokepole.

 

[nkbj]

A Kentucky rifle for sale at a drug store.

 

[Bootsctm]

The Colorado 4-H program and took my first deer with a 50 cal. New Englander that's my fathers. It put more meat in the deep freeze than any other gun he has owned.