What Got You Started?

[dukewellington]

The amazing beuty of the American longrifle got me started about a month ago. I now have a hawken MZ.I live in the UK so its been a tough ride.

I've been shooting shotgun for about 7 years though.

 

[dukewellington]

This is the Video that actually got me started http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=THS7HL-qZkE

 

[Old Sarge]

Way back in 1961...when I was a Cub Scout, Olive Hill, Kentucky had their first centennial. The town was burnt to the groung by Morgan's Raiders in 1861. The town had a pageant and my father played a buckskin clad frontiersman, with a coonskin cap. He borrowed and old origional flintlock from our neighbor "Mr Sparks". They shot it a few times in the backyard. I was watching and was hooked for life. Even my Mom said I was "born a hundred years too late" During the nations bi-centennial I started to buy and shoot BP arms of my own. Been doing it ever since. If any body is from that area, please PM me and I can give them more info and possibly some pics. Thanks Dad, you get all the credit!!!

 

[smo]

As NW Hunter said, additional season length back in the 70's along with being raised to hunt anything with feathers or fur and few critters with just skin! :thumbsup:

 

[mykeal]

I actually got interested in building muzzleloaders before shooting them. A buddy and I stumbled on a fascinating place in Wichita, KS in the late 60's/early 70's called Four Flags Trading Post. The proprietor built muzzleloaders of all sorts, sold them and the early revolvers, as well as supplies of all sorts. I really liked his guns as works of art and decided I could do that too, and it's been a hobby (but not a lifestyle) ever since. Tried some CW reenacting and went to a couple of rondy's but found them too 'focused'; that is, the almost single-minded obsession with 'period correctness' put me off. The guns, shooting and building them, are what interest me most.

 

[Gus]

I reluctantly took a flintlock in trade, and after I shot it once was hooked! I got the better end of the deal! Now I own 6 smokepoles and can't wait to get my next.

 

[highPlains]

I have been fascinated with Native Americans since I was young. A friend's arrowhead collection probably fueled that more than anything.

My quest to read as much as I could about Indians naturally brought my attention to the fur trade. That was my next obsession.

Learning as much about the mountain men and the indians led to my impulse decision to buy a .50 cal muzzleloader. After one shot, I was hooked.

 

[Parzifal]

I always liked the outdoors, history and shooting, after not shooting for a couple years I started to watch episodes of -sharpe-

I know it sounds silly but that got me looking into military history from the 17-1800s

Then at a auction I found a butchered old miroku flintlock smoothbore "it looked a bit like a baker rifle", bought it /fixed it/ fired it and at that moment I was hooked.

I have bought and built a few more since then, fired many rounds and Im not looking back.

Its a fantasticly satisfying and addictive hobby one that I think greatly enriches my life.

Cheers

 

[MSW]

being a congenital cheapskate, i long ago realized that the cost per shot was way below centerfire.

then there's the undeniable and ineffable magic of having the thing go off when you pull the trigger. then there's the little strollout to the target, and lo, there's a hole where (or very close to where) you intended one to be.

so the Kalashnikov crowd can spray brass all over the place if they want- it's their right, and if it makes 'em happy, who am i to complain.

hey, little kid, wanna see how a real rifle works?

 

[Stony]

History. My Dad was on the Police shooting team and I grew up around guns.Had a BB gun at 7, a .22 by 10 and 12 guage a couple of years later. On a trip to see family near St. Louis, got to see great grandpa's civil war sniper rifle. Went through mountain man phase with a Lyman GPR and couple of years ago finally got a flinter. Always thought the men at the Alamo were how you defined what a hero was.

 

[Rollover Jack]

Mr. Bull...

I got started in the 70s when I discovered that I could own and shoot a black powder pistol without having to be 21 years old as with a centerfire/rimfire pistol. My first one was a flintlock, smoothbore around 12-gauge size. It was represented to me as being a Tower pistol but I now believe that to be in error. I had only shot it about 5 or 6 times when a friend offered me almost twice the amount that I had paid for it, so it was gone. With the money, I went and got a 2nd Model Dragoon which I had for many years until some crack-head burglarized my residence.

I was also influenced by Jed Clampett, hoping to shoot and discovering oil in this manner. Hasn't happened yet, but this is Texas, and you never know... :rotf:

"Less powder, more lead.
Shoots farther, kills dead."

 

[renovato]

I was about 12. My dad had gotten me into modern guns a year or two earlier. He was asking what I wanted for my birthday and out of the blue, I pointed at a cheapo Classic Arms double barrel muzzleloader kit. I don't know if it was the uniqueness of the double barrel design, or the general "old" styling, but it appealed to me. A trip to the gun shop and the owner had talked us out of that kit. He had a consignment gun that was also double barrel but much higher quality, and in the same price range, so home it came, along with some very basic intructions.

First time I shot it I was hooked. I couldn't hit anything with it, but that's just the nature of the gun with a front bead and no rear sight. Through the years I would buy another gun here and there and the addiction just grew. Then when I learned how to load for accuracy, the addiction turned into obsession.

The folks here filled in a lot of things I hadn't learned and the obsession became even worse! Thanks everyone! :hatsoff:

 

[tg]

I think it was in the 50's or 60's while watching BuckRogers and Flash Gordon, and all the aliens shooting all those far out space guns I just knew if I got onto shooting ML's that eventualy they would look like the guns those guys had, and my dream has came true..

 

[shootemup]

I came by way of hunting. I wanted the extra week or two in the deer woods. I enjoyed it so much I expanded to smoothbores, books and magazines about muzzleloaders, etc. It was sort of a progressive disorder :haha:

Spot

 

[dave payne]

May 10th 1975.....I was in the re-enactment of the taking of Ft. Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys (back when I was 15). I believe it was an "in the white" CVA colonial pistol i was given to carry that day, and fell in love with flintlocks!!! Built a cva flintlock in '78....been burnin' powder ever since

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

Guthrie's "The Big Sky"--both the book and the film with Kirk Douglas and Dewey Martin and the Davy Crockett film got me going. At the same time, being offered a chance to learn to load and shoot a muzzleloader by a local "oldtimer" got me hooked for good. Just lucky I guess!

 

[musketman]

What got you started in traditional black powder shooting and the lifestyle that so often accompanies it?

It was the book BUCKSKINS AND BLACK POWDER by Ken Grissom that sparked my interest in flintlocks.

 

[BigL]

Smoke. I have done a couple of Pyro shows and loved the smell of cheap chinese BP. Seeing a 8" shell light up through the tube was cool too. The bang, well now, the bang...

Not doing much of those these days and I got bored of shooting my nitro pistol lead me to buy a Plains pistol in .54. Now I always wanted a .45ACP or such, but I saw a .54! (*shame the numbers can't get typed in bold :rotf: *) It has been a long road - permit, had to learn to cast to get balls :rotf: and learning that BP was not cheaper than nitro - yet anyway. This is the most interesting thing I have done since learning to ride motorcycles!

 

[slowpokebr549]

My dad used to haul us kids on vacation every year in a 65 chevy with a camper on it. I spent several summers reading gun value books in that thing instead of watching scenery. I always loved the black powder pages in those books the best. That was back when there were underhammers and jukars everywhere. If I think about it real hard I can still smell that old book smell and can feel that old camper swaying around in the Smokey Mountains.That started an itch in me for BP guns that has lasted till now.

 

[akapennypincher]

What FIRST got you involved, hooked, or shooting Traditional Muzzleloaders.

Me personally growing up in the 1950's and watching Disney's Davey Crocket the series, and MOvie, plus Daniel Boone it was something of a natural occurrence that I was exposed to on T.V., and in the Movies

In the late 1960's I was shooting one Sunday at a Public Range in Saugas, California (San Francisquito Canyon), as I was getting ready to go home I noticed on a Club Range maybe 1/8 Mile away a lot of BLACK SMOKE

I walked down and watched for a while, and then one of the "CLUB" Member noticed me, and ask if i was interested in Muzzleloader Shoot, and I replied, I had not ever shot one, but it looked interesting.

Next thing I know I am handed an Original .58 Caliber Springfield Civil War Surplus Rifle, showed how to load it, and got to shoot it a few times. I am ready to leave, and get home and say than you and one of the member say we will be here next Sunday, and ask me to come back, and join in again.

Next Sunday I am there, and again I am supplied with Rifle, Mini Ball, Cap, Powder, and have a blast. When getting ready to leave I ask where can i buy a Rifle like the Springfield. Am told of Numrich ARMS in NY. I leave telling these guy I will be back in a month or so when I get my own rifle.

So I order me a NEW Surplus Springfield from Numrich, go to Inglewood, CA buy Lead, Cap, Mold, and FFG Black Powder.

As promised I go back and start shooting with the club that welcomed me like I was special. That relationship lasted for many years of great Sunday Shoots.