What Got You Started?

I'm seeing this question on a couple other sites, and wanted to read the responses posted here.

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

 

[Rancocas]

Back in the early '80's I had a boss who was a Civil War reinactor. I borrowed a .58 Springfield model 1861 from him and using it, I took my first muzzleloader deer.

 

[Walks with fire]

I must have inhaled when a brother was shooting a flintlock rifle he bought for the special after Christmas deer season here in PA. I was around 17 or so. I have been hooked ever since!

 

[Emet Huntsman]

I was a product of Walt Disney's Davy Crockett (I still have my "buckskin fringed shirt"). Then got to see John Wayne's Alamo being made.
My family still had the old Belgian made rifle they brought with them from Switzerland, so one day I bought a can of powder and some caps (No one around to caution me about anything in those days! :shocked2: ), loaded it, aimed it at the broad side of the barn (really) and fired. the .69 bore hole in the barn proved I can hit one

One smell of the smoke and I was hooked. Have been shooting BP (no substitutes) since the 60's.

 

[battman1]

Was wanting to get into it for a while.I was looking for more of a challenge for deer hunting.

 

[bwhoffman]

Was looking for something cheaper to do other than competitive trap shooting, something where I was not surronded by cheaters and sand baggers.
used to be an accuracy freak with varmint rifles and got bored over the years.I have created a gun that will shoot excellent.
Now, I can make all my own stuff sans caps, create lots of stuff for friends, of whom I can truly call "friends" and shoot with others without any baggage. to name just a few reasons I got into this "game of ours"!

 

[Le Grand]

I was a bored and un-interested 9 or 10 year old and my teacher recommended that I read a book. He even picked out the book. It was called Mountain Man, the story of Joe Meek. I'm still chasing Joe...

 

[sundog]

College in Vermont in 1972 and the hippie back to the earth dress like an indian live like an indian lifestyle of the times. Quite a few of the students had guns on campus and the gun club had a 100 yard range.
We didnt have cronographs but you could lie down behind a log and someone would shoot over you and you would listen for the crack of the passing round ball- man I cant believe I am admiting to doing that but heck that was 46 years ago.
Oh and the girls were well thats another story for another place.

 

[fyrfyter43]

College in Vermont in 1972...but heck that was 46 years ago.

Man, the '70s are really catching up with you! :grin: (Either that or I just aged 10 years!)

 

[fyrfyter43]

I first shot a ML about 20 years ago when I went to the range with my father. He was the range instructor for his police dept. then, and one of his co-workers was there with his caplock T/C. I tried a few shots with it and was hooked.

My folks bought me a T/C for Christmas that year. I had it/hunted with it for about 10 years. Unfortunately, I fell on some hard times years back and had to sell that gun, but I'm now looking for a flinter after only hunting with a longbow for the past few years.

 

Parson,

I, as well can say Thank You Fess Parker. It wasn't till the late 70's, 23 yrs. old I got my first rifle. (CVA MOUNTAIN RIFLE KIT). It got in my blood and it will stay, nuthin' for it.

Jay

 

[rabjr]

Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.

 

[wirewiz]

go to page 10 under gunmakersbench and read originl dixie kit a story to long for here

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Well, lets see...My Dad introduced me to several different shooting sports, including Black Powder. Started with a cheap copy of a 1858 Remington New Model Army revolver, Euroarms I think. That was before high school, back in the early 70's. We didn't have a BP rifle, just the revolver. Used to really feel great getting that good soot on our faces when the crisco was flying in the air :haha: . Dad passed more than 25 years ago.

The second time I got interested in the "Dark Side" was by attending a regular monthly Match at our local gun club. My sister had loaned me her 1858 NMA revolver to use, so I through it in the car and went to the club range, not quite knowing what to expect. I'm a pretty decent shot, so I managed to hold my own for being a newbie. Just as I was putting away my stuff, I was invited to borrow rifle, conicals and powder to shoot the rifle portion of the match. The league chairman, now a dear friend, gave me all of this stuff and wouldn't take a dime for it. Got hooked real good that day, and now BP league is my first love! The people are so friendly, and even though there is "chop busting", it's all in fun with this laid-back group. Currently we all are going through the paces of the official NRA Black Powder Rifle & Pistol Qualification Matches that the club now holds, on a separate date from the once a month league day. I just made Expert in rifle and am currently a Sharpshooter in pistol.

So yeh, I'm hooked!

Dave

 

[Bountyhunter]

I am a product of the frontier. My mothers great grandfather was a buffalo hunter. He used a M1842 musket for his farm gun until he died in 1930. I have his buffalo rifle and the D. Nippes Musket. My gpa was in WWI and I have his 1873 Springfield training rifle. I made my first kill when I was 5 years old. I was hunting alone when I was 7.

I read everything about the frontier and guns that I could lay my hands on. I saw a beautiful rifle in a magazine and said I sure would like one of them. My old man told me how stupid that was. That clinched it. I was bound and determined to have one, and I did, and I did, and I did, and I did, and I did, and I'm gonna have more.

 

[shortstring]

I sort of inherited it from my grand-dad. As a child I would go stay with him for a weekend & we would shoot something. Sometimes it would be a rifle, others it would be a shotgun or maybe a revolver. This was when I was maybe 5 or so but it was the thing that I wanted to do from that day forward. I now own some of the guns we shot back then, I can only say that it's magic to pick them up again. 50 years later I can still feel him behind me reminding me to squeeze that trigger, not jerk it. It would be interest to compare notes with him these days as I've taken it on & on from where he left me. As Bogart said in the Maltese Falcon, "it's the stuff that dreams are made of"

 

[Trench]

Reading the Sharpe series got me going. It got me back in to Deer hunting and I took my first deer ever with a muzzle loader.

 

[WV MZL HUNTER]

Thank You Fess Parker

Me too! After the first time out shooting Black power I was hooked.First gun T/C 45 Cal. flint.

 

[AeroncaTAL]

I'd kinda always been interested in muzzloaders, but never did anything about it. When I turned 50, I decided that I wanted to build a muzzleloading rifle. I bought a GPR kit, started into it and got hooked on this forum. Brett Sr. saw that I was a local, gave a howdy and invited me up to the Forest Hills club shoot. Best thing I ever did...
Scott

 

[jtmattison]

I don't even remember why I bought my first muzzleloader. It was one of the unmentionable types. I decided to try a sidelock and got hooked instantly. No more unmentionables for me!

HD