What is it that pulls us into muzzle loading!

[Moleman]

For me its nostalgia and a connection with the past.
I love muzzleloading as well as traditional archery and the traditional skills that goes with each.

 

[oldwood]

My first m/l was a home scratch built Hawken rifle. By then , my frequent stops at Bob Kern's M/L shop in Ligonier , Pa. , and talking to Him , He asked If I could assemble four Brown Bess Kits for the Fort usage there. Did that , so had some colateral , and Bob sold me a reminding BB kit , which I assembled for me. So , my first flint lock m/l gun was a BBess. I remember the day I finished it. I had just moved to a new house in Central Pa. , and didn't know there was a big shooting range 3 miles from my new home , so found a dirt mine used by a contractor behind my house. Put up a target with a dirt backstop , and started blasting. Fired about 10 balls , and the snow storm got too heavy to continue. Mid winter , on the way from work , stopped into a big gun shop. In the used rack , was a new .45 cal. CVA perc. rifle. It stuck out like buzzard in a flock of swans. Put the r/r in the bore , and it went half way down , and came out all gooey black. Sales guy said the previous owner fired salutes out of it until it wouldn't work any more. $35 , got it out of the store. Cleaned it up at home , borrowed some .440 balls from a friend , and to the range. Off the bench , the CVA did a 3" group at 25 yds.. I was the only guy there , looking around I saw a running deer silhouette target at 100 yds , just hanging there begging to be blasted. The next shot was monumental in my search for m/l experience. Took a good rest , fired the shot. A quick visit to the deer target astounded me. My .45 cal ball hole went right through the paper deer's heart. I WAS from then on , completely down the m/l rabbit hole for life. I remembered saying to myself , "I can do this". I heard about Getz brothers barrel shop. Stopped there , made two new friends , and got a 44 inch "C" wt. .50 cal. , was sent to Fred Millers for a stock. Made a life long friend there. Six months later , I was shooting my first early Lancaster style real longrifle. From then on , whatever rifle I saw , could be mine. It's been fun.

 

[tenngun]

My brother built a model of the Cutty Sark. Aft on the ship there was a raised area with a skylight, that on the real ship lighted the main saloon. The captian and mates lived here, as well as cabins for a few passengers
On the model there was a plastic box with a benches and table. You could barely see it looking through the small windows only 1/4 inch square.
But as I was just four or five my brother could convince me there was a whole invisible room, with little people inside.
I looked for them as best I could to see them,
I’m still looking through those windows, walking the grounds of fort Bridger or looking in to the rooms at fort Charters , admiring the view of Pettie Jean or south pass, I’m still looking through those windows.
I put on my kit and grab my gun, I step out in the tall timer and my old eyes return to that boy, looking to catch a glimpse of what was

 

[akroguy]

Visited Gettysburg as a boy with my mom and gramma....the place just moved me profoundly. Then back home, visited Fort Union here in New Mexico. A Ranger in Federal uniform demonstrated a '61 Springfield. That smell, the process of loading....just could not get over it. Also watched "The Red Badge of Courage" movie and the struggle our nation endured became so evident to me. The firearms are part of who we are. They were "simpler" times, but pivotal in the course of world history. I feel I am touching history every time I pick up my long rifles or rifle muskets.

 

[sheriff john]

65 years ago, Dad joined the NMLRA and Muzzle Blasts started coming to the house. He bought an original "Cornstalk Gun" (12 ga percussion single barrel) made up of various pieces and we drove out to a country road, stopped the station wagon and he shot it into a tree. I was 10.

He bought a Tingle .40 pistol and a Belgian 20 ga percussion. I shot a fox with the shotgun but broke the stock trying to finish it off by bludgeoning. Dad shot a duck flying with the Tingle pistol. "Watch This" We had to get out of there pretty fast. The best came later when my girlfriend's brother graciously brought me into serious muzzleloading. Friendship. Forging. Rifling his own barrels. Building not only from bought'n parts, but also some he made himself. Girl dumped me but I'd been hooked on muzzle loading. I have many guns, many muzzle loaders. No one left to shoot with and my hound dog is a liar. The truth is not in him.

Deer season at our farm was entirely m/l - friends were alive and we killed many deer for the next 20 years. Now they're all dead. Younger friends of my son show up with modern, expensive, long-range guns. I have little interest in killing critters for the sake of killing. Mostly just load up and go sit by the creek, watching and remembering. Life's Good. Don't waste a minute.

 

[SciAggie]

Old Guns with character hooked me and I learned from old guys who me taught safe handling and accuracy, their cameraderie was infectious and lasting

This is no small thing. When I was in high school I bought a Tennessee mountain rifle kit from Dixie gun works. I knew NOTHING about muzzleloaders (or building them). I knew even less about shooting them - just what I read in magazines. I think I may have had the Sam Fadala book.

Anyway, I struggled through and built that rifle. I’d go shoot it. I didn’t know how to clean it correctly so I’d get frustrated with rust trying to form and keeping it clean. I finally set it aside and went on with newer technology.

Years later as a BPCR Silhouette shooter I met some hard core ML guys. Steve Garby, Ron Long, and some of their pals were shooting ML at the silhouette nationals. I made some remark about what a PITA those guns were.

To their credit they called me over and simply said, “Let us show you how to run them.” They let me shoot with them and gave me a lot of education.

Long story short, I’ve been a dedicated ML ever since. I always had the passion - but without the right education it can be more frustrating than fun.

 

[WonkyEye]

My muzzleloading "pull" was a pair of 3 lb. mountain howitzers. I started as an artilleryman.

So the first pull was the people were good people, and I could play with stuff that made a large BANG.

The second pull for me was the fact that I had gone to college, and when I was home the ONLY deer season open was muzzleloader season. So I bought a CVA "longrifle" caplock (33" barrel... not very long & 2-piece stock). I never got a deer with it, but I was out with other guys and shared their deer meat as I was part of the hunting "team". Actually I think I was the only one really physically able to drag out a big deer from the woods in the group.

So the second pull was the hunting opportunity

Then when I returned to muzzleloading after The Service and a few years of being an LEO, it was for the people. I was very negative about regular folks after several years of negative exposure to the worst folks in a community, and it was subtle, so I didn't realize it had impacted me. Then I started frequenting some BP events, and found that there was at least one group of folks actually worth protecting.

CASE IN POINT: I saw one serious argument between two guys at an event. They were arguing WHICH guy was going to fix the third guy's car {for free}..., the guy that was the pro-mechanic OR the guy who happened to have brought a lot of car tools in his trunk, to the event. TWO men strenuously speaking over which was going to provide help to a complete stranger to them both! Finally they realized they ought to team-up, and fix the car together. I'd never seen such behavior. Sure wouldn't have seen such a display in the craptastic place that I patrolled as a cop.


So the third pull was fellowship.

LD

I was also a redleg. The only thing that went into the the front of our m109s was the cleaning brush, it took the whole crew to push that cleaning rod....

I shot modern firearms my whole life, got bored and only shot around hunting season and the occasional self defense class. What appeals to me is it's harder, the gear is more tempermental and fiddly to use. It's hard to get bored with that, never a dull moment.

I never had an interest in flintlocks, got a T/C Hawken from a buddy at camp just to extend my deer season and only shot it a couple times - literally 2 times, only got it out for muzzleloader season. Eventually I realized it was unreliable and temperamental. Troubleshooting and tinkering is what did it for me. I rebuilt the lock, and went through a bunch of powders patches and different balls and conicals and lubes. Still wasn't happy with the lock so I replaced it with an L&R, but wasn't happy with that. Did a ton of fitting to the internals, and now finally have a really good sparker.
By the time I was done I had rediscovered my love for shooting. I'm still working on that gun, it has a pitted bore that never really gets clean. I've been carefully lapping the bore, working away the pits and deepening the rifling grooves.

I'm so addicted now I'm getting ready to build a JP Beck clone. Got all the metal, I just need to get my hands on a nice hunk of maple.

 

[Shortfingers]

Just wanted to chew the fat with you fine folk about this. While I was cleaning my Mountain rifle barrel out by my man shed. SWMBO walks out there to chat with me. She looks down at my 5 gallon bucket of hot soapy water with a barrel shoved in it and she asks, "why do you go through all that to shoot a gun? Don't you have guns that doesn't smell like egg farts?" I simply told her I enjoy these a lot more. But I got to thinking about it all when she walked off. Just WHAT is it that has me so addicted to this. I think it is all of it. How we can make just about everything there is to shoot these things. Or how you get to really spend time with the gun, pistol, or revolver. There's just something about pouring that charge down the barrel and ramming whatever you want to shoot down there. I got into muzzle loading back in about 2008 due to ammo shortages, modern ammo component shortages. And since then I shoot black powder firearms more than anything else. So what is it that draws YOU in?

I guess I’ve just always been a mountain man at heart. Being from Wyoming probably helped with that.
I love to show the modern shooter that my BP rifles are just as accurate as the AR’s at BP distances…..

 

[11Bravo]

I must start this explanation with being a 12 year old having a Dad raised in southern Missouri who hunted his whole life. Having a B-B gun before I was 12 had me thinking a .22 would be next. My Dad had other ideas and he took me to a local store and bought a 6.5 WWII surplus Italian rifle out of a barrel for me. The rifle was $9.95 and 100 rounds of surplus ammo was $1.40. With the purchase I was told I was going hunting for White Tail Deer the soon opening season.


I hunted with my Dad each season carrying that rifle right up to 1965 when I left for Forestry College. A different time indeed as the acceptance letter mentioned to bring your Deer Rifle to school as the campus had 50,000 acres to hunt. Hunt I did and compared to current times, I would hunt for a few hours and then show up for my 10:00 Botany class fresh from the woods. The class room had maybe a half dozen or more rifles leaning in corners etc. My college hunting ended when I had to take off a semester to earn money to continue my education. That drop in credit load got me drafted in 1967.


March1968 was the start of my transition towards using traditional muzzle loaders for hunting, I just didn't realize it then. I was an 11Bravo Infantryman doing a full tour in Vietnam “Hunting the Hunters”. By October 1969 I was out of the Army and ready to hunt come the 1970 season. That season was much different for me, just didn't feel right.


1971 was the happy turning point for my future hunting. I was now an apprentice Steamfitter and was working with a older fitter that also hunted. He had built his own .54 flintlock and I was interested enough that I borrowed all his issues of Muzzle Blasts and I was impressed. By the 1971 deer season I had finished my first .50 Hopkins & Allen half stock flintlock and I was hooked. Now hunting was enjoyable as I remembered it and I never looked back.

 

[Bill Bryan]

I like it because it's harder yet simpler. I grew up in Charleston South Carolina where history is everywhere. I saw black powder cannons fired as a young boy. I love the smell. Bill

 

[oreclan]

Just wanted to chew the fat with you fine folk about this. While I was cleaning my Mountain rifle barrel out by my man shed. SWMBO walks out there to chat with me. She looks down at my 5 gallon bucket of hot soapy water with a barrel shoved in it and she asks, "why do you go through all that to shoot a gun? Don't you have guns that doesn't smell like egg farts?" I simply told her I enjoy these a lot more. But I got to thinking about it all when she walked off. Just WHAT is it that has me so addicted to this. I think it is all of it. How we can make just about everything there is to shoot these things. Or how you get to really spend time with the gun, pistol, or revolver. There's just something about pouring that charge down the barrel and ramming whatever you want to shoot down there. I got into muzzle loading back in about 2008 due to ammo shortages, modern ammo component shortages. And since then I shoot black powder firearms more than anything else. So what is it that draws YOU in?

I got interested when a Marine Corps friend got a cap lock of his dad's shooting in 1971. Mike and I shot informally in that NC swamp for a while before we both got transferred.
I transferred to Camp Del Mar where I bought a .45 Numrich Arms swivel breech.
After leaving the USMC I moved to Ohio, bought parts at Golden Age Arms for a flintlock Lancaster style rifle.
Got interested in the upcoming Bicentennial and reenacting. Bought a Japanese brown Bess kit at Log Cabin Sport Shop and have been participating ever since.
Black powder, history, and SAR continue to spark my interest!

 

[Big Tom 52]

It was fate that got me started. My brother-in-law passed away and left some of his firearms to me, one being the T/C Cherokee. At first, I put it in the safe with the rest of my guns and in 2017 I stumbled across this site and kind of leafed through some posts and decided to get some powder, caps, and round balls and try it out. At first I shot just for fun and really didn't think anything about getting serious about loads or patch size or accuracy. I started watching YouTube video's and came back to this site and started to read more posts and figured why not. Now I wish I would have started about 50 or so years ago so I'd of have more time to enjoy this kind of shooting.

 

[Coinneach]

This is no small thing. When I was in high school I bought a Tennessee mountain rifle kit from Dixie gun works. I knew NOTHING about muzzleloaders (or building them). I knew even less about shooting them - just what I read in magazines. I think I may have had the Sam Fadala book.

Anyway, I struggled through and built that rifle. I’d go shoot it. I didn’t know how to clean it correctly so I’d get frustrated with rust trying to form and keeping it clean. I finally set it aside and went on with newer technology.

Years later as a BPCR Silhouette shooter I met some hard core ML guys. Steve Garby, Ron Long, and some of their pals were shooting ML at the silhouette nationals. I made some remark about what a PITA those guns were.

To their credit they called me over and simply said, “Let us show you how to run them.” They let me shoot with them and gave me a lot of education.

Long story short, I’ve been a dedicated ML ever since. I always had the passion - but without the right education it can be more frustrating than fun.

"When I was in high school I bought a Tennessee mountain rifle kit from Dixie gun works........ I think I may have had the Sam Fadala book."

Here we are half a world across an ocean away from each other, yet synchronicity exists; back in the early 80's I bought a TMR from DGW and my first reference book on ML was Sam Fadalas book !

 

[Coinneach]

Thank you everyone contributing here, a very enjoyable thread.

 

[snakebit]

Like most here; history, challenge, nostalgia and old issues of Fur, Fish and Game magazines. And my fondness for anything that shoots. My first BP rifle was a T/C New Englander 50 caliber. I bought it at K-Mart on lay away. Killed a doe with it the first year, I was just as happy as a guy killing a world record buck. After retirement, I find myself hunting a lot more with BP guns. Especially enjoy squirrel hunting with a .32. I'll get my new to me used Lyman GPR flintlock figured out eventually and get drawn in even more im guessing. Have met several super nice fellas in this community also. Never met any of them in person, but consider them friends. Won't find that in a lot of places. Especially since retiring from a LEO career. I find myself avoiding most humans at all costs.

 

[Bucks Co]

I met my life long friend at high school; we share an interest in Hunting Shooting (and Steam Power) Dave introduced me to another soon to be very close friend who had a 45 Kentucky(Numrich Barrel - Robbins Lock - NZ Rama-Rama wood stock) to my 17 year old eyes(I'm now 72) it was absolutely stunning and captivating. Of course with a watching of Fess Parker and an interest in History, I was hooked from that day on. I have managed to assemble a little collection of shooting reproductions over the years and have made a number myself, have lucked into a number of originals as well. From NZ I've been lucky to have had 2 trips to Friendship and attend 3 World MLAIC Championships. All in all the real joy to me has been the truly wonderful people I have met along the way and that's what keeps me at it.

 

[Grenadier1758]

@Bucks Co, at the Hawken Classic, we had a visitor from New Zealand who was so amazed that we could shoot our rifles. He made the statement that one couldn't shoot a rifle in NZ. I mentioned that he should look into muzzleloading as there are members on the Forum that have traditional muzzleloading rifles and that they shoot them. Some people seem to refuse to even look into the alternatives that are available to them.

 

[Cruzatte]

"When I was in high school I bought a Tennessee mountain rifle kit from Dixie gun works........ I think I may have had the Sam Fadala book."

Here we are half a world across an ocean away from each other, yet synchronicity exists; back in the early 80's I bought a TMR from DGW and my first reference book on ML was Sam Fadalas book !

Exactly what I did, including the Dixie TMR. In fact, that Sam Fadala book is sitting on the bookshelf right above where I'm sitting.

 

[EcoRover]

Amen! I also enjoy the connection with history and with the development of firearms. You can handcraft every shot. I have, or had, everything from a cannon to a 1911 .45 and in between.

Excellent question and answer. For me, it began in the 1970s with an opportunity to hunt the late Pennsylvania "traditional flintlock" deer season. Thanks to a good friend who was heavy into the historical re-enactment scene, I also became interested in the historical development, use, and downright charm of flintlock rifles. Ended up building one and that really set the hook. Moved to Montana 30+ years ago and liked the challenge of stalking pronghorn and mule deer on the sagebrush prairie to get within 100-yard flintlock range--a high quality hunting/stalking experience compared to dusting one at 300+ yards with my .257 Roberts. Recently joined a local group that gets together for a monthly informal woods walk, and I deeply appreciate this social experience and the knowledge, skill, and dedication of my fellow shooters.

 

[bpd303]

I would have to say my grandfather. Although he didn't have to pull me in, because I was in lock stock & barrel the first time he let me shoot his 36 cal Ohio flintlock at the ripe old age of 10 seventy years ago.