What was your first Muzzleloader?

[ord sgt]

My first M/L was an antique. I wanted it for a wall hanger above the fireplace. Then curiosity got the best of me. Since I didn't want to try and shoot an unknown old piece, I discovered one of my coworkers had an FFL. He had a T/C Hawken kit in .45 calibre sooo.........the kit came home with me. Didn't know nuffin about black powder and didn't know anyone who knew anything about the magic black.
Read and re-read the T/C manual and started looking around for all the necessary items to be able to shoot the Hawken.
This lead me down the path to the dark side. 40 years later and still building and shooting muzzle loaders. Great fun to this day.

 

[Buckskin25]

T/C Hawken 50 cal percussion kit in 1994. Still have it and many more.

 

[ny griz]

Howdy mine was a TC Hawken 50 cal flinter.Griz

 

[Rum River]

T/C Hawken percussion .50 back in the 90's - still have it.
I had shot everything except muzzle loaders up to that point and felt it was unfair that I ignored them for so long.

My first muzzle loader white tail was with that rifle. Took the shot within a half hour of the season opening that day - down in the river bottom a third of a mile from the house. Was so thrilled with that eight point that I went straight to the house, woke up my wife and had her trudge in the snow down to where it lay to take a picture of me with the deer.

That reminds me, time to go to the florist again.....

 

[pilot]

Mine was a 45 cal smooth bore percussion poor boy. Unknown origin. I have no idea how old it was, but I suspect it was a recent build. That was 1970. Like a fool, I traded it for a cheap 1851 Navy pistol that was already worn out. I sure wish I could have that poor boy back.

 

[user 49399]

My first muzzleloader and still my favorite is a CVA 45 caliber percussion Kentucky pistol my wife bought for me about thirty years ago. She paid $25 for it in a pawn shop and it looked like it had never been fired. However, it's been fired hundreds of times since.

 

[Zonie]

First muzzleloader? It was a International Arms, "Kentuckian" flintlock in .44 caliber. It was made in Italy.
When I bought it back in 1970, it was the only low cost rifle that looked to be well made besides a T.C. Hawken and I couldn't afford one of those.
At the same time that I bought the Kentuckian, I also bought a steel frame Colt 1851 in .44 caliber. (Yes, I know that combination was never made by Colt).
When I mentioned my newly bought guns to a friend at work he said, "Hey! I've got a pound of black powder I don't have a use for. I'll bring it in for you." and, he did. It turned out to be a old can of DuPont 3Fg and it got me off and running in my newly discovered hobby.

 

[BradCayton]

My first was a Charles Daly, half stock, .45 caliber caplock around 1980. I knew absolutely nothing about muzzle loaders and a coworker helped me along with it. I've been shooting black every since.

 

[painter]

My first was a Traditions 50 cal Shenandoah that I bought recently at 69 years old. I RSO'd at a woodswalk and everyone was having so much fun, I had to try it. One year later I have 3 rifles and 2 pistols. I guess I'm hooked. I'm not throwing out my unmentionables yet, however.

My real passion is unmentionable shotguns.

 

[Jaegermeister]

Jukar Derringer kit. Bought it at a Western Auto (I think) store back in about ‘76.
Totally Hooked!!

 

[Daryl Crawford]

I'm curious to know what was your first BlackPowder firearm? Was it a rifle or a smoothbore?

What made you want to buy it?

How experienced/knowledgeable with this sport/hobby were you, when you bought your first BlackPowder gun?

Well, I wasn't really experienced. As a young kid, maybe 8 years old (1979), my uncle loaded a .54 flint long rifle a tad heavy (read that as really heavy). He and my dad laughed at me quite a bit that day.

I didn't buy my first, it was a gift from my older brother who knew I was interested but, on a Sergeant's pay with a young family, I wasn't going to buy it for myself. My uncle gave me all the items I needed to get started shooting, but he supplied me with Pyrodex. It didn't take long before trial and error on range secessions worked out the kinks and made me pretty functional with the weapon.

That gift was an Italian made Investarm, half-stock .50 flintlock rifle that I still own and shoot. It came from Cabelas.

 

[Justin.44]

I've always been interested in American history and the old BP guns. I started with a '51 navy, quickly followed by an Uberti Walker that I found used at my LGS. By that time, I discovered this forum and some good YouTube channels and I really got hooked.

Soon after joining the ML forum I was invited by @Grenadier1758 to check out local BP club, now my wife and I are members and we are really loving this hobby!

Just like @JB67 my first rifle was a CVA Frontier carbine that I bought on this forum. It shoots really good for being an entry level rifle, but my next goal is to acquire a left-handed flintlock. I took some pics of my Frontier tonight while I was doing some shooting in the woods. -Justin

 

[kemart17]

I'm curious to know what was your first BlackPowder firearm? Was it a rifle or a smoothbore?

What made you want to buy it?

How experienced/knowledgeable with this sport/hobby were you, when you bought your first BlackPowder gun?

Thompson center 50 hawken i built as a kit when i was 16, still have it. killed several deer with it. its retired now though but still in great shape.

 

[Mike Payne]

TC Hawkin 50 caplock bought it because I had just seen Jeremiah Johnson. Next one was a custom flinter never looked back.

 

[BruceS]

Thompson Center New Englander 50 cal in early eighties when Ky first started a muzzleloader deer season. I took a buck in regular season and one in the muzzleloader season, both with round ball. I then purchased the 12 ga barrel for it and took squirrels,rabbits and quail. I have since moved into flintlocks with round ball and a sxs percussion shotgun for my hunting.

 

[user 48679]

I made my 1st muzzleloader about 1967 from a cutoff 8" length of a .444 Marlin's 24" barrel (free), a chunk/slab of walnut from a huge cut up desk ($1), an appropriately sized stove bolt ( $0.25 breechplug), a used mongrel pistol caplock ($20), and some small scrap steel strips ( trigger, breech tang & TG).

It was satisfying to shoot, and I sold it some years later to fund my 1st T/C ( a .45 Cherokee)

 

[Forester]

Navy Arms Zouave as a High School graduation present. You could not easily buy minnies locally, in 1971, so I had to start casting them. That started another rabbit hole to go down. Still have the Zouave.
.

 

[deermanok]

Zouave carbine, 58 caliber. Don't recall the maker. That was back in about 1974.

 

[Bergman3376]

A 45 Pedersoli Frontier flintlock. I still haven't got bit by the smoothbore bug. I've always enjoyed shooting and hunting with all sorts of guns. In addition I've always been interested in history especially 18th and early 19th century so it only made sense to get into traditional blackpowder guns. I had almost no experience or knowledge into the hobby. This forum gave me the knowledge to get me started, and now I tinker and experiment to learn more.

 

[ryoung14]

TC Inline. Got me started. Deserves credit for that.