What was your first Muzzleloader?

[RIDE-RED350R]

My first was a TC Renegade 50 I bought new in 1996 to start muzzleloader hunting with my dad who got his TC New Englander 50 new one year before. I still have it and it's still in excellent condition. Last weekend I let my 14 year old daughter who is a blossoming gun nut shoot it for the first time and she loves it. I'd like to find a nice TC White Mountain Carbine for her birthday in August.

Here is my Renegade and the receipt

 

[Ninering62]

Mine was a Ruger Old Army. I purchased it from a little gun shop on the east side of Indianapolis. I worked at a local Drug Store, and dropped by the shop just to browse on my lunch break. Saw the ROA and iirc I paid about $150 for it NIB. that was in 1975. I had been an unmentionable gun owner/shooter since I was a kid. Not sure what drove me to buy this, but I still have it. I also have my Dad's ROA which he purchased after seeing and shooting mine.
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Its mind boggling how the ROA's have increased in price to the astronomical prices they are selling for now. A brother in MML hooked me up with a real " deal of a lifetime " for the ROA I got a few months ago. I got some 220gr Kaido bullets for it ( I'm not a round ball shooter at all ". I use T7fff powder in it. Its really an awesome BP pistol - my first. I'll be turkey hunting with it very shortly & super excited about it too.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

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?

Not my first muzzleloader, two rifles of note.

The upper gun is a Pedersoli .50 calibre Alamo Rifle. I bought the gun at a pawnshop back in the late 80’s/early 90’s. It’s fairly light to carry in the woods. with a 7/8” barrel, 36” in length. 100 grains of ffg and a patched RB was my standard hunting load in this gun, putting shots into an 1 1/2” to 2” group at 100 yrds. I hunted with this gun for many many years, taking deer and lots of elk. The gun never failed me when I needed it to go boom. It was a meat making machine. When I retired my CVA .50 calibre Mountain Rifle, the Alamo Rifle became my goto gun. It’s lighter, and just as accurate. At the time I was enthralled by finally having a gun with a full stock. Everyone had half-stock CVAs, Thompson Centers, Lyman’s. I would shoot this gun up until I switched over to shooting flintlocks, around 15-20 years ago.

The lower gun was purchased at a Rendezvous; at that time it was a .32 calibre Dixie Tennessee Mountain rifle. I hunted small game with this little .32 for many years, but the accuracy was just never as good as my Pedersoli .32 BlueRidge percussion. So I recently had this gun rebarreled with a 36” Corleraine barrel, in .45 calibre. I wanted a .40 calibre, but after 3 weeks of searching, .45 is what I could find. This gun is probably my most accurate flintlock…well maybe I should say it’s my flintlock that I can shoot most accurately. Using 55 grains fffg and blue pillow ticking, at 50 yards the group is a single ragged hole, at 100 yards the gun groups right around 1 1/2”. I’ve become so impressed with the feel, balance, handle-ability, and accuracy of this rifle….that I went out and bought another Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle in .50 calibre. I just ordered a 36” Corleraine barrel in .54 calibre, so when it’s done I’ll have a matched pair of these rifle. The .54 should be 1 pound heavier than the .45…very excited about this project.

 

[crgator]

About 45 years ago, I shot my first muzzleloader. It was a friend's flintlock pistol. I said that one day, I would have to get one of my own. Well, about five years ago, I bought a Traditions Frontier flintlock for a retirement project (I was about 10 months away from retirement). Well, last month, I finally built the darn thing. I think it looks great, but have yet to get it to the range. I should be there Tuesday though. Once I finished the rifle, I decided it needed a pistol to go with it, so now I'm in the process of building a Traditions Trapper pistol, also in flintlock. I do have an 1851 Navy cap and ball from Pietta, that I shoot. It's fun, but I'm really looking forward to the flints.

 

[Yewbender]

My first was a brand new TC Firestorm. I was with some buddies at a gun shop and was looking for a Hawken to hunt Pa’s late season but they didn’t have any and the FS was the only one they had. My buddies were on me to buy it which i didn’t want a stainless/plastic gun. This went on for awhile, the shop owner told my buddy he will drop the price and i got it for $219.00.

Way back then i was kinda new to black powder. My buddies had flintlocks so i was able to shoot them many times. I learned a little but they were not big into shooting them as they had them for hunting in the late season.

 

[edw.marshall]

My first ML was a complete & original Robbins & Lawrence US M 1841 “Mississippi” rifle still in .54, that I bought from an old gentleman back in 1970 for $40!! A few months later, (like a total idiot) I swapped it at a local gunshop for an Italian repro Model 1803 Harpers Ferry rifle! The shop owner was probably trying to keep from laughing at my stupidity.

 

[TCMonts]

A TC Englander .50 thinking I would get the 12 ga barrel later. ended up getting a Navy Arms branded DP double instead.

 

[ffg]

D.G.W. kit, can't remember which one, over 60 years ago

 

[Elkhorse]

Used TC .50. Flint traded a .38 chiefs special for it in 83. Read the directions in the TC shooters guide and started. Still have the TC and the guide. Great gun.

 

[hinamanra]

My first was a T/C Hawken .45 in 1979 when I was 15. The Pennsylvania flintlock season went state wide that year and I wasn't ready to stop hunting when the reagular deer season ended. I knew absolutely nothing about flintlocks when I got it. I read the booklet that came with it, shot it all summer and learned enough to take a doe that season and been learning something everyday since. Now that's all that I hunt any firearms season with.

 

[ElDiablo]

T/C Hawken .50 kit in 1985. Still have it. Great rifle!

 

[Hawk54]

My first black powder was a Thompson Center 50 caliber Hawken rifle. My wife bought it for me as a Christmas present in 1977 from the JC Penney store in Anchorage, Alaska. I was stationed there in the Army. It was a kit. I put it together on our apartment kitchen table. I still have the rifle.

 

[vibraphonusrex]

My first one was a Euroarms 1853 3-band Enfield, because I joined a Civil War reenactment unit. I just took it to the range last week, after not firing it for 25+ years!

 

[One time]

A newTC Hawken .50 cal. In 1977.
90 grains of Goex 2f under a round ball in a poly patch. Very accurate and deadly.
Stolen in ‘96 when I lived in Alaska.

 

[flntlokr]

My first was a T/C Hawken kit I put together in 1976.

Me too, but about 10 years later. I have since gone completely flint, but my son has it now, and most likely his son will get it sooner or later.

 

[fox.44]

Hi all,
Mine was a .50 TC Hawken kit that i got thru a dealer friend of mine for 75.00 I have killed 2 deer and won some matches with it .Im a lefty and i line up the sights ,shut my eyes and sqeeze the trigger. I still have it..and both flint and percussion kits for it.
I have a Euroarms Kentuckyian that i never fired ,its marked .44 ,anyone know how they are to shoot.? Thanks Fox .44.

 

[swamperkk]

mine a 50 cal t/c hawkens back in the early 70's,,still have it still shoot it, then i got a 54 cal and a 58 cal

 

[swamperkk]

also i have a t/c 36 cal senca

 

[Codger Craig Wilcox]

1863 Springfield .58 cal musket. 1960 - I was 15, seller was a pal of mt Dad's, History Prof at U. Maryland. Shot it a lot at target matches, sold it back to him in '62 when we moved to Fla.
1973, built a .45 cal pistol, shot 1 doe with it, about 30 yards.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I was at my Dad’s house today, digging out an old CVA Mountain Rilfe kit that I bought decades ago. I found my 1st Muzzleloader a CVA Deringer pistol kit. I think I paid $27.00, or there abouts.
It was a nice little discovery today.