Why do muzzle loaders make you grin?

[robinghewitt]

I shoot a lot of muzzle loaders, but I still get a great big stupid grin plastered all over my face when I shoot something unusual.

You start with a 20 gauge and it's makes you grin, no harm in that, then you try an 8 bore, just to see what it's like and the grin gets bigger.

You think you can handle it, but before you know what's happenning you're out there firing punt guns and cannon.

It's a slippery slope.

But why does it happen? I never get the same grin with a cartridge gun, does that mean I haven't found the right one ::

 

[big bore 75]

It makes me grin every time those loud center fire folks at the range and I just pull out me smooth bore prime up the flash an area and drop a 100 grain blank down the barrel and pray the wind is blowing toward them and cut loose normally they pack it up and leave uless they declair war and pull out thiers and we have a good old friendly I'm a better shot than you are shoot off. :crackup: bb75

 

[musketman]

But why does it happen? I never get the same grin with a cartridge gun, does that mean I haven't found the right one ::

The nitrate in the powder is what's putting that grin on your face, it's making you impatient too... (that should put a grin on your wife's face) :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

Actually though, it is the simplicity of the muzzleloading system that does it, you are in control of what and how it shoots, not some distant cartridge company in a far off land...

You become the master of smoke and fire...

 

for me it is the fact that i did this no one ekse and it did it the same way ,my father and grandfather and great grandfather abd ancestors did it,also, the look on pwoplw face when they have naver heatd a bp in person. :front:

 

[Gary]

They don't make me grin, but the sense of achievement of mastering a muzzleloader exceeds that of a cartridge gun. There's a certain pleasure that accompany each discharge. Standing in that cloud of white, sulphorous smoke that envelopes you after the low authoritive bark of the muzzle imparts a joy as rewarding as a morning sunrise.

 

[bradmartin]

For as long as there has been a thought in man's head there has also been the need to build, provide, hunt. You've got it all right there! Sometimes you have built the gun. You always have to build the load. You could provide meat if you needed(that goes right along with the hunting). And as a bonus there is a big bang and smoke.
Its a good thing you are smiling. If you don't it means your dead. ::

 

[bob1961]

i like when at the range and start shooting and they put there CF's down and come over and start asking questions....i let them shoot a couple of rounds and when they can't hit the index card i practise with off hand....now that puts a big grin on my face..................bob

 

[leadball]

The grin comes from when you see a small herd of deer heading towards your blind, you put the sights on the fattest doe, squeeze, kaboom, through the smoke you see the other deer run and when it clears, your's is laying there dead on the snow, quick and humane. It is also the grin of knowing you will sink your incisors into some woods steaks and that you took it in a primitive way. No scopes, cartridges, high velocity magnum bullets, carbon coated clothes, doe in heat scent, cover scent that probably doesn't match any smell in your area anyway, infrared cameras, bait, ect. ect. It's just me, my orange vest(to be legal), 490 prb over 85 grains of 3fg real bp, and watching the wind while hiding behind any natural blind i can find. That's what puts the grin on my face ::

 

[Halftail]

I "Skin Up" :: every time I pick up one of my Muzzleloaders!Just earlier today I was on my way for a spin into my hunting camp and Day dreaming about the first muzzleloader I ever bought.It was 13 years ago and It was an Italian Hawkins,328 of the queens Dollors.I was so facinated by this firearm that when I left the Wharf for a 3 week Swordfishing trip I took along the 5 page owners manual and read it every night before I turned in.
I couldn't get Black Powder off of my mind.Even now when I'm having a nasty day at work I usually put myself in that "Happy place".My happy place is either at the range making smoke or in one of my stands waiting to make some more.
Anyone else know what I'm talking about?

 

[Jon in MI]

I know exactly what your talking about. Life has been hard lately (not complaining) and all I have to do to fine my smile is to steal away to my work bench and spend some time working on my tulle kit or make some smoke at the range(not hunting season yet). The cares of the world just melt away.

:RO:

 

[WRussell]

For me, as with some previously expressed opinions, it's being closer to the technology - putting pretty much the whole thing together (except brewing up the powder, which I am happy to leave to someone in a bunker somewhere) as opposed to buying into someone else's off-the-shelf system. Maybe I'm saying any ditz can put a cartridge in a gun and pull the trigger - no offense ::

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

When I was growing up, I absolutely HATED history! :curse:
But that all changed when I shot my first muzzleloader which brought history into the realm of reality. :: :: ::

 

[Trina]

Muzzlelaoders make me smile because it usually means a good time with DH and good friends... I like shooting Muzzleloaders because they dont kick nearly as bad as the modern rifles, they have more character, and I like the smell of the smoke :haha:

Probably the biggest smile I ever had associated to shooting a muzzleloader, was after I shot the first shot out of the rifle I had just finished. That first shot was a year in coming...It didnt blow up so I was very thankful as well :haha: :haha:

There are some days I cant hit the black in the target, and there are some days I cant miss the black in the target, but I am always haveing fun when Im shooting

 

[Stumpkiller]

Well think about it. Here, you're banging this hunk o' rock hooked to a Rube Goldberg contraption of exposed leaf springs and things that hop and flip all over the place to make this huge cloud of smoke and launch inefficient projectiles at 1/100th of the rate a modern semi-automatic. It's the sheer silliness that such a thing works at all that make it fun. It's like you're creating magic to bring life to these quarter-of-a-millennium old designs.

And, as Cookie noted, they attract the right kind of crowd and build memories that the smell of powder brings back.

I dig out my pump .22 LR and that one brings back memories of Grandpa, Dad, my brother and cousins popping away at targets in Grandpa's back yard. * sigh *

 

[CrackStock]

Robin,

Smoke!

Fire!

Noise!

Hmmmm...

All good things in my book!

This is one of those situations in which one simply states that, "If I have to explain it, you really would not understand!"

CS

 

[Cruzatte]

It's a beautiful late autumn Saturday morning on the prairie, the coffee is all drunk up, and breakfast is overwith. The first cigar of the day is a memory, but the aroma along with the smoke from the little fire that cooked the meal still hangs in the air. It's time to get the guns dirty.

The leaves of the Osage orange, hackberry, and thorny locust are all shades of yellow and brown, the sky is that retna burning, eye popping, nearly psychadelic blue of Indian Summer; the sun a golden orb intensifying the gold of the leaves on the trees as you hike over to the firing line your powder horn and bullet pouch slung over your shoulder, your rifle in hand. Your shooting buddy bets you a cigar that he'll hit the sillouett target before you do. The bet is on, and so's the game. But to be sporting about it, and because he's so confident that he can out shoot you, he gives you first shot. Carefully you measure the powder, just the right amount. Then you pull a strip of well greased patching from its tin and place with it a ball weighing slightly more than half an ounce atop the muzzle, and push the patch and ball flush with your thumb. Taking your knife from its sheath, you deftly cut the excess cloth away, put the knife back into its sheath, and with the loading rod, push the patched sphere all the way home. Stepping up to the firing line, you thumb the cock back and prime. One, two, three slow breaths, in and out escape before you raise the long rifle to your shoulder. You cock the rifle and set the trigger all in one motion, line up the sights, let out half of the last breath as you squeeze the trigger.

Your meditation is interrupted in a flash of lightning and a roar of thunder and a cloud of blue-gray smoke obscures your view of every thing in the world around you. The telltale clank tells both of you that your buddy owes you a cigar.

That's what makes me smile.

Cruzatte

 

[David Teague]

Hello All,

I don't think "smile" fits in my case...

I just like the zen art of the smoothbore flintlock on a summer day.

The measuring of the powder.

The loading of the ball (patched, with wad or lose).

The priming of the pan.

The cocking of the piece.

Aquiring the sight picture.

The press of the trigger.

The follow though as the gun discharges.

The blowing down the barrel (Hey, I'm old school on this).

The brushing the pan

The picking the vent hole.

The wiping the flint & frizzen.

The Grounding the firearm.

The measuring of the powder....

It just give me a sense of well being...

Cheers,

DT

 

[Zonie]

I'm not sure if it is just taking two enjoyable hobbies like shooting and reloading and putting them together or if it's the He He He! I get when things work out right.

You all know what I mean.
There you are with your trusty smokepole pouring the powder down the barrel. You hear "Hay, look over there. There's one of those old fashioned guns the Pilgrims had."
"Ya, Ah saw one of um tha othar nite on sum sho on TV. It takes 'bout five minutes aftar he pulls tha trigger afore it will fire."
"I bet he can't even hit that target out there. They can only shoot about 50 yards, you know."
"Dam Roy...I thin that .30 calibar Smashankiller Magnum of yers done brok ma shoulder". "Hay look, he's a gonna shoot that thing. I bet it just makes a big boom an he don't even hit that target!"

CRACK

"Kan ye see iffen he hit it? That dam smoke's a makin my I's burn."

"Dam! Would you look at the size of that hole in the target? An it took out the whole X ring too!!"


:: :: :crackup: :crackup: :: ::

 

[roundball]

Well think about it. Here, you're banging this hunk o' rock hooked to a Rube Goldberg contraption of exposed leaf springs and things that hop and flip all over the place to make this huge cloud of smoke and launch inefficient projectiles at 1/100th of the rate a modern semi-automatic. It's the sheer silliness that such a thing works at all that make it fun. It's like you're creating magic to bring life to these quarter-of-a-millennium old designs.

That's been my feeling too...on the one hand, a flint lock is a pretty straight forward piece of machinery that just from looking at it should work.

On the other hand it's quite a little marvel in engineering considering when it was designed and the tools available to make them.

Lastly, there are some complexities, given the number of relationships that all have to work together as an orchestra does to perform properly & reliably.

So every trip to the range and every deer taken with a flintlock still leaves me smiling and shaking my head, a little bit in awe that that the contraption works at all, and that they work so well.

My only regret is that I discovered flintlocks so late in life...:redthumb:

 

[Bob J]

There's a lot about shooting muzzleloaders that makes you smile, I'll mention just two;

1. When you take your new flintlock to the range for the first time and, after a few rounds, the range officer says, "Man, that thing's as fast as a percussion!"

2. When you offer an interested onlooker the opportunity to shoot a muzzleloader for the first time, the astonished look they get upon firing, being wreathed in smoke, and hearing that they made a "good shot".

:thumbsup: :RO: