Who started it for you?

My uncle had a 54[url] cal.renegade[/url] that I shot a few times when I was 18.Then when I met my dad he had a 50 cal.tc hawkin,I was about 20 then and got to shoot it.I didnt even think about a muzzleloader again till about 8 months ago.Now thats the only gun I want to shoot.I new the basics about them then joined this place and have got alot of good advice.Cant wait till muzzleloader season,it will be the first time hunting with one.Only 4 and a half weeks.

I was like M. Roberts. My ancestors were at a place called Surgoinville, Tenn. Hawkens Co. The town was named for Maj[url] J.F.Surgoin[/url] one of my Grt.Gf.
We had an old rifle handed down from that time. It had been converted to cap during its western migration. My Great uncle showed me how to use it when I was about 12 yrs old. The only powder we had was blasting powder. So match heads for caps and stump blower powder. Thats how I started in the early 1950s.

mr. sindelar at camp firelands in 1972. thanks mr. s for a lifetime hobby. pretty sure it was a springfield.

Whoever was writing the muzzleloading pieces in Outdoor Life in the early to mid 70's. I think it was Val Forgett? Sam Fadala maybe?

Well, back in about 1980, my father was stationed in Germany. While we were there, my father joined a local gun club to shoot. They shot a lot of black powder, and my father got interested. He bought an Investarm Hawken kit, a few pistol kits and some revolvers. He shot a bit, but I never did. I helped build the Hawken and a CVA Philadelphia Derringer. Flash forward to the late 80's, and I graduated college. My father passed on graduation day (which also happened to be Fathers Day - what a bummer that was...), and I went off to be in the Army. Upon my return from training, my mother told me that all of the guns were gone! I was furious and heartbroken. Flash forward another 10 years and my mother passes. My sister is cleaning out the house and finds all but one of the guns!! I got them ALL!!!! I was so tickled. I joined the forum and rounded up the odds and ends and actually shot the Hawken my father and I built. It was so cool to do that, and such a relaxing way to shoot. So, after all of that blathering, my father planted the seed, but it grew after joining the forum!

I guess the biggest influence would be my dad. He's never been a muzzleloader himself. He told me stories about Davy Crockett and played them out with me when I was a boy. I never really gave up my interest, but also never had a chance to do muzzleloading until I was in college. At some point he bought a Jack Garner flintlock TN mountain rifle, but never used it; just hung it on the wall. Later he picked up a used Charles Daly Hawken, but it was worthless; had been abused and not maintained. When this happened I was about to go deer hunting, so I got the flintlock off the wall, and with the help of my neighbor, who is a custom flintlock builder (Steve Davis), I was able to learn to load and shoot it. Dad gave me that gun for Christmas that year. All my other info has come from places like this board or my neighbor. Actually, I'm going to try to repay the favor to my Dad, as I'm building him a gun now.

I just decided I wanted to hunt with muzzleloaders and learned on my own.

Granddad took me squirrel hunting with a Stevens single-shot .22 when I was 7 (and many other hunting trips thru the years). He skinned my first buck (I helped but mostly watched :grin: )taken with a .257 Roberts that was a Christmas gift from him. Dad gave me a T.C Hawken .50 for Christmas when I was 13. Its a tack-driver today, 28 years later. Many of my best memories are times a-fishin' or afield with Dad and Granddad.

Well this is a sad story.I just lost my best friend that has helped over the years.Im really going to miss him because hunting season is right here on top of me and I still have alot of work to do to my gun so I can hunt.Sorry that I am rambling Im just really missing him.Hes taught what little I know about muzzle loaders.So i you guys will have to bail me out now.

WildatHeart said:

This board. :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

... a kit last winter and plenty of trial and mostly error down at the range....

Sorry, it was TV and ole Dan'el! Back in the (censored)'s, there wasn't much besides Gorge Nonte and others, and even then the advise was short on details. It was buy one and start shooting it...which could hae had serios results if God didn't look kindly on idiots! It was sort of pour some in and see if it hurts too much! Thank goodness even the early ones were pretty well put together!!

Well for I got my start when my wife bought a tc hawken kit and then I met an old fellow named Leon . Leon is in his mid 80s and he loves to as he puts it burn powder , he says he likes black powder cause he isn't sure they have perfected that smokeless stuff yet . He's a gunsmith from the old school , his favorite gun is his hatfield 50 caliber and he's a crack shot with it to . Anyhow under his inflewnce I'm up to 6 or 7 black powder guns so far , I figure I only need a few more to get by .

Late as usual”¦ I have been shooting since I was 4 or 5. Remember when there were shooting clubs at school? You could even letter in it. At 13 I started shooting in the NSSA with a 1863 Springfield, I even took it to school to do a history report with it, not today. I used to cast my own minis , along with lead soldiers and sinkers.(Back then there was no lead poisoning ) It wasn’t a year or so later when I really discovered long rifles, I know they were out there a’la Davey and Dan but had never seen one in the flesh. I was over at a friend’s house and heard this explosion, his dad had just dispatched a ground hog with a long rifle out the door of his shop; from that day on I have had the bug. He had a collection of originals and would also make one once in awhile. He had a lot of old parts around that he had collected, some just broken stocks with parts attached, some forearms with barrels, straight and swamped, sights, thimbles, nose caps, pins or keys and inlays still in them. Some of the broken off butt stocks he had had patch boxes in them that still worked. He was form Broadway Va and had been collecting rifles and parts his whole life. He had original bags and horns that went with most of the rifles. He used original barrels and locks that he would recondition, for stocks he used walnut; he was a cabinet maker by trade and had what seemed like an unending supply of it. The piece that he cut my stock out of was so big that it took both of us to move it. He got me started with an old barrel that he helped me fresh out and a flint lock that he had redone. He had been a member of the NMLRA for many years and kept every Muzzle Blast that he had ever gotten, enough of them to keep me reading late into the night for a couple of years. They used to have a monthly column on patch boxes and I traced a copy of every one, still have them. All of the work was done by hand, if he didn’t have the right tool he would modify one or make it. The rifle had a single trigger, one inlay, a half moon in the cheek piece, a toe plate, a simple daisy patch box and the barrel was keyed, it was straight about 40 inches long, he thought it had been cut down and about 40 Cal. I made a bag and horn to go with it and carried with me hunting, trapping, fishing, basically any place I could get away with it. I wanted to build another so I sold what I had, to make a long story short I ended up with a Russ Hamm Bedford Co, flint lock and a .36 cal, 13/16s Douglas barrel and was off and running.
Fast forward 45 years and 19 rifles later I am still running. I would hope that the 15 rifles that are out there are still being shot.

TC

I got a kit from my father and built it, but had no idea what to do, so I got a copy of the Lyman Black Powder Manual on the advice of John Collins of US Fish and Wildlife. (Retired) This left me with a lot of questions, but I successfully fired my first few rounds. Then Tom Cogburn of the Bayou Muzzleloaders in Louisiana gave me some help which got me my first ML deer. But things really came together when I discovered Dutch Schoultz's system:
[url] www.blackpowderrifleaccuracy.com/[/url]

I am pleased to have corresponded with the gentleman for several years now.

CS

Like many here I got started in shooting/hunting as a lad with my Dad (wish he was still around) and got up early on cold frosty morns many a time and spent many nights afield with him and my fiest-terrier mix.
Fast forward 10 yrs and I had some rifles and a Ruger MK1 that I got to be pretty handy with. Another 5 years and I traded a knife I made for a CVA frontier capper pistol that had been put together from a kit, but a little crudely. I got powder, balls, patches, powder measure, caps and even TC ball patch lube with it. The fella told me the workings of loading, I tryed some weak loads to start with and that got the ball rolling.
Still have the pistol and added 2 rifles (sidelocks, one with synthetic stock) and have had several cap&ball revolvers, now own 2 - one a Ruger SS which shoots really well. Have taken game with all of them, 2 wild hogs with the .44 revolvers- both one-shot kills.
Planning on buying a smoothie, .62 probably unless I come across a really good deal on a .75
Good shootin' 2 all! :v

Meself, always been a history nut, so as a kid (pushing 70 now) got a no name halfstock .36 nipple gun, seemed the logical thing to do. I remember it well, was marked as having a cast steel barrel.

My dad, who knew more than a little about firearms, (he was born in 1886) gave me an empty 32-20 case, so that was my powder measure.

Shooting a smoke pole at a scouting event. and of course this great forum :thumbsup:

Well Dan'l & Davy did make an impression on my young mind.
And I saw Jeremiah Johnson multiple times.
The Bicentennial caught my attention...

Then, a high school buddy took me out shootin' his "Hawken" one time. I was impressed.
A few years later I bought a CVA Frontier Carbine 'cause it was cheap. Didn't know where to get powder or how to clean it and was real fuzzy on how to shoot it so it got stuck in the back of the gun cabinet and forgotten for about 10 years.

A couple of years ago I met a real good guy named Ron. We got to talkin' huntin' and he is a muzzleloader guy... Got me thinkin' about that CVA.
When I applied for, and got, a muzzleloader season deer permit, I figgered it was time to learn.
Ron was very helpful with enough good advise to get me goin'. Was having some trouble with the Pyro I was using and he hooked me up with some real Black. :thumbsup:

Now I'm an addict... :shake:

My ex-girlfriends Dad got me started. Thanks Tim M. The first time I picked up that .54 Renegade and shot it I got the bug. He's introduced me to the life of Rondy's and shooting matches. I would borrow his gun and would beat him. He said, "I have to sell this gun to you because you keep outshooting me." Well, I bought it and am still learning. Been hunting and shooting since I can remember.

Always had an interest in things primitive, my Dad taught me how to shoot mordern firearms, but Dale McIntosh of Maxwell, Ia. introduced me to flinters. My first 2 rifles were .50 CVA percussion kits. Got myself a flinter now and am quite satisfied with the decision. Only wished I'd done it sooner.