I'm going to leave some food for thoughts here. As I understand, traditional muzzleloading was almost dead 100 years ago. There began to grow an interest in the archaic, impractical and misunderstood subject of black powder muzzleloading. It grew from into a true grassroot movement of men that were inspired and motivated to find a way to participate in something they were passionate about. As I understand, there wasn't a lot of options available to these men but they made a way and blazed a path for future generations. In their basements and garages and with the scantest of resources they began to recreate and started a revolution that today we reap the benefits from. I feel like the real loss is the loss of that spirit. These men left us a legacy that few of the people in this hobby still possess. That's the real tragedy. If you can't buy it, make it. If you can't afford it, make it or make do. You can still buy a 300$ used Lyman or TC. It costs about 10$ to make a leather pouch out of repurposed leather. I have more respect for a skinny kid with a cheap generic sidelock running around in the woods in a synthetic coonskin cap living out a dream that he read out of a Buckskinner, Allan Eckert, or foxfire book he got from the library than I do for someone who can afford a perfectly researched rifle made by a well respected builder. I'm no longer that kid and I can afford any rifle out there that I would be interested in. I'll never be more excited about a gun than the day when there was a brown ups box sitting on the kitchen table when I got home from school containing a Lyman Trade Rifle from Dixie Gun Works that I had saved my chore money for. Believe it or not there is still a lot of young people out there that are or would be interested given half a chance. It's never been easier or more accessible. Here in western Colorado fast food joints are paying 18 to 20$ per hour for help. That's 80 hours for a Kibler, 160 hours for a custom, 320 hours for the nicest rifle most of us would want. I know that not everyone makes great money, but if you're circumstances are normal there are evening part time jobs that you can get that would allow you to get something very nice in a year. If that's too much of a sacrifice then you really don't want it. It may not be like 70 years ago but neither is the average person in America like they were 70 years ago.
BTW this is what I tell myself every time I get grumpy about current events. I went from I can't afford it to building a leman trade rifle, a Tennessee squirrel rifle 80% done, several projects that I'm researching. When I started 12 years ago, I couldn't afford the price of the parts or so I thought. I bought a GRRW barrel from a classified ad from a son of a man that used to work at GRRW and had passed away. I showed it to a friend of gunsmith friend of mine that used to build similar rifles back in Dodge City KS in the 80's with a group of amateur gun builders. He gave me a piece of maple that came from some bridge planks he had found back east somewhere that had some figure in the wood. I bought a breech plug from TOTW and he showed me how to inlet the barrel. I would go over every Thursday evening and we would sit around shooting the bull and do a little work on the rifle. I saved a little money every week and by the time the barrel was inlet, I had enough money for a L&R trade lock. We made the sights, and lugs, and I bought parts and pieces to finish the rifle. With all the starts and stops life brings, and having time in the winter months it took 8 years to build the rifle. During that time it changed my life. It quit being about having a rifle and learning a discipline. Life is much different know. I can buy whatever I want but I would rather dream about it and think that I'll build it in time. I don't have a rack of rifles I used to covet but I enjoy our hobby more than ever.
I wish our hobby had more DIYers like the ones I grew up reading about. That's the real heart of the sport. If the heart is missing, that's when the sport dies. 1000 people passionate about something is better than 1 million armchair quarterbacks.
I agree with him too.
