Skychief
69 Cal.
A friend and co-worker of mine stopped by a few days ago for a visit. After a couple of iced teas in the shade of the porch, the conversation turned to my trip to Friendship. This lead to a "show and tell" session, with me dragging out one muzzleloader after the other for his perusal and a brief description from me.
Of the rifles he handled, he kept a "Tennessee" rifle on his lap for an unusual amount of time. I asked which of the rifles he liked the most. He didn't hesitate making his pick. He half-jokingly mentioned that we ought to shoot it. That's all I needed to hear and in minutes I had the rifle loaded and my bag over my shoulder.
He asked if muzzleloaders kicked much and I said "naw, just in Hollywood" (loaded 50 grains under the prb). We went over a few basics regarding the double set triggers and so forth.
He took a bead on a 4" swinger at 35 yards though I urged him to shoot at a 12" gong at the same distance. You might guess that his first shot with a flinter was a bulls eye, and , you would not be mistaken. If only you could have seen his face and the way he kept studying the lines of the graceful rifle after this.
Longer story shorter... we shot the rifle for the next couple of hours until he noticed he was really late for supper with his wife.
The next morning he called with more questions than an adolescent (he's 56 years young). The one that I really loved to hear was "what would you recommend I get for my first muzzleloader, and remember, it has to have a flint lock"? :thumbsup:
Then it was my turn to mimic a kid, smiling ear to ear as though I heard the ice cream truck coming. :wink:
I think he's "hooked" pretty good! Once I help get him his own rifle, he'll be in the boat!:haha:
Skychief.
Of the rifles he handled, he kept a "Tennessee" rifle on his lap for an unusual amount of time. I asked which of the rifles he liked the most. He didn't hesitate making his pick. He half-jokingly mentioned that we ought to shoot it. That's all I needed to hear and in minutes I had the rifle loaded and my bag over my shoulder.
He asked if muzzleloaders kicked much and I said "naw, just in Hollywood" (loaded 50 grains under the prb). We went over a few basics regarding the double set triggers and so forth.
He took a bead on a 4" swinger at 35 yards though I urged him to shoot at a 12" gong at the same distance. You might guess that his first shot with a flinter was a bulls eye, and , you would not be mistaken. If only you could have seen his face and the way he kept studying the lines of the graceful rifle after this.
Longer story shorter... we shot the rifle for the next couple of hours until he noticed he was really late for supper with his wife.
The next morning he called with more questions than an adolescent (he's 56 years young). The one that I really loved to hear was "what would you recommend I get for my first muzzleloader, and remember, it has to have a flint lock"? :thumbsup:
Then it was my turn to mimic a kid, smiling ear to ear as though I heard the ice cream truck coming. :wink:
I think he's "hooked" pretty good! Once I help get him his own rifle, he'll be in the boat!:haha:
Skychief.
