My first muzzleloader was?

[Slamfire]

A CVA synthetic stock Bobcat. My youngest son gave it to me for Xmas 4or years ago. He spent $60 for the rifle, I spent about $100 for the stuff to go with it. :shake: It shoots great, but is ill balanced. I'm gonna mate the barrel on my underhammer frame, along with a T/C .56 smoothbore barrel.

 

[bwhoffman]

My first, before I found BP long guns, was a Ruger Old Army. bought it while in college. paid 125, was like new. traded straight up for an older colt 22 that I just had to have. still have the colt, dont shoot it much anymore, but that 125 ROA is worth a dang lot of plews these days.

iffa woulda coulda shoulda. I kick myself in the exit everytime I think about it!

 

[Walks Alone]

Technically my first was home made BP cannons in the late 50's - a step up from the firecracker/marble cannons I had made since the mid 50's. Made my own black powder for the cannons (and also for tin foil rockets). Wonder how I ever survived my childhood.

Bought two TC Hawkens in the early/mid 70's, one a 50 and the other a 54. Don't remember exactly what year, but they were early TC's and I hunted both mule deer and elk with them for several years.

 

[shootemup]

Thompson Center Renegade, bought it in 1989. Didn't know anything about black powder, didn't know anybody who knew anything about black powder. Just wanted to extend my hunting season (didn't know much about that either).

That gun was a mess, threw balls all over the place. One of the escutcheons fell off one day because of wood rot. I sold the gun to a guy who wanted to be a Civil War reenactor with fair warning about the bore and the wood, AND that it wasn't correct for the Civil War. He didn't care.

I missed it and the wife gave me a CVA Hawken for Christmas the following year. Carried that gun for several seasons (still have it) but eventually got hooked bad enough to begin swappin' and tradin' bp guns, now have several TC Renegades plus a couple of TVM's, a Jackie Brown, a TOTW Hawken and a couple of custom pieces.

Got WAY more than I can afford in this addiction er, hobby...

Good thread. :thumbsup:

Spot

 

[shmrck1]

gmww,
Me also...One in .50 and one in .54 from
Cabela's,both percussion,both Investarms and
got them both at the same time.Although I replaced
the barrel on the .50 with a GM they both still
shoot great at least within my limitations.Not sure about the year but it was a bit after I
married my wife and that was 22 years ago.
snake-eyes :hmm:

 

[sundog]

So long ago. My first was an underhammer with a brass recever and a "V" shaped brass forearm. It was a kit gun that another student had built. Browned barrel and tack work on the wooden buttstock.
I dont remember who made the kit but I seem to think it was an H&R. It was .50 cal and shot very well but I sold it because I got tired of the caps falling off the nipple.

 

[DougMPhoto]

First was a CVA Colonial Pistol Kit (percussion)...around 1978 I would guess. Then next was a CVA Flintlock Big Bore Mountain Rifle .54 Kit, it shoots great. Replaced the lock several years ago...fires all the time now. Built my own PA Longrifle from scratch (local college has classes.)

A KY pistol (CVA Flint kit)...
Pre-made Queen Anne Flintlock and a
CVA 1851 Navy Revolver .36.

I still have all of them.

 

[8905c]

Got my first BP gun in 1979. A TC Hawken kit in .45 cal. Although I have acquired others, I still have that rifle and like it very much.
From back in the day when TC used nice walnut and it has a beautiful stock.
8905c

 

[Mountainman56]

Saw a T/C Hawken in kit form in a sporting goods store in Swift Current Saskatchewan back in 1975 when I still lived in Canada. Never saw one before and never knew anyone else who had one but I knew I just had to have it. Learned how to make it work by trial and error mostly. It was a .45 calibre and shot incredibly well.....of course I didn't know that at the time. I thought they all shot like that (it may have had a little to do with the fact that my eyes still worked right back then also). I was just lucky that the first one I saw was a quality rifle. I wish I still had it.

 

sheesh, some of you guys are as old as me...the first one I 'had' [I shared it with a high school buddy] was a Remington Zouave .58 musket--ca. 1960/61 when the Civil War centennial kicked off. That thing was accurate. The first one that was all mine was much later--a H&A deluxe model underhammer in .36 with a tang peep sight that I bought ca. 1970. That thing was REAL accurate. I was into sub-minute of angle shooting in those days--and had good young hawkeyes [20/15]. The first rifle I built--and still my favorite shooter--was in 1978, a .45 longrifle of my own design, modeled after some eastern PA longguns pictured in books that I liked the lines of...I've shown pics of it here before...always loved the longrifles.

 

[Juice Jaws]

Ruger .44 cap lock rev. 1973

 

[MikeChapin]

My first was a CVA Colonial pistol kit my grandmother gave me as a graduation present. I put it together and played with it a little. I still have it but it is a wall hanger now. About a year later I bought a Navy Arms Hawken Hunter in .58 and I was fully addicted.

The next year I got a CVA Mountain Rifle .50 and my wife bought me a Navy Arms 12 gauge SxS for my birthday. A year or so later I got into building the things. That was thirty years ago and I'm still enjoying it just as much as I did back then.

 

[George Holton]

:grin: My first was one I built myself at the age of 14 in 1944. From a barrel I found in a dump,a stock chopped out of a 2x8 and the lock from a flint type cap gun.The barrel was held to the stock with (friction tape,not the plastic kind) It shot was reasonably accurate. Dupont was 55 cents a can! My father found out about it and made it go away. The man acrost the street was a gunsmith, he took pity on me and taught me how to make a rifle the hard but proper way. We freshed out an old barrel,Made a lock from bits and pieces, carved out a proper stock from walnut. wish I still had it.Kidlike I swapped it off for a car,I think it was for a 1935 ford. I was well and truely hooked on black powder and flints some 66 years ago. Bob

 

[slowpokebr549]

I found a .45 Jukar in the local pawnshop in 1982.It was a real POS.It must of been someones unfinished kit because the stock was still unstained.I took it home for the grand sum of 50 bucks. My dad made fun of me for as long as it took for me to get it shooting. Turns out that is was a .44 not a .45 and it only went off about one time out of three.It was a tackdriver though. I put a lot of work into it but I can honestly say that I don't miss it much.

 

[squirejohn]

The very first ML I had was about 60 years ago when I was 10 years old. I liked to play "guns" and an uncle who owned a gun shop gave me an old beat up double barrel shotgun with no hammers. I guess he and my parents didn't think I could get into trouble with that relic - WRONG. I found that by dropping a 2" firecracker quickly followed by a marble I could cause some damage. Of course I had to shoot at something with the barrel tilted up or the marble would roll out. I'm lucky I didn't kill myself or someone else. The only damage I caused before the gun was taken away from me was a hole through one of my mothers pots.

 

[boar]

Mine was a TC Hawken.54 kit I paid 150.00 in 1982. It was a shooter. Shot my first deer with it in fall of 83. My grandson has it now. Dilly

 

[BEP]

In 1963, at the ripe old age of 13, I purchased a Hy Hunter .79 caliber flintlock pistol, marked "Made In West Germany" on the lock. Price was around $20.00 or so. I picked cherries at a local orchard for several weeks to earn the money. It was a pretty well-made pistol and I had it for ten years or so. I finally gave it to a friend, who had always admired it, as a thanks for a huge favor. Every now and then I see one for sale on GunBroker and am tempted to bid.

 

[nw_hunter]

CVA Mt. Rifle 50 cal..........Early 70's

 

[wvbuckbuster]

My first was a .16 gauge double barrel that I got from my father who got it from his uncle. By this time the nipples were smashed flat and the wrist was cracked. Two older gents in our area had mercey on me and re-threaded 2 new nipples and fixed the stock. We then took it out to test it with a proof load of about 4 drams of powder I think with the butt stuck in a tire. Tied a L-O-N-G rope to it and pulled the trigger. All held together and used it to take a rabbit and squirrel. Even got to use it for a English project. This was about 1973. Still have it but have not shot it in years.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

An older cousin gave me an original Ohio half-stock hog rifle in about 1956, but I had shot Dad's ML 12ga double some years before. That old rifle was more-or-less .36 caliber with most of the bore pitted away. The breechplug and nipple drum were both so loose I could turn them with fingers. I wrapped sewing thread around the metal threads of the drum to provide enough friction to stay in alignment with the hammer. No problem with the breechplug, it was held straight by a wood screw. I shot that thing a lot!