• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Next Generation Smoke

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Rock Home Isle

54 Cal.
Joined
Feb 13, 2021
Messages
1,989
Reaction score
3,169
Location
Johnstown Colorado
I’ve been makin smoke for longer than is comfortable to admit. I enjoy it, but I’m noticing more and more that the people standing around me, shooting next to me, are just as grey as me…and I’m actually considered one of the youngsters in my club.

I have 2 grandsons, they are wonderful young men of 8 and 4. Last year I bought a .50 calibre youth smoothbore, and they love it. Shoots a .50 calibre RB strait & true; the 8 year old can hit a 6” gong consistently at 50 yrds.

Few months ago, one of the club members
re-barreled my Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle from .32 calibre to .45 calibre. He called me up one afternoon. He’d seen my grandkids coming to the shoots, throwing tomahawks and shooting their smoothbore and he wanted to take that left-over .32 calibre barrel and make a youth rifle for my boys. We worked out a price “range” and he built these boys a most beautiful youth flintlock rifle.

70D1E35E-B0E7-4BFD-A740-F3B68D8027F8.jpeg


I’m fortunate to have these firearms, so that my grandkids will be able to enjoy this sport. It’s hard finding youth muzzleloaders. I know of NO current manufacturer that supports bringing youth into our traditional muzzleloading sport.

What youth activities do you do? Show us your youth equipment and tell us about it.
 
Last edited:
The club I used to belong to held a event called Colorado Youth Outdoors. The kids with a adult would move in groups to try all types of shooting. I was involved in the muzzleloader part. A brief over view of the guns and gear was given then each kid would be paired up with a experienced person to shoot a gun of his choice. A long day but we’ll spent.
 
The club I used to belong to held a event called Colorado Youth Outdoors. The kids with a adult would move in groups to try all types of shooting. I was involved in the muzzleloader part. A brief over view of the guns and gear was given then each kid would be paired up with a experienced person to shoot a gun of his choice. A long day but we’ll spent.
What a small world.

I was a CYO instructor in our local high school for about 5 years…then the crash of 2008 hit, finances got very tight, and they pulled the program out of the Colorado high schools, due to budget concerns. CYO’s still around, they have a beautiful facility, just off I-25, up near Ft Collins, but they had to completely re-evaluate their business plan.

Great program.
 
Took my grandsons out shooting at the range today. The weather has not been cooperative, so this was their first time shooting their new little .32 calibre.

0EACA6AA-EC25-49DE-AEBE-F4A688C371F7.jpeg

This is the 8 year old…he’s been shooting a .50 calibre percussion smoothbore, so today he learned how to charge the pan, pick the flash hole and shoot a flintlock.

76D8D59F-FBE3-4DCE-BE7B-9846291CECC2.jpeg

We got to range at around 10:00 this morning. Beautiful day to be shooting. The kids left with my wife at around 1:30…I stayed till 3:00 before I called it quits.

F0D1190D-ED34-477F-8566-7DE1002BEF83.jpeg

He did all his shooting from the bench at 25 yrds. Had a good group going, and then he got excited.
 
Unfortunately, most of my grandkids are on the east coast. I took them a 50 caliber CVA Hawken rifle last year, along with everything to shoot it. I found out that there are no Public Ranges or Public Lands to shoot on. There's a Muzzle Loader club nearby. However, Shooting Matches aren't usually the place for practice.

In addition to teaching my kids, I’ve been involved in Boy Scout Merit Badges and Rendezvous. Before the Pandemic, one of the clubs I belong to used to have a Youth Day at the Range. We’d set up our muzzies and let the kids shoot them. I have about a half-dozen rifles I’ve bought over the years for Scouts and ML classes.

We really need to find ways to get kids involved. We’ve actually had several ML Clubs fold up due to a lack of younger folks.

Thanks for posting the photos of your grandsons!

Walt
 
Took my grandsons out shooting at the range today. The weather has not been cooperative, so this was their first time shooting their new little .32 calibre.

View attachment 127976
This is the 8 year old…he’s been shooting a .50 calibre percussion smoothbore, so today he learned how to charge the pan, pick the flash hole and shoot a flintlock.

View attachment 127977
We got to range at around 10:00 this morning. Beautiful day to be shooting. The kids left with my wife at around 1:30…I stayed till 3:00 before I called it quits.

View attachment 127979
He did all his shooting from the bench at 25 yrds. Had a good group going, and then he got excited.
Great! But I would like to see the young gentleman wearing glasses.
 
Great! But I would like to see the young gentleman wearing glasses.

My thought also . . .especially shooting the flinter!

The boy is far too young to have PREVENTIBLE vision problems!!
 
Back
Top