When and Why did you get started?

[nchawkeye]

1975, I was 20...I alway had an interest in history and used to go to Williamsburg in the early 70s to go to the gunshop...

I was nine in 1964 and Daniel Boone came on Thursday nights at 8:00...This along with The Wonderful World of Disney with Davy Crockett were tremendous influences on a fellow my age...

Thanks Fess Parker... :hatsoff:

 

[Semisane]

In 1961 a sixteen year old kid was wandering around a gun show in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, and came upon a table with a stack of funny looking rusty double barrel shotguns. These things had two hammers, two triggers, and a stick hung under the barrel. And boy, they were cheap. Well, that young fellow had been washing cars on week-ends for a buck a car and had money to burn. So he turned over thirty of his hard earned dollars for one of those things without knowing a thing about them, other than it looked to be about 20 gauge. The guy who sold him that gun sure had a funny look on his face - said something about "wall hangers".

Back home, the kid took the barrel off of the stock and cleaned up the wood with mineral spirits and rubbed it down with furniture polish. It looked pretty good. Then he rubbed the barrel down with fine steel wool and oil. Most of the rust came off and the barrels had a pleasing brown color. They even had a little engraving on the top rib between the barrels. The insides of the barrels was pretty rusty. So he began scrubbing it out with his shotgun cleaning kit, but the back end of both barrels seemed to be blocked with something. So he filled them with soapy water and began poking around. When he dumped the water out, a bunch of bird shot and black gunk poured out of the muzzle. After a while he got them pretty clean, and with some more steel wool wrapped around a 20 gauge brush the were shiny and fairly smooth.

Now there was no way to put shells in the darn thing. No matter how much he fooled with those protrusions sticking out of the breech, the gun would not open. So he visited one of the several local gun smiths (remember when there were several in your area?)

The fine old gentlemen (well, he seemed old at the time) explained the intricacies of muzzle loading. He also replaced the nipples on the gun and inspected it thoroughly, at no cost. He said the gun was made in Belgium in the late 1800's. He sold the kid a can of Dupont black powder and a tin of percussion caps, and gave him a sock full of #6 shot.

"This is what you do" he said, "fill the cap of the powder can with powder, and dump one cap full down each barrel. Then ball up two or three sheets of toilet paper and shove them down on top of the powder with the ramrod and pack them tight. Then fill the powder cap with shot and dump them down. Then ball up another sheet of toilet paper and push it down to hold the shot in place. Put caps on the nipples and you're ready to go. Be sure to carry the gun with the muzzle pointed up as much as possible and don't c0ck it all the way until you're ready to shoot." Then he gave the kid an old Dixie Gun Works catalog and said "here, read this".

Well, that kid took the gun to the batture of the Mississippi River that same evening when the blackbirds were coming back from the grain elevator up-river to roost in the willows, and had a blast wingshooting blackbirds at twenty yards. HOOKED FOR LIFE! (And stayed up all night reading that Dixie catalog.)

 

[bwhoffman]

I have been shooting since I was 9 on a regular basis, hunting also since 11 with real guns!
I was introduced to trap shooting at 15 and did that competively for 18 years, stopping at 27 yds and rated a in singles and a in doubles. Couldnt/wouldnt cheat, sand bag and turn down targets like the old guys, so I gave that up. Also in that time frame, I managed and lived on a cattle ranch with owned and leased land totaling 106000 acres. I pulled the trigger on something every day. Varmints, deer, elk and coyotes galore. I became an accuracy freak with anything 22 center fire, had pretty much every 22 cf on the market. Then I got married and moved into the valley where it is populated. still was shooting trap, skeet and true sporting clays. Junior was born about then, so that was the same time and reasons added to stop trap shooting. was still shooting handguns frequently. Junior got older, we did the cub/boy scout thing all thru his eagle.
We went to a summer camp 6 years back and an old guy that came up to assist with the gun range and entertain us dads and scoutmasters brought up a bunch of BP guns.I was toying with the idea of long range BPCR, but nowhere close to get regular trigger time. We did his impromptu mt man trail walk/scenario game where we were a trapping brigade of 4 guys with a bunch of situations and scoring on how you hit and such. I was hooked.
Then lewis and clark had the 200 anniv. L&C is everywhere around me locally within 70 miles. The tailout of the hudson bay stuff is in my back yard within 5 miles and my farm now is on the original land claim of Ewing Young (his grave and original homesite are within a mile of me.
How could I not partake in this BP/Mt Man stuff, I am surronded by it!

The accuracy part, well I got a few guns that shoot pretty damn good, enough to satisfy me and my standards!
So, 1 trade gun, 3 single shot pistols and more rifles than I care let he wife know about....
I'm hooked!
that, and all the stuff you can make, just like they did 200 years back!

But HOW i got hooked to this....I owe all that to an old fart with an open heart who welcomed us into his hobby at a boy scout camp!

 

[ozark57]

Back in 1969 or so, I saw one of those Navy Arms ads in a magazine for a brass frame .44 cap and ball revolver. Finally talked my parents into it, and with my lawn mowing money, I sent in $33.00 for one. One of my relatives stated that he had great grandpas ML rifle and that,after retrieving it from the attic, would join me in shooting.
The next Saturday I stapped on my holster and mounted my Honda 90 for a shooting cession at his house. I had powder he had a .50 Hawken mountain rifle in really nice condition and balls that had turned white with age. We spit patched it, shot it and had a blast. It was really heavy so we laid it over the top rail of the lot fence. The gun had not been shot in the better part of a century, but did not misfire.
I had a great time with that revolver. And It wasn't long before I had a replica Hawken.
I spoke with him a few weeks back, and he said he still had the Hawken and that the hammer spring was broke, but he was going to get it fixed so his grand kids could learn to shoot with it and have the same experence we did.
I have had a lot of good times shooting BP and have really got back into it over the last year.

 

[1911nutjob]

Goin' on 34, so I think that puts me somewhere in between new blood and old. When I was 18, I had my cartridge long barrels, but a pistol was out of the question at the time thanks to the '68 GC act (my 1911 collection would have to wait). Then I remembered that a BP revolver was perfectly legal for me. Ordered the historically inaccurate 1862 police cabela's was selling at the time, and had a blast with it, no pun intended. Afterwards, the civil war history that public school had bored me to death with came alive thanks to ken burns, and I've been shooting BP ever since.

 

[Rock Island]

I remember a movie called Johnny Tremain that sparked my interest in American History, and Joseph Plumb Martin's diary of a soldier in the Revolution. With me arms collecting and history go hand in hand, I spend more hours researching my finds than I do shooting them. I didn't go rushing out to buy BP guns right away, I mostly collect original pieces and as the cost in the late 70's and early 1980's was already out of my reach for things like original Brown Bess muskets or various pistols I stuck with collecting firearms of later periods post 1865. It was not until someone gave me a brass frame Pietta 1851 Navy, and I started fooling around with it that I discovered that replicas could be fun shooters. Since then my collection of BP guns has grown to dozens of revolvers, and pistols as well as various long guns both flint and cap from Italy, Japan, India, Spain, Belgium and the US. Of late I find that I can shoot my BP guns a lot cheaper than my cartridge firearms, even the ones I reload for, so I stocked up on another 20 pounds of Goex BP in grades other than cartridge rifle and have been having more fun than a pig in poo. Everything from my Uberti Patterson, to my Indian Bess has been heading off to the range with me, and now I am casting more round balls than .38 special waddcutters.
The age thing is kind of funny, around here were I live the average age of a BP shooter is 20-30, thanks to BP hunting season guys are hitting the woods with everything from modern inlines to old CVA or whoever flinters, shooting of BP revolver replicas is very common, and most of the guys shooting them are kids in their 20's. I am an admin on another forum dedicated to military surplus firearms and I get a lot of questions about BP guns, revolvers in particular after I posted pics of some of mine, some of these guys now have their own brass frame Piettas or Uberti '60 army's, one guy even graduated to a Walker so the hobby isn't dying from what I can see.

 

[Flint311]

I used to watch the Daniel Boone series on TV. Dad had a low numbered T/C Hawkens over the fireplace. I started deer hunting and didn't have a shotgun to use (we live in a shotgun only zone), so I used his T/C. Then Michigan came out with the muzzle loading season and got a T/C .54 Hawkens for Christmas. I was the first in camp to get a buck with a muzzle loader and proved they could do it cleanly. I was hooked! It just flowed from the tv series, Dad's Hawkens, to my own. Shoot flintlocks now, cause it was the next "backwards" step. Now to teach my kids on their "backwards" journey.....

 

[runnin lead]

I started elk hunting in about 83 & decided that I would like to hunt the muzzleloading season.
Over the winter I ordered a T/C Hawken kit , I was hooked!
A couple years after that I bought a clearence sale CVA flintlock kit & it drove me nuts , I was going to turn it into a cap lock & was talked out of it by a friend for future considerations,the future considerations turned out to be the carving of some ducks on a Navy arms S X S shotgun kit that I bought somewhere along the line.
All along during the time that my friend had my shotgun to carve I kept getting threats of Elmer Fudd & Daffy Duck,the gun was returned with a realy nice carving with ducks in flight over cattails.
That lock drove my friend nuts , I got the better end of the deal & besides my distaste for pine squirrels , I guess that is why I call a squirrel rifle a wabbit wifle.

 

[vern faulkner]

Growing up back in the 50's the only gun in the house was an old cap lock .36 cal of unknown make. Used to belong to my Grand Pa. Never heard where he got it. Used to carry it with me all over the place. When I was about 12 my uncle Bill( all young boys should have an uncle Bill ) cleaned it all up and decided that we should try it out. It went boom. After a lot of trial and error we got it to group pretty well. Over the next few years the squirrel and rabbit population took a real beating. After Vietnam I came home to find that my father got rid of the old rifle feeling that in was too old and unsafe. I then used my Pennsylvania Nam bonus to buy a .32 cal flint lock and some of the other stuff I needed to out-fit my rifle. Over the years I have added a .36 cal TVM Lancaster and later a .50 cal Lancaster also from TVM. Had Dale from Blanket Brigade Make up a set of buckskins and moc's. Also a small fortune of stuff from Dixon's. I realize that I may not be very p/c or h/c but I don't really care. I'm doing my thing my way and having a heck of a good time doing it. I usually hunt alone. Just about every day of small game season. On public land on weekends I have encountered many families out nature walking and spent many, many hours talking to and answering questions from children and adults alike. Even showing them how to start fires with flint and steel. I love to see the excitement in the children. Never once have I been chastised or attacked as a killer or gun nut by anyone. Once a Game Warden told me that he spoke to a family whom I ran into and spent a lot of time with and they really enjoyed the encounter. He thanked me and wished me well. So as long as I can still walk, I'll be out there looking for squirrels and making some friends. The only love affair that I've been in that has exceeded this one is the one that I have with the Old Woman. She puts up with me. Vern

 

[Trench]

I started back in late 2006. I was 29 years old. I had always had an interest in BP in my teens. Reading the Sharp Series and getting more versed in history finally got me to purchase my first rifle, which was a flintlock. I now own three flintlocks with a fourth on a gun builders schedule. I've also got in to the gear and clothing side of the hobby. I'm just really enjoyint myself. I'm glad I took the plunge. :thumbsup:

 

[TFoley]

When we got assigned to Germany in 1977 I took advantage of their then [pretty easy] firearms laws that allowed anybody over age 18 to buy a single-shot black powder handgun or long arm, and got myself a Parker Percussion, Wm Moore flintlock and LePage target pistol. I kept them all until an imminent re-assignment back to an unfriendly to guns part of UK made me put them into storage, where they and about five hundred other firearms were destroyed by fire when the store next door burnt down.

I had got hooked though, and as soon as I could, I got an ROA to replace them - that was 1986, and I still have that and the second-series Colt Walker I bought the following year. Three long arms followed - I still have them too. But all percussion, and sadly rarely shot these days as I can't hold BP in my house.

Going on the lam for BP is a bit much, especially as the two rifles shoot around 90gr a bang. The musketoon is a bit more economic at 45gr, but you still need to have a generous pal...

tac

 

[zampilot]

Two and a half years ago or so, I started reading Ambrose' Undaunted Courage and that was the end. Or the beginning. I have not read anything that took place after 1850 since. As far as guns go, I guess I'm working my way back in time from Moderm/WW2 to a 'Rocks and Sharp Sticks' collection, presently stuck in the mid 1700's. :thumbsup:

 

[Mike Brooks]

1980, I was 23. Nifty guns is why I started shooting them. Had to start building my own right away as the factory examples leave much to be desired.

 

[Sunkmanitu Tanka]

Round and about 1970 - I was in my early twenties... Always loved westerns and US history, trappers etc. Then a brother in law bought a hawken perc. gun, and I was hooked when I saw it...After a few years I quit BP shooting, but since 2006 I am all back, and totally into flintlocks this time .... I am 57 now and hoping to purchase a TVM early Virginia or Lancaster soon... can't wait ... And allthough gunlaws are verry strict here, and BP hunting is even not allowed, I do have a lot of fun with these guns...

 

[Flintlock58]

I started with a TC percussion 54 for deer in about 1974. I am a hunter too and had hunted some with single shot centerfires. Picked up a muzzleloader for a challenge and the accuracy. From there I went to a SxS Pedersoli 12 ga.for waterfowl, turkey and pheasant, Thru a few more percussion 50 calibers, got a couple of those OTHER muzzleloaders not to be discussed, and in the past 5 years got a Jackie Brown built 11 ga, flinter and also a flint 58 with a Colerain barrel. I am not "died in the wool" PC or HC, but do enjoy some of the home made equipment and the info I can get here. I do use some equipment of the times in hunting and shooting. Muzzleloading is a fun part of the hunting / shooting experience for me and I still enjoy using ALL of my guns ML and CF and "undiscussables" too.

 

[MikeChapin]

I got started in 1976 when my Grandmother bought me a CVA Colonial Pistol kit for college graduation. I moved to Laramie for grad school and picked up Navy Arms Hawken Hunter and was off to the races.

In '82 or '83 I was doing a last day antelope hunt to fill a couple of tags. I lived in the same kind of area necchi described, covered in antelope. I took one at 350 yards and the other at 500 yards. After that I put the .270 away and have only used muzzleloaders to hunt with.

 

[2172]

The movie, Alleghany Uprising in 1939 (I was aged 7) got me interested in the time period and the movie Northwest Passage added to it. I started shooting cartridge guns at age 12, and started thinking of ways to build a bp gun in the early '60's, when the Civil War anniversary events began to make m-l guns available..put together a kit from Dixie in 1970, and then a CVA in 1977 or 78...Hank

 

[Maestro]

Late bloomer... got my first flinter in 2004 at age 50. The thought came to me that I could combine my interest in the 18th c. with my fairly new found passion in hunting.

 

[BenCoogle]

Growing up in rural Georgia there were always guns around. When Davy Crockett was the rage I would sneak one of my Mama's butcher knives out and hack longrifles out of planks.

In '62 I was working at a filling station, $10 per week after school, and would buy gun magazines. I saw the Dixie Gun Works ad, and ordered the catalog. Bought a Centennial Arms Brass framed Navy in '65. $36.60 and finagled a ride to another town for powder, $2.39 per lb. Ordered a Dixie mold for $4 and I was in business.

Ordered parts from Dixie during my last year in the Navy and finished a rifle in '71. First ML rifle I ever held, I built. Met up with the Muscogee Longrifle Club on my honeymoon in '73. Attended my first Southeastern Rondevous in '84. Whole life gone to Hell! :wink:

 

[Celt5494]

I was probably about 7 when a family friends would come up the the mountains for weekends. One of them had a couple of caplock and flintlock pistols to include various rifles. When it would rain we'd shoot them out of the barn into the pasture at targets. It was downhill from there. I remember digging the round balls out of the embankment and saving them for years in one of my drawers.