I started in muzzle loading before there were many books and long before the net. I had shot cap and ball revolvers, as a kid, I watched a really ancient distant relative load and shoot a civil war musket converted to smooth bore. I got my first flintlock in 1972, a CVA pistol. After graduate school I purchased a TC Hawken and began attending black powder shoots. I would drive to PA for many weekend shoots and also joined Tidewater Muzzle loaders outside Annapolis. I observed and shot and did beginner lousy. Evenings at those shoots were spent around the campfires, listening to the old graybeards discussing various points and theories of powders, loading, patching, lubes, rifling, sights, etc, At Tidewater there was Maurice "Pat" Miller, Ron Griffie, Hoppy Hopkins and Linwood Dawes. These guys tinkered with and shot "Buck Rogers" style muzzle loaders. More emphasis was placed on accuracy and traditional design and schools of rifle building were nearly ignored. In Pennsylvania, there were others whose names i am not as familiar with. Noel, Woody, Dellinger, Jimmy Cullers, Decker, Fuzz, and others. They also sat around the fire and argued sometimes vehemently, the advantages of wider grooves, progressive rifling, gain twists, the carry over from BPCR to muzzle loading. I had a Ponderosa shirt blue jeans and dime store moccasin/slippers and sat in the back listening in awe. At first I didn't have a clue what they were talking about. Once or twice, I sheepishly asked some questions but mostly just kept my ears open. Between those debates and what I read from the likes of Sam Fadala and other prolific authors, I slowly learned enough to follow the camp fire seminars. A few times, the graybeards asked me what I thought. It was like the Socratic method of graduate school all over again, but this time the subject was the utility of Harry Pope style rifling to round ball barrels or what types of sights give a more accurate sight picture. How to maintain sight contrast on partly cloudy days and a number of things most shooters don't even consider.
Muzzle loading and black powder shooting have been my passion for 40 years and hopefully another 30. The things I learned at those camp fires has greatly enriched my enjoyment of black powder. A few of my "professors" are still around but many of those characters are long gone. Hopefully at the big rendezvous sitting around a campfire and still debating various aspects of muzzle loading.
That much knowledge and now here?? Welcome, and feel free to share and express you knowhow to the group of novice to Xpert shooters we have here... All views are welcome, but be ready for a lively discussion on some topics...
Doug