how did you get started ?

[gunhawk]

 Fellow muzzleloader enthusiasts -
  Write and say how you first got interested and starting in traditional muzzleloading.
Your stories appreciated.

[Hanshi]

I always liked guns and always wanted to hunt.  Disney's "Davey Crockett" had a big effect on the subject.  I read a lot about guns, hunting and knew I'd love to have a rifle that loaded from the muzzle.  I'd already been using BB guns, Pellet rifles, shotguns and .22s.  So about 1965 + or - I found an add for the H&A underhammer rifle.  I ordered one and started burning powder.  A couple of years later after I got off active duty with the army I bought the Numrich Arms flintlock Minute Man .45.  I liked it though it was muzzle heavy.  It was a nice, good looking rifle that sparked just fine and was the nicest BP rifle I owned until I ordered one from TVM and Matt Avance. 

I ended up with more than one, killed more deer than I could possibly count (Georgia's liberal limit), along with bobcats, squirrels and more.  Eventually I began hunting exclusively with flintlocks and never looked back.  Yes, I did kill a lot of game with my favorite percussion rifles but the flintlocks were simply more fun and traditional.

I no longer hunt having stopped about 7 years ago.  But the guns still got shot a lot at targets on the range since health issues now kept me out of the woods.  I don't think I have all that many BP guns but I do have more than I need, especially since wild game is out for me.

[hotfxr]

Some one gave me a :box of gun" containing a beat up Kentucky pistol (disassembled) and a couple of broken Pietta revolvers back in 2012. Started looking around the 'net for some information and stumbled upon this site. After a short amount of time here and being castigated by Mongrel, I realized I knew nothing about the black powder dark arts. With the help of many of our members now consider myself "reasonably knowledgeable and fairly proficient" in the world of muzzleloaders. 

[flintboomer]

I always liked guns and hunting and I was probably about 14 when a friend of a friend of my father hunted with an original with us. I thought it was interesting and then when I was in college a friend had a percussion revolver. After shooting it I bought one too and it has all been downhill from there. I later started shooting muzzleloaders competitively and got very good with them. My abilities with them are declining a little now, but I still shoot and hunt with them. I do shoot both percussion and flintlocks and enjoy them both.

[Hanshi]

Just to set it all straight, that box of gun "parts" that hotfxr was given actually contained several complete guns; that is until brother hotfxr decided to teach himself about them. 

[hotfxr]

A few disassembled firearms might have met their demise due to my early attempts at making them whole again.    But I'm not the one who thinks that a left handed rifle is for shooting behind me. 

[Hanshi]

Okay, okay how did I get started, here's the truth.

Once, long ago, someone simply nudged me with an elbow and that got me started.  Since then no one has been able to stop and shut me up.

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[Fredredcj]

My father inlaw started shooting percussion in the late 80's and he got me interested. I bought a cheap cva and we shot together lots.  A few years later a couple friends got into french and indian period reenacting and started using flintlocks. While i never got into reenacting i was fascinated with the flintlock and decided i wanted to try one.

[Hanshi]

I still can't say why flintlocks stuck with me the way they did.  I do know/feel a longrifle isn't a real longrifle unless it has a flint lock.  I've owned, fired and hunted with a lot of percussion guns and still own three.  In fact my oldest ML rifle is a 60 year old percussion.  Another one came from Mongrel and has been successfully used for years in postal shoots.  Number 3 was a special order from Euroarms that required a "wait" similar to, but not as long as, what some custom builders require.  So I've owned quite a few of them and killed lots of game, large and small, with them.  They were a mixture of new and used.  And never, EVER did I feel under-gunned, outgunned, intimidated or at a disadvantage during regular rifle seasons.  It was always "one shot one deer" and frequently three shots and three deer!

Pan flash never distracted me because I simply never noticed it.  I knew how to shoot, had training in rifle shooting but from the beginning it just came naturally to me.  The flash or a popped cap and follow through were in my DNA----{Don't say it, hotfxr, all that other stuff in my DNA is irrelevant}.   

[bmtshooter]

When I was about 5th grade, our teacher had us bring in stuff for show and tell.  While I brought in a sword (carrying it back and forth to school on the bus), it was one of my classmates who brought a muzzleloader to show.  Previously I had never seen one, but I knew about them from watching Fess Parker cart them around in various black and white episodes.  But there before me was a full color graceful and elegant wood steel and brass version.  It was about ten years later before I actually fired one, but that now seems like a blink of an eye.

Whether directly related or not, it dovetailed in nicely with my fascination with civil war era artillery.