Here is my story! Lets hear yours?

[Desert Scorpion]

Blackpowder! A description of an earlier time of innovative and ever evolving weapons, a history I at one time knew nothing about. I! readers was something of what you may call judgemental in terms of early designed weapons, never gaining interest in them and finding my money going towards more modernized semi auto's , and the newest coolest thing to be designed. I began my collection and interest in firearms that shot lots of lead down range and unfortunately became very costly. At this time I was very interested in history and found our past to be both interesting and a way to look into how humanity has come to be the way it is now. But at this time I had no interest in historical weapons " for some reason".

Well that all changed eventually some 7 years after my interest in modernized weapons. And that is what my story is about; it's about how I came to be so interested in blackpowder firearms. And it all started with Cabelas, while always going through the catalog I would happen to glance for a short time at there Cap&Ball revolvers but my i Teresa became diminished as I didn't really u deist and what they were, at first I had no idea of there history and for some reason thought they where modern revolvers that had been changed to accept loose ammunition to circumvent federal law in terms of firearms definition and to be used in blackpowder season hunting. So I never gave them a thought really, however that all changed by watching two movies, the first was pale Ryder "Clint Eastwood" in this movie I noticed him in a particular scene wield his remington new army shoot it and subsequently reload it by pulling the cylinder out to the side and place another one in, now I must say in the manner he did it I found it to be very "Differnet" and quite frankly pretty badass. However I still did not have a peak interest in these revolvers. Then again I saw another Clint Eastwood movie " The outlaw josey whales" in this movie he wielded huge revolvers blowing out large volumes of smoke, and just frankly destroying all in his path with this unknown revolver, so while watching this movie I said to myself I want this revolver. A quick Internet search revealed it was a Cap&Ball revolver called the Walker, so googling this revolver turned me up to Cabelas and on there revolver blackpowder page, at first I was confused thinking to myself wait what that was a blackpowder revolver. Searching the historical accuracy turned up that these Cap&Ball revolvers were heavily used in the civil war and aftermath in the ever expanding west.

So I finally just bought the walker with a starter kit and Pyrodex powder, and when it arrived and I held it in my hand I was hooked it just looked so neat, and once I loaded it and fired it I was vastly intreaged but the sound the smoke the fact I made the load. From that point on I have purchased a new army, dragoon, 1860, griswold, 1851, and plan on purchasing a LeMat here soon and to go with my revolvers I purchased an Sharps 1859 paper cartridge model, when I bought the sharps I then got into muzzleloading rifles, now all I shoot is muzzleloading weapons, I find there extremely vast past in history makes them all unique, and it adds a bit of challenge when hunting.

So although I have many modern weapons; I really only shoot older style weapons now, and plan on making a Napoleon III canon here in the next year to add to diversity in my shooting.

So!!!! lets Hear your story how did you get into muzzleloading, was it a movie a friend?

 

[Cosmoline]

My older bro was into the rendezvous thing back in the 70's and the first firearm I shot was a caplock single shot pistol. I remember being able to see the ball it was such a light charge. Or maybe my eyes were just sharper back then.

I didn't do much more with it for decades, and shot only modern and curio smokeless arms. A good deal on a Kodiak SXS rifle a few years back got me interested again. I never did get that one regulating properly but once the sulfur was in the air there was no turning back.

These days I'm mostly shooting C&B and eagerly awaiting a clear Saturday to shoot the new 42 Springfield replica I picked up from Dixie. I seem to gravitate more to the muskets and fusils than rifles.

 

[Legionnaire]

A decade ago I bought an Uberti 1848 Dragoon to use as an illustration for a talk I was giving. When I was done, it went into the safe. Several years later I was invited to reprise the talk. When I pulled the gun from the safe, I said to myself, "I really ought to figure out how this thing works." I started reading multiple sources, including this and other black powder forums. Bought some powder, ball, caps, and wads and the rest, as they say, is history. I now have a couple of Dragoons, a Walker, several Ruger Old Armies, and two flintlock rifles. Took my first black powder whitetail in the fall of 2011 with a T/C Encore 209x50. Nothing like the sight, sound, and smell of the holy black!

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Like many old timers, I was five years old when Walt Disney's Davy Crockett swept the country. (I still have my very real coon skin cap) Then Disney's Johnny Shiloh coincided with the centennial of the Civil War. Followed shortly thereafter by The Swamp fox.

The Guy across the street from my parents bought a cap and ball revolver and let me and dad take a few shots. I wanted a muzzleloader in the worst way, but dad kept talking me out of it. Then in High school, I had to do a genealogy project and discovered I am a descendant of Jacob Angstadt, (my great, great, great grandfather) of the Berks County/Kutztown family of long rifle builders.
The desire was just too much. I was told by a college buddy that a store had flintlock pistol kits on sale. I drove 80 miles each way to buy a $29 CVA flintlock pistol kit at the now defunct Two Guys dept store in Whitehall PA. It took nearly three weeks of every waking non-working minute to get her finished, with the help of a deputy Game Warden that built long rifles.

Gosh I had fun with that gun, even though I couldn't hit a barn from the hayloft with it. Then a Thompson Center, and a cap and ball revolver, and an original dbl barrel shotgun and a ...........................

 

[MCgunner]

In college, I had a room mate in 1974 who owned a Ruger Old Army. I liked that gun. I found a Navy brasser at Triangle Sporting Goods in Bryan for 50 bucks, could afford it just barely, so I bought it. I had that gun until I stretched it and wore it out overloading it. Soon after, I found a guy with a stainless ROA who needed small transportation for his boy in college and I traded a moped I'd won in a raffle for the gun and a 5 HP air cooled outboard he threw in. That gun got stolen. I found a blued ROA at a gun shop getting out of black powder. It was marked $97.50. I fumbled around, but managed to get my wallet out in time. Later, bought a .31 pocket Remmy brasser on sale in the Gander Mountain catelog. About 5 years ago, the Cabelas bug got me. I bought another Navy brasser on sale for 119 bucks. This one has a 5" barrel. I bought a 7" barrel to cut down to snub it, but the thing shoots better, so I haven't yet cut it down. Meanwhile, I bought a NAA Super Companion from someone on this board...thanks ...and then a year later Cabelas had a '58 Remmy 5" on sale for $179 that I'd been wanting and couldn't resist that sale.

I left out the rifles. I bought a Cabela's Hawken Hunter Carbine in the early 90s with intent to go to New Mexico for primitive weapons season which never happened. 3 years ago with my wife in a coma in the hospital, I bought a CVA wolf for something to play with to keep my mind off my worries. Later, after she passed away, I bought a CVA Plainsman, 1:48 twist, so I could shoot PRB accurately. It hangs over the hearth in my second wife's and my new home. I don't shoot it much, but it shoots.

My story is one of a love of shooting the guns more than the historical significance of 'em. Along the way, I've read a few books on the history, interesting, but I'm a shooter, not a re-enactor. I originally liked cap and ball for the economy and the smoke. I still like it for that, but I just like shooting 'em more than my cartridge guns. I never have been big on semi-autos, though I own a few. I have single action and double action cartridge revolvers, 5 centerfire autos, and a number of rimfires. I sorta like rimfires, too, but right now I can't find .22 bulk pack anywhere. I'm making percussion caps, casting ball, and one of these days I'll get caught up enough around here to try my hand at making black powder. They can't keep me from shooting my cap and ball!

 

[dpote]

When I was young, my Dad built a Thompson Center Hawken. Later, we were stationed on Guam, and he brought it along. Shooting it there really left a mark and had me hooked.
Now I have my own, and every time I shoot it, I'm back on that island shooting with Dad.
Good times.

Dave

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I was 13 in the Bicentennial, and then joined a CW reenactment group, artillery. We had a good time, but five years later I was in college. One summer I acted as a "black powder extra" in the TV miniseries George Washington starring Barry Bostwick. I got the job because I could handle BP without lighting other extras or actual actors on fire..., Then after college I went into the Marine Corps.

When I got out, I went into civilian life with a high stress job, and needed something to de-stress me, and in 1992 a guy came into the gunshop where I worked a second job, part-time, and was selling off a bunch of guns. He had boogered a flintlock kit along with his modern guns, and he was just giving the kit away. Last of The Mohicans had just opened in the theaters. So I got it, and restocked the hardware on the boogered kit onto a new stock, and wound up with a working flintlock rifle.

3 of my coworkers were talking about reenacting and trekking several months later, and started talkin' to me about it, but I wasn't interested in the North-South thing anymore. They mentioned that they did Rev War colonial militia, and when I mentioned I already have a flintlock rifle, they made me come along to an event. That was it, and I was hooked.

A few years later I transitioned to only shooting BP for hunting. That's where I am now.

LD

 

[44 Dave]

I started with an old double barreled shot gun, in the early ‘60s, hunting off horseback at about age 15.
I soon saved enough to buy a new Replica Arms 1860 from Dixie Gun Works.
By the time I was17 my friends and I got together and I ordered a 16# drum of FFF that was delivered to my door cost about $1/lb.
I don’t have those original guns any more, but have replaced them and acquired a few more.
Have been loading a few bp cartridge rounds also.