what got you started on BP?

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Busyhands94

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i first started my love affair with lady black powder when i was a young boy at civil war reenactments. the small of burning BP back then was nonintoxicating beautiful, and still is. it reminds me of when my papa and i would shoot off fireworks when i was young, the sheer excitement! then as i got older i started building small BP cannons chambered in .177 and .22 caliber for some good American backyard fun. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31024582&l=ff90928e09&id=1136435392
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30957391&l=dee91272ab&id=1136435392
and so began my beginning in the sport of black powder. i have always loved muzzleloading weapons of all kinds, when i was a boy i always wanted a Remington rider derringer (now i have one) a NAA BP revolver (i am getting one) and a cattleman's carbine (will get one of those someday or build one.) While my friends thought glocks were the coolest things on earth i thought the Remington rider derringer was an awesome gun. while my friends all wanted a "sniper rifle" i wanted a Kentucky rifle in percussion and a 5 pound container of real black. while my friends all liked the AK-47 or the M-16 i wanted a good old double barrel BP shotgun or rifle. while my friends were begging their moms or dads for a tactical shotgun i was begging my mother for a Howdah Hunter in 20x50. as you can tell i was kind of an odd fellow. i absolutely love BP guns more than any other kind of gun out there. so i started making them last year. i posted some videos on youtube if you wanna check em' out. here is a link to my channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/busyhands94?feature=mhum#p/u so continues my interest in blackpowder shooting. i really like it! so what got you started in BP?
 
This is what got me started. I fell in love with a Navy Arms/Pedersoli .50 mule ear rifle that I read about in a gun magazine and then everything just spiraled from there. :)

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After a shooting Pal let me try his Remmie 58. Here is the magic moment that I first shot a BP Pistol. Got hooked in a 'blink of an eye' after that:
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After fifteen years of shotgunning I took almost ten years off from shooting anything. Christmas of '09 my thoughtful red-head bought me a CB and it's been game on since then. No competitive shooting, just a lot of learning and fun. And....I have been recently put on gun re-hab and notified that purchasing anymore before I go back to work in May would be frowned upon. Trading is still okay though. I'm sure glad she didn't mention reloading supplies!! She understands, ya just can't go cold turkey.;)

The non-historically correct photo below was my first. I couldn't have picked a better starter than this one in my opinion. Besides, Remmington has too many syllables.:neener:

Pietta_1851_Conf_Navy.jpg
 
Easy

Tell me something I cant do and I will Prove you wrong.

So there i go shooting black powder making black powder and everything in between.
 
Wanted to shoot a lot and C&B was all I could afford in my early 20s. Got habit forming ~ 30 plus years later, I still like the black powder smoke.
 
Davy Crockett
Dan'l Boone
Jeremiah Johnson
Grizzly Adams
The Journals of Lewis and Clark
2 original rifles....one went to the "gold rush" at Pike's Peak... and back. It's on my mantle.
Muzzle loader season
 
When i discovered the Remington 1858 :cool: Though Ive always fancied traditional muskets such as Kentucky Rifles etc
 
I'll add another important factor....
Deer hunting with a smoothbore shotgun/slugs left room for improvement. Although my 1100 shot slugs rather well....the sighting options were about zero back in the late '70's-early '80's.
A .54 Hawken shooting a round ball into a paper plate @ 100yds was good deer medicine in 1979.
 
A Pietta 1851 Colt Navy from the Four Flags Trading Post (now defunct) in Wichita. Sadly, the gun is also defunct due to the early formula Pyrodex and ignorance of cleaning discipline.
 
Early 50's. I found a converted (from flint to percussion) smoothbore in my grandfather's closet. I was allowed to use it to hunt because it wasn't a real gun. I was about 10 at the time. I took it to a local gunsmith and for about $2 I had power and caps. Many a jackrabbit fell to a complete plastic envelope package of copper coated BBs stuffed on top of "some" powder and held in place with a toilet paper wad.
Hanging on my wall now. Lock plate reads US 1836.
 
Boy Scout National Jamboree in 1977 there was an AMM camp for a while, until the admin pissed them off and they left. Then went into CW reenacting (I live close to Gettysburg, Antieatam, Fredericksburg, Manassas, etc etc). Then tried it for hunting, and now hunt with it and do Rev War living history events.

LD
 
My father was a buckskinner and blackpowder hunter and aficianado long before I was born. I grew up camping in a teepee all over Indiana in the summers and watching my Dad shoot flintlocks and throw tomahawks at Friendship with his buddys. It was passed on to me at a very early age. I learned to shoot BP long before I ever picked up a cartridge gun. As I got older my own interest in history and especially early American history and the Civil War drew me in even deeper than I was already. I started buying my own collection of muskets, cap and ball revolvers and other goodies to supplement his collection of flintlocks and percussion guns including the ones he built himself and was extremely proud of.

He's passed now and now I keep his spirit and teaching alive by continuing what I was taught and keeping the collection I inherited from him as my prized possessions. Miss you dearly everyday Pop!
 
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I found a hawken that had a mix of motly traditional features w/ a few modern ones, still black powder but SO nice
 
These are three that my Dad built. The bottom is a Hawken .54 caliber, Douglass barrel and curly maple stock with an aqua fortis finish, and it was the one he was most proud of. Of all the rilfles I have this one is probably the most accurate. Great shooter and absolutely priceless to me.

IMG_1025.jpg
 
I like the middle one. Salute to your dad...and mine, who also brought me into it at an early age.
Click to expand...

Great taste! And a salute to your father as well! The middle one is a .62 caliber smooth rifle. It's rather awesome in and of itself, agreed.
 
Phantom,
I am partial to Hawkens, and yours is awesome. That .54 looks like a Hawken should. My old T/C .54 is needing a stock (cracked)and barrel. I would love to replace mine with one just like yours.

PS
My dad recently bought an original .40 halfstock that was one of two made for, and given to, twin boys that lived in our neighborhood many years ago. Nobody knows what became of the other rifle.
 
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