your favorite thing about black powder

[Win1892]

I shoot my Winchester cartridge rifles loaded with blackpowder.

Nothing like an original Winchester 1876, in 45-75, cutting loose with BP. Again, and again, and again.

 

[ZVP]

I'm hoping to go to the club and do some BP shooting and I thought of this thread and had to re-read it.
Since "discovering" BP shooting about a year and a 1/2 ago I have sure learned a lot! There is WAY more to learn too! For me, the whole experience from starting out and selecting my first BP Gun to the mundane tasks of buying the proper sized Balls, caps and Powder is all fun! Unlike rimfire shooting BP is a totally hands-on effort. You have control of nearly every stage and it affects the other tremondusly! Just changing Cap brands can wreck a day...
BP shooting is handloading at it's most basic. You controlevery stage and can alternate cylinder to cylinder in an instant, Unlike Smokless powder where you don't usually have a loading press on hand, with BP you can just adjust your powder measure to control velocity, recoil or range.
Each stage is an experiment either for consistancy or for a special one-off charge. You control it right there, right now!
You also get to spend aq lot of time handling your gun, and come on who dosen't like to play with their pistol? You do more handling in one session with a BP revolver than you do in six sessions with a semi-auto. All you do with a semi-auto is change clips and pull the trigger. Preparing the loads, shooting and the dreaded cleaning-up, you handle your gun constantly!
Speaking of clean-up,Black Powder requires more frequent teardowns during the shooting session which familarizes you more with the gun. Tnis is just one more plus as you become a Mechanic of sorts, reparing subtle problems from Cap jaqms and debris clearing. It makes an aneatur gunsmith of you more than any facet of the shooting concern! With BP there is much more to "HandlingA" than loading! Generally speaking Black Powder shooitng is the most hand's-on of ALL shooting sports
I have become so familliar with a Single Action that I have chosen to depend on my Ruger vaquero as my primary House and self defense gun! I have become so famailliar with the action that it was an obvious choice. Yes I am on the short side as far as the ammo supply is concerned,but one should NEVER depend on Pray and Spray as their usual shooting style! Aim to hit the first shot and firing a major caliber gun, you won't need 19 to be the winner of a situation.
This choice of action probablly wouldn't work for everyone but to me it makes the most sense. For me Muscle Memory is Single Action style and why not use every advantage that you have for a defensive situation? I get a lot of "ribbing" from friends for this philosophy but I don't suggest it for everyone.
Back to General Black Powder shooting, the combination of active participation and controll in all stages of the shot, and the knowlege one picks up about the hobby makes it a very exciting shooting style. you actively participate in everything!
Onthe fun side, BP gives the biggest "BOOM" for the amount of powder fired, and the smoke and fire just add to the excitement. So much goes on, and hands-on, you make it happen!
I gotta admit it's a dirty shooting hobby, and you do get a lot of it on you which makes the need for on-site clean-up materials. Windex has become a necessary stapel for me. It does everything from wiping shooting residue to general skin wipes.
I could go on for pages on the nicities related to Black Powder shooting! To me it's brought me closer to the basics of shooting and my Smokless endevors have benifitted from the understandings and habits learned. I'd suggest it to anyone!
ZVP

 

[SleazyRider]

Perhaps my favorite thing about black powder is that it makes it easy for my wife to shop for birthday presents for me without the hassle of permits and such. Ask me how I know!

(New owner of a Spiller and Burr!)

 

[tazbigdog]

For me, it gives me a sense of history, what our ancestors must have gone through in the early days of America.

 

[burnse]

Certainly "all of the above" is the only correct answer, though I must say that the thunder which eminates from the muzzle wakes something up - something deep inside, and makes me feel alive in a way I will never get from a modern firearm. The smell of powder is intoxicating. It almost gives me a high, and a need to crank back that hammer to let forth another beautiful cloud of smoke and all the fire and fury that an 1860 army can unleash upon anything in its path (I'm talking to you, watermelon).
There is no doubt that a black powder arm is certainly one of the few material things in this world that was created by man to do one thing, but makes the owner feel so much more than the satisfaction of ownership. They are truly beautiful.

Sorry, I'm a new member of the Holy Black Addict Club

 

[Hocka Louis]

The historic ARMS themselves, as well as the history of them...

 

[pdosh]

Wow, nobody mentioned the taste of BP. I used to do Civil War reenacting and we used pre rolled paper cartridges. You would tear the top off with your teeth and pour the powder down the barrel. We would usually fire 10-40 rounds. You are almost always going to get a taste.

But I also agree with all of the above. I haven't tried making my own BP but may try that too, just for the education.

 

[alsask]

The thing I like most about blackpowder shooting?

I like it when the condesending smarmy people who make snide remarks about flintlocks walk out to the targets and see the ragged hole the "old dummy with the musket" makes compared to their scoped centerfire rifles!

My grandson was with me one day and quite intrigued with rifle the guy next to us was setting up. Fluted bull barrel ect, ect.

After shooting a string we walked out to the targets and he had the audacity to ask [loud enough for Mr. Hair Gel to hear] why the other guys groups were so big?

 

[ofitg]

"Other"....

Spent a couple years of my life in one of those "tropical paradises" where only the police and military are allowed to have guns. I don't know if it will ever come to that in the United States... but if I only have a percussion revolver, a bullet mould and a Tap-O-Cap, I will be armed and loaded.

I'm not saying that I would choose a '58 Remmie over a M1911A1, but I would certainly choose a '58 Remmie over any weapon that doesn't go BANG.

 

[StrawHat]

Someone posted about a trapdoor with a scope, can we get a picture of that one?

 

[robhof]

The thrill of shooting game with primitive style weapons, especially that 1st deer. Shot rabbits and squirrel with kit pistol as a teen, but just recently got my 1st deer with B/p; oh, what a thrill!!! Especially after 40 years of on and off b/p shooting.

 

[Mike OTDP]

Because, with all due humility, I shoot them pretty well. At least the pistols. Challenging, but very rewarding.

And it's entertaining to shoot a group that I condider fair to poor - and have the people shooting cartridge guns looking at it and marveling at how "good" it is.

 

[Pyro]

It's like having a gun with the reloading equipment already attached to it.
Knowing that your responsible for every aspect of your revolver performing correctly to spit a chunk of metal off somewhere and hit a target.

 

[Chuck Dye]

Treasured memory:

A ten year old shooting buddy, returning home after a day of shooting, running to Mom hollering "Mom! Mom! I shot the .44! I shot the .44!" We had loaded an 1858 Remington replica with about 15 grain charges that barely lifted the barrel off the sand bag.

 

[4v50 Gary]

I've played with belt fed & full automatic weapons, but black powder is one of the most gratifying type of guns to shoot.

 

[YumaKid]

Put me down as another "all of the above"; as well as agreeing with ZVP on the need to SLOW DOWN! Learned to shoot handguns with DA revolvers, mostly K-frame S&W's; and the desire to "race gun" them took ahold of me. Never fell all the way down to the dreaded "spray and pray" attitude, but I could dump empties, stab in a Comp III and be back bangin' away in less than a blink!

Had to have an N-frame; and what's the 'natural' N-frame calibre for a kid that grew up in the 60's-70's? Yup. First time I slipped a .44 Win Mag round in with the Specials; the front sight took a chunk of skin out of my forehead before my mind registered the BANG! This punk did NOT "feel lucky".
Weaver stance with that sucker ever since, even with .44Spcl Silvertips.

And it gave me a terrible "flinch". Can't even drop the hammer on a .22 cal Single-Six without a slight twinge.

Doesn't happen with 30 gr of Pyrodex behind a .451-.454 round ball - even in the "little" 5-1/2" Remmie. The swinging targets seem to indicate that the ball from a Remington will hit with the same authority at "street combat" distances as a standard load .44Mag; but the barrel crown doesn't come rushing towards my face with alacrity (or at all). The perceived recoil is lower, but I'd be hard-pressed to believe that the swinging steel notices the difference. And I'm getting better. Might be "psicko-logical" or whatever, but I'm calmer and the groups are tightening up.

The pressure is off. The fun is back. Haven't shot the 629 in over a year, about the time I started ramming powder, wad and lead. Coincidence?

 

[Mac2]

Mine is my Dad introducing me to shooting in 1972 (I was 9) with a 1851 Navy. I got so hooked by the time I was 11 I bought him his first BP rifle, a .45 Kentuckian, with my paper route money, for Christmas in '74. Loved it so much I bought my own, just like his, the next week. I have always loved the nostalgia of the past. It was a much more simple, yet hard life. The smell is icing on the cake, I've never used anything but Goex.
My Dad passed Christmas day 2010. I have his and mine combined now, and continue to shoot them as a hobby, and in his memory. Miss 'ya Dad...

 

[Foto Joe]

My dad never knew the pleasure of Black Powder shooting, but he did hand me his own 22 short rifle that he had purchased in the 30's when I was about 6 or 7. That started a life long journey which included over a decade of competition shotgunning. The competitive shooting is now over a decade behind me and my wife bought me a "Fake" '51 for Christmas a few years ago and it's been a growing addiction ever since.

I know Dad would have loved the sickness we all now share but he never got the chance. I still have that 22 short rifle from "Monkey Wards" along with his Mossberg "22 Bunnie Gun" and my grandfathers Remmington 1912 22 pump which I remember Grandpa telling me that he paid I believe about $5 for in 1913 or so.

It may not be a parent who passes on the Black Powder passion, but more than likely it was a parent who taught you to shoot your first gun. For those that are still alive they surely have a pride in watching their children enjoy something that they passed along (I know I do). For those who have passed along, I know they smile down on use every time we pull the trigger and get a whiff of sulphur.

 

[AKElroy]

OTHER. It chases the misquitos away.

 

[steelbird]

I love the smell of black powder in the morning.

Smells like history.

 

[Benmathes]

I have it on good authority that the Almighty hunts with black powder-

good enuf for me

 

[SleazyRider]

Pray tell, exactly, what does He hunt?

 

[SwampMouse]

Pray tell, exactly, what does He hunt?

Anything he wants.

 

[mr.trooper]

I like that I can buy my BP substitute at big box stores, and then use it for anything.

With just a canister of Pyrodex 'P' and a set of dippers I can target shoot with my dueling pistol, hunt small and medium game with my cap lock pistols, make shotgun shells for birds and clay games, and load a cap & ball for defense.

The versatility is amazing.

 

[Dellbert]

I like it because of all the above, and the people that I meet that enjoy it and the history, and not letting the past die. Plus I really think it is cleaner than any BP substitutes. Goax is ok but I like Swiss BP more than the others, when I can get it. Dellbert