If you were starting over, what would you do?

Seeing as you are a smokeless man I would think any cap and ball revolver would be a good start though any BP Arm will do. It won't be long until you get another and another....
Welcome to the Dark Side.

I just recently got back in to BP myself. I picked up a Uberti Walker, Uberti 1851 London Navy and a Traditions Trapper.

Rifles, I picked up a T/C Hawken.

So far I'm enjoying all of them.

Given what I know now, after 35 years, I'd get a Ruger Old Army and a Lyman Great Plains (percussion) to start. Then, you gotta have an 1851 Navy, an 1858 Remington New Army (or Navy), a Walker, a Rogers & Spencer, an 1860 Army, a flintlock rifle (again, a GPR), a single shot flintlock or percussion pistol, an 1863 Remington Zouave, a double barrel percussion or flintlock shotgun...

I would start here;

http://contemporarymakers.blogspot.com/

Black powder's performing arts!!!

I agree with Mykeal, start with a Ruger Old Army and enjoy trouble free revolver shooting for a while. The Italian clones usually take some gunsmithing to be reliable, and a newbie should not have to endure that, but if you enjoy tinkering then indulge yourself.

There is much fun to be had loading blackpowder cartridges for cowboy-era revolvers. Stoking a .45 Colt Blackhawk or Vaquero with historic loads will give you a new appreciation for the old loads carried by folks from 1873 into the smokeless era.

I only own one blackpowder rifle, a T/C Hawken, and enjoy carrying it in the deer woods. Your mileage may vary.

I would skip inline rifles altogether, and I would have bought a überti colt revolving rifle years ago, along with cartridge conversion cylinders.

I'd also get a 20 gauge Pedersoli Howdah pistol, because it's tons of fun and it looks like a sawed-off double barrel shotgun.

Crawdad nailed it. Start with a nice longrifle. I prefer flint cause I don't think that percussion stuff will ever catch on. Why, when was the last time you saw a percussion cap layin in a stream bed, ripe for the pickin and for use to fire your rifle? Flint was the ignition of choice for 300 years or so and won quite a few wars too. Chambers kits, TOW used rifles, TVM, all great places to look for a quality rifle that won't break the bank and will still be like the ones used in the 1700's. I went the custom route and don't regret it a bit. Cap and ball revolvers are awfully hard to beat for all around shooting. If they could figure out how to put tiny flints in all those holes it would be doubly awesome! Any way you go ( except inline cough-cough) will be fine and fun! Wow gary! That is super, super nice. your work?

i would have bought more machineguns before may of 86 and bought up all the m14 trw/sak barrels and parts kits from nesard in barrington illinois.also all the hk94's i could afford and convert. and stocked up on those 5.5 inch roa revolvers,plus the std roa's.

First, some questions. Would the BP guns be only for targets or include hunting and what kind of hunting? That would point to certain calibers. Do you want traditional styling or modern in-line versions? I have ZERO interest for in-lines. There is no romance or historical aspect to them. If I want a modern, scoped rifle, I'll get a Savage in .308 and be done with it. This is a personal choice. (Not that I'm biased!)

I agree with Mykeal's suggestions. The Ruger Old Army is not a copy of some historical gun but it IS a cap and ball revolver, functions the same way. It is simply the strongest, most accurate and reliable C&B revolver ever made. Aside from replacing the nipples at some point, it is built for generations of use as long as you maintain it properly. (I assume you know about cleaning and caring for BP guns.)

For a new rifle, the Lyman GPR is probably the best value. And start with percussion. I believe it is easier to learn with a percussion rifle. (If you stay with BP shooting, you WILL end up with a flintlock!) The GPR has a hooked breach, making it easy to remove the barrel for careful cleaning. They are strong and accurate. If you have someone to guide you, a used T/C Hawken or Renegade can be a great value. They also have a hooked breach and are accurate and dependable. I've had GPR flinter for 10 years and a T/C Renegade percussion for 30 years. Unless you are concerned with real historical correctness or want fancier features, they will do anything you want with a BP rifle.

BP shooting occupies an increasing amount of my range time. I love the history behind the guns and the slower but satisfying pace of using them.

Jeff

Don't know about rifles, but for pistols I'd get something fun that's a little out of the ordinary. Howdah pistol, ROA, maybe a Walker... Buy used, if you don't like it you'll get your money back when you sell it. Everyone has an 1860/1858 and/or an 1851, you can always find a deal when you decide you want one of the basics. I feel like someone who owns a Howdah or ROA is more likely to take care of it than someone who buys a $150 brasser and doesn't know much about BP.

Got a Howdah last week and it is SWEET

Just bite the bullet and get a custom rifle built by one of the masters. It will stay with you the rest of your life and provide many hours and days of pleasure. There are many production firearms out there, and some are good quality...but nothing compares to a beautiful custom built .

I would take better care of my teeth, watch my weight and be less gentlemanly with some ladies I have met..... oh wait you meant about BP

I would likely buy a cheap brass frame Colt ish Italian gun to see if this was going to be my cup of tea.....oh wait that's what I did.

I would look for a steel frame Coltish revolver used at a gun show and check the action before buying and keep my costs low until I knew this was for me

Or if I could find a decent Ruger Old Army at a reasonable price (man I still kick myself over the Stainless with .45 Colt conversion , holster and accessories for $500 I went home to think about) Knowing I could get my money back if I did not like it.

-kBob

If you perceive yourself as a marksman, then set yourself up with a .45 flintlock. You can enjoy years of humility and learning. You WILL develop more respect for our forefathers.
Any monkey can be taught to stuff a mag full of storebought ammo in the square hole of a modern rifle, peer through $400. worth of glass and put a hole in a target. It's a bit of an art to do the same with a flinter.
Cap 'n ball revolvers are a great source of fun for me...perhaps my favorite handgun of all is my short bbl '58 Remington.

For handguns one of the percussion revolvers seems like a slam dunk option. This worked out so well for me that I continue to enjoy percussion revolvers in the Frontiersman category in cowboy action shooting. I've got two pairs of percussion guns now. A pair of Uberti Remingtons and a mixed Navy Arms and Uberti pair of Colt 1860's.

Rifles? I'm not so sure about that. Oh sure, a percussion side lock model of some sort will work. But for my money it's just a little too much like the modern stuff. When I was deciding which to get I really wanted to move as far from the feel of a modern single shot as possible. And that meant a flinter.

Two flintlocks on and I would not change a thing. It's been and continues to be a big grin maker when the pan touches off with a big ball of light and smoke right in front of my nose.

I'm also actively looking for just the right flintlock pistol to add to the fun.

The only things I might do differently are to get a TC Renegade instead of the Hawken, and to gather more rocklocks.

That being said, the Hawken has been a fine rifle for over 30 years, and my elk hunts always get rained on.

An inline is a muzzleloader built on a modern action. This includes Savage, Remington and Ruger bolt actions and some shotguns, and a lot of break-action models also. The 'in-line' describes the cap in relation to the powder charge, at least that's how I think of it. On an inline, imagine a straight line running from the primer to the charge to the bullet. Here's an example:



Inlines are considered firearms as they are built on modern receivers and the powers that be think they can be converted into super sneaky ultra long range snipper riffles with extended magazine clips, etc, etc, by anyone with a screwdriver. Therefore, they require FFL's for transfer.



A traditional black powder gun, also called a sidelock, ignites the powder via a cap or spark not directly behind the powder charge but instead, fittingly, to the side. A traditional caplock would look much like this flintlock, except instead of flint there would be a hammer. Instead of a frizzen and pan, there would be a small cone (called a 'nipple' in modern terms) which a cap fits over. Revolvers with percussion cylinders also fall under this definition, but not if they have a cartridge conversion cylinder installed.



Hope that answers your question about what 'inline' means

You knw why the mountain man is always depicted as going up into the mountains with TWO horses? The second horse carries all the stuff it takes to keep a flinter running.

Noz, who had a bad flintlock experience.

I have been checking Florida creeks streams and rivers for flint for years and found darned little but what we call chirt. It tends to be so brittle that it shatters when one attempts to use it as a flint in a flint lock. Can't say as it makes enough spark to do anything with as I never tried it with powder in the pan.

There is a reason militaries during the flint lock days issued multiple flints to each infantryman and shipped barrel loads of flints to where ever flintlock armed troops were. Military planners typically planned on 20 shots from a flint. ( you and I may get a lot more, but they planned for worst case) Useable flints do not lay uniformly upon the ground the world over........

If I were just starting and wanted a long arm it would likely be a halfstock percussion side lock like most folks call a Hawken.

-kBob

When you're out of caps you're done. The rock in the lock doesn't just have to be flint. Any small chipped off piece of granite or other rock will give off a spark most times when struck on a steel. This will serve in a pinch until you can get back to where you can buy a real flint. With a percussion cap, well, ya just gotta have a percussion cap. Having said that, we're not likely to go off hunting with a percussion rifle without a supply of caps. Also that piece of chert or granite is definitely not gonna be as reliable as a chunk of real flint.