Cap and ball.....What's your story?

[ZVP]

I got into BP to just slow down and enjoy my shooting endavors! You can literally run through a box of 50 in no time and not really gain any skills except for maybe a quick doubletap lesson or maybepick up some move and shoot pratice? Spray 50 shots as fast as you can reload and rip them off again, what fun is that?
I wanted to enjoy my shooting and the bonus was that I got the chance to learn a lot about BP handloading!
Each and every session I learn something about loading and what size loads work best for accuracy?
The single action is a fine tool for slowing down and add in the low-key low stress enviornment of loading Black Powder and you have thr recipe for a nice slow day of pleasurable shooting!
That's what got me into Black Powder (Cap and Ball revolvers in particular)!
ZVP

 

[J.T. Gerrity]

I grew up with Westerns in the '50s and '60s and really got hooked with the Clint Eastwood movies. I had never owned or fired any gun (parents strictly religious and didn't believe in firearms or hunting or playing cards and a host of other things), but I thought the strapless revolvers with the octagonal barrel looked very cool in the movies, whatever they were. I had no idea that you could buy one until the late '80s when I started thumbing through a Cabela's magazine at a friend's house. When I came across the BP offerings (and there were five or six pages of them available at that time) I stopped stone dead in my tracks. There were all of those old style guns I'd lusted after for all those years; they were Colts and Remingtons and Walkers and they were so cool I wanted all of them. I asked to borrow the mag, and shelled out $65 for the "Confederate Navy" brass-framed .44 from Pietta. When I got it, I spent the first month just drooling over it, then decided I might like to actually fire the thing.

I had no experience at all with firearms, so I went to the local gunshop and asked them if they knew anyone who could help me out. They did, and I found myself ringing up the local BP club in the area. While they were mostly into pre-1850's stuff (trapper re-enactments, etc), the head of the club was into revolvers and invited me over to his shop. When I arrived with my pistol, he went out of his way to get me started out properly. He showed me how to load the pistol, how to clean it, and gave me some shooting tips. He set me up with the correct balls and powder and cleaning supplies, then welcomed me to the BP community. I can't remember his name, now, but he gave me a wonderful introduction to the shooting arts.

I took the gun home (I was living on a farm at the time) and cautiously capped the gun and fired just the caps. That in itself was very cool, and I was surprised at how loud they were. I then screwed up my courage and loaded it up; 25 grains of FFF, a wonder wad, and the ball, all six chambers. I walked an empty milk jug 25 yards out into the field behind the house, then returned and took aim. I hit it with the first shot. The report was amazingly loud, and the smoke cloud smelled like fire and brimstone, and I was immediately hooked. "This is the smell of the real West." I can remember thinking. "The smell of the Civil War and all that history". I fired off five cylinders that day, and immediately made plans to buy more pistols!

I started shooting with BP, and to this day that's all I shoot. Modern guns seem too simple to me (I do have a SAA, though the design is technically still a BP pistol); just not enough fiddling going on with one, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it (BP, that is)!

 

[iLikeOldgunsIlikeNewGuns]

J.T. that's gotta be my favorite reply here yet

I also grew up fascinated by westerns, especially the Clint Eastwood movies, (lotta metallic cartridges somehow being loaded into capped BP guns in those flicks, but who cares!). I've been shooting modern guns since I was 12 years of age, and worked as a range-instructor at a summer camp every summer including & between the ages of 14 and 18. I knew from a young age that i would own and shoot as many firearms as I could, but didn't decide to set out and buy my first until I felt comfortable enough with my living situation (room-mates, location, etc). By the time I was indeed comfortable enough to buy my first gun I was old enough at that point to buy a modern handgun, rifle, or shotgun, but I had already known in my heart somewhere for some time that my first gun should be a colt-style cap n ball wheelgun. Fortunately I had plenty of prior time to do my research, so when the time came I knew exactly what I wanted. Started off with two 1851 Navies in .44, both steel frame, one in traditional barrel length and finish, the other with a shorter barrel and scrollwork in stainless. I immediately named them 'Justice' (longer bbl) and 'Grace' (shorter bbl), I have since also named every other gun I've purchased, nothing I take too seriously, but it helps when I refer to one of them when speaking with my girlfriend or buddies. I immediately DOVE into black powder shooting, with books and the internet as my guides. I was in LOVE! I had shot .22s, 12-gauge, 9mm and .45acp by that time, but NOTHING compared to the THUD/BOOM and clouds of fire with each shot. It didn't take me long to iron out the kinks of both loading and shooting, it also didn't take me long at all to head right back to the store and add a Uberti Walker to my collection! (I immediately named my Walker 'Chuck Norris' )

Since then I've collected several if not many cap n ball guns (and many modern firearms of course, but that's for a different thread), I've sold just as many as I still have, but the ones I still have I will not be parting with until I am too old and/or frail to lift and fire them, in which case I'll pass them on to the most deserving family member or friend. Here's a photo of my collection at the moment, the brass frame was given to me by a friend who found it on property that he rented (landlord said just keep it). It doesn't shoot worth a bleep, but looks nice on the wall

 

[Omnivore]

Not sure, but the way I remember it, I wanted to get into muzzleloading hunting season a few years ago because it allowed the taking of a wider range of deer, so I bought a cheap Lyman 50 cal sidelock rifle. I'd fired a muzzleloader only on one occasion and that had been as a kid with my friend. It wass a big, clumsy rifle and we couldn't hit a thing with it. I was never very interested until about 40 years later.

At the time I got the Lyman rifle our state didn't sanction the carry of any modern arm during ML season and I was used to always carrying a sidearm. Perusing a gun shop one day I spied a steel framed Pietta '51 "Navy" in .44 for 200 bucks and that was that. I liked the looks of the 1851 Colt but wanted something with punch so in my mind at the time, the .44 made sense. Now C&B is something of a passion and I've added a Remington New Model Army repro. Clint Eastwood may have had something to do with that too.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Couldn't buy a handgun until I was twenty-one. So I mail ordered for a Ruger Old Army and found it was a lot of fun.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I fired a colt repro that a neighbor;s father bought. It was the 100th anniv. of Gettysburg. I was only 12. It was cool, i was into Davy Crocket and Dan'l Boone. A couple years later a Deputy Game warden showed me a fancy in laid long rifle he built. I got a Spanish flint lock. And about 1974 I stopped at a store that was in a bankruptcy sale. I paid $35.00 for a brass frame 36 remmie. It was a POS, but fun as all get out.

I swapped it for a lock and barrel so I could build a long rifle. Then stopped at a pawn shop in Arlington VA and saw a Ruger Old Army. It just had to go home with me. Cost $100 plus tax. That gun is incredible. I have shot raccoons, possums, skunks, ground hogs, cats, and a very strange acting stray dog. Not legal for deer or small game here.

 

[Legionnaire]

Not legal for deer or small game here.

... more's the pity. I'm thinking I'll need something in .36 just for PA small game.

 

[MCgunner]

I'd use my ROA and round ball on small game. No .36 out there can be as accurate, though a Remmy in .36 might be real close.

 

[J-Bar]

Wow!!

I am honored that McGunner quoted me in the first post. So I guess I am obligated to share my history on his thread.

I bought a TC Renegade from a pawn shop to get a deer when I was not able to fill my tag during the regular firearms hunting season in 1999. I nailed a 9 point whitetail with that gun, the biggest buck I have taken to date. That kinda predisposed me to liking blackpowder guns.

I began shooting Cowboy Action matches with smokeless powder guns about 1997. The Missouri Conservation Department sponsored an Outdoor Sports Day at a nearby shooting range in 2000, and some members of our Cowboy Action Shooting club, me included, participated. The range was open to the public, and we let them shoot our cowboy guns. It was great fun, particularly for the youngsters. You can't imagine the feeling you get when you tell a kid, "Congratulations, now you are a cowboy!" after he fires a few rounds from your single action clone.

Anyway, a couple of the cowboys at that event brought their blackpowder revolvers. During a slack time, I shot .45 Colt blackpowder loads from a Ruger Vaquero, and blackpowder loads from a Pietta 1860 Army.

Those of you on this forum will understand love at first BANG! Some kind of chemistry is involved, like looking at a beautiful woman and falling completely, hopelessly...

I still shoot smokeless cartridges occasionally for both practice and in CAS competition. But the grins come when the smoke pours out. How to explain it? I can't. Not worried about it. Life is short. Shoot often, shoot what you want. For me, it is Schuetzen, 777, Pyrodex...really, who cares?

 

[rommer25]

I got my info at the public library

Back in the late 60s, I was talking with the owner of a gun store. Back then you could talk to them and they knew what they were talking about. He showed me a Spiller and Burr kit. I brought it for about $18.00 with a bunch of stuff to use it with and took it home. I went to the public library and got a book that showed me how to use it. I used to take that thing camping and rabbit hunting with friends. We would shoot it for fun. At night, it was impressive. Some of my friends still shoot their own black powder guns now. I still have that pistol and many more.

 

[Fingers McGee]

Shortly after I was born, my Great Grandmother gave my father a Rigdon revolver that her father had carried during the late unpleasantness. The proviso was that when I was old enough to carry it, I was to learn how to use it from her. When I was around 8 years old, she taught me how to load and fire it & I've been hooked on C&Bs ever since.

 

[T Bran]

Some where in the mid eighties Service Merchandise was going out of buisness. While wandering around looking at what little was left of the inventory I spotted a CVA Hawken Hunter knock off. My hunting buddy was with me and as we were debating who saw it first the counter person said that there was another one in the back being held for someone who never showed up to claim it. So we each got one dont remember the price but about 80.00. After shooting it the first time and being amazed at the accuracy of a simple round ball over 70grains of Pyrodex the hook was well set. Still have it and want a Remmie and a 20ga smoothie to go with it. The rifling feels a little weird when cleaning so I guess I need to bore scope it. If it looks bad I may bore it out to the next common size smoothe bore and buy another .50 from Dixie.
T