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Booshway
Picture of Walkingeagle
posted
Well fellers and gals, I done did decided that this har campfire seems to be a burnin a lil low lately, so I went forth and gathard some real juicy ol’ standin dead pine, right littered with old pitch n such an stoked her up ral good!! She gonna be burning bright for a while now fur shore!
So, now that coffees on and warm I thought may be a good time to reacquaint us all. Maybe git some discussions back goin.
The handle’s Walkineagle but was changed to Walkingeagle back when the forum made a transition in ‘07 or so. Got misspelled somehow. Anyhow I was given the name by a Cree indian friend and coworker, and I am sure you all know why. I have been shooting muzzleguns for, well, must be 20 years or so. Built a .50GPR flint from kit and hated it (blasphemous I know) so did a self conversion to cap and love it. Owned about 3 Renegades in .50 and .54 and gave them to family or friends. Had a TC .50 Hawken that is now my brothers and built a “poor boy” plains rifle from parts in .54 cap. Got a new nephew a year ago so my brother and I have a winter project to build him a .50 plains rifle as a gift for when he is old enough. Got a new granddaughter coming in February so maybe one for her next year?? I have a sweet liettle .54 that I will gift to my grandson once I finish his dads matching (but longer barrel) .54. They will be gifted them together.
Had some rough times last several years, went through some dark days and still have ahead of me. Shore miss a few fine folks that have left us on here too, but I know there’s many fine folks out there that are lookin for a fire like this. So bring yur cup and pull up a stump, we’s a waiting on ya.
Anyhow, ‘nuff bout me, ya’lls turn now.
Walk
Fyi, start a discussion in any category, I’ll chat with ya!
 
Posts: 342 | Location: Alberta, Canada | Registered: 15 January 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Well, ah reckon ah'll jump in har.
The name is John, but I've been called a lot of things. On this forum I go by Rancocas. I grew up playing around, on, and in the Rancocas Creek in central New Jersey. I've been told that Rancocas is a Lenni-Lenape (Delaware) Indian word roughly meaning "amber water". The creek gets its root beer color from filtering through the cedar swamps.
I'm a navy veteran of the Vietnam War. I'm a retired US immigration agent, and moved around some for the job. After growing up in New Jersey I lived in South Carolina, Arizona, New York (upstate), Michigan, and now am retired in Tennessee.
I have been a muzzleloader since the mid 1980's when I first used a borrowed 1861 Springfield rifled musket to take a small buck. I built four of my own guns since then and purchased a few more.
Hunting has been my passion since I was a kid, but now in old age that flame has cooled down some. However, I still like to "get out there" whenever I can.
Health wise; I think I'm doing pretty good for a guy who is about to turn 70. I have a few problems, but nothing that keeps me indoors.
I have 2 sons, 2 daughters, 7 grandsons, 2 granddaughters, and 3 great granddaughters - so far. I have researched one branch of my family tree back about 1000 years to a Norman warrior named Lofe, who followed William the Conqueror when he invaded England and fought the Battle of Hastings in the year 1066.
Ah like my coffee with some milk, but no sugar.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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Well, I go by "Hanshi" Which is a Japanese title reserved for the most senior teachers, or a "teacher of teachers". In my case it comes from being immersed in the martial arts going toward 60 years, now. I'm 71 and have serious issues but am more active than one would suspect. I was in the Army in the 1960s.

We have two boys - middle age, now - but no grandkids. I'm permanently disabled so do have to exercise a bit of care when I get "froggy". Love to hunt and was born and lived in Georgia for 62 years prior to moving to Va. We're looking at moving to Maine, if we can find a house in the area we will move to. I don't build but do have a few guns, mostly flintlocks; and longrifles are my passion. I've hunted since I was a kid and have taken many deer, squirrels and bobcats with my BP frontloaders. I don't hunt as much as I did even 7-8 years ago. I can talk guns till everybody falls asleep and that still won't stop me. I drink my coffee black and strong; nothing goes in it except my upper lip. This is a good start to a great thread.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3558 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Hello the fire. My name is Keith. I go by woods loper. Runnin the woods is about my favorite thing to do. I'm a retired Navy diver from SC. Hunting with my flintlock and living history are two of my prime interests.
 
Posts: 552 | Location: SC | Registered: 03 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Walkingeagle
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Welcome friends, glad you could spare the time for a cup and a yarn or two. Its great to see that life in general can’t kick hard ‘nuff ta keep us down! I know there’s others out there, maybe still followin the scent of this here coffee on the wind, but don’t be a frettin, they’ll show.
More on myself...
Huntin and fishin are my true passions, and spendin time in the bush that is. Made a career move end of last year which brought me to west central Alberta, right in the heart of David Thompson country. Very nice area but lots of people. Gets my anxiety going when I can’t even pee behind a tree anymore. Plum sad that is. I do miss my north country...game was plenty and folks was scarce. I gots two kids, boy n girl, and a very beautiful lady with two of her own. In total 3 boys and my daughter, with one grandson age 4 and a granddaughter on the way. I have been furtunate in that I have hunted most everything available here in Alberta with the exception of sheep, goats and Grizzly. In the north we provided meat for the family from the wilds or the waters, and of recent have been doing it with a muzzlegun.
Keep’em comin folks.
Walk
 
Posts: 342 | Location: Alberta, Canada | Registered: 15 January 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Notchy Bob
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Howdy!

Thanks, WalkingEagle, for stirring the coals. I check in here now and then, but there has not been much going on. It's good of you to take the initiative.

The three initials of my "real" name spell "BOB," and that's how I would initial things at work. Some co-workers called me "Bob" just for fun, so I kind of adopted it as my campfire name.

I'm interested in history, primarily focused on the first half of the 19th century, roughly between Lewis & Clark and the War Between the States. The fur trade did not exactly grind to a halt with the last rendezvous in 1840... It's just that beaver became more scarce and harder to trap, in conjunction with a decline in the market price. The rendezvous became irrelevant, because steamboats were coming up the river and trading posts were popping up all over the frontier. Muzzleloaders still ruled the day, until well into the 1860's, and Theodore Roosevelt actually met some old mountain men and trappers, gamely soldiering on, into the 1880's!

The history of the Mississippi Valley has always been of interest, particularly the Natchez Trace. This was the name given to a series of paths, running in parallel from the lower Mississippi up to the vicinity of Nashville (which was called "French Lick," back in the day... I'm not making that up...). "Natchez" is the French spelling of an Indian word which was originally pronounced nah-CHAY. English-speaking newcomers to the region saw the written word and pronounced it to rhyme with "matches," but the old-time settlers, who were familiar with the spoken word, knew this track as the "Notchy Trace." This is pretty well documented. In any event, I took the name "Notchy Bob" as a gesture of respect to those old frontiersmen and the history of the Natchez Trace.

I like shooting flintlocks and percussion, rifles and smoothbores. I retired earlier this year, with big plans to get in more time on the range, but the concept of increased free time with retirement is pure illusion. Maybe when the heat lets up on into the fall, I'll get out and burn some more powder.

That's pretty near all about me that's fit to print. I'm happy to be a part of this circle. Even if I don't post much, I check in pretty often to read and try to learn something. Even an old dog can learn a new trick, now and then.

Keep the far a' burnin', boys.

Notchy Bob


"Should have kept the old ways just as much as I could, and the tradition that guarded us. Should have rode horses. Kept dogs."

from The Antelope Wife
 
Posts: 333 | Location: Florida | Registered: 24 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Well, among the four of us we're all agreed that hunting is a big part of our lives.

I don't remember how old I was when I began pestering my Dad to take me along on his hunts, but I know I was first allowed to tag along when I was 8. I was first allowed to carry a gun when I was 10. That was probably the legal age in New Jersey at that time. I was allowed to go with my Dad on my first deer hunt when I was 12. Finally at age 14 I was legally allowed to hunt alone without adult supervision. My parents had confidence in my gun handling ability so they let me do that. So there I was, 14 years old carrying a double barrel shotgun as I walked through a suburban neighborhood, heading out to the surrounding fields and woods. Try that today! Especially in a state like New Jersey. HA!

Small game was in abundance in those days of the 1950's and early 60s. There were plenty of open fields and woodlands available to hunt, too. I could leave my home and walk and hunt five miles through farmland and woodlots before I reached the next little town. Then I turned around and walked/hunted back again. Rabbits, pheasants, squirrels, and the occasional quail were my quarry then. Back then, if it wasn't posted it was considered okay to hunt there, no permission needed.

I did some trapping during my teenage years. Mostly muskrat, with a raccoon or a 'possum now and then. I made enough money to take a girl to the movies on Saturday nights with enough left over for a couple of cherry cokes and a hamburger or two down at the local hang-out.

Good times!


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Walkingeagle
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Funny you should say that Rancocas, about walkin to the hunt through town with a shotgun, as I can remember boarding the bus for school with a .22 in hand, leaving it on the bus all day then being dropped off at a friends farm to shoot gophers after school. Nobody ever batted an eye. Then again, anyone could hand out discipline if you ever stepped out of line, and you got it agin when ya got home! Those truly were the good old days my friends, and no kid was ever hurt by it.
Walk
 
Posts: 342 | Location: Alberta, Canada | Registered: 15 January 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Hello campfire,

I’m Paul, and I’ve been shooting muzzleloaders since 1985. Back in college, I had a roommate who did AWI reenactments. After helping him out with some work, he gave me an old, beat up Hopkins and Allen underhammer rifle and a mold to cast balls for it. I took it to the range, and something just clicked. I had fired the modern stuff, but nothing was even close to being this fun and satisfying. It’s been a fine journey ever since.

Over the years, I’ve acquired a few more muzzleloaders, both percussion and flint. Most are factory guns, but I have managed to put together a northwest trade gun, and it has become one of my favorites. I do have the parts to put together a longrifle. I should probably get around to finishing it since I started gathering parts for it back in 1987.

My wife has been very supportive of my passion. Right now she’s trying to get me out hog hunting because she wants more pork chops! When I showed her the parts to the longrifle, she asked me if I had ever done anything like that before. Upon hearing that I hadn’t, she responded, “Well, you should probably put together something simpler and work up your skills before you accidentally ruin that beautiful piece of curly maple.” And that is how I got to build my northwest trade gun, which I also have wanted to do for decades.

At 52 years of age, I seem to be the young one in this bunch. I’m doing my best to remedy that. I work with several troops in the Boy Scouts and Trail Life USA, and try to proselytize the muzzleloaders every chance I get; becoming a certified instructor in order to help the cause. It has shown promise. I have one troop that loves to do a rendezvous every year, and the boys in that troop don’t even want to shoot the modern stuff. Some have even convinced their dads to get a muzzleloader, and to date all of those have been flinters.

How do I take my coffee? I don’t. I never learned to drink the stuff. The good news is that means more coffee for everyone else.

I’ve been so busy with life that I haven’t spent too much time around the campfire. Looks like I should kick up my heels a little more often.
 
Posts: 23 | Registered: 20 January 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Notchy Bob
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Howdy, Paul

...and the rest of you varmints... Big Grin

I don't think age is important. It is true that older people can give the benefit of experience, while younger people contribute more energy. It's all good. However, with thirty plus years of blackpowder shooting on your resumé, it sounds to me as if you have the experience and the energy!

I think it's great that you are able to get the Boy Scouts involved. The question that always comes up is how to get young people involved in worthwhile activities like shooting. The answer, much of the time, is that kids do what their parents allow or encourage them to do, and if you want to get kids involved, reach out to the young adults who are their parents. In your case, it sounds as if you are reaching the boys directly, and they are getting their parents involved! Good work, hoss!

If you read Muzzleloader magazine, you may be familiar with Mike Nesbitt's "Shooting the Bull" column. Mike uses "coffee" as a metaphor for the information provided in the column, and I think some of the boys on this forum follow suit. Fill your cup, and drink it up.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob


"Should have kept the old ways just as much as I could, and the tradition that guarded us. Should have rode horses. Kept dogs."

from The Antelope Wife
 
Posts: 333 | Location: Florida | Registered: 24 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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Well, I guess I'll put in a bit more info, too. I started with BP in the mid 1960s. My first was an H&A Heritage model .45 underhammer; I still have that rifle. And as Paul mentioned, it clicked. I seldom shoot anything other than flintlocks and rely on them. I'm glad to see this activity and the conversational posts.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3558 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of volatpluvia
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Okay, a brief history again. For me watching THE SWAMP FOX on Disney four Sunday nights in a row back in the fifties as a kid is what kindled my interest. 50 cents and a cheerios box top got me a plastic pistol where I could rip a square off a roll of caps put it in the 'pan' and thumb the hammer to set it off. The crisp fall air in PA made me imagine adventures 200 years in the past. The mechanism finally fell apart from firing caps. Sadly I didn't own or shoot a ml until 1978. After a dozen flinters, a wheellock and a matchlock self built, I gave it all up to come to México.


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Walkingeagle
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Wal now, appears the coffe is starting to flow and the coals are starting to glow. Thank ye all, for this fire is worth it.
Walk
 
Posts: 342 | Location: Alberta, Canada | Registered: 15 January 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Well, I'm probably considered a "youngster" here. I got started in 1977 with Confederate Artillery Living History. Basically because my friends were all in the same unit, and it was the only unit from Maryland (where I live) at the time.

Went to college and was too busy to do living history or to hunt, though I did work on a TV mini-series as a "black powder extra" which means I was one of a group of guys up front with actual Brown Bess muskets..., that was introduction to flinters.

Following that was USMC Infantry, Wpns Co 3/6 followed by 2nd Recon Battalion. Then left the fleet and worked hazmat for the base, Camp Lejeune. Still didn't get much huntin' in. Eeker

After the USMC I became a cop, and in 1992 I saw Last of The Mohicans. I really enjoyed the movie, and since I was working part-time at a gun shop when a messed up flintlock kit came in, and they gave it to me for parts. Well I bought Dixon's book on building flintlocks, and actually got it put together and working. Big Grin

Right about that time my coworkers were talking about "reenacting" and an artillery piece, and I volunteered the information that I used to do artillery, but found out it was AWI not CW. They found out I had a flintlock rifle, so they got me started in the Maryland Militia.

Well the Militia didn't do all that many battle reenactments, but I wanted to burn powder. (Heck I excelled in the engineer classes on Field Expedient Explosives...so....I like stuff that goes BOOM! Also explains the artillery and me.) So at one summer battle reenactment, everybody but me got dehydrated so were sick on Sunday, headaches and such, and the previous night I had met the folks in The Maryland Loyalist Battalion.

So I went over to the MLB and asked if I could play with the Redcoats that afternoon as everybody in my camp were heat casualties. I've been with the Maryland Loyalists ever since.

Hence the name..., Loyalist Dave.

Two rifles later, I took my first deer ever, in the rain with my flintlock. IF I wasn't hooked yet, I was then. NOW..., I really don't hunt with anything other than a front-stuffer. My daughter is 23 and still does living history with me..., her new beau came out to Brandywine and now he says he's interested (which is one reason why he's not the ex-beau). My 17 year old son likes to shoot..., but hasn't been bitten by the BP bug yet. We'll give it time.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Well, if you’re going to count me as a sage for having 30+ years of muzzleloading experience, there are a couple gems of wisdom I can pass along:

After being interrupted while loading by someone asking a question, make sure you know where you left off. This may help you notice that the ramrod is still in the barrel. Corollaries to this include: Ramrods have wicked recoil. Ramrods have poor ballistic properties. Ramrods do not work well as ramrods once recovered from the backstop.

If you drop your powder measure in a mud puddle and take it apart, clean it, and put it back together, don’t forget to reset it to the proper volume. Corollary: a .45 underhammer that is used to a 50 grain load is neither as accurate nor as pleasant to shoot when loaded with 120 grains of FFFg.

NOT that I’ve ever done these myself, of course. Big Grin
 
Posts: 23 | Registered: 20 January 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Good lessons learned there, Paul.
While I have never done any of those things (yet) I have been known to load a dry ball a time or two.

The worse accident I have had with a muzzleloader occured some years ago at a shooting match. I was using an original 1850s half stock "Ohio rifle". It was only a .32 caliber, percussion. I usually loaded it with 20 grs. of 3F, but for some unfathomable reason that one time I poured in 30 grains of 3F.

I am left-handed and I was firing that right-hand gun from my left shoulder so the lock and nipple were right in front of my face. Luckily, I was wearing safety glasses.
When I touched it off, there was a tremendous boom and flash. The nipple blew out! I checked my hat brim for holes, but didn't find any. I have no idea where that nipple went.
My left eyebrow was burnt off, but the glasses had saved my eyes.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Hiya, there. As I recall, I've dry balled several times in the heat of competition, but have only had one accident in the 36 years I've been shooting muzzleloaders. I have an original (1850's) 33 caliber squirrel rifle that was converted some time long ago, from flint to percussion. I have always shot 30 grains of 3f in her, with great results. That little rifle is a squirrel getting Jessie! Once, at the range, I had been shooting her, and this one time, she made a strange boom, and I was struck in the head. The nipple had blown off, and struck me in the forehead about at the hair line. Very bloody, but that's the only harm done. Scared my good wife big time. My face was covered in blood, and she though I was kilt! We went to the house, and after I'd got settled, I took her to the shop. I had to replace the entire drum and nipple, and rethread the hole. Don't have a clue where the original went after it smacked my noggin. I've checked the barrel out, and it's sound, but she is pretty much in retirement these days.
 
Posts: 33 | Location: Bentonville, Arkansas | Registered: 26 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Walkingeagle
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Thems some close calls boys!
I have dry balled more times than I care to admit. Especially since chemo started. I believe they call it “chemo brain” for a reason, lol.
Walk
 
Posts: 342 | Location: Alberta, Canada | Registered: 15 January 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Well,I might as well jump in here,too.I've only recently found the Path of The Holy Black,after a lifetime of being trapped in the 20th century.After saving and scrimping to get my first muzzle stuffer,I narrowly survived an assassination attempt by a Rogue Ninja Deer while innocently riding my motorcycle.That blasted deer appears to have survived also,darn it.The resulting injuries have had a few results;I have never fired my replica Charleville .69 caliber smoothbore.I was also forced into retirement before I was ready due to losing mobility,and chronic pain.I try to keep a good attitude and remember I'm not the most "broke up" on these forums.I've been working "fairly diligently" to get some of my strength,and abilities back.Probably the biggest barrier to firing my smoothbore is my left shoulder.I was stupid,and tried to go back to work too soon,messing up my left shoulder from compensating for my messed up right side.That is why I don't have any Been there,Done that stories.However,I keep the Charleville,and work at trying to rehab as much as I can. Reading about your adventures here keeps my attitude good.The good looking women that work at the YMCA I go to also help to keep me coming back.One of these days,I'll post some range pics to demonstrate that I can come out and play again.Have fun and keep those stories coming!


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2013 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
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I am another latecomer to the muzzle loader interest.
At the tender age of 64 or 65, about 5 years ago, I attended a demonstration of mountain man, fur trader culture.
There was a fellow there shooting a beautiful, tiger stripe flint lock and after seeing that, I was smitten.
The following year, I attended a Rendezvous at Ft. Lupton, CO. A man there had several cap locks for sale. There was my chance to jump in. I bought a "Hawken" and a Spanish made "Kentucky" cap lock from him.
That brings me up to the present. My interest has moved more to the flintlocks, although I like to shoot cap locks, as well.

My participation in black powder activities has been stifled this past year due to health issues. First, I tore the quadriceps off my knee, an acceptable cause of some mutterings that cannot be spoken here. Healing, physical therapy, and I was mobile enough to have my aortic valve replaced in a bout of open-heart surgery. Flat-lined in ICU (heart stopped, blood pressure went to zero), nurse administered 20 CPR compressions, started the heart, and I am happily alive again. For a while, I did cardiac rehap 3 days a week and physical therapy for the knee 2 days.
The quad tore again in February and it was back to healing, then physical therapy. Walking and stair climbing gets better every day.

I call this my year of unexpected adventures. At least I am back to shooting my muzzle loaders and walking to and from the 50 and 100 yd back stops without too much discomfort.
 
Posts: 62 | Location: Golden, CO | Registered: 10 October 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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