What got you started?

[Free_Stater]

I grew up around guns, and I got my first BP gun, a reproduction Colt 1851 revolver in about 1969, when I was 15. I still have it and still shoot it.

For years I fiddled with guns, worked on guns, and even built a few. Then in 1976 or so I found an essay in *Shooter's Bible* about snipers in the Civil War, with lots of emphasis on Berdan's Sharpshooters. In the same issue was a listing for a "Shiloh" 1863 rifle in .54 caliber. I circled the photo and fantasized about having one. Then, over the years I ordered Shiloh catalogs and finally got ready to order a rifle in about 1998. What stopped me was the 48-month waiting period, so I held off. Then in 2010 I found a Farmingdale 1863 on Gunbroker and won the auction. I had it shooting within ten minutes after it came out of the box.

I've always had an interest in history, especially the Civil War and the old West, and the rest is a story many of you could tell, so I don't have to. Once I bought a Shiloh off the rack shortly after the 1863, well, same old story.

Don't regret much of it, either.

[OLReliable]

When I was in Jr.High school in the 1950's, I read "The Buffalo Hunters" by Mari Sandoz. Then I read it again, which was unlikely for me, since most of my free time was spent fishing or plinking around the family property. This book gave me The Spirit and got me daydreaming for the time when I could save up, not for a car, but to buy my own "buffalo gun". With the help of my uncle, I bought a M1869 Sharps 44/77BN that was owned by Uncle's " friend of a friend's nephew's cousin". It came with a pail full of Berdan primed 43 Spanish brass and a paper patch mould. The owner had been a shooter, and had passed away. We bought the rifle from his widow. My uncle taught me to cast bullets, and to de-prime by filling the cartridge cases part-way full of water, inserting a tight-fitting dowel into the case mouth and giving the dowel a whack with a hammer. It worked just fine. We both practiced patching bullets until we got it about right, because we wanted to keep The Spirit and do things "old school". We ordered a couple pounds of Dupont BP and some Berdan primers from Dixie Gun Works, and a few weeks later, a box came in the mail from DGW, delivered to the house by Parcel Post. It took a lot of patience, but we got that old gal to shoot. Sadly, my uncle has since passed away, and I no longer own the Sharps, but after over 50 years, I still have a copy of the book, and The Spirit it shared with me.

[Clarence]

I've always liked guns, and my father-in-law had an original conversion Sharps buffalo rifle. In 1986, I spent some time at the Virginia City buffalo runners match, and started to get the fever for one of my own. Three months later, my brother-in-law called me. A small shop next to his barber had just received 2 Shiloh #3 .45-70's, and he wondered if I wanted one. It didn't take long to decide.

That was the start of 7 Shilohs, 2 Ballards, 2 custom Rolling Blocks, 3 original Rolling Blocks, and 2 CPA's, along with sights, a scope, and all the reloading accoutrements. I started to compete in 2000, and met MLV at the Ft. Keogh match in Miles City (the predecessor of the Quigly, which came the next year). Mike gave me my first blow tube, since I didn't know much about controlling fouling and the weather hit 103-104 out on the plains that day. Mike also talked me into shooting in the first MT BPCR Silhouette championship the next week, rather than going to the Buffalo Runners match as I had planned.

I think there have been 8 trips to Montana for the MT Championship matches, 11 or 12 trips to Raton, probably an average of 8-10 matches a year in MS/IN/LA/TX since 1995, and one trip to the SE Regional. I don't even want to think about how much I've spent, but I have never had more fun in any sport or met nicer folks than I have in the last 23 years of competing in the BPCR sport.

Clarence

[bobw]

Good thread,it started for me in the late 70's after reading the first Shiloh add for 74's in a gun magazine ,I knew someday I'd have one. I'd allready been shooting my dad's 73 trapdoor and 73 Winchester so the old gun bug was well planted. Worked in the Willotson basin in the summer of 85 out of Roundup , Montana. Had a couple of weeks off till the next well down to Pinedale Wyo. I came thru Big Timber Mt in early June 85 stopped in at Shiloh and checked out the guns, left their swearing that I would own several someday. By mid August that summer I had the oilfield pegged as a loser for security. Moved back to Rapid City SD and got a job doing geotechnical work for an Engineering Company. The Shiloh flame was still burning but the flame was small. One day in Dec 91 I walked into a gun shop I frequented and one guys stuck a big shell in my face betting me I didn't have clue to what it was. I never missed a beat telling him 50-140 Sharps to bad you don't have one "we could do some business on that" he laughed. He reached behind him and handed me the LRE that came with the shells and said but I do, and I laughed and said you did, I'll take it. He grinned and said haven't told you the price yet. So I said how much? well we just got it and haven't priced it yet ,call tommorrow and ask the boss was the reply. So I did, the boss said its as good as new ,want $1150 for it and I said ok. A few weeks later he saw the premium Shilohs were bringing in Gun List and about had a stroke. I had alot to learn and did most of it on my own hook. I remember finding this site and asking questions about loading for it to be told by numerous experts here to send it back to Shiloh and get it rebarrreled to 45-70. The old girl will shoot and sort out them that talk and them that shoot. A Saddle gun in 40-70 BN came next and 3 years ago a B gun in 45-2 7/8 for paper patch only shooting. Might be 1 more left in me I don't know.. bobw

[Kirk Stovall]

I would guess I had my first Sharps before most on this board, I got it at Woolworth's about 50 years ago...

[1minute]

I was up dialing in some other rifles when about a dozen BPCR folks showed up for a shoot. Since all were on the line, they asked me to keep score. They started at 1000 and worked their way in to 250yds. I was supposed to be home at 10:00 AM, but made it by 15:00.

[45bpcr]

For me it was The Sharps and it's co-star Tom Selleck.
My Dad started me shooting at a young age with 22's behind the house and I owned a few rifles and handguns, all smokeless.
I shot varmit and target stuff.
Then I saw that movie and that shot.
Hollywood or not, I was hooked.
I started reading and trying black in some of my revolvers.
One day I just said tahellwithit and bought my first BPCR rifle, my 1885 Creedmoor.
The learning curve started.
Various rollers and a trapdoor followed
Bullet casting was learned
Bought my 1st Sharps in 2009
It was alomost comical after I won the auction. I was at the computor that night, humming a Quiggly tune and reading.
SWMBO walks in the room, kisses me on the top of my head and says "finally bought a Sharps huh? "
How do women know these things ?????????
I have many many rifles now, of all types, but my favorite ones are the Sharps and the 1885.

45Bpcr

[zrifleman]

I started shooting muzzleloaders in about 1971. I used to buy BP and supplys from Harold McCallum, who got me to join the matches with him. After he showed me an original 74, it was love at first sight. Bought my first Shiloh in about 1978 and with the help and encouragement of a gunsmith friend never stopped shooting and building single shot projects.

[GS4570]

Though my dad was a huge old west fanatic, he didn’t shoot black powder. However, I am absolutely positive that he would have loved this stuff! For as long as I can remember I was either hunting or plinking. In the late 1980's and early 1990’s I started looking into muzzleloader and/or highpower shooting; reading everything I could get my hands on. The research that I encountered included much about black powder cartridge rifles which were something that held my interest, but I hadn’t been exposed to.

In 1994, I found myself at a local gun show where the Baton Rouge Gun Club had a table setup. As I looked over their match calendar, I noticed a scheduled BPCR match. When I got home I contacted the match director to see if it would be ok to come out and observe. He told me a little about the sport and gave me directions to the range. A couple of weeks later, I showed up and met the competitors and saw their rifles. The match director assigned everyone their target and turned to me saying “you’ll be shooting on target #2, right next to me”. He then handed me one of his Shilohs and a box of ammo! Talk about getting hooked hard! That match director, Clarence Dykstra, went on to show me the reloading process and just about everything else concerning the sport. Not only was I introduced to a great sport, but to special breed of competitors who are the most generous as I have ever known. Thanks Clarence!

Graham Stewart

[Kenny Wasserburger]

I used to ride my bike over too the neighbors accross Lance Creek when I was 6-8 years old. He was a die hard Member of the NRA and was a Govt. Trapper plus ran his small Ranch. Sometimes I rode my horse, as I got older the 3 wheeler or my motorcycle, horse took too damm long to catch and saddle.

I used to dig through the many issues of the Rifleman and found the stories of Creedmoor, where American shooters garnered the Reputation as the best Long Range rifle shots in the world. This fueled my interests along with my loving of the History of the West and History in general. Creedmoor was the Starting of the NRA and of American Long range shooting. From the mid 1870's on America has held the reputation of being some of the best Long Range rifle shots in the world.

When I was in my mid 20's I had just got custudy of my two girls and had took up NRA Highpower looking to sate my Long Range "I wanna's" I shot the M1 then went to my M1A and mod 70 bolt gun and 6.5 match Rifles. Still it was just not the same, something was missing. In 91 I ordered my Shiloh visting with Wolf, in 94 took delivery of my old French Gray Hell Bitch Rifle, shot local matches, in 96 saw the advert for Raton Mid-range with a Creedmoor 800 yard try match. And its been down hill ever since. From 1997 on I have been able to live my dream of shooting Black Powder Creedmoor, And have never missed a year. This year 2012 was our 6th year in a row to attend Phoenix Winter Nationals. To do it like the old dead guys did with a paper Patched bullet and to do it well, has been a lifelong dream.

My years of Highpower were great fun, and I learned a great deal. Camp Perry is something too experience not once but in my case several times. I had the great luck, good fortune to be squaded with folks like Dennis Demile of Creedmoor sports when he was a young buck sgt in the Marine Corps he and Clint Huarbeck tought me more in a week about shooting then one can learn in a lifetime on your own. in 93 I shot the Wimbledon Cup with none other then Nancy Tompkins. How that ever happend I have not a clue. And I look back on that as one of the luckiest moments in my life. To be a member of the only time Wyoming as a team placed 3rd in the Rumbold Cup Match, and to take 2 indivdual Medals, one in the Members Trophy the other the Navy Cup Match, with the M1A, built by Master Chief Don Dobber ret USN. Accross the Course Highpower is a lot of fun.

Still, it pales in great folks friends I have made in the last 16 or so years, My pardner Jimbo Terry, and the success we both have had in this game, I would not trade for anything. Friends like Steve Rhoades, Kelley Roos, Dick Hanson, SPG, Dan T, Doc Leigh, Bryan the Lance Thruster, Dale Wese, Eric Halter, Eron A. Dave Gullo, Jim Kidwell, Trent Lawerence, Rick Gray, Zack Taylor, Glen Gibson, Liege Harris, Rick Moritz, Frank M., The Rdnck, The list is so long. Folks like the entire Shiloh Gang, good lord I have an entire other family in Big Timber! Erich Lah, Jerry Prouty, too many to name and list here! Kirk and Cinda and Bryan and I spent a week together drove 2500 plus miles last November, and laughed the entire trip, Life is too good! Friends like that are the most rare of treasures.

I work hard save my money and blow it all on powder lead, Diesel pickups and Campers, and trips to Raton, Phoenix and points inbetween. OH and On Shilohs!


KW
The Lunger

BPCR Target rifle, has been very good to me.

[deerhuntsheatmeup]

Around 2000, my buddy Lee bought a piece of property close to Bunker Hill, MS. He had a 300 yard lane we could shoot down, so we did, with his rifle. Then he told me of a match at Bogue Chitto, MS. He asked me to come shoot, he would load the ammo. I did. I was hooked. He let me bring his rifle home one week so I could be sure that the ammo I was going to load would chamber. The rifle was a Shiloh #1 Sporter.

As a side note, we both would shoot the same rifle at the matches, 60 shots plus sighters. We both shot ourselves into expert class using the same rifle.

Fast forward to 2012, I have made so many great friends going to shoots from GA. to Raton, TX to TN, these friendships I hold on to dearly. You guys are my best friends, we have become pals.

Best, David B

[Free_Stater]

Barvid, Lee had me out to the Bunker Hill spread so I could work out some sight settings before my first match at Bogue Chitto. Truth is, the idea was to get settings for the Pascagoula silhouette match, which I have shot exactly once. Dern metal critters just refuse to get hit. At least I can usually get some kind of score on every shot in silhouette. Now that old Boggy's off limits, I reckon I'll fire up the loading press for some more 45-90 ammo and give those clangy targets another go.

[Free_Stater]

"At least I can usually get some kind of score on every shot in silhouette" should read midrange.

[squire]

Got a .36 cal squirrel rifle from Dixie Gun Works in 1962 and hunted with it until I left for college. Military service, more college, Law School, career, just got busy.

Traveling back from Yellowstone in 1996 we stopped in Cody for the night, went to the Buffalo Bill museum the next day, and the rifles there renewed my interest. Bought a shooting magazine at a gas station on the way out of town and found an ad for BPC News, ordered a subscription and all the back issues. An article in one of the early issues was written by a guy who lived in MS so I looked him up and we started talking. I was invited to a Mid Range match a few weeks later and went even though I didn't have a gun. In fact the only rifle I owned was a Ruger 77 in 6.5x55.

Night before the match Duncan called to say one of the Baton Rogue shooters was bringing a spare rifle and ammo for me to shoot. Met Clarence the next morning and after some coffee and conversation he opened a gun case.

Me: What's that?

Clarence: An 1874 Sharps made by a company in Montana called Shiloh.

So I picked up the rifle and that was that.

[VBull]

First BP firearm was a Colt 1851 revolver I bought fresh out of high school for $50. Most of the bluing was worn off but it shot just fine.
I shot it until it pointed like my finger. Could hit just about anything I aimed it at. Simple notch in the hammer and that worn brass front bead.

Sold it to buy a Rodgers and Spencer in .44 but when I went to pay, the owner changed his mind. Ended up with a T/C Renegade. Still have that one but it has long since been re-barreled with a round ball target barrel. While shooting that rifle in a match, one of my friends was shooting a brand new Shiloh. I just had to have one! That was just before the Quigley film came out. I made due with a Pedersoli roller while waiting and shot it for a year until I got my 34" standard barrel weight LRE Shiloh. That was one long skinny looking barrel but it shot great. The rest as they say is history. Frank M.