Bill Akins
New member
A month or so ago I met a very polite young man named Pete Ellmore at the range while I was shooting my BP guns. He was shooting his AR15 with his drum mag and was getting bored with it after it was sighted in and complained that once he had it sighted, everything else was just wasting ammo. So we talked a bit and I let him shoot my BP guns. He loved it and although he knew nothing about loading or shooting BP, he wanted to learn. So I've been teaching him. On my advice he bought a percussion CVA .50 cal mountain rifle exactly like mine, but unlike mine, his has an add on long range rear ladder sight. He also has an elderly lady friend who is unfortunately dying, who wanted him to have and gave him a very nice Indian (Hindu) percussion double barrel muzzle loading 12 gauge "coach gun" that dates from 1978 but looks almost brand new. But knowing nothing of how to load and shoot BP, he had never fired it before.
After getting the .50 cal mountain rifle I steered him to on Auction Arms, along with getting the accessories I advised him to get, he came over to my home last week and I taught him how to load and shoot it and the importance of breathing while shooting and how inhaling will lower the front sight and exhaling will raise it, and how to hold your breath when the front blade is where you want it....and squeeze. Taught him about B.R.A.S.S. too.
(Breath, relax, aim, slow squeeze)...brass.
He did very well for a first timer. I set him up with a chair and my camera tripod as a rifle support. We didn't use the long range ladder sight located just to the rear of the barrel tang, but instead only used the rear sight on the middle of the barrel. Hits were consistently to the right. So I tapped his dovetailed front sight a bit to the right and then we got hits into the black and the bull too. He was really excited when he got his first dead center bull's eye. I was happy to see him enjoying it so much.
He couldn't find any BP and had bought granular pyrodex (not pellets). There was a disconcerting consistent delay to using his pyrodex that was almost like using a flintlock. It was snap...boom. Which caused him to flinch. Then we tried his rifle with my 3F BP and it was just...boom. Much better. I told him to hang onto his pyrodex, but gave him a flask full of my BP to get him started until he can locate some BP.
We had quite a few misfires using his pyrodex and on one occasion I showed him how to unscrew the drum screw and add a little black powder into the drum and into the nipple to aid ignition. That worked fine and got it firing but we had misfires a lot of times using the pyrodex and if it was oil in the nipple or drum the first time, surely after the first or second shot that oil was gone. I don't like the less explosive qualities of pyrodex and prefer BP. We had at least five or six total misfires using pyrodex but NO misfires at all when we used my 3F BP.
I also taught him about how not to oil the interior of the nipple and how to load BP into the drum and nipple to have enough power to just blow out a a ball if he accidentally loaded one without a powder charge first. I also taught him about the different "F" grade scale of BP and that for rifles .45 cal and over he can use 2F but that I had always just used 3F for my .50 cal and had good results and that it simplified things because that is the same 3F I use in my BP revolvers so I don't have to carry two different grades of powder.
He had all the startup accessories I had advised him to get for the rifle such as flask, powder measure, short starter, balls, lubed patches, straight line capper, caps, bullet puller accessory for the ramrod and even a spare fiberglass ramrod to use instead of the wooden one that came with the rifle. He still needs to get a nipple wrench, patch puller and some nipple pricks. But I showed him how he can use a paper clip or safety pin for a nipple prick in the meantime and how the bullet puller can double as a cleaning patch puller....(only not quite as good as the fishhook style cleaning patch puller). So he had a good startup set for his rifle, but he didn't have any shot or wads for loading his muzzle loading shotgun with.
So I looked around and found an old box of BB's. I'd never loaded a muzzle loading shotgun before nor had any loading data on one. But I just used common sense and figured if we used a 70 grain 3F BP load that probably would be a very low load. So I loaded it up with 70 grains and then cut up an old T shirt rag for wadding and stuffed a wad on top of the powder. Then I filled the measure up with 70 grains of BB's, loaded that and stuffed a rag wad on top of that too. Just so we could shoot it that day until he can get the proper shot and wads and loading data to do it better later on.
He had a blast....literally! And we have a new convert to BP shooting.
He even commented that he thought it was a more "gentlemanly" way to shoot. And he appreciated the whole historical thing and the procedures of loading and cleaning that I carefully showed him how to do. At the end of shooting I showed him how to thoroughly and properly clean and oil his guns and even how to palm rub linseed oil into the stocks after cleaning to help preserve the wood.
Here's a video I took of him shooting the shotgun after I loaded it up with BB's and rag wadding......
http://www.youtube.com/user/BillAkinsProduction?feature=mhee
And a few pics of him with his CVA .50 cal mountain rifle that's just like mine only in addition to the regular rear sight, his has that extra long range rear ladder sight he can use as an option for longer ranges than we had available on my acreage. Feels good to pass the knowledge on to youngsters and especially so when we can personally do it hands on and they are as appreciative as this polite young man is. Now he wants to try shooting at longer ranges with his rifle's ladder sight and also get a BP revolver too.
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After getting the .50 cal mountain rifle I steered him to on Auction Arms, along with getting the accessories I advised him to get, he came over to my home last week and I taught him how to load and shoot it and the importance of breathing while shooting and how inhaling will lower the front sight and exhaling will raise it, and how to hold your breath when the front blade is where you want it....and squeeze. Taught him about B.R.A.S.S. too.
(Breath, relax, aim, slow squeeze)...brass.
He did very well for a first timer. I set him up with a chair and my camera tripod as a rifle support. We didn't use the long range ladder sight located just to the rear of the barrel tang, but instead only used the rear sight on the middle of the barrel. Hits were consistently to the right. So I tapped his dovetailed front sight a bit to the right and then we got hits into the black and the bull too. He was really excited when he got his first dead center bull's eye. I was happy to see him enjoying it so much.
He couldn't find any BP and had bought granular pyrodex (not pellets). There was a disconcerting consistent delay to using his pyrodex that was almost like using a flintlock. It was snap...boom. Which caused him to flinch. Then we tried his rifle with my 3F BP and it was just...boom. Much better. I told him to hang onto his pyrodex, but gave him a flask full of my BP to get him started until he can locate some BP.
We had quite a few misfires using his pyrodex and on one occasion I showed him how to unscrew the drum screw and add a little black powder into the drum and into the nipple to aid ignition. That worked fine and got it firing but we had misfires a lot of times using the pyrodex and if it was oil in the nipple or drum the first time, surely after the first or second shot that oil was gone. I don't like the less explosive qualities of pyrodex and prefer BP. We had at least five or six total misfires using pyrodex but NO misfires at all when we used my 3F BP.
I also taught him about how not to oil the interior of the nipple and how to load BP into the drum and nipple to have enough power to just blow out a a ball if he accidentally loaded one without a powder charge first. I also taught him about the different "F" grade scale of BP and that for rifles .45 cal and over he can use 2F but that I had always just used 3F for my .50 cal and had good results and that it simplified things because that is the same 3F I use in my BP revolvers so I don't have to carry two different grades of powder.
He had all the startup accessories I had advised him to get for the rifle such as flask, powder measure, short starter, balls, lubed patches, straight line capper, caps, bullet puller accessory for the ramrod and even a spare fiberglass ramrod to use instead of the wooden one that came with the rifle. He still needs to get a nipple wrench, patch puller and some nipple pricks. But I showed him how he can use a paper clip or safety pin for a nipple prick in the meantime and how the bullet puller can double as a cleaning patch puller....(only not quite as good as the fishhook style cleaning patch puller). So he had a good startup set for his rifle, but he didn't have any shot or wads for loading his muzzle loading shotgun with.
So I looked around and found an old box of BB's. I'd never loaded a muzzle loading shotgun before nor had any loading data on one. But I just used common sense and figured if we used a 70 grain 3F BP load that probably would be a very low load. So I loaded it up with 70 grains and then cut up an old T shirt rag for wadding and stuffed a wad on top of the powder. Then I filled the measure up with 70 grains of BB's, loaded that and stuffed a rag wad on top of that too. Just so we could shoot it that day until he can get the proper shot and wads and loading data to do it better later on.
He had a blast....literally! And we have a new convert to BP shooting.
He even commented that he thought it was a more "gentlemanly" way to shoot. And he appreciated the whole historical thing and the procedures of loading and cleaning that I carefully showed him how to do. At the end of shooting I showed him how to thoroughly and properly clean and oil his guns and even how to palm rub linseed oil into the stocks after cleaning to help preserve the wood.
Here's a video I took of him shooting the shotgun after I loaded it up with BB's and rag wadding......
http://www.youtube.com/user/BillAkinsProduction?feature=mhee
And a few pics of him with his CVA .50 cal mountain rifle that's just like mine only in addition to the regular rear sight, his has that extra long range rear ladder sight he can use as an option for longer ranges than we had available on my acreage. Feels good to pass the knowledge on to youngsters and especially so when we can personally do it hands on and they are as appreciative as this polite young man is. Now he wants to try shooting at longer ranges with his rifle's ladder sight and also get a BP revolver too.
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