Mountain Man Rendezvous

G

Goet

New member
My uncle invited my father and I to the MMV this weekend in Ogden, UT. I've never been to one before and am quite frankly afraid of all the rawhide that will be in presence. :)

Can anyone tell me about these events?

I guess I'm competing in the turkey shoot since my uncle has an extra BP rifle and my father won't shoot. What should I expect?
 
Oh, yeah

I should ask about BP rifles to begin with. I'm clueless. I'm also figuring that this will be the primer to getting me hooked on BP.

GREAT!!! First, I fall in love with C&R looks, now I'm going to have a BP temptation. Just never invite me to shoot your $1500 O/U, PLEASE!

Anyway, I'm clueless as to the basics of BP: calilber of choice, types of rifles, modern contrivances as compared to the "real deal" in authenticity, top manufacturers, etc.

Could anyone point me to a good learning source?
 
Ronyvoo

You will think you have stepped thru a time warp..Back into history

If is a primitive ronyvoo, nothing newer than 1842 will be visible. There are all degrees of how primitive a ronyvoo is, just go and have fun.

Buckskinners are just like other shooters, they love their hobby and will bend over backwards to help you enjoy your experience..

Most ronyvoo's are family oriented and good clean fun and extremely educational..

Go for it.. once you fire a muzzle loader and get a whiff of that black powder and wave the cloud of smoke from around your head, you're a gone beaver!!

Keep off the skyline and watch your topknot, thar's brown skin about!!!!

Have a great time and let us know about your experiences..

Iggy

http://home.attbi.com/~buflerchip/iggystory.html
 
Books to read

There is a series of books... The Book of Buckskining I, II, III and more . I don't know how many there are out there now..
They are published by Rebel Publishing Co. Texarkana Tex... The will give you a great start...
You may be able to find them at your local library.

You might do a search for the National Muzzle loading Rifle Assoc and see what they have..

You will find lots of folks at the Ronyvoo that will be tickled pink to show you their guns and fooforaw...

There are so many facets to Black Powder Shooting one would have a hard time knowing where to start..

Just go, look, learn, ask questions, and above all Shoot well...


And above all, be assured that all Buckskinners are as honest as the day is long...

Check it out......

http://home.attbi.com/~buflerchip/iggyandbear.htm

;)
 
In case you didn't understand what was said earlier... Rendevous are a lot of family oriented fun. If you have all primitive gear. ( tent, accessories, cooking gear -- everything to camp with- primitive) then you camp in the primitive area. The Laguna Mountain rendezvous I used to attend , also had an area for people not yet fully outfitted, or wanted to camp in a camper ( tin teepee), a ways from the main camp. Shooting events are scheduled throughout the day. Peddlers of various wares from candle lanterns to clothes , to tents, to guns and supplies will be there selling their wares. ( A good place to find what you need to camp and live primitive.) Our Rendevous also and day visitors, so people wanting to see and people wanting to participate for a day could take part. In short, it is a reenactment of trappers getting together trade their pelts and wares for items brought up from the cities back east by peddlers. The trappers/skinners had a heck of party at the same time, and tried to show off their skills with a gun, knife and tomahawk. (There was a skillet throwing contest for the ladies too..) Go and have fun.
 
BigG

That is a good film.. some of the local guys around here were in that film as extras at the ronyvoo.....
 
couple ?'s

Will I be out of place when I show up in my jeans and jacket?

For the purposes of getting an entry level BP, where should I go to learn more? Internet preferred. I don't have cashola to buy books right now (and here I am looking forward to a rifle :D ).




My wife was seriously ticked when she "found out" last night.:cool:
 
Check with your Uncle

There are all kinds of rendezvous, and different degrees of authenticity desired.

I'm betting this one is more of a BP shoot if they are shooting for turkeys etc..

I would think you would be welcome as you described, but it wouldn't hurt to do some asking.

There is a great latitude given to beginners and more help than you can believe.

Here is a site I found by just entering Mountain Man Rendezvous... You can do the same and change to Black Powder Rendezvous etc..

http://www.sat.net/~robenhaus/

Have fun

Here is a site with lots of pictures, keep in mind that each region will have a little different flavor depicting the people and their interpretations of how things were in their area..

The Rocky Mountain area costumes and flavor will be a bit different from one in the SE and different from one held in Germany... Yup, it happens!!! *G*

http://www.buckskinner.com/index1.html


Link to an on line catalog of clothing and BP goods... It is too early for you to think about buying anything, but this is a good source of QUALITY stuff if and when you let the bug get you...


http://www.jastown.com/
 
Don't be embarassed to show up in Blue Jeans. You may just be scalped for your indiscretion. ;) Nahh, like JimmyMac says, buckskinners are the nicest people you can meet in the shooting community and start slow and find out whether you like it or not.

I've been shooting for years and still haven't made myself a rifle shirt (got a rifle, home-made powder horn and shooting bag). Need to get the leather (preferably buffalo) to make some mocassins too (and it takes time to harden one's feet to use them). Still, no one says anything about the blue jeans, t-shirt or sweat shirt. If you've got the gear, wear it. If you don't go ahead and shoot & have fun.

Don't rush out and buy a bunch of stuff either. You may find yourself attracted to another period too. At the Rendezvous I go to in CA, we've got buckskinners, soljers from our sibil war, French-Indian War soldiers, and even English sibil war musketeers. We're all blackpowder shooters and everybody is there to have a good time.
 
LOL

Some of those pics were oh too real.

They actually looked like dirty bums!

Authentic, indeed!:)


I'm not too worried about getting into the whole MMR thing. I would be slaughtered if I started buying lots of weird leather clothing. I'm wondering more about the BP rifles themselves. IF I am interested, where should I go for information about the BP rifles themselves? What brands, types, etc?

Husband=guns
Wife=clothing

If I take up her expense and add clothing to my list, she'll have nothing left. :D
 
Guns

Look at Cabela's... Just look!!

Look at Navy Arms.... again just look..

Dixie Gunworks Catalog is a treasure of guns, clothes, doodads and foofaraw..

It is an encyclpedia of information about BP guns...

Then based on your location and the type of people that inhabited your neck of the woods back in them good ol days..

Take a hard look at the Lyman Plains Rifle . For a non-custom rifle, it is hard to beat.

I think you can get see it and get it at Cabela's or Dixie... THere are lots of BP shooters in Utah... Take some time.. look a lot and ask lots of questions..
 
Thanks for all your replies.

I've looked at the Cabela's site and have been scouring the house for an old copy. The previous owner had them sent here 1and maybe they've finally changed addresses. Will check the other sites.

Anyway,
We got there in time to register and stand around gawking at all the old rifles and weird duds. Since this was an intermountain MMR, most duds were trapper, explorer looking in style. My uncle was dressed up in his outfit. I didn't feel out of place as a good majority of people were in jeans, probably just showing up for the shoot alone.
The meeting place was Ft. Buenaventura park, a historic site with a small fort that was once populated by local trappers. It has since been rebuilt on the original footings and restored as a type of museum piece. It sits in the middle of a gorgeous park with a large fishing stream (kids only) and long winding walkways through the surrounding flora. REALLY nice for being in the middle of the industrial section of Ogden.
After registration was over we were split up into 2 groups to relay shoot for the turkeys. Turkeys were hung by two pieces of twine behind a cardboard partition. Shoot out any 2 strings and take home a turkey (or a cornish game hen, or even a boot as one person found out). Since my uncle had just sold his second BP rifle, we were stuck with one between the two of us. Talk about learning to reload fast!
I enjoyed the shoot and unfortunately not any turkeys. The rifle, a true flintlock, Virginia (?), circa late 17th century had some issues. The flash hole wasn't large enough, the flash burn really threw off our aim (slow burn time), and we ended up loading a no powder load in our haste to compete. Eventually we were several rounds behind which was fine by me since I got a crash course in disassembly.
Pathetically, every so often the firing line would be taken in about 10 feet more. Even towards the end, when the strings were only 20 feet off, NO turkey.

We ended up eating chinese for lunch.

Things I learned:
BP is fun.
BP is cheap to start out, expensive to shoot. Although, now that I think about it, we only shot off about 25 rounds the entire time we were there (2 hours). Ok, it's cheap to shoot.
Percussion cap is the way to go over flintlock.

Now I have to nudge the wife for a BP rifle for my birthday. We'll see how that flies.

:)
 
Last edited:
It takes a long time to master the flintlock.

Once you get used to them and learn to shoot them you will like them better than a caplock.
 
Iggy,your statement in a post near the top of the page "Watch your top knot"brings back a lot of fine memories.
 
Howdy Hiram

Wall Pilgrim, I'm your nabor to the West.. Mebbe we have burned some powder at the same ronyvoos!!

I use to make all the National Ronyvoos when they actually held them in the Rockies. Spent some time at Ft. Bridger.

Drank a little Cherry Bounce at Chadron at the Fur Traders Museum too.

Anyway.. Keep off the ridges and keep your powder dry..

Iggy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top