Back in Black

A Little Bit of History

If you want to learn how to shoot a rifle, get good at shooting a flintlock rifle. It will either cure your flinch or make it worse.

Back when I was 20 years old, fresh out of basic training and AIT—OSUT—for the Army National Guard, I was really involved in shooting and hunting with muzzleloading rifles. I’m not talking about in-line muzzleloaders, I’m talking about traditional flint and cap-lock rifles. I was fortunate in that my cousin and best friend Johnny Walker was descended from a long line of rifle builders with a storied history. Not only could Johnny build traditionally styled muzzle loading rifles, but he also knew how to load them correctly, which is something few shooters—even muzzleloader shooters—know how to do.

Believe it or not, when I was 20 years old he and I met with the board of directors for the 2300 acre Lake Stephens Park in Raleigh County, WV, which contained a 270 acre lake, and we convinced them to let us build a muzzleloading rifle range on the property for the muzzleloading rifle club—The New River Mountain Rifle Association—we had just recently founded. That accomplishment somehow propelled me to the position of president of that organization, and for the next several years we held monthly muzzleloading rifle competitions on that range. The range was very rustic, and it was also cool that you could access it by road or by the lake in a canoe.

At that time the standard for muzzleloading rifle competitions was to shoot bullseye targets at various ranges. Though moderately fun, it was also moderately boring, especially for a young man who had just received his certification as an armor crewman for the US Army. So, I put together a shooting match that might best be described as a cross between a combat match and Dungeons and Dragons game, and it was a hell of a lot of fun.

Contestants were presented with life size Indian targets from near the muzzle out to around 70 yards. The Indians were armed with various weapons including everything from a tomahawk to a bow, and one even had a fair maiden held hostage with a Bowie knife. The shooter could attack the course in whatever way they saw fit. Their only guidance was to kill all the Indians in the most practical order and way possible. I served as the range master, and not only were points awarded for hits, but additional points were awarded or subtracted for shooting the Indians in the most or least practical order based on which one was the most threatening. It was challenging, stressful, and a huge success.

Johnny Walker has been building traditional muzzleloading rifles—just like his ancestors did—for most of his life. He even hand rifles his own barrels and he specializes in East Tennessee-style flintlocks. You can follow him on Facebook (Click the image) and you can order one. It will cost you though, and you will have to wait about a year to get it. Good work is never free or quick.

All this muzzleloading experience was a great help to me when I began writing regularly for gun and hunting magazines because that was at about the same time that in-line muzzleloaders were just becoming hot. I wrote a lot about in-line and traditional muzzleloaders, and I shot and hunted with enough of them to learn that they could not compete with the precision of a traditional muzzleloader with a barrel rifled the old way and loaded with real black powder. None of the modern black powder substitutes are anywhere near as consistent as real black powder, and I don’t think I ever shot an in-line muzzleloader that could shoot better than those Johnny Walker builds. Farther? Yes. Better? No.

Most of that was a long time ago and my last real outing with a muzzleloading rifle of note was in 2004 when I won the West Virginia Muzzleloading Offhand Championship, with one of Walker’s rifles that he had used to win the same match the previous year. Yeah, I’ll take my hand rifled East Tennessee styled Walker built rifle out once or twice each year, but it’s mostly a nostalgia hunt, and I use most of the time in the woods with it to remember the good old days.

I mention all this because yesterday Walker came over with several of his rifles to help me do some research and testing for an article I am writing on Flintlock rifle precision. We had a great time shooting and reminiscing about our early days of building a rifle range and running a muzzleloading rifle club, and when all the smoke cleared and Johnny left, it hit me just how much my early days with long rifles and black powder shaped my future.

And now you know a little bit more about me and my shooting history than you did. Back in the day, the powder was black and there was a lot of smoke. Sometimes I miss both.

You might be astonished how well a hand-rifled flintlock rifle loaded with a patched round ball and black powder can shoot.