Two new converts

[WCW]

Thursday afternoon my granddaughter and her new husband along with the husband's 12-year-old younger brother came for a week's visit. Both of the boys have hunted with in-lines but showed interest in my side locks. Yesterday afternoon I took the younger one out and had him shoot my Bobcat with 60 grains of RS and PBRs. The kid was really having a ball and eventually his brother came out to join the fun. Because they were enjoying themselves so much I brought out my Shenandoah and let them bang away with both to their hearts content. Between them they shot up three quarters of a pound of RS and almost a full box of round balls. Last evening all they could talk about was getting side locks for themselves so this morning I took them up to a small shop that only deals in black powder that is about 30 miles north of us. The man that owns the shop sold them a used Deerhunter and a Bobcat. He threw in a pound of RS, a box of round balls, bag of prellubed patches, CCI caps, caper, powder measure, Spitfire nipples for both guns and a powder flask all for $305.00 with tax out the door. Side locks don't sell well in this area.

Like all synthetic stocked Bobcats it was muzzle heavy so I put the stock I had taken off my Bobcat when I put the wooden stock on it. I had filled the stock with spray in foam insulation and had put 11 ounces of of lead in the butt which brought the balance back to 3 inches in front of the trigger guard. I also had an extra adjustable metal rear sight that I put on it. I did steer them to where they could get a wooden stock for it if they wanted one.

This afternoon the boys got both guns sighted in and shot up all their powder, balls, patches and caps so went to town and got more. Our hardware store stocks black powder supplies. They picked up enough of everything to keep them going for the rest of their stay along with nipple wrenches and cleaning patches.

Tomorrow I am going to introduce them to my cap and ball revolvers, Kentucky pistol and Philadelphia Derringer. I know that I should be ashamed of myself for steering people away from in-lines and center fire hand cannons but what the hell are grandparents for other than pulling crap like that. Us old farts are obligated to get the youngsters headed in the right direction.

This evening they both said that they are defiantly going to switch to side locks and plan to buy long rifles like the Shenandoah and my Kentucky Rifle. Monday we will go back up to the black powder shop and see what kind of a deal he will give them on a used ones. Both are hooked but good. They asked if they could come up for the deer season which is alright with me. I only allow people using side locks to hunt on our place and the leased land.

[Semisane]

Thumbs up from this sidelock fan. That's the way to keep them busy.

I suspect the WCW stands for Wicked Conniving Walley.

[cayugad]

something about a sidelock is just different. Get them a flintlock and really send them for a loop. Nice going.

[bronko22000]

Nice job. Sounds like they had a real blast and did an awful lot of shooting.