Why I'm here.

I grew up in a somewhat liberal, extremely pacifist household in the equally liberal Washington state. I had some good friends who introduced me to the errors of my upbringing. Guns (any weapons really) were a forbidden topic in my house, so when I was first introduced to shooting sports I fell in love- kind of a forbidden fruit thing I think. My mother still wonders where she went so wrong.
Because of my upbringing, and my poverty in college, I am not your average gun guy. Most “gun people” buy a gun and it stays in the family, passed on through generations when the owner goes to their heavenly reward. I, on the other hand, go through guns like they were work pants. I get bored, or I look too close, or I shoot them till I don’t like them anymore. Over the past five years I have bought, shot, and sold or traded More than 50 firearms. Along the way I have learned TONS, established opinions, and had a great time. Now some will ask, “Why” ? It all comes down to a deal I made with my incredibly beautiful, and patient wife. When we were first engaged we talked about lots of important things in great detail, and one of those was firearms. She knew I liked guns and enjoyed shooting (though at the time neither of us had any idea how big this would become). She was worried about having hundreds of guns strewn everywhere around the house. We set a four gun limit at any given time. Over the years that deal has been revisited and modified, but the rule made me sell a gun before I could get a new one. It also has led me to play with a ton of platforms and a ton of accessories. This review blog is based on the experience gathered along the way. I have also figured out how to self-fund my gun addiction. In our house “gun money” is a separate entity, though I have on occasion used it to spoil my wife. “Gun money” is money made from a gun sale that is used for buying another gun or ammo. (Gun money also magically accumulates when I let my wife pick our sons names). Guns have become a real investment to mee, they hold their value very well. I have made a lot of additional “gun money” along the way. My addiction started with a $550 initial investment and has grown to around $15,000 in guns, and around $8000 in ammo (though little of that is left) in the course of five years.

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The traditions trapper (.50 Cal black powder)

My father and I used to bond by watching a movie together, some years ago we sat down and watched “The Skulls” a movie about a secret society that like most looked good on the serface, but was corrupt in the core. The movie ends in an honorable duel between two of the main characters. While watching the movie my father mentioned that he would love a dueling case like the one portrayed in the film, so for his birthday I bought him a traditions trapper pistol kit to start his dueling kit. My dad loves making model wood ships so it was his sort of thing. He built the kit and we shot it. Then I moved to England for a few years. When I came home I moved to Utah. On a visit home a few years later I found the gun in a box under the guest room bed. It had never been cleaned, and the bore was quite rusty. I took it away from him and cleaned the bore. Refinished the grip and reblued the metal parts. I planned to give it back to him but he told me to keep it. I do plan to finish the pair and give it to him one day.

The traditions trapper was designed to be a side arm in case you missed with your muzzle loader back in revolutionary was times. It was your second shot, though I doubt it ever really worked for its intended role, as the first shot was sure to scare everything for many miles, and setting down your rifle, drawing your trapper pistol, cocking it, setting the first trigger, aiming and shooting the now running animal would make for a very difficult shot indeed.  Still it looked a bit like a dueling pistol to me.

For me this gun is an anomaly I tend to lean toward tactical guns, this one isn’t. I like auto’s this is a muzzle loader, I tend to shoot NATO rounds, this is very much not, and it is the one gun that is “safe” as in I will never sell it. There is a good reason for my keeping it. The gun makes other people happy. Every time I take it to a range there is the usual crowd plunking away with their semi auto’s and .22’s and I walk up to the line pour my powder down the barrel, set the patch set the ball, seat the ball, attach the cap. Then I take aim set the front trigger and fire. The same thing happens every time. there is a huge boom and the range is engulfed by white smoke, everyone on both sides of me all stop shooting and stare at me, then after a half second they all grin at me then carry on shooting. If I can simultaneously make 20+ people happy if only for a second, it is well worth the $2.25/shot.


THE GOOD:
Making people smile is always fun.
It looks really cool; my boy calls it “the pirate gun”
THE BAD:
Let’s not sugar coat this, it’s a single shot muzzle loader. You cannot get any more antiquated than that.
It is expensive to shoot.
It makes a LOT of smoke.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
A ball seater is a necessity, and I tried non-lubricated patches, and wouldn’t recommend them, all in all this gun is a novelty, nothing more, but for pure fun to cost ratio this thing rocks. Also when I come to power my first act will be to reinstate the honorable duel, giving someone the opportunity to kill you without fear of prison time if you wronging them would save our court system a ton of money, time, and fraudulent stupidity.

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