Friday, January 20, 2012

For The Record Friday: Me and the Muzzleloader



Firing the muzzleloader
OK..here it is, just for the record. This photo of me discharging a muzzleloader rifle, was taken on Thanksgiving Day 2011 at the home of my son Michael and daughter-in-law April, on the back of their property. 

There was a lot of target practice going on that day, with various firearms and a fairly large group of family and friends waiting their turn to shoot. I love shooting but, because of the crowd, I decided to opt out and I went over to chat with my sister-in-law Rose.

Finally, when the muzzleloader (owned by April's father) was being fired, my son came to me and said "Mom, you have to shoot this, you know..." I don't think he finished the sentence, but I knew what he meant. He knew I took great pride and interest in my 18th century longhunter ancestors. (Read more here: Treasure Chest Thursday: Sons of a Trackless Forest)

In that moment, I knew very well that Michael was right, and I quickly chose not to pass up this opportunity to connect in this small way to those frontier kin, even if only in my own imagination.

And it was dang cool!

Thanks son!

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15 comments:

  1. BANG!!

    Great story, and photo. Really glad you did this, and your son was right, you really needed to do it!

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    1. Well, hopefully we'll get to do this again, maybe when there's less of a crowd.

      Golly, when I enlarged this photo, I thought I could actually see the ball coming out the end of the gun. Then I realized it was just a spot on my computer screen, LOL!

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    2. Snicker, at the spot on the screen -- think I will get out the cleaning rags now! LOL

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  2. Congratulations, Lisa, I'm proud of you. Those things are NOT light. Can you imagine toting that thing for days and weeks on end... never mind, I know you have. Cheers.

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    1. They are indeed heavy David, certainly moreso than a shotgun!

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  3. I am impressed! Now the question is, did you load it, too?

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  4. Now that I did NOT do Susan. I probably could have as it didn't look at all complicated...but the guys needed some control, LOL!

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  5. Way to go, Lisa! I can imagine some of your great grandmothers smiling down on you, giving you a thumbs up.

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  6. Thanks Nan, and I have wondered if women shot these very much back in frontier times. We were at a frontier re-enactment all day today and we saw one small woman cleaning a long rifle that was nearly as tall as she was. These muzzleloaders are really heavy but I'm sure women in those times were stronger than us softys today!

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    1. With their men-folk gone for long periods of time I'd bet there were times they had no choice!

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  7. Exactly Nan! Months at a time...close to a year sometimes. What a life. Good in some ways but so very hard in others. Gotta admire those pioneer women!

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