New Pards: star194, Drmarc, delmar, david2751, Darksol and High Lonesome.

Howdy folks
My name is Delmar and I am not a cowboy shooter yet, though I am a shooter and I have raise a lot of cattle! Does that count for anything around here? Grin

I am 51 years old and I bought my first pistol in February. I was originally wanting to buy a Taurus Judge but I didn't know when I was going to be able to come up the the $500 to do so. Then a friend of mine started showing me the reviews for Hi Point firearms, and I came to the conclusion that for the money I would have to spend on the Judge, I could buy a new Hi Point and a good used shotgun. So I decided I was probably going to buy the Hi Point, but I had to decide if I was going to buy the .45 or the 9mm. The 9mm was attractive to me because the ammo was cheaper, but I'm I big guy and I sort of wanted a big gun. So somebody on the Hi Point forum suggested that I go for the .45 and learn to reload.

So I started reading and watching youtube videos about hand loading. I was getting all kinds of advice on buying turret presses, and all kind of fancy equipment, but I thought it would be fun to start loading 'the old fashion" way so I ended up buying the Classic Lee Loader. The kind that you hit with a hammer. So I bought my .45 and I bought my Lee Loader and I started having an enormous amount of fun building my own loads and shooting my new .45! I was having a great time right up until the point when I ran out of primers. Being the kind of guy that doesn't like to be told "you can't" I started looking for a work around, which I found in the Improvised Munitions Handbookhttp://onlinebooks.110mb.com/tm%2031-210/31-210-03-05.htm I started reloading spent primers using strike anywhere matches. I even made my own how to video on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7nphPRG6JA So after I made my video I was talking with some buddies on a gun forum about what I was doing and somebody said "Why don't you just get a black powder gun?" To which I responded, yes I probably will buy a BP gun at some point. Next thing you know one of my new online gun buddies sent me an inline muzzleloader as a gift!

So that is the basic story of how I got interested in black powder firearms. Those of you who have read my only thread know that I am looking to acquire and 1858 reproduction with a 12" barrel. I got interested in the revolving carbine first, but lost interest, when I found out you can't hold it like a rife, or they might be calling you lefty! So anyway that is sort of the path that brought me here. I'm sure we will have a lot more to talk about when I finally acquire my 1858?

Ow, by the way, if any of you don't like Hi Point firearms, please don't rag on me about them in this thread. It's just an important part of my story.