Saturday morning, a close friend of mine and I helped out to introduce a group of 13 guys to the fun of muzzle loaders. Three of them had fired front stuffers before... the other ten were familar with modern firearms only.
We gathered at their church and had a nice time sharing some coffee/muffins which they graciously provided (collectively) us... and we shared some information with them on the varied types of, and use of muzzle loaders. After some basic "here's what to expect", some basic range safety topics and such... and some good questions to discuss... we all loaded up and headed to Eby Island (east of Everett) to the range.
We met up there with a third shooter, and between the three of us... had three .54 percussion sidelocks and all the needed gear to give them a chance to get acquinted. The group was gracious enough to reimburse us for the powder/ball/patch supplies and everyone got a chance to shoot three rounds with one-on-one help, get back in line and rotate the group until everyone had a chance to shoot at least three times through. I think most everyone had a chance to shoot more than one rifle and to get the input from more than one instructor's perspective. I saw a lot of satisfied smiles on faces as the day progressed.
The range staff were great... they made their needs clear and were patient with our little hoarde of shooters, and we did our best to make the unusual event as smooth as we could on our end. Everyone loaded/shot safely, and got their loading sequences correct. A few failure to fires were cleared nicely with a little ffffg in the nipple hole (after a good brushing got residue settled between the charge and the percussion cap)... so, another aspect of shooting muzzle loaders was demonstrated.
My good friend (Roy) and I did a thorough cleaning of our two rifles at his place that evening... and I got to enjoy having dinner with he and his wife too.
Kind of odd to spend a number of hours at the range and not send one bullet downrange. But... a chance to introduce a few folks to the sport is what the day was about and I enjoyed every bit of it. I'm going to send a link to this thread off and hopefully some new usernames will pop up as a result.
Sorry... I was so occupied with helping the shooters... I didn't even take my camera out of the bag... but, I'd brought it. M'be someone else will post some pix that were taken.
