[MaIIIa]

I've been interested in your many comments on this thread since it started about a month ago; I guess it's about time to make my input.

Last August I helped out at the NRA's Youth Hunter Education Challenge (YHEC) muzzleloader event. It was my first time at this and I was quite surprised to see that almost all of the YHEC teams used inlines. I could count on one hand and have fingers left over the teams that used caplocks and I don't recall any using flintlocks. It is sad (at least to me) that whoever makes the decision about what teams shoot opt for the inlines. I suppose shooting the inlines gives teams an edge in the competition and, boy, are some of those teams super competitive - too much so, in my opinion.

It is true that, as Rattus58 says, "People shoot what they are exposed to. So WHOSE FAULT IS THAT?" So these young shooters who compete at YHEC are being exposed to inlines, not traditional muzzleloaders. Good or bad - that is opinion; in my opinion, it is unfortunate. Perhaps YHEC needs two ML events, one for inlines and one for tradionals.

As for exposing new shooters and what am I doing? I am ML instructor for NYS Becoming an Outdoor Women course and have the women shoot both flintlock and percussion rifles. I also am the organizer for our local Women on Target day and the women there shoot flintlock and percussion. I bring along an inline to give them a "complete" exposure to muzzleloading but in my experience, they look at the inline, then opt for the traditionals when time to shoot. One woman's comment sort of sums it up - "That inline looks just like the .22 rifles we were shooting; why bother?" The women I have taught really like the process of loading and shooting the traditional ML's and enjoy the historical aspect of them. They are intrigued by hang fires and flashes in the pan and all the other good stuft that just don't happen with inlines!

I've done some ML instruction with kids and they are really are turned on by the historical rifles "like Davy Crokett used". I haven't ever had them look for spent lead but I have had them search the ground for spent patches. We look at the burn patterns, then they take them home for souveniers - you would think they had found gold. Yes, we need to do more with the kids to expose them to the traditional guns! That's were we can get the next generation of traditional black powder shooters.

MaIIIa