Author Topic: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader  (Read 15517 times)

Michael

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Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« on: April 30, 2010, 02:20:53 PM »
Quick Question-

Is there an age restriction to purchasing a muzzleloader from a private individual, not a store or gunshop?

Michael

Offline Mike Brooks

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #1 on: April 30, 2010, 02:35:17 PM »
I personally wouldn't sell to anyone less than 18.
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Offline LRB

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2010, 02:40:34 PM »
   I would think that would vary from state to state. I would think, in most cases, 18 or older. Check your state statutes. Years ago, because of restrictive laws, we had a police chief in a nearby small town that had to get his mother to buy his ammo for him. He was under 21.

Offline Scott Bumpus

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2010, 08:15:55 PM »
How much trouble can someone get in with a muzzleloader?  I got my first when I was 14 years old, 45 now and still shooting!  Find a way to get a rifle in a young persons hands, we need new blood in the sport/hobbie/pastime/addiction/affliction.  ( and yes I know what can be done with a muzzle loader but who is gona choose one for mischief) :D
« Last Edit: April 30, 2010, 09:06:17 PM by Scott Bumpus »
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J.D.

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #4 on: April 30, 2010, 08:29:53 PM »
I hope they don't impose age restrictions on ML guns. I know some shooters who are getting pretty old, and some who appear, on the surface, to be somewhat senile, but deep down they are only eccentric.   ;)

Offline Acer Saccharum

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #5 on: April 30, 2010, 08:32:19 PM »
I think I'm old enough. I hope so, because I have plenty of them. Oh, wait, I didn't buy any M-loaders. I built them.
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Offline Mark Elliott

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #6 on: April 30, 2010, 09:00:31 PM »
I bought my first one when I was about 14.   There didn't used to be any restrictions on muzzle loaders or air guns as they were not generally considered firearms under Federal or Virginia state law.    However,   they may be more restrictive laws these days depending in the state, county, or city.   Laws can vary by all those entities.  I would check the NRA website for general guidance.   The general disclaimer is check with a local lawyer, but that is no quarantee that you will get good advise.   Lawyers specialize and you need to find the right lawyer to ask.

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Offline Lucky R A

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #7 on: April 30, 2010, 09:47:35 PM »
Acer,   That sounds like a taxable offense!
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Offline Jerry V Lape

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #8 on: April 30, 2010, 10:23:28 PM »
I wouldn't consider selling any firearm to a juvenile (under 18), no handguns to less than 21(illegal for them to possess under 21- federal law).  Certainly muzzleloaders aren't likely to be used for crime, but untrained users of muzzleloaders can certainly get themselves and others hurt and if that were a juvenile the ambulance chasers would be all over your lawn. 

Offline FALout

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #9 on: May 01, 2010, 02:55:11 AM »
I suppose it would depend on the individual and the relationship you might have with them.  I would talk with the parents first, if it's okay with them, then go ahead.  State laws can be a factor.  I've met some really responsible young ones when I was doing the rendevous stuff.
Bob

Offline Jerry V Lape

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #10 on: May 01, 2010, 06:10:38 AM »
Falout, so sell it to the parents and let them give it to him.  Then there is no age question involved on your part. 

Offline J. Talbert

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #11 on: May 01, 2010, 06:21:25 AM »
I'd say 90, maybe 100 might be too old... I don't know  ???
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msw

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #12 on: May 01, 2010, 07:26:11 AM »
Since you can buy BP weapons through the mail and the internet, as a practical matter ... well, you fill in the blanks.  Having said that, I agree with the idea of selling it to the parent(s) and then they can transfer or give permissive use or whatever the legal "phrase of art" is.  This sounds like a responsible idea and it gets the Mom/Dad/Guardian involved in some sort of interaction with the kid (always a good thing: why do we spend more time with our stockbrokers or therapists than our children, and then complain that kids gave gone to $#*! in a handcart?)  Then, the adult can take the kid to the range and they can have a good supervised time.  No problems.

We certainly need as many youngsters in shooting sports, and in muzzle loading, as can possibly be arraigned.   I gave each of my kids a muzzleloader on their eighteenth birthdays, made by GPD (Great and Powerful Daddy) thus ensuring a continuation of the rockbanging tradition from generation upon generation.  I would encourage anyone else to do the same.  All kids should have a bicycle, a dog, a cat, a goldfish, a collection of seashells or interesting rocks, a rifle built by their father (or mother, if she is better at "making things"), a pocket knife (and the ability/instruction to keep it sharp), and by the time they reach adulthood, the ability to ride a horse, get to the bottom of the hill on skis, get across the (well frozen) pond on skates, work a manual transmission, write a decent term paper, catch a fish, grow a tomato, brew a beer, write a condolence letter and balance a checkbook.  Wow... my wife and I taught our kids all that?! no wonder I feel so old.

the hour is late... sorry about the tirade (and the colorful language: you need not teach you children to cuss- the schoolyard and the gunnery sergeant can do that just fine- i rec comend the gunny- the cadence and rhythms are clearer and more emotive).

go forth, and make good smoke!

Offline wvmtnman

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #13 on: May 01, 2010, 07:44:29 AM »
I too got my first muzzleloader at a very young age, 12.  However, it's different today.  The 18 year old of thirty years ago is similar in manor to the 25 of today.  The vast majority of teenagers are less mature today.  I personally would not sell a rifle to anyone who did not demonstrate an appreciation for what they were buying.  But, I would not sell a muzzleloader to anyone under the age of 18.  If this person is worthy of buying a firearm, sell it to his father or other male role model in their life.
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Offline Roger Fisher

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #14 on: May 02, 2010, 02:35:01 AM »
I hope they don't impose age restrictions on ML guns. I know some shooters who are getting pretty old, and some who appear, on the surface, to be somewhat senile, but deep down they are only eccentric.   ;)
Now I'm getting worried.  Although it should take awhile til I wear my (rifle/guns) out ::)

Offline Pete G.

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #15 on: May 02, 2010, 06:22:15 PM »
We actually did have a murder committed in our little town with a T/C Renegade. Class valedictorian was shot standing in front of the window in his own living room.

All over a girl. Very sad situation.

Incidentally, the perpetrator was not brought up in a responsible home, but you probably knew that already.

Offline Agent 006

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #16 on: May 02, 2010, 08:25:43 PM »
Pete G.: 
What a tragedy.  I suppose I tend to view our smokepoles as God given things of beauty that made our country free and are only used for hunting an target shooting today.  Black rifles are supposed to kill people, not our guns.

 However you point out a reality.  One can be just as dead with the House Brothers hand made rifle as one can be dead from an AR 15.  I often prayed that Muzzleloading rifles would lead America to rational ideas about firearms.  Even the gun haters had to smile when we set up our tepees, wore our buckskins and competed in woods walks.  Yet our county sheriff had to break up a family dispute some years back and confiscated several Cricket hawks involved in the argumentation.

But back to the orginal thread.  I help out with an afterschool program for K through 6 graders one day per week in our church.  About 6 fourth graders are hunters using breechloaders and muzzleloading zip guns.  I think they are all too young based on their impulsivity, questionable judgement at times, and their size.    However, their parents obviously thought they were ready to handle modern firearms.  I would not want to hunt with them, but they are not my kids.  I believe gunmakers need to read between the lines in determining whom we let own our firearms.  Many kids whose parents think them ready for guns are just not old enough.  Thus, I would favor an age restriction basis for selling muzzleloaders realizing that not all parents have the brains God gave Geese.     Parden my ramblings.
Jim

msw

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Re: Age limit to purchase a muzzleloader
« Reply #17 on: May 02, 2010, 10:19:40 PM »
Jim, i think that what you call 'ramblings' are quite well thought out. 

(As an aside, if it hadn't been a T/C, the kid might well have stolen grandpa's old 30.06, or used a crossbow, or a well thrown axe, or any one of a zillion other ways we have of doing our fellow man a mischief.)

This section of southeastern vermont is infested with lefties, who are sure the nanny state is alive and well, and that since they don't feel it necessary to promote any sense of self- sufficiency in their offspring, we (that would be the taxpayers) get to support them 'cause they're too inertialized to leave the state and to dumb to get a job.  they have great self- esteem, though.  But I stray from the original point: you're right, there are a boatload of thirtysomething children who haven't got the sense God gave a bag of hammers.

If I thought for an instant that someone didn't have the impulse control to be entrusted to a gun, i wouldn't sell them one regardless of their age.

sorry to get all political... here, let me climb off this soapbox and back down to the real world...  ;)