1'm kinda with DOC White on this issue.
If the folks that pioneered the renaissance in muzzleloading that only shoot traditional flintlocks and percussion guns don't find some way to bring the inline shooters into their clubs, then as I see things our sport will continue to shrink until the oldtimers have passed away and their clubs die out.
If you look at Denny Ducet's videos the average age of the shooters appears to be in the mid-60's. From all the posts I read here on ALR, most of the clubs mentioned seem to be somewhat the same as far as average age of members is concerned.
Images posted here of the various shows that take place throughout the course of the calender year show the same thing. There are virtually no young faces( under age 50) showing in the photos.
There has got to be a way to entice the inline shooters to attend our clubs, which means also to financially support these same clubs. I know that a lot of them don't have our sense of history, which probably means that a completely different approach will be needed to grab their initial interest.
As muzzleloading enthusiasts we must band together in order to survive.
I can remember the first muzzleloading shoot that I attended at age 16 in Maryland in 1970. I was with my father and although I watched these older men shoot for about 1 1/2 hours, not one of them offered a green kid the chance to shoot one of their guns. They were standoffish and barely paid us any attention.
When I got my Golden Age Arms Co. flintlock a year later (6 months of lay- a- way working in a grocery store after school), I was pretty much on my own learning out of what I read in Muzzle Blasts and the Lyman Black Powder Handbook. Fortunately, I made no catastrophic mistakes, and learned lessons from all that I made.
I'll be interested to hear what others think about this.
R.J.Bruce
