>Well, if you were 7 or 8, it's not a real surprise that you weren't a
>great shot with a full-size 19th-century military rifle. The surprise
>is that you could hold it up. :)

Hah! Well, I recall it was prone rest and seated firing positions, for the most part -- I forget the 'proper' name for the stance, but you plop down on the ground, one leg tucked under, the other bent with the foot resting on the ground, and prop the rifle across your upraised knee.

I did learn standing as well, but only after I was familiar with the thing. But I've always been a big kid, and was routinely mistaken for being in my teens even at that age. I suspect body mass helped a lot.

>Heh, I worked my way up to .30-'06 by way of .22 Magnum and .30-30,
>the latter of which is kind of in my sweet spot for centerfire rifle
>cartridges (in terms of how they feel to shoot, not necessarily
>performance on target). I'm still not a big fan of any of the
>full-power circa-1900 service rifle cartridges I've
>experienced—particularly 7.62x54mmR. That impression is, I'm sure,
>not helped by my Mosin-Nagant being one of the carbine
>(short-barreled) models, which tends to exaggerate the recoil, but
>dang, yo.

I haven't fired a Nagant -- though I want to, someday -- but I have had the fun of squeezing off some rounds from a (Chinese) AK-47, which technically makes it a Type 56 I think. That fires 7.62x... something. 39mm, I think? It was fun but I don't think it was fun enough to want to spend that sort of money on a regular basis. One of my aforementioned uncles had it and we took it out back a few times.

These days, when I manage to go shooting at all, it's with my trusty Marlin .22LR. I can spend a happy hour or two putting 100 rounds through that for $10 -- and not feel like I've been punched in the shoulder, afterwards.

>That was the first, but not the best,
>I'm-not-sure-what-just-happened-but-it-was-impressive moment in my
>early firearms education, though. That was the first time I fired a
>replica Remington US Model 1863 "Zouave" rifle. This is a .58-caliber
>muzzleloading rifle with percussion ignition, and boy howdy, black
>powder or not, that is a big damn bullet and requires a sizeable
>charge behind it.

Hoo boy. Yeah, that would do it.

My son participates in Civil War reenactments, firing Springfield replicas, which also use the .58 caliber round. Of course, during reenactment events they're firing blanks with light powder loads, but we've fired the real thing a couple times as occasion permits.

Kicks like the proverbial mule, and a right bitch to clean. I think black-powder weapons are cool, in the "I'll stand over here and watch" sense, rather than the "I want one!" sense. :)

--sofaspud
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