Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Toby Bridges latest blog

Friends,

I got this email this week...jim
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Just wanted to bring to your attention a new muzzleloader hunting blog launched this past weekend -
NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING .

This morning, I began establishing links to the blog from the NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING Web Magazine
site.

A real killer these days is for company's to maintain a very knowledgeable customer service...with the
hands on muzzleloader experience to tackle performance problems. My goal with this blog is to get as many
muzzleloading hunters involved as possible, and to let those who are shooting and hunting with today's
muzzleloaders to help each other as much as possible.

Last year, I personally answered more than 15,000 muzzleloader related e-mails. And, I am sure that many of you receive
more than your fair share as well.

Thanks to the pledged support of Thompson/Center Arms , this blog could help alleviate many of those e-mails and/or
customer service phone calls. Within the next month, I want to have discussions on a dozen or more topics or issues
taking place on the blog. To make this work for everyone in the muzzleloading industry, I could use a little help from many
of you.

Please take the time to log onto the NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING blog from time to time, and to make a comment or
two about the topics...subjects...issues being discussed. To have well known writers and "Industry Experts" jump in now and then can only
make this blog more popular...the place to go for information.

Likewise, this blog will remain as open as possible to all muzzleloading brands and product lines...and sdhould be a great place for you to keep up
on current trends...and issues that are important to today's muzzleloading hunter. Here's a link to the blog...

http://namlhunt.blogspot.com/

Competition is what keeps muzzleloading vibrant and growing, thanks to new and innovative products. Working together is
what will keep muzzleloader hunting alive, with a bright future.

Upcoming blog posts include:

SCOPING THE MUZZLE-LOADED BIG GAME RIFLE

SHOOT MORE FOR LESS MONEY

COMPRESSED PELLETS OR SPEED LOADERS?

ONE SHOT, ONE KILL

ARE MUZZLELOADER SEASONS IN DANGER OF BEING ELIMINATED?

FULL ENERGY TRANSFER...OR COMPLETE PASS THROUGH?

DO YOU LOOSE VELOCITY WITH EASY LOAD SABOTS?

KEEP 'EM CLEAN

MONTANA NEEDS A MUZZLELOADER SEASON!

WHY DOES COLORADO, OREGON & IDAHO BAN SABOTS?

TRADITIONAL OR MODERN?

If you have a topic that needs covered, please drop me an e-mail.

Toby Bridges
NORTH AMERICAN
MUZZLELOADER HUNTING

406 542-9751

Big conicals do a better job than sabots.

I made a post on another forum that didnt go so well as an open mind seems hard to come by these days.

The topic was:

Inlines have been banned! Traditional Percussion/flintlocks are the only legal muzzleloading firearm to use. Previous bans on scopes/sabots have been lifted - anything goes!!. What would you be using?

personaly if it concerns bridges or wakeman , ill skip them

Toby has been super nice to me. He has helped me with my question.
He has been a first rate Gentleman with me.

Hope you all have a good day.

Jim & Hammerdown,

With some folks, if you don't agree with everything they say or post...they don't like you.

Sabots and in-lines forever!

Toby

Toby
Keep up the good work.

I'm with you Cap, they're both schills........

Thanks for the link.

Like or dislike someone, that is your choice

Like or dislike someone's ideas, that is your choice

However, attack the person, and you become lower than anything you rail against.

In other words, IMO attack an idea, but never the man. That is the grown up way to do things.

That is unless you can produce pictures and a tape recording proving otherwise.

Feel free to dissagree, that is your choice

actually for me , that has little to do with it .
its not a mater of traditional or modern , though some sure would like it to be .
some of us have been around long enough to see and question many things and have witness the Ides and flow of the tides .
SOME of us are old enough to have read TB in his early days and followed him right up through his most recent incident and controversy .
Now when I say old enough , im not just talking about age but total length of experience on a given subject .
With TB he has a very long line of experience , I don�t think anyone can challenge that . I sure wouldn�t .
Some of us also have more personal dealings and experience with both these folks then just whats read on the net and Thus base an opinions on a little more then , a he said she said . .

I have no problem with those who support, one , the other or someone else concerning any view .
Learn what you can from who you can . Then expand what you know by learning more from your own experiences. Sometimes you will find it supports what those you have learned from told you . Other times it will lead you to question that information .

But as for myself , as I said , ill skip and just take anything said by TB as a grain of salt . It goes much deeper then just helping someone with their inline issues or for that mater �compiling � articles on the subject for others to read .
To each their own .
But through my years I have come to learn that one should never take someone�s word s as the gods honest truth , unless they have actually read and understood that truth . Knowing , WHERE that truth comes from ..
So when I say I skip these two . There is a lot more to do with it then just a modern vs. traditional argument .
some of you have your oppenion . your welcome to it. as for me , i will not challange that oppenion even if i disagree with it .
but i also believe that in return that very same respect should be given .

when its not . thats when i think we have an issue .

Be safe guys and have a good one

Captchee...

With one heck of a lot of words, you really didn't say much of anything.

Me thinks it still boils back to the fact that you sway in favor of tradtiional muzzleloaders...and I lean heavily in the other direction. If you and I have ever had any "personal dealings", it would have to be in regard to the work I do to eliminate backward muzzleloader regulations.

You and I have never hunted together...we've never hung out together...we've never bought and sold each other a darn thing...and we sure as heck aren't related. You didn't screw up and marry one of my old girlfriends did you?

You and I have never had any "personal dealings". Our one and only tie has been muzzleloading. And it is clear you are tradtiional...and I make it very clear that I swing far more in favor of the modern muzzleloaders.

Sabots and in-lines forever!

Toby

Toby-

I've never understood the traditional vs. inlines thing. I can appreciate the folks that use traditional stuff, not unlike the longbow and recurve in archery. It's just not my bag. I say, use what floats your boat and go have fun. The guy toting a Hawken is just as much a hunter as the guy toting an Omega.

We're all hunters here so let's keep the main thing - the main thing.

I like both inline and traditional but when you can take something like this,
Just a prop pic, The target was shot with the 348gr Aerotips.


And do THIS @ 100 yards, why bother with an inline?


Thats my most Accurate rifle that i own right now and i may use it on my bear hunt this fall.

Wolfkill
sorry i did my best

Am I a traditionalist , yep I am . But does that have anything to do with this , NOPE not one iota .
I have no use for someone , be they a politician or a gun owner . center fire , Modern muzzleloading or Traditional muzzleloader , who follows a money trail and flip flops or tells what IMO are half truths for their own betterment .
When it comes to the modern vs. traditional camps , there are people in both that I have very little to No use for . Their names are listed in the same book and on the same line as TB

Now when it comes to folks who IMO are deserving of respect , you will see Doc White amoung those on the very top . Why .
Because when you talk to Doc you get an honest answer . Not based on something he is selling or a product that he is getting endorsements from or because he in some way wants to be seen as a leader in any given area .
Now if Doc was to start a blog , you can be Damb sure I would be over there listening , be it traditional or not . now might i disagree with him ?? yep on some things . but that doesn not any anyway reduce my respect for the man .

But TB ??? Nope , not a chance , he burned that bridge long, long ago .

For the record here , I also supported his opinions on the ML 10 issue . Not because it was a modern muzzleloader or because it used smokeless , but because after reading what he had to say and what he had shown it gave me concerns . But I also had other concerns , past what he was saying . I have stated those many times on the subject , on a couple modern forums . That had 0 to do with modern , vs. traditional but more on TB himself ,.

Again this is just my opinion and im trying to be as tactful as I can , so as not to get nasty letters concerning lawsuits .
I simply do not like the man and the reasoning has nothing to do with modern or traditional . Its about him and him alone
So believe what you want . But I been around this business for a very long time . I know who I trust to give me an honest , un bias opinion and TB is not one of them .
Now if others feel differently , then , ha more power to ya .
But don�t for one munite tell me WHY I feel a given way or WHY I have the opinion I do . I think we all have had enough of that BS from obama

Captchee: I want to be clear that my post was not referring to you. You did not get into name calling. You are entitled to your opinion, and I have no beef with that. Your opinion is just as valid as mine and I think you have done a pretty good job at explaining your position and opinion.

You have a valid point about following the money, and I wouldn't try and say you are wrong. I just have a different take. After all, just about everyone I know thinks highly of Doc White, but where is his business now? Methinks he didn't think ENOUGH about the money! And now we can't buy his great rifles because of it.

For a guy like Toby, Muzzleloading is his life and his livelyhood, so he has to be a salesman as well as an informer. I keep that in mind and think I have learned quite a bit in spite of it. When nobody else was writing about Blackhorn 209, Toby was and I got some valuable info. I always figured that he got some money from them, but his info and results were enough to get me to try it and WOW, I love it. Certainly not traditional muzzleloading, but to each his own.

So, you do make some valid points and they are as valid as mine.

Good hunting!

Cap put it more diplomatically than I, tact isn't always my strong suit...I should mention I shoot and hunt with in-lines, don't own a traditional (still waiting for a great plains with a 1"-24"twist). So my reaction has nothing to do with modern vs. traditional BS.
Cap sums up it pretty well for me.

Tactlessly,

Charlie

fair enough Txhunter , who could ask for more .
wolf knows what im speaking about and no i didnt marry one of his old girl friends
be safe

Toby,

A long time ago I sent you an e-mail expressing my concerns on the issue of requiring states to allow optical sights on BP rifles. There could be ramifications in South Dakota beyond the usual traditional/modern argument which I see as a matter of individual choice (I prefer traditional). You sent me a polite reply acknowledging my concerns and expressing yours in a gentlemanly way. Thanks, I appreciated that.

Jon

I don't know Doc White, but I'd hazard a guess that if he started a blog he wouldn't be over here arguing with people about it.

And why anyone would worry about muzzleloader regulations outside their own state is a mystery to me.

If the people of the state of Colorado want to restrict the use of scopes and sabots in Colorado, it's the business of the people of Colorado, and no one else.

Unless, of course, you make your living off of products that'd otherwise be restricted.........................

Exactly my point. Why not just dispense with the crap and cut to the chase?

I grew up in VA and hunted there for many years, first with a centerfire for deer and then almost exclusively with a muzzleloader. I used a Hawken back then. I always wanted to try deer hunting with a muzzleloader in PA but didn't own a flintlock.

It never occurred to me that what I should've done was tell the Pennsylvanians to get with the program. I always thought if I wanted to hunt in their state, it was my resposibility to learn their regulations and follow them. Or, if I didn't want to do that, go somewhere else.