Traditional Muzzleloading Association
The Center of Camp => The Campfire => Topic started by: Bigsmoke on June 07, 2020, 03:06:51 PM
-
Quite a few of us have a "mountain name" that we go by when we are online or at rendezvous or whatever. I am Bigsmoke, Al Bateman is Two Steps, etc. A lot of us earned our name from some monumental screw-up. Others from observations of some attribute or other, or something identifying of what or how they do. Tell us about your name and how you got it. If this is a repeated subject, I'm sorry for duplicating but it has been a while and no doubt things could bear repeating.
I will go first. I go by the name Big Smoke, and no, it is not because I smoke large cigars or big doobies or whatever else it could be.
Back, some twenty plus years ago, I developed a love for big bore, slow rifled firearms, and I am not talking about .58 or 60 caliber rifles, either. I mean rifles of a noticeable caliber. Like .72, 8 bore and 4 bore. Being slow twist rifles, they could contain larger than normal amounts of powder and still shoot accurately. My .72 caliber rifle shot 200 grains of Ffg powder and had a rate of twist of 1:104. The 8 bore (.84 caliber) had a rate of twist of 1:144 and liked 300 grains of Fg powder. And the 4 bore (1.04 caliber) also had a twist of 1:144 and liked 400 grains of Fg.
So, one night we had some people over for dinner and after we were looking at some photos of a Rendezvous we had been to, and there was a picture of me firing my .72 caliber rifle. In front of the muzzle of the rifle was a pretty big cloud of smoke. The fellow said something to the effect that that was a big cloud of smoke. And from there it kind of evolved into Big Smoke. And the rest is history.
OK, that was pretty easy. It's now your turn. Go for it.
John (Big Smoke)
-
John, I had an idea it was from those big bores you shoot. :hairy
I actually have two names; Ohio Joe and Candle Snuffer...
Ohio Joe came from the first Rendezvous I attended and was introduced as, "Joe from Ohio" therefore they started calling me, "Ohio Joe"
I'm also know as "Candle Snuffer" as I've won more then my share of candle snuffing matches at Rendezvous - so they started calling me; "Candle Snuffer" and sometimes just "Snuffer"
Now a funny story here;
One year at the Ft. Robinson Rendezvous it was on a Saturday Night and visitors (3 ladies from England with their husband's came down to the "Candle Light" Shoot... Red Donker was holding it, and we were shooting at paper targets with just a couple candle lanterns to try and see our target about 15 - 18 yards away. (the targets were hard to see)...
Anyway, a couple of the ladies came to the firing line to watch me shoot, and of course Red was there to score the target once I took my shot... Well they kept asking me how I could see that target and I told them (as Red rolled his head back), "it's not so much seeing your target as knowing where it's at and hitting it" I told them...
So,,, I took my shot and they asked if they could go look to see if I hit it and Red said, "sure" so we all walked down and looked and I did hit it right in the middle... I then had to stand there in the dark while they took pictures of me next to my target and each one of them in the picture as well. They thought it was just amazing and they'd never seen anything like it before...
I remember the ladies telling their husband's about it once we were back at the firing line and one lady telling her husband that I said, "it's not so much seeing your target as knowing where it's at..."
Then Red started laughing silently and shaking his head, as I did as well... Ah, the good ol' days... :laffing Good memories for sure. :bl th up
So that's pretty much how I ended up with two handles... :shake
-
My story isn't interesting at all,.... I go by 'rollingb" on various forms,.... and my "given name" in camp. :) :*:
-
I got my handle many years ago at a Trail Walk. It seems that after I had taken a shot at a target, my smoldering patch started a small leaf fire. After stomping out the fire the guys starting calling me Fire Stick. I changed the spelling to Fyrstyk. Now whenever I am at a trail walk with the same bunch of guys, they all start stomping the ground (like they were putting out a fire) after I shoot.
-
John, my shoulder hurts just reading your post...
-
Over the years I've been on many activities with young men and always way to much time is spent talking and boring everyone, except, apparently, those doin' the talkin'. I got in the habit of sittin' back during the jaw-bonin', picking up some random stick, pulling out my pocketknife and commencing to whittle. Many times I'd heard that a good whittler just removes the extra wood to reveal the critter that's inside. Now, don't get the idea I'm a real wood carver. Mostly I just find a snake inside, but once in a while something unusual is revealed.
More often than not, while I'm sitting there, someone would wander by and ask, "What ya, makin?" So's I wouldn't interfere with their wanderings, I just answered with a ;) and either "two sticks" or "sharp stick".
"Two Sticks" was already taken on most of the websites and forums I visit, so "Sharp Stick" I am.
-
For me it was a kind of religious experience. I got into black powder shooting when my son asked me if I wanted to go to an NRA course and learn about them. The course was taught by instructors in a ministry my son was going attending at church. The Royal Rangers the boy’s ministry of the Assemblies of God Church. A part of that ministry is called Frontiersmen Camping Fellowship. FCF is a pre-1840 reenacting ministry. And there are different levels to being a member. To promote to the second level, several things need to come together. You have to come up with a Mountain Man name and a Bible verse to go with it. While I was trying to come up with mine, I kept hitting a wall of sorts and it just wasn’t fitting. I wanted to be called Roaring Bull, because I am a big guy and have a big deep voice. But the Good Lord decide that He didn’t like that name and pointed out a verse for me to look into. Long story short to avoid getting to religious here, I came up with Spotted Bull because of all of the visible (scars and tattoos, etc.) and invisible “spots” that I have. And I do actually like it better myself.
-
Many years ago when I got into Muzzleloading with my Boy Scouts in So Cal I also got back into leather crafting and trading, I had a cousin who lived in the mountains of Colorado and was a member of the AMM, lived in a cabin he built off grid and trapped for a living, I started selling hides for him at Rondys, mostly Beaver, somebody at a rondy came up to me and asked "are you the Beaveman? I'm looking for some beaver skins" so I sold him 3 hides, he asked what my name was I told him, he said no whats your rondy name, I don't have one, turns out he was the Booshway at the rondy, so at prize out on Sunday he calls me up and names me, have been called that since !
-
Puffer =I was the CRSO @ my gun club were the GRMM were holding an event. I recruited some others to act as rso,s to help out. 1 was 1 who had the 1st name as I had.& to not confuse people & because I was a smoker the GRMM people referred to me as Puffer, {but I quit smoking over a yr. ago. :bl th up
-
Way back (1960) when I was in Saint Anne High School in Hawaii, I asked my Mom (who was my Father 's and my barber) to give me a crew cut. She looked kind of doubtful but did her best. Now I have a rather prominent proboscis, and most of the other kids had fairly short "smooshed in" noses. Anyway, at the daily after school pick-up basketball game one of the guys yelled out "look at Kees, he looks like one HAWK!" I felt rather insulted by this, but when I told Mom about it she said I might as well accept it because the others were going to keep calling me that whether I liked it or not. Besides, a hawk is a noble kind of bird. She being wiser than me, I decided to live with that nickname and have used it ever since.
Fast forward to 2000 when I signed in to the Muzzle Loader's Mailing List (MLML) and was required to provide a handle other than my real name. I used Hawk and shortly after got a nasty email from another person that they already had that moniker. I didn't want to lose Hawk, and since I lived in Alaska at the time and since everyone associates Alaska with Winter, I made it Winter Hawk and that's what my handle has been ever since.
~Kees~
-
Way back (1960) when I was in Saint Anne High School in Hawaii, I asked my Mom (who was my Father 's and my barber) to give me a crew cut. She looked kind of doubtful but did her best. Now I have a rather prominent proboscis, and most of the other kids had fairly short "smooshed in" noses. Anyway, at the daily after school pick-up basketball game one of the guys yelled out "look at Kees, he looks like one HAWK!" I felt rather insulted by this, but when I told Mom about it she said I might as well accept it because the others were going to keep calling me that whether I liked it or not. Besides, a hawk is a noble kind of bird. She being wiser than me, I decided to live with that nickname and have used it ever since.
Fast forward to 2000 when I signed in to the Muzzle Loader's Mailing List (MLML) and was required to provide a handle other than my real name. I used Hawk and shortly after got a nasty email from another person that they already had that moniker. I didn't want to lose Hawk, and since I lived in Alaska at the time and since everyone associates Alaska with Winter, I made it Winter Hawk and that's what my handle has been ever since.
~Kees~
And here I thought it was from the movie;
Good Name, Kees!!! :toast
https://youtu.be/A7EiWS9Hqw4
-
I had NO idea of that movie! I'll have to watch it when i get more time. Thanks, Joe! :toast
~Kees~
-
I had NO idea of that movie! I'll have to watch it when i get more time. Thanks, Joe! :toast
~Kees~
You are welcome my friend! :shake
-
That looks like an interesting flic. I'm with Winter Hawk, when I get some time, I will be watching it also. I guess some of these neat movies just didn't get much publicity.
-
Follywood is like that...I watched it in a couple of settings...being retired (or is it retarded)I can just make time...
Good flick...
Funny story: My mom's side of the family were old school German on her Dad's side; My great Gradma had coal black hair and high cheek bones at 80 before she died..as a pup, I once asked her, "Grammie, do we have indian blood in us" Wrong thing to ask her I guess...she swore at me in German and swung her oak cane at my head...only youthful reflexes kept my head on my shoulders!
Decades later I ended up in Montana for 6 hard years and the Blackfoot Reservation was up in Browning...not that far from Helena, MT...I got lost one day in Helena and ended up in a low-rent district and saw a camper with words on the back reading:
Custer Got What he deserved... I turned around and left the area!
We american's couldn't beat the Blackfeet so they reportedly got survivors of the pox to take blankets in to trade with the Blackfeet Indians; blankets used by them what died of the pox...first time I know of we used biological warfare to defeat an enemy...Least that is the story I've dug up!
The recent Riots are to protest treatment of minorities but this Country still has to answer for what was done to the Native American!
The movie didn't get into all that but it was still a good hour 39 minutes of watching...
-
My F&I (1750-1820) is "Mad Irish Jack O'Donnell" and been using it for those period events since the mid 1990's. O'Donnell is 3rd Gen on my grandmothers side. Second generation is Rodgers and there are to many using that. And, I am related to Mr Rogers of TV fame. The O'Donnell persona was built on my Irish/Germanic temperment and carefree demeanor. I also have a VG Accent that drives folks batty. The next is a little lengthy.
MY Fur trade/ mountainman Persona is "Mad Buffalo Jack" I used since 1978. That's when I won my first flintlock and the hook 'bout ripped my jaw out. I "White Manned" the name up when I started the skinning game. I was in a NE JrCo in 1967 through 1969. I was a FB/Track scholarship athlete. In '79 I played DE/OG for Fairbury Jr Coll. in Fairbury NE. Last Saturday in Oct. We were playing a homegame vs. Haskell Indian JR Coll of Lawrence, Kansas. On a reverse sweep their back (5'4" and 128#) ran back at me, I fended off the blockers and dove at his juking. I grabbed the collar (illegal today) on the shoulder pad as I was falling from the blockers collision. I pulled his light body over myself and threw him to the ground, crashing his head to the hard turf. He went unconscious. He spent two days at our local county hospital and was release to go back to Kansas. In the spring 1978 I competed in the Javelin and discus events at the Haskell T&F Invitational. All the throws events were finished Friday afternoon and their throwers invited our guys and throwers from three other schools to a mixing social goodwill get together from 7-10PM. During this time two of the Haskell throwers mention to us, they were the linemen who got rocked on the play the little back was out on. My guys started pointing at me. everyone got some haha's. The one Haskell guy left and returned with the little back; that caught me off guard. They informed him I was the guy. He walked to stand in front of a stunned me; extended his hand and said, "Nice to meet you. I need to thank you for leaving my hair in it's place." It broke the Ice and all was well. His name was John Viridis. He was renamed as was the christian part of the school. His native name was Guarding Rattlesnake and he was Ojibwe from southwestern ND. He passed to the next hunting grounds in 2004. He made me a blood brother in a brief ceremony there that night. I still have the small scar on the pad below my left thumb. He named me the Big Crazy Buffalo, Brother of the Prairie Rattlesnake. So, when I started buckskinning and made a slight mod to the name to "Mad Buffalo" Jack. I also had a troll email me the he was Mad Buffalo on line. Mine was spelled as Bufflo since the a was in a name already. He wanted to meet in a place to settle the dispute. I found previous he was a 16 yo from Buffalo NY. I was 32 yo back then. I told him look me up if he doesn't grow up. Kids. Go figure. That's the story and it's history.
Oh, yeah, there's a movie guys sent me, they inferred it's me. Regardless, It is a hilarious watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ4T9CQA0UM
-
WOW! Now that's a Story! Great reading and just some danged good stuff. Thanks! Mine ain't near so exciting, but I'll share it in another post.
-
Actually, now that I've read all the posts, I am even more impressed with all the monikers you guys have. Got to say they all seem good and proper to me (not that anybody asked...).
My own Rondy name is Crazy Snake. Like Spotted Bull's-, my Rondy name has spiritual connotations. Growing up in South Texas I collected snakes and became a herpetologist, something that has stayed with me to this day. I love all snakes and protect them whenever possible. I guess I could have been called Snake Friend...
At the same time, I am a United Methodist Minister who has a strong interest and affinity to Native American spirituality, especially that of the plains Indians. For me, Crazy Snake, like Crazy Horse, just means touched by the great spirit. The idea that all of life and our entire planet is related is a basic tenet of who I am...so Crazy Snake it is...
-
OldTexian I have 2 snake friends myself! An approximately 10 year old albino corn snake and a 3 yo grey banded king snake.
-
Friends, this has surely provided some interesting and entertaining reading.
Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed, and thanks in advance to those who will.
John (Bigsmoke)
PS: Everyone should register for the letter writing contest. The more people write, the better the forum is. And that's a fact, Jack !!!
-
Hey David. Good for you. I haven't kept any of my "no hips" friends around for many years, but I am always on the lookout for them while bushcrafting or hiking. And everyone who knows me calls whenever they have a snake issue...that is unless they kill first...but then they know they are going to get "the lecture.
-
Hey David. Good for you. I haven't kept any of my "no hips" friends around for many years, but I am always on the lookout for them while bushcrafting or hiking. And everyone who knows me calls whenever they have a snake issue...that is unless they kill first...but then they know they are going to get "the lecture.
And me as well. When I worked at the Christian Camp I was always the snake wrangler, quite often copperheads. They seemed to like warming themselves on the concrete around the hotels!
-
And me as well. When I worked at the Christian Camp I was always the snake wrangler, quite often copperheads. They seemed to like warming themselves on the concrete around the hotels!
[/quote]
We also have a good amount of Copperheads here in this part of Virginia. At my son's farm and shop( about 30 mins from the city) there are also Timber Rattlers, but you only see them in the heat of the summer when the lack of water drives them off the mountains. Most common snakes encountered are Black Snakes and they can grow to 5' long.
-
Well it finally happened,.... my 80 lb. "pup" got tagged TWICE by a rattlesnake two days ago. One bite was behind the corner of his mouth, and the other one was on his ear, both bites were on the right side of his face.
The big dummy showed no ill effects from the bites, except for the blood from the fang punctures. :applaud :bl th up
-
I think sometimes rattlers just don't inject venom. Or some dogs just aren't affected. I had one many moons ago get bit and lived a long time.
-
OK, enough snakey stuff.
The topic of this thread is Mountain Names.
Please start a separate thread about snakes if you want to carry on about those darn things.
Actually, I just did. It's called Snakey Stuff.
John (Bigsmoke)
-
Hey John. I agree that a new thread is needed. Just remember though, Snakes need luving too :lol sign