The Following is a transcript of The Muzzle Blasts Podcast Episode 9

Ethan Yazel
Welcome back to the muzzle blast podcast this week, we've got Mike Belivue. He's a freelance writer, and also the man behind the duelists 1954 YouTube channel. We're talking with him about some of his personal history with muzzleloaders, and firearms in general. And then he also shares some great stories about TV movies, events that he's been to his background. So if you're a fan of duelists 1954, or his YouTube channel, we've got some nice stuff coming for you this week. If you haven't checked out his channels, we'll put links down in the show notes. And we'll be promoting Mike's work all through this month as we promote the episode so be sure to follow the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to see all Mike's work.

Mike Beliveau
I like to think of myself as a writer though. I think these days more people think of me as a video creator on YouTube, which is a little bit ironic, but I've been writing since the late 80s. And I started off with a couple of pieces of muzzleloader. And from there, I wrote a piece for gun world, which I sold and I end up writing for gun world for almost 10 years. Mostly about black powder, how to stuff that was that was kind of my niche then building building kits, making, you know, bits of gear, that sort of thing. And a friend of mine and one of the gun companies, like around Oh, golly, I'm gonna say around 97 recommended that I send something into guns of the Old West, which at the time was a fairly new magazine. I think it's been out for maybe three years. So I did, I wrote an article on cartridge conversions of Cap and ball guns and send it in and available Like that. And they started asking me to write more stuff. And it turned out when they were expanding. I was about the only person writing about black powder that wrote me for the magazine. So they asked me if I write a black powder column and be the black powder field editor for the magazine, and I did my I really enjoyed that agenda for almost 20 years.

Ethan Yazel
Wow, that's awesome.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah, I wrote a lot of modern stuff. Then too. I run a lot of combat handguns. stuff. I like all firearms. Yeah, I mean, but without a doubt, flintlock rifles are my favorite. But the opportunities for writing about those were few and far between and still are. Yeah, so the, the cowboy gun craze was was a good thing for me and I enjoyed that. I was a reloading editor for combat handguns magazine. For a number of years and started a YouTube channel, I guess about eight or nine years ago. I, to be honest with me, I really never thought I'd do that. A friend of mine worked on me for about two years saying, Oh, you should start this YouTube channel and I thought, well, you know, I'm a writer. I'm not a video guy and I'm a still photographer. I in fact, I still before still photography, I really just enjoy that as an art form. Yeah, but yeah, he said, like, you've already got the guns. You're writing an article you said so you pick up a video camera and shoot the best video? Why not? So eventually wore me down and I thought, well, why not? So I gave it a try and that surprisingly it's been quite successful. I believe it's one of the biggest black powder channels on YouTube. 66,000 subscribers now.

Ethan Yazel
Yeah, it certainly is. I'll admit, that's what I know you from. I don't come from a generation that really reads a lot of magazines. So for me that your videos are that are what brought me to you.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah, it's funny like that I, you know, I'll be absolutely I still think of myself as a writer. Yeah. And I know you've seen some of my postings on Facebook, and whatnot. I mean, I enjoy the act of writing even something as simple as that. And I like to think about it. I like playing with the language, but I just find it almost ironic that after being a gun writer for probably 35 years now, what I am most famous for is for being a videographer. And it just just strikes me as being a little bit funny and a little bit ironic. I'm very happy I really enjoy doing the YouTube stuff.

Ethan Yazel
But it's kind of interesting that you talk about writing for these magazines that a ton of people read and like you say you, what you're most known for is something that you started on your own.

Mike Beliveau
But you know, I joke about this all the time because I think it's just so indicative, and I guess it's a difference in the technology and the difference in the culture but forever as a magazine writer, if I got 10 or 20 pieces of mail in a year, you know, fan mail or, or questions or that sort of thing. And I was, I was a lot. I started doing this YouTube thing. And within months, I was getting 100 pieces of email a day. And and that has just continued. I have so many people asking technical questions or whatever. You know, sometimes Comments on on YouTube other times just, you know, they get my email and they email me. The questions are because of Facebook I I'm only on Facebook because of YouTube, right? And what I never thought I would get on. I was kind of, I wouldn't say I'm a Luddite because I work with computers. All my life as part of my Navy career back I designed business computer systems, but really, yeah. I invented some of the computer systems, the Navy uses on the business end of the hardware and but how, how they were going to do the things that they did. But that whole design shop that worked for me when when I retired, I worked for the Navy for for 30 years. Okay. And I retired about 10 years ago and then I was a I was a military consultant. We like to call ourselves contractors for another four years and I ran a pretty big shop of consultants for one of the one of the consulting companies. I was the Operations Director for the Mid Atlantic region for them with commercial and, you know, government clients, but a lot of mostly military stuff was was what I did. But on the side, I was always a writer, but I never you know, I never really got into the social media stuff, but then I needed to because of the YouTube that I ended up getting hooked on it, which is almost embarrassed to say that but i do spend more time on Facebook than probably I got and

Ethan Yazel
I think a lot of us do.

Mike Beliveau
They already tell me that nobody under 50 is on Facebook anymore. So I guess I guess maybe it's just a part of my generation. I don't use Instagram or Snapchat or, or any of those things.

Ethan Yazel
A lot of people my age have shifted around. And a lot of a lot of my peers hang out on YouTube, and Instagram are the big ones. And I think in the early years, Facebook was certainly, you know, a much younger person place to hang out online, but they're seeing the demographics change quite a bit, you know, to like you said that the 50 and overs are a large chunk of the user base, now.

Mike Beliveau
It's all grandparents, Facebook. I find all that to be kind of kind of humorous. And I guess maybe I'm so lost in the past. I'm working with a company right now to design a website for me, to give me a place to park things and work in progress and have a blog, that sort of thing. And one of my friends is a younger person said, God, I don't even know anybody who looks at websites anymore, or you should just set up an Instagram account and go from there and I think it's kind of funny because I think what a lot of young people don't realize is that most of the social media things point information that's on a web page. Yeah. So you know so when you when you're reading a lot of these social media things has a link in it or whatever this is taking is a web page. Right there you need still need that backbone to host you know, the meteor stuff then the ones you're going to have in the social media chat. But anyway, we'll see how it goes. But yeah, the the videos, that's become pretty, pretty big part of my life. In fact, I'm editing three of them today.

Ethan Yazel
That's right. You're just at the Lake Cumberland CLA show is that right?

Mike Beliveau
Well, I wasn't at Lake Cumberland. I was at the Lewisburg show, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. It's a week before, and And this is a really good show and I've gone to it for probably the last nine years and something pretty strongly about going to Lake Cumberland next year. I've never been there. But I'll have to do one or the other. You know, it's even though it's possible to do them both because they're on sequential weekends. I just don't like to be gone from home for that long.

Ethan Yazel
Yeah, it's hard to be out on the road that long.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah, I used to for my Navy career. I used to travel a lot probably 50% of the time. I was on the road. I just I enjoy a little bit of traveling but I also like to be home with bipap the dogs on the road all the time and and ability part of my years coming up. Now for travel because it will be all the spring event so I'll be at school the long runner in early April. I'll be at Port Frederick market there. Later April and then I'll be at the rate at Martin station in early May. So you know that's that's kind of come home do the laundry dry out the the gear load the truck again. Yeah. But like cumberlands on my list for next year. I'll probably haven't caught the CLA show in Lexington. For two years. I'll probably go out there this fall too.

Ethan Yazel
Yeah, that's a good show.

Mike Beliveau
It is. I find if you catch like around here if you catch the Morgantown show, or have you ever been to Dixon's?

Ethan Yazel
I haven't I really want to

Mike Beliveau
That is a real good shows real different question because it's outside. I've been going to that one. Well, I think it's been running 35 years now. I wasn't the first one. I think I've missed five or six in the 35 years. They've And then doing it that's, that really is a good a good show. But you see, I'll see the same people there that I'll see it at louisburg and the Morgantown show. And if I get a CLA, I'll see about, say half or 60% of the people that I see all the time. And then 40% of people I'll see there are people that don't get out to the east coast, you know, so, almost all the guys from out here will go to the CLA show. The big makers, they're all they're all CLA members. So, you know, guys like Tim Williams and Mitch Yates. though I'll be out there. Yeah. But, you know, then when I'm out there, I'll see. I'll see folks Krakow's you know, guys like that. I just don't see coming out here. Right, right.

Ethan Yazel
Well, where are you located? What state?

Mike Beliveau
I'm in Pennsylvania,. South Central Pennsylvania.

Ethan Yazel
You talked about your background in the Navy. Did your interest in firearms start in the Navy when you're in the military there or was it something before?

Mike Beliveau
My interest in firearms goes back almost when I was a toddler. I, you know, when I was a kid, I was born in 1954. So when I was a kid, in the 50s and 60s, it was the great age of westerns. Yeah. I mean, every TV show every movie, it seemed like was a Western. And I was like, from the time I could start to walk, all my littlest baby pictures, all all my toys. I always want to cap guns and stuff. Like that. And that's that interest just stuck with me all my life. I mean it. You know, it started when I was tiny and it just never went away. I was always interested in guns and interested in history. That's, that's kind of funny. I was, you know, from watching all those westerns. Right. I was really interested in that. Yeah. And then when I was a really young kid, Fess Parker, played Davy Crockett Walt Disney show. Yeah. And that just captivated me, you know, the long rifles and the Indians and all that stuff. And about the same time. I remember I was I was out with my dad. We lived on a farm in northern Vermont big dairy farm. And he was probably squirrel hunting or something I said, tag along with all time. And I said, Boy, it's too bad. We don't have any real Indians around here like the Apaches. The SU So what are you talking about that isn't around here they used to have the Mohawks is And believe me, if you had one of them on your back, you'd know about it. That line just always stuck with me. And he took me down to Ticonderoga. Okay, yeah. Dallas, the southern end to Lake Champlain. We lived right on Lake Champlain. We were up at the northern end live right on the shore, but so he took me down there and I just kind of got hooked as a little kid on history. And it always stuck with me, you know, when, when Daniel Boone came on TV, I watch that all the time. Al I wanted to do was get out there and shoot long rifles and, you know, it was just crazy and back when I got my first 22 my father bought me a semi automatic seven shot, you know, detached magazine clip magazine, semi automatic and I was a little disappointed because I had been asking for a single shot bolt action with a Full Metal Gear sock. So I could pretend it was a flintlock rifle, right? That's crazy. I was, you know, I was probably about 12 when I read the frontiersmen by Alan w Eckert and that just grabbed me. And, and I was at the time I was also reading Kenneth Roberts stuff. He and he wrote about the 18th century in New England, tension, Indian War and revolutionary war. Some great bugs, and in fact, Rundle is probably his best book, I still read it every three or four years. historical novel, just just excellent. That was just really getting hooked on that period and living in New England. You know, I was very interested in the French and Indian War in the Revolutionary War.

Ethan Yazel
right because it just happened there.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah, right lot of lot of stuff happen. happen there but, but Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett had a big impact on me and it's, you know, I interview a lot of guys for muzzleloader because I've written a number of orders and profiles for them over the years so I'll interview guys. It's funny, but guys my age almost invariably mentioned, you know, Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett is getting their interest going. And guys a little bit younger, it'll, it'll be Robert Redford and Jeremiah Johnson. Yeah. And and then you guys a bit younger than that. It'll be the last of the Mohicans. Yep. And it seems like these movies or tv shows have a huge impact on the hobby and I always say that, you know, if things are declining, what we really need is A really good TV show or a really good movie. And that'll that'll get things, get things jazzed up again.

Ethan Yazel
Yeah, I think a lot of times, it's not the kind of thing that, you know, leads to a huge Renaissance, but it gets a new group of people interested because invariably it's going to connect with people that are into it. And, you know, maybe not all of them, but some of them are going to hold on to that and then start getting into it and get interested.

Mike Beliveau
Oh, yeah. When, you know, it's funny in the, in the 70s, I was doing a lot of competitive shooting with muzzleloaders. And almost everybody on the line at Thompson center. And they all wanted to be Jeremiah Johnson. It was just huge. It had a tremendous impact. It's kind of funny early, but because, like I have recently watched some episodes of Daniel Boone because there are things Like me TV, okay. And, and they're awful. They're awful. You know, I look at my god, how could I have watched that? It's just, it's absolutely terrible. I mean, they don't hold up at all. Yeah, I will say Davy Crockett, which was done in the 50s actually holds up better than the Daniel Boone TV show. Which, like I say, that can be awful. And yeah, I was a kid, then you couldn't have pulled me away from that TV set on Thursday night. You know, all I wanted to see and it really really had a big impact. I was always much more interested in the the eastern frontier and never never get sucked into the Jeremiah Johnson stuff. And type of Yes, and it was that great a movie it was okay. Not that great of the Mountain Men. Was Charlton Heston and Keith, first night stuck. But John Huston started on a very solid mountain that no I'm gonna add to my list. That is much better movie of that period that's a little bit humorous but it's a straightforward straightforward adventure story and quite good Brian G. Was the co star in that but now that was that was excellent Jeremiah Johnson that was just not not the greatest thing.

Ethan Yazel
Well, maybe maybe it's good that you don't travel too much out west then. not liking Jeremiah Johnson.

Mike Beliveau
I was kind of semi retired from writing now. Some I'm doing a few things for muzzleloader. I'm You know, a few things for American frontiersman just doing stuff to keep my hand and I was, I was the black powder field editor for gun digest. And that's over now. So I'm headed for 66. And I'm trying to kind of slow down on the work stuff, just do the videos because I can do anything I want in a video. So I don't have to ask an editor for permission or, you know, if I wanna, if I want to cover it, I just cover it. Yeah. But a few years ago for American frontiers, and they asked me to do an article on mountain man movie. That sounds from like, the 40s, you know, up to The Revenant because of The Revenant was was pretty big. So that's what Yeah, get that going. And so I did. And, you know, it's funny, some of them are great. And some of them are really not that good. Some of them are a little bit cheesy, but then, surprisingly, like the big sky, which was a phenomenal book, and they really couldn't do the whole book and the movie. So it just kind of took a little piece of that out the best that started Kirk Douglas. And that was just a great movie. I mean, just great. And you can see why Kirk Douglas was such such an amazing star. The guy has an incredible charisma on screen. But it was it was really pretty cool because they didn't have replicas. And so they were using original guns and most of them. Yeah, and they were smart. They actually were using flintlocks, which is what made much more sense for that period. You know, the 1820s Yeah, it was still too and they had a they had an original swivel breach flintlock rifle in there, which, which was just really cool. I'm a big swivel breech fan.

Ethan Yazel
Who isn't? They are so cool.

Mike Beliveau
Then you get others like the one that preceded The Revenant I'm trying to think Richard Harris started it. But it was it was another Hugh Glass thing. Okay, from back in back around 1970 and my god that was awful. I mean awful the history was completely wrong. The the guns are all like Civil War muskets that they folded up. Look like Flint. So I mean all sorts of all sorts of bad stuff. You know, so it's kind of hit or miss. But it is interesting when you go back then you see one that they really did write that holds up and you're gonna enjoy it today. Yeah.

Ethan Yazel
So how do you feel about the more recent Revenant movie?

Mike Beliveau
I liked The Revenant a lot. They'll be the ending of The Revenant like the whole third act isn't this completely fictitious? Right? That's what I've heard. Yeah, it is. It's it's completely made up. no basis in history at all. But it was 100% action, that third act, so that was pretty good. Yeah. You know, the rest of it had a lot of non historical stuff in it. I mean, the backstory for us last was, was not correct a lot, a lot of things. What, right, right. But they did a pretty good job with the material culture. So it's hard to really kick. I mean, they had some some neat guns. They had some good action. The clothes weren't totally ridiculous. So, I mean, by and large, I enjoyed The Revenant. I mean, I take it For what it is, you know? Yeah. Just, if you're trying to get a documentary out of it, you're gonna be out a lot. Yeah, but it's actually better than most of the history channel documentaries I've seen for the last few years. And then, you know, they had one they did, maybe two years ago, on the frontiers when I think it was called something like that, you know, had Daniel Boone and all these things. And, and I actually, I had, I had a contract to review that write an article or American frontiers or not. And I watched the first two episodes of it. And I called up my editor, and I said, I said, you gotta rip up that contract. Because you're not gonna want to read what I would write about this. Oh, no.

Yeah, because it was awful. I mean, they they had a lot of material culture stuff wrong. I mean, the clothes were on, you know, they're like tennis shoes under their moccasins are there that a lot of bad stuff. But to me the worst thing is that they actually had the history wrong. I mean, they they had Daniel Boone's relationship to Richard Henderson totally misconstrued, they compressed some things. And they just they portrayed things in a light that were untrue, as far as motivations and what was going on. And, And to me, that's kind of unforgettable because the name of your channel is the History Channel. Yeah, I can forgive you for getting the costuming wrong. But I can't forgive you forgetting the history wrong. Yeah, you have to do that right. If you make if you make a mistake with the shirt. Oh my god. Is that? Sure it has a two inch wide cuff?

Ethan Yazel
You can forgive that and let that one slide.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah, let that slide. But when you get the history grossly wrong, then this is really hard for me to get on board with. And that's, that's one of my problem lately there. They're about to do the biography of George Washington,

Ethan Yazel
Right. I've seen some things about that.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah, I've got my hopes up for that but if they dash them I'm gonna be terribly disappointed. But the track record recent years is really bad for actual history.

Ethan Yazel
So, kind of along those lines, do you see you know, kind of the the writing and the video work that you do putting out accurate history and knowledge. Do you see that in any way as like supplemental for what like the History Channel's doing? I've heard that from a lot of people. That they're not pleased with what the History Channel does anymore. They've really gotten away from it. But for me looking at it, kind of in tandem, you have a lot of people online, just going out and sharing that history themselves.

Mike Beliveau
I think that's, yeah, in a way the Internet has democratized knowledge. So you've got a lot of folks sharing stuff. And some of them know what they're talking about. Not all and some of them don't, you know, but that's means you have to be a little more discerning, I guess, as a consumer of that stuff. But you have to find the right the right groups, and you can get some pretty good information. So I think the problem was the History Channel and places like that. There's not a market for the real history. Not no big enough. is the sort of thing is pretty niche? Yeah. You know, there's there's a new streaming service out called curiosity stream.

Ethan Yazel
Okay, I think I've seen some ads for that.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah. And that's, that's all documentaries. And they charge $20 a month four, which gives you an idea of what documentaries are worth to people because like Netflix, or charge $20 a year for it. Okay. Netflix was like, you know, 12 bucks or 14 bucks a month now, I guess. So gives you an idea that the documentary people figure if they price it price at more than dirt cheap, nobody's going to buy it. And I think that's too bad, but I think it's true, you know, people would rather rather see Pawn Stars or Desperate Housewives then see an actual historical piece. Yeah, so far, small market that really does love that. That that makes it kind of tough on them.

But there's a whether or not a supplement that I don't know what, you know what I, what I try to do in my videos or my writing is I try I try to cover something that I enjoy. Yeah. Well, whatever it might be, I've always figured if I like it, somebody else is gonna like it. And I try to give people the history of what I'm doing the historical stuff and I've tried to find ways of expanding that have probably not been that successful. I mean, I've tried a couple of different things and then they've done okay, but they're hard to do when you're a one man band that I've got a video on making the Hickok touch shot. And, as well, Bill Hickok and David inside The famous Gunfight in Springfield, Missouri Hickok, by the major famous basically was shooting Davis, because he walked across the town square with hecox watch. I mean, just to kind of boil it down to the essentials. So anyway that the gunfight took place at 75 yards, which is kind of interesting because today we we think if we get past seven yards, you know, you're wasting your time, right? Yeah. isn't a blazing away with each other. It's only five yards and without shot, tuck right to the heart. It's only five years. So I did a video on making that 75 yard shot. And but I told the whole story of the Hickok disagreement leading up to it and tried to make that as dramatic as I could. And I don't know how well I succeeded in that. I was playing both sides of the The aisle. I've tried a few of those. I did one. Jeff Melton is very interesting guy. He's the father of the Border Patrol. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Yep. It's quite old when he did that, but he started. He started off as a Texas Ranger when he was 17 and 18. At his father was the last and federal governor of florida and committed suicide after the war when everything was lost. And Jeff and his family ended up going from being genteel planters to then just scraping by. Jeff went out west to Texas, worked some stores and ranches as a young teenager and then became a Texas Ranger and as a start of his career, and after that he did every part law enforcement. You can imagine. quite quite a fascinating guy, but his most famous gun fight was in 19. Those three are 1904 that goes, it wasn't fair backs Arizona. And he was he was an express guard. Train. Okay. Now I got robbed by this gang because they didn't think he was going to be on board. It's what's nice with somebody. And it was a tremendous shootout. I mean they kind of open the doors, fair backs and these guys started shooting from the crowd on the platform with high powered rifles and and did quite a bit of damage to them but he managed to shoot two of them after he'd been pretty much shot to pieces. But I did a reenactment of that several years ago and then I did one of his last gun fight. I always find to be kind of interesting.

I picked up a antique firearms calendars for for a couple of years. For our company that makes calendars for like your dentist, you know you're waiting. Okay, yeah, they decided to the kittens and balloons and like to try one was antique guns. So for a couple of years I did that I picked up the 1987 savage semiautomatic 32 ACP for for a picture I was going to do. So that was the last gun that Jeff Milton had a gun fight with. It was a 1917 he was in his 50s. And he had, you know, roared into Tombstone, Arizona and on this Model T Ford. And this guy had just robbed the bank and killed the manager, probably didn't mean to do that. But he did. And he took off and Jeff and a buddy chased him down on this Model T. And Jeff was shooting at him with with this little pocket pistol and hit him in the arm just as the guy stopped and gave himself up. And at the at the trial, the judge said, "Jeff, were you trying to hit him in the arm because I don't think I've ever seen you miss anybody in my life" Jeff said, "Hell no, I was trying to kill him."

Ethan Yazel
That's awesome. Thank you for sharing.

Mike Beliveau
Some great stories. I'll be honest with you. I like all of history from the stone age to like a week before yesterday. Yeah. So it's, you know, it's all fun for me, but I definitely like the American frontier. The best But, you know, I love all sorts of history like medieval history Renaissance history, ancient history. You name it

Ethan Yazel
It's all fascinating. I think it's it's fun just to look back and, and see what came before.

Mike Beliveau
But it's all a continuum. Yeah. It's kind of funny. I mean, the big difference, of course of your, you know, look 1000 years ago, begins today, but it time kind of flows, right? I mean, we break it up into these manageable chunks. And then we put boundaries around, like, they're really significant. But it's kind of like the old west. I always remind people that a lot of those guys who are there in the Old West, were still there in the 1920s and 30s. Yeah, you know it. I mean, Jeff Melton didn't die. Until the 40s. And he had a active career up into a 70. You know why it was in Hollywood in the 20s? He was good friends with with Ford, the director. Okay, good luck to all the john wayne movies. Yeah. You know, it's not like that 1900 all these guys just stopped operating. Right now I went to the restroom or something. It just kind of flowed through me that Masterson became a sports writer in New York City, that he was doing that up into the late 20s.

Ethan Yazel
There must have been something to lived, you know, kind of at the end of the Civil War, and then all the way up into the 1940s. I mean, that's a talk about a cultural rocket ship of change.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah. But you know, if you think about it, if you think about this century, you see the same thing. Yeah, I think I think you know, any It takes any, like 80 year lifespan. And you're going to see immense changes. Oh, definitely, you know, people that were say dying around the time of the Civil War. I mean, they were born during the revolution. You know, I mean when you think about that, so I'm we're British subjects when they were born, right. And they were they were dying during one of the first modern wars.

Ethan Yazel
Okay. Yeah, I never thought about that.

Mike Beliveau
You know, they would have gone from not just an agrarian society, but a pre industrial society. Yeah, just society that was industrial that had brand names that had a lot of the stuff we have now.

Ethan Yazel
My grandfather's, the one is, is 95. Now he lived through the Depression and World War Two and Then, you know, saw the moon launch and the moon landing and you know, and now use the cell phone to call his grandkids.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah, lots of big thing. Yeah. But my dad passed away in the 90s. He was born in 1930. He died. He was like, 65 when he died, but when I was when I was in college, he used to say to me, what you think things are so much different now? So I was a kid, he said, but when I was a kid, we had everything that we have today. And as a TV said, we had TV. Most people didn't have me. They had already invented that. That was it was out there was already commercial. While I was a kid, he said we had telephones got cars, TVs, you name it. Everything we got you then now we had that radio. It's all there. This is computers that started computers in the 1890s. Just better now. But, but you know, the the thing I always think about is, that's pretty much true. Yeah. But from the point where he died until now, technology is advanced 500% I mean, when when he died, cell phones were great big suitcase you things that said, you know, like, World War Two field right? Yes. And maybe they had them but but like the world is completely changed now you can't find a phone booth now. Right? Right things don't exist. I mean a lot of things no longer exists. nobody nobody uses Yellow Pages anymore. In fact younger people never even heard the Yellow Pages.

Ethan Yazel
Oh, yeah. It's antiquated now.

Mike Beliveau
In fact, a lot of this always surprised me. Because I'm a kind of a watch fanatic, but when, when I was working with a consulting company, a lot of my younger employees didn't own wristwatch which I couldn't believe I said honey no time it is check my phone. I mean I had a phone but I would never check it for the time because I grew up looking at your wrist at the time but that's just how much things have changed now technology has really changed the way we do things now yeah and I think part of part of it is that's why I enjoy these at century events. Though technology is unfortunately stuck their head into that but why do these things I take my cell phone I turn it off I put in the glove compartment like truck. Yeah, I don't look at it for a week. But I see guys around camp that are like still glued to their phones like yet and they why would you want to come out here and be immersed in this stuff. And then spend every five minutes on your phone checking, checking this to check on that but but I like giving up All the technology I want no radio, no newspapers, no nothing. I want to sleep on the canvas, cook my food on fire and just leave me alone.

Ethan Yazel
Just unplug from it all.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah, I I get a little bored now. So I haven't the last few years but for a lot of years, I always go out in the fall. And I would take a solo 18th century on either for deer or for squirrels depend on what time I get away. I take a week off and go out alone and live completely 18th century and I didn't want to see another person. Yeah, I might I ruin that illusion. If I ran into somebody else I'd probably have buried somewhere because I just did not. I did not want to be intruded on with with the 20th 21st century,

Ethan Yazel
Right. That's a that's a personal dream of mine. I'd really like to put apart some time to go spend a weekend or a week would be just amazing. Just going out and just hanging out in the woods. And ignoring the rest of the world for a little bit. It sounds really nice.

Mike Beliveau
It is a great reset. I mean, I used to when I worked for the Navy. Well, while I retired, I was the head of maritime weapons systems support. So I was in charge of all the logistics and supply for ships and submarines, as opposed to the aviation Navy as the other the other half are Navy. So I was pretty intense job but you know, over 200 people working for me, and it was a 24 hour a day job. worked all the time. Well, because that stuff happens in the world. Yeah. And, you know, it's our job to make sure we're ready for that. So while I was doing something else, I wanted to be completely something else. Right. And that's, that's why I started taking those. The solo on It was a great mental reset. You know you come back, smelly dirty, or whiskers and thoroughly relaxed well worth it. So if you get a chance, just do it. Just take your gear go out somewhere. You do an Indiana.

Ethan Yazel
Yeah, yeah, I'm up in northern Indiana, just about an hour south of Michigan.

Mike Beliveau
I know. I own a property in the woods, which is where my range duelists den is and I always joke that anybody who owns woodland property realizes that you spend more time working on the new play about Oh yeah.

Ethan Yazel
I think a lot of people don't realize they think trees just kind of sit there and you know, trails just kind of happen but there's a lot of work that goes into it especially now with the all the invasive species and things it really becomes a headache.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah, and trees fall down. I mean, we've been so what these last couple of years. Yeah. You know, you windstorm and next thing you know, you got a huge tree block in one of your trails, you know, get out there with a chainsaw a couple of days cutting all that up. Yeah.

Ethan Yazel
You mentioned a little bit earlier on the call. I can't I can't quite remember but it's something about modern handguns. What was the interest there? Or what's your background in that area?

Mike Beliveau
I, you know, I like all firearms. Yeah. And I like modern guns as much as I like the old ones almost. So I've always shot modern guns as well as the old guns. I mean, I had my first muzzleloader because I built it when I was around 2018 or 20. But, you know, I had 20 twos and shotguns when Justin 94 is before I had my first muzzleloader I've always been interested in I've always been interested in handguns, I think because I watch all the cowboy movies. So I've had handguns for like, as long as I could have them. Since I was likely my father would get them for me when I was 18. But right. So anyway. Yeah, like anything else. I have to live in the 21st century, even though I like playing in the 18th century. So I carry a 1911 every day and my workout with it. I've done a lot. I've done a lot of modern handgun writing. It's not I never considered it my forte because I'm not I don't have a police background or, you know, that sort of thing. Right. Right. So yeah, you know, a lot of that stuff is more for those guys, I think to write with credibility, but I've done a lot of reloading. So when I'm became the reloading editor combat handguns that I was already writing for combat handguns. So, you know that's something I like so I reload 25 or 30 different calibers. Wow, from old old west calibers up till you know modern stuff that 10 millimeter you name it. So, this has always been an interest of mine I collect Cold War military pistols. So, and I also collect double action called revolvers. Okay, small collection of those along with every cap and ball revolver ever made, and we got a couple of cold civil actions. And, you know, all the clones. Yeah, but I'm certainly a modern dance. I've got a number of antique pistols, a couple of antique rifles. But a number of antique vessels from tapping ball up through you know Old West Side cartridge guns. I just I enjoy them all. I shoot them all. I have a reload rimfire cartridges. I really like 38 rimfire is I've got the Remington police model, which was made in Cap and ball and then later as a cartridge conversion to 3830 rimfire and I've got I've got a 38 rimfire was made in 1873 that's a fun little little gun to shoot, but I've got a 41 rimfire pocket pistols, you know, that sort of thing, but from the 1870s I like the old stuff mostly. It's got a lot of character I think. I don't much stuff newer than the 1911 Yeah, but I like double action revolvers, particularly the older ones, I think they're a lot of a lot of fun. There's just something about them that they're very mechanical. You know, it's just something about the whole mechanism and, and that period, so I find it all interesting, but when like rifles are still probably my number one, my number one passion. I really I really enjoy them so I tried to do a few videos on that it's no secret that cap and ball revolvers are what people want the most for me.

Ethan Yazel
Oh, really?

Mike Beliveau
And yeah, that those are the most popular videos I do or the the cap and ball stuff and, and that's most of what I do the other. I do a lot of build videos in the wintertime as well. tried to get out and shoot, you know, I like building rifles. I'm not that good at it, but I like doing that. So a few years ago, maybe four or five years ago and build a rifle for like 20 years, right? I just had the yen. So I wanted to make this Buck County Rifle And I decided to video the process.

I really thought to be the only build that I ever video it was like a 32 part series. And as it turned out, people wanted more. So I've been video and more of them. It's it's not the most popular thing I do. But the people who like it really like it. So I feel like if I didn't do it for them, I'd be letting them down. Yes, it's a smaller audience is interested in that but their interest is very high. So and I hear from a lot of them, it shows now if I got a Dixon's that sort of thing some people want to talk about but Mostly it's the cap and ball. I was I was at school of a long hunter last year, which crickets for West Virginia. Okay. And it's a fun of that. It's it's a learning as well as you know, 18th century tampering with the shooting of that. That's, it's more, more of a learning environment at before. It's a very cool 18 century thing. So, Mark Baker, He is one of the the big, big names in living history, the new century living history, he used to write for muzzleloader. Okay, years ago, but he's one of the guys he and john kerry are probably two of the guys that really popularized tracking. Oh yeah, definitely. All that So, so they're they're like oven age. So he was he was doing a program at the Fort as part of the school and along hotter and I had a gig to cover the school for American frontiers and write an article on it. So before he did his thing, I took him aside to photograph them and do that stuff. So I introduced myself and he said, Oh, you're the captain ball revolver guy. I thought he wasn't known anymore for my 18th century stuff. As it turns out, the YouTube cap and ball revolvers stuff trumps everything else,

Ethan Yazel
That's interesting. I know. John Curry, I've known for a long time. He does a lot of tracking articles for muzzle blast magazine. Right. I see a lot of I try to share as many as the articles as as I can online, you know, in parts of them and little teasers and things but I think by and large, the john kerry articles are what people compliment Most people love seeing people going out and tracking you know, and living simply and then doing things the hard way like that.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah, Jon Jon's very good friend of mine. I really enjoyed his writing. After that. I enjoyed that a lot. I'm getting to the point now where these phones are getting old, too old. Yeah, I'm doing all the time too old, too fat, but I so appreciate a chance about my age.I should probably do a more but I've become a fair weather trekker, right? I know. It's gonna be good for a couple of days. I'll go out and do it but I'm not gonna get rained on I get snowed on or any of any of that stuff. I'm beyond that being fun, right?

Yeah, just take off for a couple of days. Go go to the forest north to me over here in the State Forest. Like I say, Now, it's gonna be nice weather. Yeah. Don't do it in the winter, how to do it the middle of summer. I'm like, a couple days of spring couple of days in the fall. I'll get out and do that, you know, go hiking and set up a camp. Just Just run.

Ethan Yazel
I think that's what it's about. This is having some fun. I like to give everybody a chance to plug, you know, their work and their website and you know, where people can find them. You know, so if there's anything that you want to talk about or mentioned, you know, to get the word out, you know, this is kind of your time to take a few minutes and and share that.

Mike Beliveau
Well, I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you.

Ethan Yazel
It's been great.

Mike Beliveau
Since we've been talking about YouTube, my youtube channel duelist 1954 and I have the same channel on another site called full 30, which is just duelist but the same videos go up on on both. Full 30 is dedicated just to firearms. I think it's fun. And then for writing I appear periodically and muzzleloader and American frontiers when. And, yeah, I expect to keep that up. So keep your eyes open. Yeah,

Ethan Yazel
well pop up somewhere, it will do our best to. We'll put links to, you know, all of your pages and things in the show notes. So if if anybody's listening that wants to check out your work, that'll be an easy way for them to, to get to that pretty quickly. It's been a lot of fun. It's, I mean, I get out and try to do as many videos as I can, but This is something that's nice. And it's been nice to do over the winter, you know, where I can sit down and talk with somebody, you know, for an hour or so and, and get something out there, you know when it's they're not events or shoots going on.

Mike Beliveau
Right. That's like,

catch up on other stuff. Yeah.

Ethan Yazel
Yeah, seems like a lot of people take the winter to, to work on builds and things. Because I think you everybody's stuck inside. So everybody starts building a new gun or something.

Mike Beliveau
Yeah, I've been working for three winters on this York County right.

Ethan Yazel
Now have you?

Mike Beliveau
Yeah. Usually I'm not that slow. Like, for a couple of years, I had a cat, a calendar gig. And that was also during the winter. Okay, so that was that was like, a month or so of my winter though the money was so Really cannot complain about right. But see, I've got a little bit more time, so I think I'm gonna finish it up here and then I'll have to decide what to build next year.

Once again like to thank the guys over at the primitive pursuit podcast if you haven't been following them, we've been shouting them out for a few weeks now, but their episodes just keep getting better and better. They keep finding these great characters. I don't know where they find them. They just keep finding these neat guys to interview and talk about everything from period archery to traditional muzzleloading and they've got some nice stuff going. So if you like the primitive or traditional parts of muzzleloading or archery, you gotta check these guys out. The podcast again is primitive pursuit. You can follow on Instagram and Facebook primitive pursuit. The muzzle blast podcast is the official podcast of the National muzzleloading Rifle Association. The muzzle blast podcast is the sister publication To the muzzle blast magazine. We've been publishing the muzzle blast magazine here at the nlra since 1933. It's the official membership magazine of the National muzzleloading Rifle Association. So if you like what we're doing here or want to hear more or read more, I have a huge back catalogue of magazines that you can access as a member digitally and we come out with a new magazine each month so you can get it digitally emailed to you or mailed right to your door. It's packed with tons of original articles from you know, muzzleloader building, competition, muzzleloader shooting, muzzleloader hunting and traditional craft stuff. It's jam packed every month. Team a muzzle blast worked really hard to make a great magazine and they just they just keep making it better. If you'd like to support the show, or like what you're hearing, go to nlra.org and you can join the animal array. We've got a quick form in the store and you'll save 10% off your membership or merchandise if you use the code podcast 10 that lets us know you came from the show and it's a Little Thank you for listening. We had the SHOT Show last month but February is shaping up to be pretty busy as well. This week, I'm going down to interview Yankee Doodle muzzleloaders they put on the Kalamazoo living history show up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. That'll be at the end of March. And then this coming weekend will be at the Connor long rifle living history trade fair in Noblesville, Indiana. It's kind of one of the first shows in the area, and it's one I've gone to for many years. So I'm excited to go down there and film and interview some craftsmen and vendors that you know, help keep this sport alive. And then next month, we'll be heading up to the Kalamazoo living history show. And by that time, it's pretty much spring and events around here start kicking up. So we'll be getting on the road some more and, and just bringing you a lot more from the muzzleloading living history world. So thank you so much for listening and have a great day.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai