CASPER — Before he pulled out his own guns, Mark LeBlanc had some business to attend to.

He loaded an old pistol that belonged to a friend of his. It didn’t shoot straight, his friend said. LeBlanc volunteered to test fire it a few times.

He drew back the hammer and said, “Before we send this gun to the shop, let’s make sure there’s really something wrong.”

He fired three rounds, hitting old shotgun shells from 10 to 15 yards on all three shots.

“I think the old boy is just crooked,” he said with a laugh.

Translation: It’s his friend who can’t shoot straight, not the gun.

He put the pistol away and went to his truck to get the guns he had come to shoot:

• A Lancaster .40 caliber originally made in the 1730s.

• A Shiloh Sharps black powder rifle, a gun that dates back to 1874 and is still one of the most popular rifles in shooting competitions.

• An 1873-model Colt single-action army.

LeBlanc has been shooting for more than 40 years and had been selling guns for 15 years before he retired two months ago.

He appreciates a good firearm when he shoots one and said these three are some of the best. But, for LeBlanc, guns are about more than hunting, target shooting or the satisfying thud of a rifle butt against his shoulder.

He shoots pioneer-era, black powder rifles and hand guns and, in the past few years, has taken a shine to flintlocks. The design of these guns is the same as it was when the wagon trains crossed the plains, and, for LeBlanc, they connect him with history.

“So many things have to be done right all at the same time,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun to see it work — smell the powder and see the smoke when you fire it — and to make it work. And it doesn’t always work.”

Recently at Stuckenhoff Shooting Range, the flint fired well through most of the afternoon. But that’s often not the case.

That makes LeBlanc wonder how people survived when they were reliant on these guns for their dinner.

“I’d rather not go all the way back, but shooting black powder and flintlocks is some way to touch base with the past.”

The first gun he took out was the Colt single-action army. It fires black-powder .45 cartridges that LeBlanc reloads himself.

“If you don’t have a Colt, you don’t have a gun,” he said. “And, if you don’t have a single-action army, you don’t have a handgun.”

As he spun the chamber and loaded the shells, he explained how the cowboys used to load this gun and that it’s really a five-shooter.

It doesn’t have a safety, so they needed a way to keep from shooting their knees out if they fell off their horse.

The cowboys used to leave a $20 bill in one of the chambers, so that they knew it was empty and then left the firing pin on the $20 bill whenever they had it holstered.

When LeBlanc is at the range, he always loads six rounds. He fired four quick shots and hit four rocks and spent shells on the ground not too far away.

“I don’t really go in for the military guns, the ‘spray and pray’ method,” LeBlanc said. “I’m a believer in the ‘the first shot counts’ mentality.”

He picked out a target — an old plastic jug about 120 yards away — and took aim with the Colt. The first shot was a few feet high, but the next was a hit.

As he put away the Colt, he marveled for a minute at the history behind its design.

The Colt single-action was first made in 1873, and the design hasn’t changed  much since. Modern guns have safeties to prevent accidental firing, but the mechanics that drive the chambers and the firing pins are exactly the same.

“What other mechanical product is there that’s the same as it was 130 years ago?” LeBlanc asked. “Even pencils have changed since then.”

All of LeBlanc’s guns are the same way.

The flintlock rifle he brought out was a Lancaster .40 caliber. The model he uses has been in production pretty much continuously since the 1730s.

Lancaster, Pa., where the gun was made, was on the edge of civilization in the 18th century. It was one of the most westward towns, and Dutch and German gun makers sold these rifles to explorers, trappers and pioneers.

The hammer on a flintlock is a piece of flint that strikes a steel plate, igniting a small tray of powder on the side of the barrel. That small explosion ignites powder in the chamber, which fires the ball.

So much can go wrong with a flintlock gun that even today it’s hard to keep them firing consistently.

When the flintlock gun works, it takes a long time between shots to load the gun and fire. LeBlanc has done a lot of research into how the pioneers lived and trying find out how they survived with a gun that shoots as slowly as a flintlock.

“Well, a lot of them didn’t,” he said. “On the wagon trains, a third of them died.”

The last gun he shot on this outing was the Sharps, which he loaded with 44-77 cartridges. The Sharps first came out in 1874 and was designed for buffalo hunting. It was the No. 1 buffalo gun, and the 44-77 was the No. 1 buffalo cartridge.

Not only is this gun still used, it’s still the best, LeBlanc said. The Sharps is one of the most popular competition rifles in the world.

“It hasn’t changed a bit, but if there’s a better rifle out there, I haven’t found it in 30 years of shooting” Sharps, he said.

LeBlanc likes it because it can shoot distance, it can shoot big cartridges, and it can legally be used to hunt any game in the United States. When a gun is built to shoot buffalo across the plains, it has to be accurate and pack a punch.

He has shot these same guns at this same range hundreds of times, but LeBlanc still grins and chuckles every time he hits an old plastic jug at the far end of the range with his flintlock, or picks off a .22 shell or a cigarette butt from 15 yards with his Colt single action.

“I like to play,” he said. “I think people take shooting too seriously; it’s a lot more fun to play. You should go out to relax and shoot.”

Contact Samuel J. Baldwin at samuel.baldwin@trib.com or 307-266-0524.