If you never been to Friendship, IN during the National Match, you have got to at least once in your life. Friendship is the HQ of the NMLRA and they maintain a huge range: The Walter Cline range. Blackpowder shooters tend to be the most fun loving and friendly of any group of shooters I have met. Imagine meeting them by the hundreds along with all the sutlers.
They also host an annual gun building workshop in Bowling Green, KY. This year was my first time and I had a blast. Met some of the most prominent rifle builders in this country including Wallace Gustler, Hershel & John House, Ron Ehlert, Gary Brumfield, Mark Silver, Jim Chambers, Jack Brooks, etc. All nice fellows and more than happy to share knowledge, experience and insights. All of them are very active in the NMLRA.
The official publication of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association is its monthly magazine, Muzzle Blasts. A typical issue will include articles on wilderness trekking, recipes (for the 17-18th century palate), backwoods trips by contemporary long hunters (including John Curry), a technical and historical answer column, noted writer and publisher George Shumway's monthly feature: Longrifles of Note where Shumway has a photographic presentation of an antique long gun - Muzzle Blasts' "centerfold" feature, how to articles on long rifle construction, historical articles, articles on contemporary subjects (repro locks, barrel mfg, wood work, etc.) and finally, historical articles (loved the one on Capt. Baker of VT). Oh, only the cover is color and the rest of the photos are b/w. This month's cover is entitled, "Tender Fortress" and features a 17-18th cent. expectant mother standing in a forest clearing, her little daughter clinging to her side. Naturally, the mother carries a rifle and appears very much at ease with it as she gazes into the distant woods. You'd think the artist, Lee Teter, learned alongside our own Oleg Volk.
Do I enjoy it? Of the magazines I subscribe to right now, it's the one I look forward to the most.
BTW, I don't have buckskins but plan to make some soon. The more I get into this stuff, the more I love it. And Daniel Boone never wore a coonskin cap either. That's Disney stuff and real frontiersmen considered such rude headgear the mark of the uncivilized Indian. Boone, like his contemporaries, wore felt hats. Now, the Fur Trade era trappers thought differently and adopted many Indian ways.
