NMLRA

May 2009 Spring Practice This video was produced in 2009 but was never uploaded. In doing site maintenance to www.blackpowdermag.com I found it in a different folder. Besides some shots of excellent locks, it shows some of the trials that one goes through to prepare for a video session. In preparation for the Spring Shoot with Olympus Industrial, Steve Chapman and I met Grant Ferguson on the NMLRA grounds. We set up ... Read More »

During the first weekend of the fall 2014 shoot, Bill Hoover and his friends did a demonstration of rifling a muzzle loading rifle barrel.  While Bill’s rifling machine can cut multiple grooves, today the machine was set up to cut five grooves and a progressive or gain twist.  In this set up the twist varied from 1/68” to 1/34” in a 42” barrel.  As we talked, Bill and Philip Iles worked on ... Read More »

The NMLRA’s “1 of 1000 Endowment Program” was the brain child of former president Merrill Deer. He hoped to find 1000 members who would each contribute $1000, to support the NMLRA. The funds go into a restricted endowment fund. David Wright’s painting, “The Spirit of America” will be used to support the program in a variety of ways. David Wright’s talent is widely known, especially to those of us with a passion ... Read More »

Most of us, at one time or another, have wondered what factors cause locks to produce good results. Obviously, there are considerations which we have not been able to measure and maybe can never isolate. In this article, I would like to look at some factors   Photo 1: The flint is just about to begin contact with the frizzen. Two thirds of the mechanical time is complete. which have not yet ... Read More »

Tom Schiffer has been a fixture around Friendship for many years. It’s fun to hear fellows like Tom talk about the “old days” when business was conducted out of the trunks of cars. Tom Schiffer Interview, Friendship 2006 I’m reminded of the fabled gun writer who wrote the book “Hell, I Was There”. Tom truely was there. In the interview Tom talks about his first muzzleloader and his experience firing the first ... Read More »

Dan Kindig, past president and long time Friendship attendee, discusses the old days. Dan Kindig has been a fixture for years. His booth hasn’t moved since I first came in 1977. Dan Kindig Interview from Friendship – Spring 2006   Dan was a lot of fun to speak with. His Friendship experiences go back to his visits as a young boy when his father came. He has many stories about the early days. ... Read More »

I didn’t meet the eight o’clock turtle until the 2014 Spring Shoot. He was probably there for years, but I never looked for him.  He seems to live under the bridge at the entrance to the NMLRA grounds.  I saw him first on Saturday morning at 8:00 am.  (Wait, he may be a she. I don’t know, but from here on the eight o’clock turtle will be a he. ) He was ... Read More »