NMLRA Primitive Muzzleloaders
We’re stepping back in time to the early 1800’s with the fans of black powder muzzle loaders who not only shoot the old guns, they live the lifestyle of the pioneers when the “Wild West” was the territory that’s now Illinois and Tennessee. It’s a tradition now more than 80 years old, of family gatherings in Friendship, Indiana, to compete with flintlocks and percussion rifles, while preserving the history of our country from the time of Lewis and Clark.
There are dozens of matches to test competitors’ frontier survival skills. Shooting, of course, is the primary challenge, and there are lots of challenging stages of fire. On the Woodswalk, for example, roundball shooters have to cut a string, kill a wooden “snake” and split a playing card in two at 15 yards – a playing card turned on its edge. If that sounds tough there’s a very good reason. If it also sounds fun, it is that, too.
The Mountain Man course (Mountain Squaw for women) is an even greater test of frontier skill. But don’t grab your flintlock and powder horn yet. You won’t even be allowed to take your first shot, until you first pass another important test. This competition begins with flint and steel and if you can’t start a fire with those basic frontier tools, you’re out of the match before it starts.
Things only seem to get tougher from there. If you plan to claim the “Mountain Man” title you have to prove you can split a roundball by shooting the blade of an ax. Plus, you’d better brush up on your knife-throwing skills and hurling a tomahawk. Folks on the Frontier learned to use both tools for hunting and protection. And there are matches for bow and arrow. You see, no pioneer who was worth his salt could afford to waste precious black powder on small game like squirrels or turkey. Save the ammo for big game like deer.
Competition is important in this week of matches, with medals and trophies and bragging rights to win. But the competition really is friendly at Friendship and that’s the way the folks in the NMLRA like it. Shooting old guns, making friends and living the ways of the pioneers, that’s what primitive muzzle loading is all about.
And Exhibition Archer, Byron Ferguson, is trying to make things harder for himself as he shoots aerial shots with his longbow.
