National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association (NMLRA)

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Most shooters I talk to at the club have never thought much about muzzleloaders past "that's the stuff they used at Rendezvous." The NMLRA has been quietly running since 1933 — which, to put that in perspective, is before most of the centerfire cartridges we argue about daily even existed in their current form.

The founders recognized that without an organized effort, the skills, techniques, and historical knowledge surrounding these firearms would disappear with the generation that still remembered them.

That's not a small thing. Traditional longrifle building, patching and loading technique, black powder casting — these are genuinely perishable skills. Once the people who learned them from people who used them are gone, you're working backwards from books. The Gunsmith Seminar they run sounds like exactly the kind of hands-on transfer that actually works.

For anyone who shoots black powder with any regularity, this adds up.

The bulk black powder pricing alone is worth paying attention to if you're shooting black powder with any frequency. We've all had that conversation at the LGS counter about powder prices — bulk program pricing negotiated directly with manufacturers is a real benefit, not just a membership brochure filler item.

Members can bring a child, grandchild, or new shooter to the bench where a qualified instructor walks them through safely loading and firing a muzzleloader at no cost.

Low-pressure, no-cost, instructor-led — that's a better new shooter onramp than most clubs offer for any discipline. Putting a kid behind a muzzleloader is also a genuinely different experience than a .22 range day, and it tends to stick with people.

For those of you who've shot black powder — whether it's a flintlock, a percussion cap rifle, or a inline during deer season — what got you into it, and do you still run it alongside your modern stuff?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By The Boise Gun Club Team