by James C. Fulmer | Past President, NMLRA
Left, John Breen, winner of the Ephraim Brank Match, and Don Blazier, the winner of the Tim Murphy match
Rendezvousing, muzzleloading target shooting, and living history events all have one thing in common for me: “Friendship.” Where muzzleloaders gather and do these various events all over the country is where I have made some of my best friendships, and this last year was no different.
From the very first event I did, “The Kalamazoo Living History Show” (which next year is March 18-19, 2017), to the last event I went to, a turkey shoot in October, it was a solid year of making new friends and visiting with old friends across a good bit of the country. From small events, such as a club shoot, to a national rendezvous like the Eastern Primitive Rendezvous, it is all about “Friendship.”
All these events revolve around muzzleloading to one degree or another and are places where you can renew a spirit of kinship based around the use of muzzleloaders. You can read about it in magazines, watch Youtube videos (“and there are some great ones out there”), look at Facebook, do all the social-media things, but you’ve got to experience it yourself on site and in person. I’m not talking about watching people through forums, Youtube, blogs, websites, or Facebook. All of that is fine for passing time over a long winter; after all, social media is a great way to keep in touch with your friends, to learn about new events, or watch the old ones you’ve visited. Truth is computers are great with information about everything you want to learn about history, rendezvous, shooting, and events. But, alas, computers are just two dimensional; unless you attend events you will never truly experience and live the event.
At these events, when you go year after year, you may make your way up some dusty road to the same site you and will see some of the same people you saw the year before, but sometimes it’s the start of a great new “Friendship.” When you go into an event for the first time it’s all new and you’ll meet many interesting people. You see some you have known for years, and will recognize some you may know by sight but have never really met, and many a time it is here where you will meet and make new “Friendships.”
“I find friendship like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial.” —Thomas Jefferson in a letter to
Benjamin Rush, August 17, 1811
I remember when Jack Gara and I showed up at the Ft. McCord Rendezvous almost 30 years ago in Pennsylvania. We didn’t know anybody there, but we had seen each other and talked for years at Blue Ridge Rifles on the firing line. We shot together and camped together all weekend and I always remember him saying to me, “I am very surprised; I always thought you where a stick in the mud serious shooter, you are all right by the end of the second day of the event.” Jack and I shot together for years afterwards and became good friends.
Some of my friends are just good acquaintances, some truly great friends. I made new friends this year as the Captain of the Camp at the NMLRA 18th Century Rifle Frolic at Fort Roberdeau. I invited people all year long to attend the end of the year event on Columbus Day weekend in October near Altoona, PA. At the NRLHF Eastern, I met Rev. and Nane, owners of Shea’s Mt. Otters. They are from Oregon and where traveling across country heading for a wedding at the Southeastern Primitive Rendezvous when I ran into them in Pennsylvania. They asked me about any events in between that they could go to and set up their store as they had about two weeks to kill between the events. I said sure the 18th Century Market Faire and Rifle Frolic would be a perfect place. They attended the event and had, I believe, a great time and made new friends and memories they can take home to Oregon.
This was the fourth year for the Ft. Roberdeau event and it is continually growing. The numbers have been great. This year we had 98 registered shooters and only 102 total people in the shooting camp. Only four people were just campers—it has truly become a shooters’ rendezvous.
Michael Beliveau is one of those guys I have seen around at the event and he makes a video he puts on Youtube every year since the event started. This year was no exception. Check the video out at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMe3IKigyJk. This year Mike won the grand prize of a .54 cal. flintlock longrifle made by Marion Townsend of Muncy, IN. The barrel was rifled on the NMLRA’s Ron Greene rifling machine all year long at many different events. Ft Roberdeau was the last place this .54 cal. barrel was rifled at two years before, so it was a fitting place to have the drawing at the event. You can see the rifle in his video and see some of the Market Faire and shooting.
This event is for the most experienced shooter to the just beginning novice. Novices are very much welcomed. Why? We all were novices once and unless we have a place where people can learn from experienced shooters, our shooting sport just won’t grow. Dave Plummer is a great example, the first year he showed up walking through the woods carrying his guitar because he lived next door to the range and heard music. He is a great guitar player and singer. He had a Thompson Center flintlock Hawken he hunted with and everybody convinced him to bring it back the next day and shoot it. He did and has been coming back every year. This year he showed up in full primitive attire with a flintlock longrifle! It’s great to meet and help newcomers out.
Paul Kubich, left, and Scott Illsley, center, standing on one of the paper ranges between relays.
There was a lot of terrific shooting at the Rifle Frolic; there were different types of shoots this year from the banshee shoot to the Lt. Ephraim Mclean Brank and Tim Murphy matches. The Tim Murphy match is fired from a standing rest to recreate the shot that he made at the Battle of Saratoga. The match is three shots at 280 yards. How the match works is it’s the best out of five and every year as it is won the winner’s name goes on a Philadelphia screw-tip powder horn made by Art DeCamp. Don Blaizer from Pennsylvania won three years in a row shooting all hits every year and shooting great tie breaker targets as well. So with only 12 shots he won a beautiful powder horn. This year Don was also made NMLRA Field Representative of the year. So congratulations Don!
The Lt. Ephraim Brank match recreates Brank’s famous shooting at the Battle of New Orleans. It is said he fired at British staff officers during the assault and hit every time. His first shot was at 260 yards, the second shot 200 yards, the third shot at 140 yards, and the fourth shot was at 80 yards. All shots where standing, firing offhand with his flintlock longrifle. John Breen won this match. Roland Cadle made a fine prize powder horn and unlike the Tim Murphy match, there is no clear winner yet. If nobody gets three wins on the horn all the names that appear on the horn will be placed in a hat and the winner will be drawn.
Many thanks go to Art and Roland for their donations of these powder horns. A thank you also goes out to all the people who donated prizes; watch in NMLRA’s Muzzle Blasts magazine for a complete list of donors for this shoot. Without donors it couldn’t happen. Many thanks!
Also a thank you goes out to Mike Eder and his mom Anne who brought their store, Flintlocks LLC, all the way from Indiana. Their huge marquee tent added to commercial row with tons of gun parts and shooting supplies. Any endeavor I’ve ever tried to do for the NMLRA, Mike has supported, so thanks again Mike and Anne! And, by the way, Anne also won the Woman’s paper match.
Again thanks to all of my friends who helped make this event happen and all my old and new friends who attended. See you again next year.
