By James C. Fulmer | Past President, NMLRA
“You can’t step into the same river twice.”
—Heraclitus (c.535-c.475 BC)
Score of a 50 shot on running groundhog
It wasn’t until this spring that I finally got a better understanding of what Heraclitus wrote. I attended the Pennsylvania Federation of Black Powder Shooters’ (PFBPS) Annual Banquet this year held at Blair County Fish and Forestry Association’s club house on March 25. The annual PFBPS banquet, like their annual shoot, moves from place to place around the state hosted by different charter clubs. The PFBPS is the Pennsylvania’ association of clubs and individuals who are interested in black powder firearms. They put out a Federation Calendar of shooting events, as well as the quarterly Cap & Flint newsletter. There are 29 muzzleloading clubs listed in the federation book for this year.
The last two years Blair County Fish and Forestry has held a muzzleloading shoot before the PFBPS annual meeting. The muzzleloading part of the event was put on in Blair County by a club called the Tuckahoe Valley Militia. They were a charter club of the PFBPS and a charter club of the NMLRA. Due to an aging membership and the lack of volunteers, no shoots have been scheduled for the last few years through the Tuckahoe Valley Militia. Don Blazier, who is the NMLRA Region 2 (Eastern) Field Rep Coordinator, is also the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Blair County Club and has been keeping muzzleloading alive by helping run other muzzleloading events at their facility.
The 2017 Spring Interstate Team Shoot will be held at Blair County Fish and Forestry on May 13, 2017. This is a shoot that the Pennsylvania Company of Riflemen Flintlock Team hosts at the range. The flintlock rifle team was founded in 1963. Blazier was also captain of the team for many years and has shot on the team since 1983. Of the nine-person Board of Directors of the PFBPS, eight have shot on the Pennsylvania Company of riflemen Flintlock Team. The current Secretary of PFBPS, Vickie Zeigler, is the current team captain. So when the shoot was held just before the PFBPS’ annual meeting it was only natural many people who shoot for the Pennsylvania Flintlock Team would attend the shoot.
Author’s new .32 cal. rifle with old trophies won when he was State Team Captain.
I decided to attend the banquet and shoot for many reasons, one I wanted to support the state association. Also my wife Linda wanted to visit with our grandchildren Lucas and Benjamin who also live in the area (Blazier is my son Curt’s father-in-law). So I packed up my .32 cal. flint squirrel rifle that Buddy Townsend had built for me using one of Charlie Burton’s barrels. I learned a long time ago all barrels shoot different, but you can make them all shoot pretty good if you put in some work. For this .32 cal. rifle all I did was load #0 Buck Shot and .020 greased patch and change powder charges ranging from 15grFFFg to 45grFFFg by 5gr increments and discovered it liked 30grFFFg the best. It never did great, but it did shoot a lot of October squirrels with that load and it would do well enough to take it to a November shoot at Blue Mountain Muzzle Loaders. There is a big difference between putting a squirrel in the pot and beating the shooters at Blue Mountain to win a frozen turkey. Two years in a row I would go back to the car after a few targets and get my .40 cal. flint target rifle out and try and squeak a win for a turkey.
So this spring I took the .32 cal., kept the same #0 Buck which is .320 diameter and the 30grFFFg, but tried some .010 Teflon patch that was left over from a try I had with one of my bench guns. I arrived to the shoot a little late, so I just bought one of every 25 yard target that they had for sale. First target was the small Haffner buffalo; with no practice I shot a score of 45, which was 3 tens a seven and an eight — not too bad. I wiped between every shot. Then I shot two 50’s back to back on the running ground hog and the slug gun target. I also shot a 47 on the crow. All great targets for me and the little .32 cal.! It would give me two firsts and a second that day which translated to two hams and a ring of smoked sausage.
But what happened next needs to happen to all of the old guys out there everywhere. A fellow in his late 20s says to me, “Hey mister you shot pretty good with that little flintlock. Did you ever think about trying out for the Pennsylvania Flintlock Team?” We talked for a while and we finally figured out I stopped being Pennsylvania Flintlock Team captain two years before he was born!
Wow, it seems like yesterday. I was picking team members up in my new 1985 Ford window van and driving to Kentucky to shoot. I was team captain for the 25th Anniversary in 1988 of the Flintlock Interstate Shoot. But it was Don Blazier who was team Captain for the 50th Anniversary shoot in 2012. Was it not just yesterday I was reading Max Vickery articles in Muzzle Blasts magazine? Who was Max? He is the man who wrote the back page before I did; he was the one who wrote back to me when I was a 14-year-old asking about the advantages of a .36 cal. over a .32 cal. for small game hunting.
Crow target shot with # 0 Buck Shot, with a .010 Teflon patch and 30gr FFFg Olde Eynsford Black Powder.
That night at the banquet I started taking a hard look around at the new board members of the PFBPS and also thought about the new directors of the NMLRA. Some of them are the same age as I was when I served 30 years ago. We need these young people, when I see them serving in positions on the Board of Directors, I see a future for our sport.
There is a book called “Race for Relevance,” written by Harrison Coerver and Mary Byers. It’s a good read about what associations are facing today. I recommend anybody that is working with any type of association read this book. The title gives it away. Until we get the younger volunteers to come out and bring their expertise with the Internet and the advance of technology which is affecting our sport, we are not even in the race. The world is at our fingertips with the new smart phones that can search for everything including where there is a muzzleloading shoot, a living history event, or a rendezvous in a 100-mile radius or searching Google to see which state has the most squirrels, etc.
I know Heraclitus’ notion about rivers goes much deeper than my superficial interpretation. But rivers do change every moment. You truly “cannot step in the same river twice” as he put it. The world, like the river, has been busy changing right in front of our eyes. We have come to the point where our association needs people who can keep pace with the changes and win the “Race for Relevance.”
