by James C. Fulmer | Past President, NMLRA
If you live anywhere near Nashville, TN, come visit the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association’s booth at the 144th National Rifle Association Annual Meetings and Events on April 10 -12.
The NMLRA has been attending the NRA’s annual event over the years to bring awareness of our organization to as many shooters as possible. It is always amazing to me how many NRA members hunt with muzzleloaders. This year the NMLRA’s booth (#2600) is located near the main entrance of the Music City Center, just take a right as you enter and walk the outside aisle. If you pass the “Cold Steel” booth you went too far—but be sure to check out their tomahawks and throwing knives.
To enter the Music City Center you must be an NRA member. NRA members and their immediate family get in free. If you are not a member, you are required to join. We will also be selling memberships to the NMLRA at our booth, so if you need to renew or would like to join for the first time we can help you out.
The NRA for many years has been the premiere shooting organization in the USA, hosting some of the finest competitions in the country. The NRA has also become well known for their “Friends of NRA” banquets, where funds are raised to help the shooting sports at the local level.
Left to right: Author, world-class pistol shooter Doug Koenig, and NMLRA President Rebecca Waterman.
When the NRA chose to step up and hold the “NRA Great American Outdoor Show” at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex at Harrisburg, PA, two years ago, it was destined to be a success. The largest sports and outdoor show in the world was held at the complex since 1955. It was cancelled in 2013 and the NRA has hosted the show since 2014. I thought the 2014 Great American Outdoor Show was a great success and this past February the 2015 show was even better. It seems to me, the NMLRA started having a booth at the Harrisburg show over 35 years ago. But I believe that the last two years have been the best.
It takes many people working together to make the Harrisburg show happen. President Mary Smith and Vice-President Sharon Altland from the Hershey/Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau worked hard to keep this event here at the 650,000 square feet exhibit halls at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. My hat’s off to them and the undertaking. But the NRA took a risk and boldly kept the show going under the name of “The Great American Outdoor Show” which you will see in print many places as “GAOS.”
Jeffery Poole, the NRA Managing Director of the Shows and Exhibits Division, runs the show and does it well. I was telling him thanks from the NMLRA for how well we are treated as exhibitors and all the changes I saw for the good while exhibiting and attending the show. He made a simple statement, “Jim, the NRA made up their mind that they would treat the exhibitors the way they wanted to be treated.” That said a lot to me.
The show was a terrific success for the NMLRA. NMLRA President Rebecca Waterman was there the first five days helping to sell memberships, and meeting and greeting the public. During the show there was a 38-pound flint bench gun and an exact copy of a Berks County Christian Derr flintlock longrifle made in .40 caliber, like the original, that was built in 1822.
TV star Jesse James was attending the show greeting fans and signing autographs. He stopped by the NMLRA booth and joined the association. He is known for manufacturing custom motorcycles on his show “West Coast Choppers.” Now he is one of our newest members! He stated, “I have been really lucky in life to be able to follow my passion of creating things with my hands. I’m now building handmade firearms, and it feels like this is my real calling.”
He continued, “Being able to do what I love and support my family is what the American Dream is all about. These freedoms are one of the most valuable things in my life.”
It is people from all walks of life who join the NMLRA—like Kevin Yohn and his son Jake. Their love of the Pennsylvania muzzleloading season got them interested in the old-style firearms. Now they want to learn more and Muzzle Blasts, the monthly publication of the NMLRA, is one of the best ways to learn more about muzzleloading and its history.
The NRA had many other celebrities at the show including shooting legend Doug Koenig. He gave demonstrations on a shooting simulator and taught some of his secrets in a program called “Shoot Like a Pro.” Doug has been a professional competitor for 25 years, winning the Bianchi Cup 15 times, World Action Pistol ten times, Sportsman Team Challenge 19 times, Master International 21 times, and the European Bianchi Cup five times. He hosts his own show “Doug Koenig Championship Season” on both the Pursuit and Sportsman Channels airing 52 weeks a year.
When I got a phone call asking if I would be interested in interviewing Doug for a magazines article at the show about a successful muzzleloading black bear hunt in New Jersey, I said, “Sure, why not?” I found out Doug has a gift for shooting and comes by a lot of his skills naturally, but to take it to the level he has, he practices at least three days a week. I learned he lives less than 20 miles from my house and shoots on many of the same ranges I do. The difference is that I am there during the muzzleloading events and he is there for the modern pistol events. He gets his mail in Hamburg like me, but he never heard of me and I never knew that Doug Koenig, who won all those Bianchi Cup matches, was even from Pennsylvania, let alone the Hamburg area.
Doug shot a black bear during the 2014 New Jersey bear season. He shot the bruin with a .50 caliber Thompson Center Pro-hunter. Being limited on time, it was only going to be a one day hunt. It had been snowing all day and it was getting towards the end of the day when a nice bear came into view. He successfully made the 60-yard shot on the estimated 350 pound bear. Doug has also taken a mule deer with his muzzleloader.
The part I find so interesting about all of this is what my reaction was to this world-class modern shooter hunting with a muzzleloader; I was genuinely surprised. I guess I shouldn’t be because I’m always surprised by the reaction I get when I tell people I shoot high power matches with my M-1 Garand and shoot 3-gun matches with an FNH Scar rifle. What I have learned over the years is the love of shooting. If the youth of our country grow up shooting—BB guns, air rifles, .22s, muzzleloaders, or any firearm for that matter—they develop a love for shooting, and the more that people love the shooting sports, the more they are exposed to the freedom of America.
