Written by Doug Zaffino

Hello once again everyone. This month I will proudly present to you the Sonoma Valley Muzzleloaders, an NMLRA Charter Club. 

I encourage any and all Charter Clubs to take advantage of the opportunity to be featured in Muzzle Blasts. There have been many requests to hear of other clubs and how each is operated. Some of our best lessons are your articles. Don’t forget an article puts your club in the lime light of over ten thousand enthusiasts all for the low cost of (FREE). So here goes and enjoy.   

The Sonoma Valley Muzzle Loaders (SVML) was formed 47 years ago as a non-profit, mutual benefit corporation.  It is a social and living history club focused on recreation and educating members and the public about the living and camping skills necessary to survive during the 1750-1840 era.

We’re fortunate to have a member who is a direct descendant of Joel Walker and nephew of Joel’s younger brother Joseph.  Joe and Joel fought with Andrew Jackson and were at the vanguard of America’s westering phase for 50 years. Our member’s knowledge of the Walker brothers’ wanderings and interactions with the key figures of the Fur Trade period along with their journals and letters make the history of the opening of the west come alive. 

For the first years of our existence, we met at several different commercial ranges in Sonoma County CA.  After about 20 years, we found our home.  For the past several decades we’ve been fortunate enough to meet monthly on a spectacular, 100 plus-year-old ranch nestled in a coastal range valley in southern Mendocino County.  We meet here monthly to enjoy the vistas, get caught up on one another’s lives, and compete.  

Even though we’re a small club, we’re blessed with some of the finest marksmen and women in the northern California region.  Setting the bar high benefits all of us. It is on ‘the ranch’ where we hold our annual spring and fall rendezvous.  The spring event is open to the public and the fall event is by invitation only and usually includes a scenario-based survival Trek where teams compete against one another and the clock.

We are obviously open to new members.  In particular, we’re looking for members who are excellent marksmen and who enjoy applying their professional skills to outdoor projects as we make ourselves available to the ranch owner to help with projects on the property.  Our current membership focus is on the law enforcement, fire and first responder communities in our area.  The men and women in these organizations bring valuable safety and professional skills to the club.  

Our operations are all conducted on a volunteer basis.  This means we rely on members to be at the ranch for work, setup, and teardown days.  These are normally scheduled for weekend days in order to facilitate attendance.

If you should find yourself in northern California and want to stop by the ranch and check out our club, by all means get in touch with us.  

We’d love to meet you.  If you prefer digital contact, you can find us at www.sonomavalleymuzzleloaders.blogspot.com and on Facebook.