North Carolina NMLRA Territorial POSTPONED

NOTICE!

The North Carolina Territorial Matches scheduled for April 16-19 2020, has to be rescheduled, possibly in September, due to compliance with our Governor in his newest directive with NC Statewide recommendations to postpone or cancel non-critical gatherings of 50 or more people to minimize the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

Please alert your friends and club members who showed interest in attending our NC Territorial. We hope to be able to reschedule it in early September, pending current progress on combating the Covid-19 virus.

Thanks.

Buck Buchanan

Match Director

North Carolina Territorial

March 23, 2020 Covid19 Update | NMLRA

In accordance with Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb’s Executive Order, the NMLRA Office will be closed as of Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 11:59pm until April 6, 2020 at 11:59 pm. Phone calls made to the office will not be answered during this time. Please see the contact page of NMLRA.org to view email addresses of NMLRA employees.

NMLRA memberships purchased or renewed through NMLRA.org will be processed remotely by NMLRA staff during this time.

Muzzle Blasts Magazine will still be produced, published, and shipped during this time.

Purchases of NMLRA books, merchandise, and targets will NOT be shipped during this shutdown period. Your orders will be processed and ship as soon as possible upon the reopening of the NMLRA offices.

NMLRA Centerfire Range Day, scheduled for April 11, 2020 has been canceled.

Visit NMLRA.org/covid19 for the latest information on how the outbreak is affecting NMLRA events.

Back Trail | Max Vickery, March 1986 | Muzzle Blasts Archives

This article was originally published in the February 1986 Issue of Muzzle Blasts Magazine. Max Vickery’s writing is some of our memberships’ all-time favorite, we thought it appropriate to share during the COVID-19 situation.

I  sometimes  wonder where  the core, the nucleus of this Association lays. In 37 years of watching I know it  hasn't been some of  us. I also know that some, the living cement, that help make our common  bond, go unnoticed. A president comes from the rank of board-member  hopefully with credits of good ideas he has put forth before the  body of fellow   members.  He is looked  at, weighed, and  29 others, either for or against, say, "Yes, we"ll trust him with thechair."

This man is then honored and has to   perform. He may answer the same question  four times in an af­ ternoon, his shooting goes  down­ hill, his time is not his own, for heis no longer himself, he is "ours." To the four of us who ask, our question is  primary. The president may not consider our questions high in the order of priorities, but he leaves his hurried lunch to give us the answer. Yet,  I don't think this man,  who ever he may be, is the blood-core of this Association. The  Board of Directors is  certainly an honored position.   And having watched it through nine administrations,  I have seen it filled with the most worthy and a few, a very few, who just came aboard . If,  first we shoot , then we camp, and then we Commercial Row, and by God, in that order. Then, a  safety­ minded, attentive range officer must be considered as a "donor" to the ef­forts of this Association.  Whoever thought up our "Range Officers School" so our overworked officers could be relieved by properly trained and  competent people is certainly to becommended.Having  always felt  that there are but four basics to a rifle match; targets sold,  targets  scored,  a range officer, and a restroom. Anything beyond this is a  fringe benefit, be it  dining  hall, drinking  water, or electric  hook up. This then brings the target desk clerks, the scoring room personnel, and  cap­ tains of the head to a more  appre­ ciated postition. We have come a  long, long way from those four basics in  the years of our being. Look at   your  maga­ zine, the office, maternally watched over for  years by our Dorm-Mother assisted by a nearly adopted daugh­ ter,  now manager, surrounded by caring sisters. I  don't  think the  you and I who hunt alone with the guns that need a ramrod  are the  blood-core  until we help another whose interest is the same as ours. I think you haveto helpsome­ one before you can enter the flow that feeds the lifeline of this Association. It is  not the champions who take the medals and not their turn at the duty. It was not the non-contributing critics that made this Association the greatest of its kind. It  was the "givers" and God bless you all. Look if you will at  a national spi­ der web of  muzzleloading. Look at pages 61-62 of your January  Blasts and  see how far the baselines of  the web now run. Know also, that these "little-shoots" are run by a handful of people who baked a ham at  home and brought it for the kitchen, made two  candle-lanterns and  gave them as prizes,  came out yesterday and mowed    the grass, and after we shooters  leave, will clean up the grounds and  lock the farmer's gate so we can meet a month from now.

The quiet people, the blood-core, the giving members, from far out  on the edge of the web, they who spill their pint that flows into  the base­ line troughs going to the center of this Association, those who work so others can shoot - the "givers.''

You who give are truly wonderful - you  have made us what we are to­day!

Max Vickery

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Talking with Dennis Priddy at NMLRA Gunmaker's Hall | 2019

We catch up with Gunmaker’s Hall Demonstrator and craftsman Dennis Priddy to talk shop about some of the muzzle loaders he brought to the NMLRA National Championships in September 2019.

Dennis has been a Gunsmith for many years now. Having always enjoyed working with his hands, he was naturally attracted to building muzzle loaders as the trade uses so many skills and disciplines.

We talk with Dennis about two of his muzzle loaders, each as ornate as the last. You would think these fine rifles spend their days locked in a safe, but the first rifle shown here is his daily driver and go-to hunting rifle!

These rifles are real works of art. To see them in person, begin planning your trip to the NMLRA Nationals soon!