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Scoring Shed
One of the new efforts at Muzzle Blasts this year is an effort to
focus on the families at Friendship. Many families are in their
3rd and 4th generations as they travel across the continent
to visit with old friends, share stories, celebrate births,
graduations, weddings and changes in home, work and life.
But the key ingredient in all of this is the story of “friendship”
in Friendship. Lonnie Vermillion was brave enough to be the
first in sharing a vignette of a storied gentleman by the name
of Jack McDonald . . . and we at MB are looking forward to
yours.
Do you find yourself stuck in the cabin going crazy during
the shortest month of the year? Well, we have a February
magazine issue that will get you out of your blue funk. Get
out of your chair, stir the wood fire, and get ready to do
something fun. For the Friendship Stitchers in your family,
Mickie Rader is presenting a host of quilt blocks for your
creative moments to complete. Did you know that a good
quilt in the 18th Century costs as much to buy as a fine
longrifle and was equally cherished by ancestors?
For those who like to create functional reproductions, be
sure to read and take notes on Bob Woodfill’s feature on
“John Brown’s Hawken Rifle.” Bob not only gives the reader
a fascinating historical look at an 1845 J&S Full-Stocked
Hawken Rifle, he details the equipment and materials needed
to create your own. Woodfill states, “An original full-stocked
rifle stamped J&S Hawken St. Louis is displayed in the LDS
Church History Museum on Temple Square in Salt Lake City,
UT. This rifle didn’t belong to a mountain man, but rather to
John Brown, a Mormon pioneer. What is so interesting about
this rifle is that it has a documented purchase date of March
24, 1845 in St. Louis. We can therefore see an example of
what a full-stocked rifle built by the Hawken Shop in the
mid-1840s looked like!”
Fred Stutzenberger continues his “Getting the Blues . . . and
Browns Part II: The Chemical Connection” by stating “Left
to their own devices, sweaty hands, high humidity, powder
residue and salt air will all eventually work their magic in
turning the gleaming surface of bare metal to a darkened state
of oxidation . . . Bluing and browning solutions hasten this
process and allow us to control the rates of formation and the
products of these reactions.” And if you are a builder, nothing
makes a Hawken or American Longrifle more beautiful than
a blued or browned barrel, lock and hardware for such little
time invested.
If you are a Longhunter and are still on the trail of critters
with a smoothbore, than Jim Swanson can save you a bunch
of time and money shopping for shotgun wads with a DIY
approach. Swanson’s effort is an interesting approach to doing
it yourself! He writes, “I tried to make shotgun wads out of
wine bottle corks, but discovered they were the wrong size,
and beside I could not drink enough wine to create a steady
supply of shotgun wads. So I went to the local hardware store
and wandered around aimlessly looking for ideas. I decided
that with some modifications a hole saw should make a
passable wad cutter. So pay attention and
gear up for the all-too-soon spring turkey
season like Jim did.
For those who love to surf the internet looking for
muzzleloading sites to open up new worlds of information,
don’t overlook Alan Garbers’ “Web Blasts.” He does all of
the hard work on staying on top of the sites that benefit the
muzzleloading culture. I was particularly interested in his first
site that detailed how to avoid fraud in purchasing historic
firearms. Many of us personally know that this information
could have saved a lot of heartache for friends who thought
they found a huge deal on historical arms.
Finally, make sure that you check out Ethan Yazel’s new
NMLRA sites in this and future Muzzle Blasts magazines:
The "Muzzle Blasts" Podcast - NMLRA.org/podcast
The Official NMLRA youtube Channel -
We are also now on instagram -
https://www.instagram.com/muzzleblasts/
There is a media hub on the website that links to all of these -
February rocks with flint and steel and so do Muzzle Blasts!
-Dave Ehrig
Muzzle Blasts Editor