Muzzle Blasts Archives

By God they made it | The 50th Anniversary of a canoe expedition of the Ohio River from Pittsburg, PA to Friendship, Indiana

By God they made it | The 50th Anniversary of a canoe expedition of the Ohio River from Pittsburg, PA to Friendship, Indiana

The following is an actual ac­count of the three men, Ed Keney, Tom Grant, and Gordon Byrd who set out from Pittsburg, Pa., in an eighteen-foot canoe and pad­dled 525 miles in 15 days, to the Walter Cline Range at Friendship, Ind.

Pipes and Tobacco of the Frontier | Muzzle Blasts Archives 1986

Many times (I should imagine), you’ve seen me mention the amazing, history rich, Falls of the Cumberland in some article or another. At nearly seventy feet high and more than two hundred feet in width – the second largest, single drop waterfalls east of the Mississippi

On Creating a Muzzle Loading Target Pistol | W.A Carver | Muzzle Blasts Archives

We have considered a variety of pistols whereby one might engage in serious pistoling with black powder and 1·ound ball. You have now, perhaps, a good black powder revolver and a single shot pistol such as a Thompson-Center Patriot Pis­tol or a Kentucky style pistol made from a kit.

"It's Important that somebody remembers" | The Story of the Liberty Cap | Muzzle Blasts Archives

"It's Important that somebody remembers" | The Story of the Liberty Cap | Muzzle Blasts Archives

Of all of the interesting headgear associated with the American Revolution, one of the simplest forms, so simple in fact that no regular Continental units ever adopted it as an official hat, was the "Liberty Cap." During the Revolution this was generally a wool or cotton cap with the word Liberty or Liberty or Death em­broidered across its front in an opposing color. A few battalion infantry and numerous light in­fantry units wore miters with this legend emblazoned across their fronts (Congress being an­other legend), light infantry mi­ters sometimes saying Liberty or with a skull and cross bones re­placing Death, the words requir­ing more room than the shorter light infantry miter could af­ford, the skull and crossbones being more easily squeezed into the space.

Fire by Flint and Steel | John A. Swett | Muzzle Blasts Archives

Dim shapes in the swirling snow slowly materialized into a small party of men, wrapped voluminously against the wea­ther in furs and capotes. Mov­ing slowly downhilL through winter b arren woods, they reached the floor at the upper end of a small valley. They crossed a frozen stream and climbed to the flat top of a knoll where each one eased his burden to the ground.

Thoughts on building a Single Shot Muzzle Loading Pistol | W.A Carver | Muzzle Blasts Archives

Having given some thought to the advantages and loading of a single shot pistol, some con­siderations on the building of such a pistol seem in order. Per­haps two approaches to the sub­ject would be useful, building a pistol from a kit, keeping in mind what would make the fin­ished piece suitable to serious shooting, and building a pistol which is altogether a target pis­tol.

An All Around Gun | Building a Swivel Breech | Muzzle Blasts Archives

The idea for this gun came to me on a deer hunting trip in November 1985, while canoeing down the flooded Muscata­tuck River in southern Indiana in pursuit of whitetail. I had seen several does, but no bucks. It seemed, however, that in every other tree there was a squirrel. Normally, our gray and fox squirrels are very shy, but a week of being trapped by floodwaters had made them careless.

Flint Hammers, the Golden Mean and More.

This article appeared first in the November Issue of Muzzle Blasts Magazine in 1979. NMLRA Members can read this and every other article ever published. Sign up today

The Craft and Art of Gary Birch | Muzzle Blasts Archives

Gary Birch is a self-taught artist whose works appear in private and museum collections around the country. Leaving a Ph.D. Program in physiological psychology in 1969, Gary began making things with his hands “to work on ideas that had been neglected too long.” Consequently, he has created scores of one-of-a-kind art objects in a variety of media

Opportunities and Experiences that Muzzle Loading has Given Me | Women in Muzzle Loading

I started off with a tiny little flintlock that was stocked from sassafras wood so that it was lighter and I could hold it. I then had another gun that was able to switch from a flintlock to percussion ignition. I shot flint for a long time and now my current gun is a .40 caliber percussion.

Over the Falls by John Curry | Muzzle Blasts Except April 2020

Many times (I should imagine), you’ve seen me mention the amazing, history rich, Falls of the Cumberland in some article or another. At nearly seventy feet high and more than two hundred feet in width – the second largest, single drop waterfalls east of the Mississippi

Pistol Marksmanship | Part 2 | Muzzle Blasts Archives

It is exceedingly difficult to explain what there is about pistol shooting, the sport of handgunning, that is so com­pelling as to cause it to occupy so much a part of my time, effort and thought. Can it be the diversity and challenge the sport offers? What is it that prompts one to persist­ ently try to better that last score, to shoot that "possible" or to look forward to that legendary perfect score, the 100-l0x?

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

If it wasn't for memories I don't know just how I'd get through Feb­ ruary. It's a cold, dead month for me with the seasons gone and 30 to 45 days of waiting until you can get the van in on a local range without getting stuck. All guns have been cleaned, some of them twice, you've run the corn and feed out to three different snow-drifted, squirrel woods, and are happy with the snowshoes you got for Christmas.

Pistol Marksmanship | Muzzle Blasts Archives

There is nothing so disturbing, when shooting a hand­ gun, as missing the object one is aiming at. In contrast it is quite gratifying to hit the intended mark. This isn't just luck. It signifies an application of at least a few of the ba­ sic fundamentals of pistol marksmanship