June 2015 – Message from the Guildmaster

I was an early reader after the third grade and liked historical stories of James Fenimore Cooper and battles in the American Revolution using flintlock muskets and rifles.  It took me years to find out how the flintlock mechanism worked.  The dictionary and encyclopedias were of no help.  I was too young to subscribe to a magazine, so my father got the  American Rifleman by getting a membership for me in the National Rifle Association.  I wanted any information I could get about flintlock muzzleloading guns and that magazine usually had one article pertaining to black powder per issue.  By the 1950-1960’s my interests in guns had been eclipsed by a tour in the Navy and and interest in things that were fast and loud on the water as well as the street.

By the 70’s with my growing family to feed, a few racing mishaps, and limited disposable income, the relatively inexpensive attraction to muzzleloader’s surged to the front.  I found out about the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association, unknown in my youth, and immediately joined.  Holy smokes this was just what I always had wanted when I was a kid.  Muzzle Blasts magazine was just about black powder guns.  And I subscribed to second issue of Muzzleloader Magazine in 1974 and life was good.  Two sources of great information all about black powder guns at least once a month.

The youngsters reading this surrounded by electronic fingertip information from forums, and chat rooms on their smart phones having a monthly information source seems surely “old school,” and it is.  Belonging to old school NMLRA, with membership was as important as having a paper driver’s license if you drove.  I am astonished to find that some contemporary muzzleloading enthusiasts do not belong to the NMLRA. The NMLRA is the group most interested in protecting our specific gun rights so the laws like having a .50 caliber gun are not made illegal by ignorant legislators, not knowing what “.50 caliber” means.

The Horn Guild’s very own Billy Griner has a very informative article published in the June 2015 edition of  Muzzle Blasts (the official publication of the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association), Hunting Horns: Their History and Talk.  Our Guild has a working relationship of support, through the efforts of our own Horn Book editor Bill Carter to help provide some material to Muzzle Blasts about the historical time period in America we all love. I urge you to protect the cause of historical arms use by joining the NMLRA right after you join us, the Honourable Company of Horners. Here is a link to the membership page on the NMLRA’s website.

Speaking of membership, we have some folks that need to renew their Horn Guild membership for this year (2015). Not re-uping may cost you receipt of the Summer edition of The Horn Book and I know Editor Bill Carter and the Albrechts, responsible for this great source of education and entertainment have a big fat issue now in the works.  Do yourself a favor and follow this link to re-new today to help the Guild to keep on truckin’.

See ya at Dixon’s.
Dick Toone Guildmaster