The following article appeared first in the January 2020 Issue of “Muzzle Blasts Magazine”, the official magazine from the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association.

Happy New Year! It is always exciting to greet January 1st as it holds all of our dreams and expectations for the coming months. New muzzle loaders to sight in, new loads to explore, and new hopes for Longhunter adventures are just but a few of our wide-eyed hopes. And here at the NMLRA we look forward to the many opportunities to serve our membership through black powder shoots, rendezvous, educational programs, seminars, shooting and sighting in at our world class ranges, and of course our two gatherings during the national shoots. Moreover, our Muzzle Blasts staff can’t wait to bring you the best stories and columns full of muzzleloading equipment; muzzleloading rifle/pistol/shotgun building tips; history; treks; hunts; primitive camping/cooking; trips beyond Friendship and insight into the best information from our muzzle loading culture.

To improve our arrival of monthly MB magazines, we are asking our magazine writers to get their articles/photos to us a week ahead of the previous deadlines. In other words, submit your material by the 25th of two months prior to publication. This allows the USPS time to get the magazines to the members by the 1st week of the month. If you would like a new schedule for submissions, email the office and we will reply with a schedule.

Our old friend (and past editor) Eric Bye brings sage advice to this New Year Muzzle Blasts with his article “Charge!” He writes, “I just bought a dandy antique gun that needs some TLC. At home the first thing I did was remove the barrel from the stock, insert a wooden ramrod as far as it would go, mark it with a pencil at the muzzle, and lay the rod along the outside the barrel to see if it reached all the way to the breech plug face. It stopped almost an inch short, so I re-measured to confirm. Sure enough: there was something inside that barrel.” Obviously, checking the inside of a muzzleloading barrel is not as easy as with a modern gun. But there’s nothing difficult or technical about it, and this article will reinforce the wisdom of making sure there is no charge lurking inside the breech.

Clary Estes brings a heartfelt story to our souls with a story about Rifle Number 42. Growing up with the idea that a gun was equal to art work seemed odd to my peers, but in my house it was always understood. “It’s country boy art is all I can tell you,” my father, Wayne Estes, a talented gun maker in his own right, once told me, but these were no ordinary guns. These were guns that took 60–160 hours to make. They were guns that were meticulously handcrafted by artisans who had spent decades honing their craft. These guns were heavy and loud, shooting off a KA-PANG of smoke with the pull of each trigger, before needing to be cleaned and carefully reloaded with hand molded round lead bullets for their next shot. These were guns that tied men to their American ancestry. These were long rifle muzzleloaders, the guns of colonial America.

There are so many great articles in this issue that it will be hard to decide which to start with first. But if you are me, I always read from the back to the front and am never disappointed. In “Beyond Friendship,” Jim takes us to Union City, Tennessee to visit with the iconic business that gave many of us a nudge down the muzzleloading trail. Dixie Gun Works was officially started in 1954 by Turner Kirkland. He started it as a hobby to make extra money while working as a traveling jewelry salesman after World War II. He would travel from town to town visiting stores to sell jewelry but would ask about any antique guns and gun parts. He bought sold and traded antique muzzle loading gun parts and his car trunk until it became full. He placed a small ad in Muzzle Blasts magazine in October of 1948. He placed a three inch ad at the cost of $3.50; he would make $16 from the orders and his wage as a salesman at the time was $20.00 a week. From there Turner Kirkland’s business would grow and continues to grow until his death on July 26, 1997. Dixie Gun Works has an over 600 page catalog which is loaded with a lot of information. The catalog isn’t just about what is for sale, but it also has a large section with reference tables covering service loads of muzzle loading rifles to muzzle loading cannons; weights and measure tables, including drams to grains to ounces. I always make sure I have a Dixie catalog at my desk.

And if your imagination hasn’t run wild yet, you need to pay attention to Bob Copner’s “The Campaign Horns of Copner!” Yes, this is our Bob Copner who serves as our 1 of 1000 Endowment Fund Chairman. Bob has put together a memorable article detailing how campaign horns had another place in the history of American campaign powder horns . . . in Vietnam!

Bill Carter, Editor of the HCH Horn Book, has given us permission to reprint The Campaign Horns of Copner following the American tradition as it is dedicated to the men and women who have served, or are serving honorably in the Armed Services of The United States of America, especially those who were wounded or WHO gave their lives for their country. The intent of this article is to document that the long- standing American tradition of creating a powder horn, while serving in the military in time of war, was continued in the 20th Century. Copner is quoted, “On July 25, 2009, the powder horn that I made and scrimshawed in 1972, at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base (RTAFB), Thailand, while flying a combat tour with the United States Air Force, was awarded the Madison Grant Award at the 2009 Gunmakers’ Fair at Dixon’s.”

Keep yer powder dry!

Dave Ehrig