• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

MuzzleBlasts Magazine

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Zonie

Moderator Emeritus In Remembrance
MLF Supporter
Joined
Oct 4, 2003
Messages
33,410
Reaction score
8,519
Location
Phoenix, AZ
I think we have enough new members here that I should mention the MuzzleBlasts Magazine.

This is the official publication of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association (NMLRA).
The magazine comes as one of the benifits of being a member, and the current membership fee is $40.00.
The NMLRA holds shooting contests all over the country and has representitives in every state to help form clubs, hold shoots and provide information.

The MuzzleBlasts magazine deals only with muzzleloaders and has a number of articles which may interest you.
There are articles about rifles, pistols, history, re-enacting, shooting competition, old time food, cloths, hunting, making things like powder horns etc..
There are some of our members who have a dislike for the NMLRA based on their acceptance of those NewFangled gun things, however, during the last years magazine coverage, I would say it's about 97% Traditional. It's almost like they are listening to some of the unhappy Traditional folks and moving their magazine back in that direction.
The latest issue does have an ad for Goex Pinnacle powder but that's about it for the new stuff. Lots of ads for the old time stuff including folks who make and sell kits for rifles.

Yes, they still recognize the NewFangled things in their Hunting section but for the most part, the rest of the magazine pretty much ignores them.

All in all, I give the NMLRA and its magazine two thumbs up. :) :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
I AGREE! MB is a great magazine! well worth the $40.... unfortunately it don't stop at $40...this months has a pretty interesting article on how the early boys cleaned they're[url] guns..seein[/url] a big run on primitive worms comin..really like the flax idea..guess this is gonna cost me.. gosh I love this sport! RC :thumbsup:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Good timing, I was online a few days ago looking at possibley ordering that magazine. I'm sure i'm wrong, but it appeared they do a lot of flintlock stuff.
Do they cover percussion rifles? Civil war rifles and pistols? Thanks for any info.
 
NMLRA

Besides the magazine:

Member's Benefits


Muzzle Blasts
All members of the NMLRA receive Muzzle Blasts, with the exception of Associate and junior members, the monthly membership publication devoted to all aspects of the muzzleloading sport. Read articles about the experiences of the muzzleloading shooter, collector, historian, gun builder, and hunter - all coming to your door every month. (Sample Article)

Rendezvous
The National Rendezvous and Living History Foundation sponsors national rendezvous throughout the United States, and a vaild NMLRA membership card will save you $10 off the cost of attending these functions. NRLHF rendezvous are the best there are. The Association supports these rendezvous through free advertising and promotion of events through Muzzle Blasts magazine.

National Competitions
With your NMLRA membership card, you have the opportunity to attend two National Championship matches in centrally located Friendship, Indiana. If a Western climate is more to your liking, the NMLRA holds its Western National Shoot in Phoenix, Arizona.

National Range
The Walter Cline National Range in Friendship, Indiana, is open to NMLRA members who wish to shoot - whether it be for a day or a weekend, because camping facilities are available at the range. The range supports all forms of muzzleloading shooting, from long-distance slug gun shooting to silhouette targets to trap and skeet shooting. Whatever your fancy, the NMLRA National Range has it all.

Scholarship Program
The NMLRA sponsors a scholarship program for its members and their dependents. Each year up to four (4) scholarships of $500 each will be awarded two each semester. Contact the NMLRA National Office to obtain an application form.

Territorial Competitions
Thirty NMLRA sponsored territorial matches are held throughout the United States and your NMLRA membership card allows you to participate in these events.

Charter Clubs
The NMLRA has over three hundred muzzleloading charter clubs across the country, each with its own schedule of events and range times. The NMLRA Charter Clubs are well-supported by the Association, with discounts on advertising, scoring aids and targets as well as access to some of the best insurance available for shooting organizations. Charter Clubs are eligible for matching funds through an NMLRA grant program. Members of charter clubs can participate in a National Charter Club Championship.

Hunting Opportunities
When coupled with a valid Indiana hunting license and a hunting permit obtained from the NMLRA office, your NMLRA membership card gives you black powder hunting access to five hundred acres of prime southeastern Indiana land owned by your Association during respective hunting seasons.

Longhunter Big Game Records Program
Members who enjoy the extra challenge of hunting with a muzzleloading firearm have a chance to participate in the Longhunter Big Game Records Program. The Longhunter Muzzleloading Big Game Record Book is the premier registry for all record-class indigenous big game trophies in North America taken by muzzleloaders.

Camping Opportunities
Your valid NMLRA membership card also gives you access to a full-facility campground in southeastern Indiana. Complete with showers and electrical hookups, all for a price much lower than even state-run campgrounds.

Discounts on NMLRA Items
NMLRA members benefit from price breaks on a variety of items, from discounts on targets to reduced-cost logo items.

NMLRA VISA Card
Membership in the NMLRA means that you can receive a low-interest VISA credit card. The card not only helps you with your purchases, it helps you with your association benefits. For every member who signs up for the new NMLRA credit card through the Friendship State Bank, the NMLRA will receive $35.00. In addition, each time you make a purchase with your credit card the NMLRA receives a small royalty which will help your NMLRA keep costs down, while keeping membership benefits high.

Dealers
Many companies that deal in muzzleloading and period-reenactment supplies are longtime advertisers in Muzzle Blasts, the NMLRA membership magazine. Members benefit from this close relationship by having access to knowledgeable and friendly manufacturers and dealers when it comes time to buy equipment. Also, many dealers attend the NMLRA National shooting competitions, bringing their best items and prices to our members.

NMLRA Gun Safe
NMLRA members can purchase a high-quality gun safe, decorated with the Association's logo, at a money-saving price, just by being members.

NMLRA Stolen Gun Registry
For added security and to protect members' investments, the NMLRA supports a regularly updated database, called the Stolen Gun Registry, in which descriptions of members' stolen black powder firearms are kept. Law-enforcement officials and people who believe they have received a stolen gun can contact the NMLRA to find the rightful owner.

Muzzleloading Education
Members of the NMLRA can take advantage of the Association's Muzzleloading Education Program. This program offers members the opportunity to become NMLRA Muzzleloading Education Instructors and Trainers.

Beginner's Bench
NMLRA members who attend the National Championship Shoot or the Spring National Shoot can invite their children, grandchildren, or a novice friend to the NMLRA Beginner's Bench. For no charge, a qualified individual will help the new shooter safely load and shoot a muzzleloading rifle.

Range Officer Training
The NMLRA offers its members the chance to become an NMLRA Range Officer through courses offered every year.

Technical Advice
Members of the Association can receive advice from the NMLRA Technical Advisory Board on various subjects, from primitive rendezvous clothing to flintlocks to powder and ballistics.

NMLRA Museum
The NMLRA has a very complete and regularly updated library and museum for research and study. Members can find information about almost anything related to the muzzleloading field and can see some of the most interesting exhibits imaginable at the NMLRA Museum and Library. Located in the National Office complex, the museum is open only during the National Shoots.

Legislative Action
The NMLRA represents its 22,000 members in legislative matters. The Association seeks to protect your Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

Gunsmith Seminar
The NMLRA's world-renown Gunsmith Seminar is held annually, and members have an opportunity to receive hands-on instruction as well as attend demonstrations and classroom training by some of the most widely known and talented gunsmiths in the world.

NMLRA Postal Match
The NMLRA sponsors an annual postal match with categories in rifle and pistol. For additional information contact the NMLRA office.

Become a member!
 
IMO I prefer Muzzleloader. Always have. Muzzleblasts has a lot of pages dedicated to what goes on at Friendship and score results and such. All of this is of no interest to me. I would prefer the pages be used for interesting articles. As for the NMLRA, well, thats a whole diffrent issue isn't it?
They have their fans and followers too.
Again, just my preference. I'm sure there are those that are interested in the scores and national shoots taking place in Indiana.
 
So what we are hearing is the avg. fellow shooter is basing the outfit on a publication and not the fact an outfit strives to support one of those political issues we can not discuss here.

But we can discuss promotion of the sport--in its entirety and not just tunnel vision in on one particular style of firearm.

But then again I would think if one wanted their affiliate scores from a shoot posted in the magazine it just might take place provided they were sent in.

Nothing better I like hearing is the cry "no one came to our shoot" because it is not announced.

Lets list some excuses:
I don't like the publication--don't like him or her, never arrives on time, ask for a donation, why vote its fixed anyway. money...what about my newsletter you promised, my wife threw my membership application-news letter-magazine out, I did not get the message we were having a meeting on 3rd Tuesday of the month--(even though the meeting has been that day for 20 years).

I must have read over that..Yea sure ya did; here is the newsletter still sealed lying on the counter in front of you.

Well it is a long story why I don't shoot their any more. No it is not a long story. You got caught cheating and were finally called on it.

Their beer is never cold--or charge too much.
The range officer scolded me.
You were asked not to smoke because one of the officers has asthma/O2 tank ect”¦. You leave piffed because feel your rights as a smoker were infringed.

Work party excuses:
When is the date? Oh I don’t know what I’ll be doing that day.
Day arrives and 7 people show up and on the club phone you hear ”¦it is a nice day and I’m going fishing””hunting””shooting
Oh I forgot
I was supposed to bring a shovel, rake, hoe?

Dues:
Why is the fee going up?* See work part excuses
I sent my dues in give me a card”¦meanwhile they cannot produce a canceled check.
Letter states gate cards will expire on Jan 31stst””then use your new card.
July rolls around you and 6 other officers get a very demanding call from a member his gate card does not work..So 2 officers drive out to the club thinking the gate is broken.
Only to find out the dingbat is using cards from the 3 previous years. (BTW our cards are different colors each year)

Better yet, member grabs you and demonstrates the button to open the gate is broken””this is the latch to get out.
You then explain to him he is pushing a fitting the button is up here---

Range certification:
OK I’ll be at the club Saturday at 10 am and will do 6 others.. Noon rolls around and no one shows..12:30 the phone rings..Ah yes is this the gun club..
My reply; yes that is why I responded Bill , gun club how may I help you?
Ahh well I was suppose to meet someone for my range cert at 2pm..
Ah hun and well, Ahhh ,I can’t make it.
Well to be blunt, you were supposed to be here at 10am and I’ve been waiting several hours now.

Oh no I talked to Bill and he said he’d be at the club all day.
No I said I’d be here for 4 hours -2 for cert. and 2 to shoot.

Well can I come out next Saturday”¦

I reply SURE come on out..but ya better find another officer to do your certification.

CLICK he hangs up.

I never did see the others---


Then we have the; I attended your shoot and you missed mine so I’ll never go to yours again.
Oh yea, an I work weekends and your retired, out of work.

Best of all:

The people who come up to you and start telling you what they’d do and you have no freggin clue who they are!! Then you tell him, well call the President and tell him ; [and you are the President!]


MHO-- getting the magazines gives me something to read while all those excuses roll in LOL

What is really nice about folks who refuse to belong to shooting faternites, you never have to shoot against them.

Bill
 
I don't have a dog in this fight, but I take issue with you painting a tawdry picture of those who did not join or renew their membership with the NMLRA...so here's some reality for you:

1) The magazine was OK, but had way too much devoted to Friendnship...and I already subscribe to several other ML magazines anyway;

2) I have no interest in traveling to Indiana to shoot a few patched balls;

3) The NMLRA in fact does not have any official lobbying activities like the NRA does, so there is no representation of me on the national level with issues I'm concerned about;

4) The Longhunters Record Book has been made a sham by allowing entries of game taken with modern, high performance, scoped inlines that "happen to load from the front".

Those are the facts why this child decided not to send any more money to the NMLRA just to subsidize a 3 state shooting range hundreds of miles from where I live.

End of story.
 
Bub said:
IMO I prefer Muzzleloader. Always have. Muzzleblasts has a lot of pages dedicated to what goes on at Friendship and score results and such. All of this is of no interest to me.
I kind of look at this like going to a Chinese buffet. There's stuff there I will not eat, but there's some good stuff there too. A person who doesn't compete probably will not be interested in scores and such. However; there is are many articles dealing with history, gun building, gun builders, shooting and woodcraft. Like the old commercial says " Try it you'll like it!"
Bimbo
 
I've been in this for 30 years and still have old copies of MB in the basement. It was at one time THE magazine, along with ML. Now I have to agree wholeheartedly with Roundball.
There are some good articles I have seen recently, but its not worth $40 a year to me. Especially knowing some of my money is going to support a shooting range for a select geographical area that supports firearms I don't care about.
 
I was an NMLRA member for 30 plus years and let my membership lapse last year. I objected very vocally to the addition of the black powder cartridge aggregae to the NMLRA Territorial matches. My objections were met by personal attacks on another message board by several officers in the NMLRA. Reasoning that it had ceased to be an organization dedicated to muzzleloading, I just opted out.
Be Well,
Bill
 
I am a member of NMLRA and look forward every month to my MuzzleBlasts mag. It bothers me not that they occasion a reference to inlines. 99% of the material in the mag pertains to traditional shooting and guns. There has been a series of articles by Wallace Gusler over the past couple of years on the early development of the southern rifle that [to me] alone justified the price. There are historical articles, too. Plus ads and notices for various events, suppliers, etc...we had this discussion back when the TMA broke off and I joined it too--but did not and will not give up my NMLRA membership. They have done nothing to make me "hate" them as bad as some of you appear to do....No skin off my nose if a few of them use inlines. I don't. So what? Each to his own, as my old pappy used to say...what happened to tolerance these days? It was taught once....
 
To Mike Roberts- Mike, I tolerated the inlines, it was the black powder cartridge rifles I really objected to- has nothing to do with muzzleloading.
Probably nobody enjoyed the Gussler articles more than I.
 
Bimbo, I agree with you. I like both magazines. I find them both to be very informative and entertaining. Although I find the $40.00 yearly membership to the NMLRA to be rather steep in comparison to the NRA considering what the NRA does in lobbying efforts for us gun owners. However, in defense of the NMLRA, I will say from first hand experienc that they are very helpful when it comes to starting a new Muzzleoading club.
 
I probably will never get to Friendship, don't like crowds. Don't read the scores, but do love the magazine. Besides, it plugs this forum every so often. graybeard :winking:
 
I guess I am one of the lucky few. Friendship is about 45 minutes from the house. I quit worrying about someone closing the club raqnge due to development, zoning, meaness, spite, hatred of guns when I moved up here.

I had been a member of several clubs for the past 30 years, all of them expensive, ineffective, exclusive and over political.

I pay my $40 and have access to some of the best range facilities in the nation, out to 500 yards, any time I wish to drive for 45 minutes. There is only a crowd for 3 weeks out of the year. The rest of the time the place is mine!

There are over 1,000,000 people within 1 hour driving time from Friendship. They can all do the same. There are probably 20,000,000 withing 5 hours driving time. I have driven longer to visit in-laws!! Had less fun there too!

Access to unlimited powder at cost with virtually no shipping fee.

Access to unlimited dealer support, merchandise, access, during the shoots.

Why should I shoot myself in the foot because I don't like plastic stocks?

You can't stand on principle with a hole in your foot!

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
 
bpb, IMO all the NMLRA Membership benifits you listed are a bunch of "smoke and mirrors". There are no real benifits unless someone is willing to spend additional money.
That smacks suspiciously of "marketing hype". :haha:

With regards to the 500 acres of prime Indiana hunting land mentioned, how many "square feet per-member" does that figure out to be, if 20,000 NMLRA members decided to take advantage of that praticular benifit this year? :rotf:

T-bone
 
ghost said:
I guess I am one of the lucky few. Friendship is about 45 minutes from the house. I quit worrying about someone closing the club raqnge due to development, zoning, meaness, spite, hatred of guns when I moved up here.

I had been a member of several clubs for the past 30 years, all of them expensive, ineffective, exclusive and over political.

I pay my $40 and have access to some of the best range facilities in the nation, out to 500 yards, any time I wish to drive for 45 minutes. There is only a crowd for 3 weeks out of the year. The rest of the time the place is mine!

There are over 1,000,000 people within 1 hour driving time from Friendship. They can all do the same. There are probably 20,000,000 withing 5 hours driving time. I have driven longer to visit in-laws!! Had less fun there too!

Access to unlimited powder at cost with virtually no shipping fee.

Access to unlimited dealer support, merchandise, access, during the shoots.

Why should I shoot myself in the foot because I don't like plastic stocks?

You can't stand on principle with a hole in your foot!

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

On the contrary,.... I think one could very easily, if one doesn't live close to Friendship! :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

T-bone
 

Latest posts

Back
Top