Regarding the NMLRA

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Bill in Oregon
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Regarding the NMLRA

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Friends, I let my NMLRA membership lapse again. I'll never drive to Friendship, and the magazine is only marginally interesting to me. Lora Parks, the NMLRA membership manager, asked for feedback about my views of the organization, and this is what I sent her. This discussion has played out in other threads, but I just thought I would share it here. I am sure many members of this forum feel pretty much the same as I do. I wish the NMLRA the best.

Lora, thanks for reaching out. A little more of personal demographic: I am 66, and bought my first muzzleloading firearm, a brass-framed .36 Colt Navy replica, while in high school about 1970. I discovered the Books of Buckskinning series published by Scurlock, and visited the rendezvous back when everyone was pretty ignorant of authenticity, and showed up with bright gold chrome-tanned deer hide outfits and still wearing their wristwatches and dark glasses. In retrospect, it was fairly hilarious. Then the Internet came along and we all grew much wiser about what was authentic to a given period and what was simply bogus. Somewhere along the line, a rift developed between those almost pathologically worried about the last stitch and those of us who wanted to pay homage to our ancestors but not make it an exhausting search for the last inch of correctness. Into this scene poured the modern inline rifles that gave up all connection with the past and only served to let those totally uninterested in our heritage to take part in muzzleloader hunts. As with so many of us traditional "old guys," I find the inlines an insult to my historical heritage and interest in history and seek to ignore and avoid them when at all possible. I understand their appeal and purpose; I just don't want to have anything to do with them, or read about them.
My story is likely very familiar to you and the NMLRA, which must reach out in some fashion to the younger crowd interested in hunting opportunity and uninterested in history. The NMLRA clearly faces a dilemma. I wish you all the very best.
Bill
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AJMD429
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Re: Regarding the NMLRA

Post by AJMD429 »

I was a member for twenty years or so, but only went to Friendship to gawk and buy trinkets or gun accessories. I just kept it active because I felt it was a "good cause". I hope they used the funds to recruit members and so on.

I think there are a variety of muzzleloader fans out there, just like there are many of us who like leverguns but don't fancy the AR's, and vice versa. Personally, if it goes 'bang', I like it, whether flintlock, cap&ball, in-line, bolt action, lever action, semiauto, or Gatling gun.

I've never been one to dismiss an improvement on a design - the Colt SAA was a heck of alot better than the previous revolvers, and the 1911 was superb, as was the Mauser 98, and of course the 1892, 1894, 1895 leverguns were huge advancements. BUT that doesn't mean that some of those designs haven't been further improved upon - I think Rugers are stronger than Colt SAA's, and the many semiauto rifles out there have been amazing in the technologic advances and practical issues they do solve, whether for military use or ranch use or whatever.

I think the issue is 'intersectionality' (I hate that word) - in that some folks like muzzleloaders as an embodiment of history, and some of them like them because they are a unique type of rifle, or inexpensive to shoot, and some of them simply use them to harvest their game because it is expedient. That latter group looks at them as mere tools, versus a piece of history. None of the groups are 'wrong' or inherently better than the others, but trying to publish a magazine that will please them all, or have get-togethers or shoots that will please them all, is a difficult task. Perhaps like the NRA, who publishes The American Rifleman, The American Hunter, America's First Freedom, so those members who would find content bothersome that wasn't related to their specific firearms interest, the NMLRA could try that sort of thing.

The problem is that the total collective interest and numbers of shooters CAN support an organization or publication, but splintered into subgroups, it is far more difficult to have sufficient numbers of members to generate sufficient funds to have a decent publication or events.
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harry
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Re: Regarding the NMLRA

Post by harry »

Used to hang out in Friendship, there was a smith there named W.M. Large. Still shoot the barrel he made for me in 1972.
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Bill in Oregon
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Re: Regarding the NMLRA

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Harry, Bill Large barrels still garner serious respect.
harry
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Re: Regarding the NMLRA

Post by harry »

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765x53
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Re: Regarding the NMLRA

Post by 765x53 »

I have subscribed and dropped membership several times.
Someone once described the NMLRA as a Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio self help organization.
I love to shoot but, don"t care to dress-up and pretend. NMLRA has little to offer outside of Friendship.
Rusty
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Re: Regarding the NMLRA

Post by Rusty »

I was a member for several years even though I never ad any intention at all of ever going to Friendship. I was a member of a local club that was affiliated with them. Life got in the way and I couldn't go back any more and now they don't want anything to do with me. It's a shame folks have to act like that.
I never did care much for the primitive dress thing all I wanted to do was shoot. It seems that with some people it's all or nothing, so I guess it's nothing.
If you're gonna be stupid ya gotta be tough-
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