I shot muzzle-loaders for about 13 years. It was introduced to me by Dick Todd, of Fort Wayne, IN. I've been a member of Kekeonga, Tippewa, and Wildcat Valley Muzzleloading clubs, as well as the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association, all in Indiana, and one year in the Pikes Peak Muzzleloaders in Colorado Springs, and the Colorado State Muzzleloading Assn.

After I got into kayaking, I found the shoots were the same weekends as the multi-day kayak trips, so muzzleloading went by the wayside.

I started with a little .36 rifle made by Vern Grubb, who I never met. It would shoot 00 buck, if I remember correctly, but not very well. It fit my budjet perfectly at the time. Then I went to a Hopkins and Allen underhammer replica, the nicest one I've seen, round barrel, nice wood, in .45 cal. But my real interest was pistol/revolver, so I bought a Ruger Old Army from Log Cabin Shop, in Lodi, OH. Dan Kindig and family. Very nice people. The Ruger has shot a couple of possibles, and it is the only front loader I still have.

Later I bought a flintlock zip gun, made by Mike Yazel, and shot a second place, at 50 yards, in the 1980 Colorado State Shoot, with it. It also shot a 3^rd place at 50 yards, marksman class, at Friendship IN (NMLRA) national.

Sometime before moving to CO, I bought a beautiful 36 cal flintlock "poor boy" Made by Jerry Eder. I won some merchandise with it, at a Kekeonga shoot. It was hanging on the wall, waiting for a burglar, so I sold it.

I also built a Siler flintlock kit, and heat-treated it with advice from Tom Kump, of Ft. Wayne. It is on a Ray Nordan rifle, owned by Dan Boone, of Lebanon, IN. This rifle was featured in National Geographic, in an article about Descendants of Daniel Boone.

I started to build a Yeager rifle, patterned after a very plane one in Harold L. Petersons Book (Pageant of the Gun), but never finished.