No Good News on CAPS, Good News on BLACKPOWDER | Muzzleloading News from 2022 NMLRA Spring Nationals

First up I want to mention that the NMLRA has brought on a new media team coming online to further promote the association and the sport of muzzleloading. I'm so excited to see this happening this is a great step forward for the association and the community. They've already been publishing content on Facebook so keep an eye out for the NMLRA youtube channel and the Instagram, I know they're excited to get all of that up and running it's gonna be great. This is the kind of thing that we need to see in the sport and I'm so happy to see the NMLRA leadership taking action and looking forward, not back.

Next up I want to say that European black powder under the name Swiss and Schuetzen black powder made it into the country in time for the June shoot and is already arriving at the distributor network nation-wide. We talked with Schuetzen Energetics earlier this year about some of the trials and tribulations they've been facing getting powder into the country, especially with war breaking out in Europe and I'm super happy to say that the powder made it here in time for this massive event where you have thousands and thousands of muzzleloading enthusiasts making their way to Friendship to shop to shoot and to stock up for the rest of the year. I can't thank Schuetzen Energetics enough for getting powder in country in time for this event. I want to say too that powder was available and it was not jacked up in price at all. It was available for the same prices that we've seen over the past few years.

Speaking of powder, I was able to meet with some representatives from Estes Energetics who now own the GOEX black powder brand and they said they are on track for their 2023 release date for more GOEX black powder. They're on their timetable to begin producing later this year and have it out to distributors and available to muzzleloading enthusiasts in Q1 2023. They did say that production is going to start with 1 2 3 and 4f black powder, old eynsford is going to come a little bit later in the year but should be timed to release in time for the June national shoot at the NMLRA in 2023.

This is great news for all of us looking for more black powder and it's really important for the accessibility of black powder in the United States here I think having two producers back up and running or producers available here in the country is only going to make it easier for people to get into muzzleloading and continue being active and involved and muzzleloading. We're seeing some frustration right now with people unable to find supplies and I'm afraid this is going to lead to some selling off their muzzleloaders or some just gathering dust in the closet muzzleloader so I'm super excited to see some of this stuff in motion.

I was able to meet with some other manufacturers and businesses involved in muzzleloading they're seeing some difficulty right now and sourcing the raw materials to make the different components and parts that they need, mainly metal. Right now its a little bit difficult to get a hold of where a normal shipment. Three or four years ago a shipment would be able to come in in a couple weeks or really at the end of a week, we're now seeing up to 16 week wait times for materials which, when you consider the raw materials coming in taking an extra 16 weeks that's really adding a lot of wait time on the front of order even before something goes into production so please continue to be patient with these small businesses as they're working to facilitate and get things going.

A few people that I met with said you know we're not making any money by not being able to sell you this stuff we really want to be able to get it around to you sooner it's just not something that we can do right now so please continue to be patient with them as they can continue to work through these supply chain issues. They're working really hard to get you the parts and the components that you need.

Lastly, I know caps are a big deal, I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I hadn't heard any news but I was able to meet with a few people here at the NMLRA shoot, I don't have any good news on caps because of the continued demand for modern centerfire cartridges and the components for them companies aren't really interested right now in producing number 11, number 10 caps, or musket caps here in the country. The demand is so high for the modern centerfire stuff that we're looking to pass 2024 right now for the production of muzzleloading caps to begin.

I know this isn't what anybody wants to hear, it was certainly gutting for me to hear because I know the demand is really high people that have been involved in muzzleloading are usually pretty well stocked up buying caps and kind of 10 000 number lots over the years. Those of you new to muzzleloading haven't really had a chance to stock up so i know this is a big bummer for you I will say that we did see an inventory restock of muzzleloading caps from Cabela's and Bass Pro shops under the Remington name a couple weeks ago so just because some of the other manufacturers might not be interested we are seeing some being distributed at least I'm not sure when in production timeline so to speak those were if those were old stock or new stock when I keep an eye out on uh on what we can do on caps. Until then you can check out, I believe it's ,22reloader.com. I know some people are having some success using their parts kits to make their own caps out of soda cans so maybe check that out if you're hurting for caps if you're just looking to go out and burn some powder I don't think people are seeing success with those caps in the competitive space but for just going out and having fun with your muzzleloader I think that's a viable option until we can start seeing caps on store shelves.