Hi, I’m Ethan, I love muzzleloading, and these are some scenes from the 2023 NMLRA Spring National shoot.

Unfortunately, I was pulled away a little bit early from the shoot so I don't have as much coverage from the event that I would have liked to have had, but I wanted to get this video out in time to talk a little bit about the Fall National Championship Shoot that's coming up in September.

I want you to consider planning for a trip to Friendship Indiana, to the home of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association to see and participate in some of these great muzzleloading activities. The Championship Shoot will run from September 9 to September 17. If you are going to shop and hang out on the range, you’ll find most of the vendors leave after the first weekend, so get there on the 9th and 10th if you can.

The long, 8 day event is focused on the National Championship competition, where muzzleloading enthusiasts from around the world compete for national titles. Medals will be awarded for every shooting discipline imaginable from pistol and offhand, bench to long-range, “primitive action” shooting to muzzleloading shotguns, if it’s a shooting sport, the NMLRA does it best, with muzzleloaders.

Even if you're not interested in the championship competition side of things I want to tell you that if you have even a passing interest in muzzleloading and want to learn more about it, this is a great event to go to and learn from and even take your first shots with a muzzleloader.

You can visit the clubhouse on the modern side or the Block House on the primitive side of the NMLRA area grounds and talk to a range officer who can guide you through or direct you to a volunteer who will guide you through your first shot with a muzzleloading arm.

I just I bring this up because we're heading into a good time to plan to make a visit to this event. I hear a lot about people wanting to get into muzzleloading and not knowing where to start. If you are in the area of Friendship, Indiana it's about an hour from Cincinnati, it's a couple hours from Lexington, Kentucky. If you're in that region this is a great place to go and really get a shot in the arm for your passion and your education when it comes to muzzleloading.

Commercial row has a variety of vendors and crafts people that are offering wares and supplies to get you started, as well as on the Primitive side or the living history side, there's going to be a ton of vendors and craftspeople as well to help you get kitted out in your muzzleloading supplies. As I said earlier, if you're not interested in the championship competition side of things there's a variety of things that you can do and have fun with too, apart from that hardcore muzzleloading competition.

I encourage you if you are interested in competitive shooting or even if you're just focused on modern arms and some of the Tactical or Practical Shooting Sports that are out there, give the muzzleloading competition scene a try. There's a lot of neat disciplines out there and you can see all of them on display at an NMLRA National Championship.

I hope to be there a little bit longer here in September so if you're at the NMLRA National Championship, look me up. I hope to be traveling through doing some interviews and capturing some muzzleloading history and some passion for muzzleloading because the grounds are just overflowing with it here coming up in September.