On the Talking Rock Black Powder Shooters 2nd anniversary

by John White

In December 2019 the world was focused on the Trump impeachments, Afghanistan, China, the Rocket Man from Korea, Iran, Iraq, rumors of a Chinese town lockdown called Wuhan, government shutdown averted from finances and other events. PCSC was struggling with direction, leadership, budgets, land issues and yet in spite of all this there was a group of individuals focused on continuing on with tradition, education and establishing a club with purpose and direction.

Click image or caption below to go to the Muzzle Blasts article.

This group of dedicated black powder shooters provided the youth and adults opportunities to shoot muzzleloaders for the previous 14 years most weekends. The BP shooters not only allowed them to shoot multiple flintlocks, percussion, BP trapdoor firearms, but a history of firearms lesson was provided. These BP shooters are to this day dedicated to preserving the history of firearms and the inherent joy of shooting black powder as it was and to promote and preserve our heritage to our community and youth. Ten members, five existing NMLRA members and five new NMLRA members signed a declaration and request to become a Charter Club affiliated with the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association, established in 1933, headquartered in Friendship Indiana in December 2019 to continue this philosophy. Thus on January 31, 2020 our club, the Talking Rock Black Powder Shooters, request was granted by the NMLRA and created at Jones Mountain Road, Talking Rock, Georgia.

We were slated to be announced to the BP community as a new approved charter club in the monthly Publication “Muzzle Blasts” March 2020 issue but the cutoff for submission had passed. Thus our announcement to the black powder community occurred in May of 2020 of our existence as a place to shoot in the midst of the history-making pandemic called covid. Our inaugural year, 2020, was a difficult year however we generated a lot of interest in our first year charter club, but were severely hampered if not outright stopped by covid and we did not make much if any progress. However, since then we have focused more, had more opportunities, are trying for better scores and have been succeeding overall in supporting and growing our sport. But the most significant benefit it appears is the new friends made, friendships re-established and a fellowship of enjoying this black powder shooting sport in spite of the obstacles we encountered.

The goal of promoting, educating, preserving our firearm heritage is critical to the future of the NMLRA and shooting sports as there are only about 200 active fellow members of the NMLRA located in Georgia. There are many others that believe in these goals as well and they need to be brought into the fold. If you have friends that are interested, want to participate, see what we are about they can always review our website of events and activities at www.trbps.com to look at pictures and descriptions of our program.

So we celebrate our two year anniversary, accomplishments, successes, failures, opportunities for the Black Powder shooting community here in Georgia by having our charter club and program highlighted in the NMLRA Muzzle Blast magazine this month, April 2022 on pages 63 and 64. This will help us to continue our efforts in promoting our program of preserving our firearm heritage, literal existence of our charter club and making more new friends in the world of black powder shooting.

Thank you all for your support, participation and fellowship through these past two years. Stay healthy and safe for Black Powder matters. We look forward to many more years of shooting and fellowship.