In Las Animas County, Colorado, Santa Fe Trail Muzzle Loaders club will be forming at the Prator Range. It is located 6 miles outside of Trinidad, CO. We expect to draw members from Las Animas County, Huerfano County, Raton, New Mexico and anywhere else for those who are interested.

Meeting will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday, August 23, 2014 at:

Prator Range
42013 County Road 24.6
Trinidad, CO 81082

Both the rangemaster and I are Trinidad trained gunsmiths.  

You may PM me for more information.  Hope to see you guys there.  C'mon down and introduce yourselves.

It's this coming Saturday.

Sunday Nov. 9 at 9 a.m.  We're shooting.

First informal match held by the Wah Ha To Yah Muzzle Loading Club

A few no-shows so only three of us met at Prator Range today and one fellow suggested we shoot for a prize. Uh on, money involved. No bueno for this cheapskate. He goes on to suggest a quarter a round. Best shot is the winner at each round. OK, that can be affordable.

It's not a very even match. Dan C. has a .32 caliber Traditions squirrel rifle that is small and handy. I have a Hatfield .50 caliber with a 40" long straight bbl (no swamp) and Bill H. has a custom made .54 caliber rifle that looks like a fowler (nice, big flat buttplate and because it's round barrel that's bored out to .54, it's easily lighter than Dan's Tradition. No matter, it's all for fun anyway.  Target was placed at 80 yards distance (I spent over an hour on load development and sighting in).

We fire one shot apiece off hand. I win one, Dan C. wins one and Bill H. wins the third one. That's pretty sad as none of us old guys are consistent. I figure Bill's best advantage is that his rifle has its rear sight all the way forward - great for older eyes that need reading glasses. Neither Dan C's Tradition nor my Hatfield are that way and they're for younger folks who can see. Bill H. suggests we shoot from the bench (no resting but on both elbows) and we agree. I figure that with his better sight arrangements, he had a great advantage over us. So, I said, winner has to become the president. Dan C. agrees and majority rules.

We fire two shots and I actually won! So, Bill H. and Dan C. both owe me fifty cents which they fork up without complaining. I immediately hand the four quarters over to Dan C., telling him as the acting president I appoint him as acting treasurer and that he has charge of the club's vast supply of money (one dollar). Now we have funds for our shooting activity.

In a few month's time we're going up near Cokedale onto Bill H.'s land to do a trailwalk. It will include hawk 'n knife.

Had to do some shopping after the shoot and got home by 4 p.m. That gave me an hour of daylight to scrub out the barrel with hot soapy water and clean the lock. I was too lazy to disassemble the lock to thoroughly clean it.